Public Speaking Training on Presentation Skills - A Beginner’s Guide

Thanks to Lord Thompson Manor

By David Portney

If you’re new to public speaking, then let’s start with an easy way of understanding presentation skills.

Simply put, presentation skill is the process of efficiently, effectively, and elegantly communicating and transmitting your message to your audience.

Your message may be simple or complex.

Presentation skills can vary depending on why you’re speaking in the first place and what you’re trying to accomplish: you may be attempting to persuade and influence your audience, or you may be trying to inspire and enlighten, or you may be required to impart new skills and abilities, or you may just be there to report facts and data.

Depending on what you’re trying to accomplish, you can use various presentation aids such as a flip chart, PowerPoint presentations with a projector or a whiteboard or flip chart.

In some cases nothing at all is just fine, again depending on what you’re trying to accomplish.

The tone of your presentation may be more or less formal depending on the context. If you know everyone in the audience such as a work meeting of coworkers, that’s different than if you’re making a presentation to a group of people you’ve never met before.

Of course the beginner public speaker may need to deal with stage fright. See my other training articles if you have fear of public speaking.

Presentation skills boil down to using various techniques that are very easy to learn. With a little practice, anyone can become a polished presenter.

The best way to develop terrific presentation skills quickly is simply to take a very good presentation skills training (see my training articles on how to evaluate public speaking training).

Here are some tips to help you with your presentation:

* If you use PowerPoint, have a one-page bullet-point outline of your entire presentation handy in case the computer crashes, the projector doesn’t work, or for any reason you can’t use your PowerPoint presentation.

* Use the “Rule of 3″: distill your presentation down to 3 key points you want to cover. Tell them what you’ll tell them, tell them, and then tell them what you’ve told them: design your presentation in 3 parts: first an overview of your key points, then the details of your presentation, then a summary (basically a recap and repeat of the overview in the beginning).

* “Use the 5 Minute Rule” to conquer stage fright: most of my students report that any lingering fear of public speaking goes away within the first 5 minutes once they get rolling with their presentation.

* If you use PowerPoint, never read your slides out loud: the audience can already read them. Just put up bullet points that remind you of what you want to talk about.

* Openings and closings are most important: psychologists call it “primacy / recency” but really the last thing you say is the last thing they’ll really hear and remember, so hammer your main points at the end and then say “thank you” and you’re done.

Best of luck in all your public speaking!

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What Exactly is Public Relations and Why is it Good For? (Public Relations)

By Mansi Aggarwal

In global economic scenario of competitive environment, a company for branding its products and establishing communication with its customer’s adopts a number of methods and techniques. Public relation is one such method which helps a company to communicate effectively with its target audience and disseminate messages and promotion material for product branding.

Public relation helps an industry to maintain relation with its customers. If we observe basic functioning of public relations, we find it extensively operational in getting idea and implementing them for attaining public approaches, upholding mutual relations and understanding between an organization and its public. Public relations is known for advancing overall channel of communication by forming new methodology and implementing them as for continuing up two way flows of information and understanding between an organization and its audience.

Apart from being a communication channel, public relations is also widely used by companies in promoting and branding of newly launched products. As a part of product launch campaign public relations help a company to develop relations with local government and legislatures. Public relation is extensively used by non-profit organizations like schools, hospitals, social service agencies, etc to improve their image and is of great help to them in awareness campaigns, fund-raising activities and enhancing patronage of their services.

As a method to improve a client’s image a public relation company employs many tools like opinion polling, focus groups, etc to evaluate public opinion to receive information and then further spread up and distribute that information to different communication mediums like news paper, new channels, internet, satellite feeds, broadcast faxes and database driven phone banks. In overall exercise of image improvement, Press release is a century old formal method to convey message to a publisher or a news paper editor.

As print and electronic media are very important in getting mileage and developing rapport for a client, it becomes very imperative for a public relations company to know about its specified media channel. A vast number of outlets can be contacted on local as well as on national level to get mileage and focus. On local level, local paid newspaper, local free paper, local council newspaper, free county magazine, local radio and television, trade, technical and professional magazines covering same type of business or expertise are very helpful in disseminating the message. For national level publicity it is the national newspapers, consumer and lifestyle magazines, national radio and television where a product can gain enough coverage to popularize a product or services are used.

Lord Thompson Manor Public Relations

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Public Speaking Tips to Give You an Edge

Author Michael A Jones

Thanks to Lord Thompson Manor for the post.

Here are some great public speaking tips for the introduction, body, and conclusion of your next presentation. To progress towards being a skilled public speaker, constant practice and improvement are necessary. It helps to get a partner to offer an honest appraisal or play back a video of your presentation and do a self-analysis. It can be very beneficial.

Here are some key public speaking tips to enhance your next presentation:

Introduction

Take a moment to stand before the audience, take a deep breath, and look around you. Don’t start speaking the second you arrive at the speaker’s stand. That initial pause can make you appear poised, relaxed, confident and in control. It can also help suppress initial nervousness. Deliver the first couple of sentences with an increase in power and volume. You want to grab the attention of the audience right away. A commanding voice is needed to do that, not a soft, apologetic tone.

Avoid an introduction that goes on and on. You don’t want to go on and on so the audience wonders when you are going to really get to the meat of the presentation. The introduction is the funnel which directs attention to the body of the talk.

Body

The body of your presentation contains your main points, why you are taking time to speak in the first place, and why people have turned up to hear you. So be sure what you say has weight and is meaningful. This can only be done through thorough research and good preparation. Even when speaking on a subject familiar to your audience, in the preparation stage always be on the lookout for an unusual angle, extraordinary facts, or a story or anecdote that gets the audience to view a familiar subject in a different way.

Make sure the main points of your presentation stand out by discreet repetition. You don’t want to sound like a creaking door, but carefully planned reviews can really sink the main thoughts into the mind of the audience.

A progressive summary is an excellent tool to that end. At the outset mention your main points, perhaps 1, 2 and 3. After point 1 repeat it and then say, now for point 2. After point 2 you recap points 1 and 2 and introduce point 3. After point number 3 you can again review points 1, 2, and now 3. This kind of progressive review makes sure your audience leaves with the main points firmly etched in their minds.

Conclusion

Don’t leave this part of your presentation as an afterthought. Prepare the wording carefully, especially the last sentence, as it will be the part the audience hear last and are likely to remember.

Also think about what you want to accomplish in your conclusion. Do you want your audience to take action? Then spell out clearly what needs to be done. Do you want to touch the hearts of your audience? Then weave some emotion into your last few sentences. Once you have identified your goal, you can create a motivating conclusion that will leave your audience very responsive.

These are just a handful of public speaking tips that can greatly enhance your presentations. Make sure you clearly understand the three component parts of any speech, and then work to accomplish a specific goal with each one. Pay attention to good thought content, and also your manner of presentation.

Lord Thompson Manor Public Speaking

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Author: Clyde Lee Dennis
Public Relations, often referred to as PR is the management of internal and external communication of an organization to create and maintain a positive public image. It’s a process that involves popularizing successes, downplaying failures, announcing changes, and many other activities.

Public relations are a very important management function in any organization and it should be understood that it is not synonymous with publicity.

Public relations specialists are often times referred to as communications specialists and media specialists, among other titles, and serve as advocates for businesses, nonprofit associations, universities, hospitals, and other organizations, and build and maintain positive relationships with the public. They also handle organizational functions such as media, community, consumer, industry, and governmental relations; political campaigns; interest-group representation; conflict mediation; and employee and investor relations.

These specialists are the ones who draft press releases and contact people in the media who might print or broadcast their company related messages and material. As well as arranging and conducting programs to keep up contact between organization representatives and the public.

Public relations specialists work in busy offices and in smaller firms usually get all-around experience, whereas those in larger firms tend to be much more specialized. Concentrated in large cities, where press services and other communications facilities are readily available and many businesses and trade associations have their headquarters.

To become leaders they must show creativity, initiative, and good judgment and most importantly have the ability to communicate thoughts clearly and simply.

Public relations managers also evaluate advertising and promotions programs for compatibility with public relations efforts and serve as the eyes and ears of top management within a company. They may even confer with labor relations managers to produce internal company communications such as newsletters about employee-management relations, and with financial managers to produce company reports.

Public relations people working for a company may handle consumer relations or the relationship between parts of the company such as the managers and employees, or different branch offices and include ongoing activities to ensure the organization has a strong public image.

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Author: Kadence Buchanan
Effective public relations are a process and its essential first step is research. Nowadays, research is widely accepted by public relations professionals as an integral part of the planning, program development, and evaluation process. Before a public relations program is undertaken, information must be gathered, data collected, and interpretation done. Only after the first step is performed, organizations can begin to make policy decisions and map out strategies for effective communication programs.

The second step in the public relations process, after research, is program planning. Prior to the implementation of a public relations activity, it is essential that considerable thought must be given to what should be done and in what sequence to accomplish an organization’s objectives.

A good public relations program should be an effective tool to support an organization’s business, marketing, and communications objectives. In other words, public relations planning should be strategic. A practitioner must think about a situation, analyze what can be done about it, creatively conceptualize the appropriate strategies and tactics, and determine how the results will be measured. Planning also involves the co-ordination of multiple methods to achieve specific results.

Developing a systematic planning prevents haphazard, ineffective communication that may result in unexpected outcomes. Thus, public relations managers need to follow a well-designed program plan that will help them execute their programs effectively and provide the desired results after the completion of the public relations program.

Moreover, business communications, especially those introduced by public relations departments, can present ethical questions. False and misleading advertising is illegal and unethical, and it can infuriate customers. Sponsors and advertisements aimed at children must be very careful to avoid misleading messages. Advertisers of health-related products must also take precautions to guard against deception when using such descriptive terms as “low fat”, “fat free2, and “light”. In fact, the Federal Trade Commission has issued recent guidelines on the use of these labels.

Finally, public relations companies have introduced the notion of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), which is the recognition that business activities have an impact on society and the consideration of that impact in business decision-making. Obviously, social responsibility costs money. It is perhaps not so obvious that social responsibility is also good business. Customers eventually find out which firm is acting responsibly and which does not. Young public relations professionals should always keep in mind, that just as easily as consumers decide to cast their dollar votes for a product produced by a company that is socially responsible, they can vote against the firm that is not.

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Author: Sue Currie
Public Relations includes a variety of tactics that strengthen your credibility, enhance your image, develop goodwill or influence public opinion. As The Public Relations Institute of Australia defines it – PR is a two-way communication between an organisation and its publics.Put simply PR involves communicating who you are, what you do, why you do it and how you make a difference.

Forward-thinking organisations know that communicating – and doing so frequently and effectively – is a very important aspect to the success of their business. Public relations tactics used can include investor relations, crisis communications, community relations, special events, newsletters, annual reports, sponsorships, speaking opportunities, news conferences, media relations, publicity and other activities designed to mould opinion.

Marketing and Public Relations are often confused – what is the difference? Marketing covers all aspects of producing, promoting and distributing goods and services to the consumer. The main elements of marketing are the product, its price, distribution and promotion – which includes advertising as well as publicity.

Selling is one of the most vital functions of marketing and of course advertising is a very important part of this function. Sales promotions would also be part of a marketing campaign. An example would be a competition giveaway on the back of a cereal pack.

Marcomms is also a widely used term these days and stands for Marketing Communications. This role or department in a large organisation generally covers both marketing and public relations. There are also advertising agencies, marketing agencies and public relations consultancies that provide an integrated mix of these services.

Often marketing, advertising and sales will work together in a major corporation while corporate and internal communications, media relations and public relations will be part of a separate department. For the small to medium business owner as well as the larger organisations, all of these elements must work together to ensure a coordinated approach to getting your name, reputation or brand “out there”.

Advertising, marketing and PR must work together to ensure the successful roll out of your message, product, or service into the market place.

What is Publicity?

Publicity is designed to generate media coverage – it is not public relations. Publicity is part of media relations which is one of several major public relations functions. Publicity is a very important tactic of an overall PR campaign. Media coverage on a product, service, company or cause is vital for helping the organisation attain its objectives. Print and broadcast coverage far surpasses advertising in terms of credibility and delivering value for money. They say publicity is seven times more effective than advertising.

Skilled publicists are invaluable and there are many public relations companies that specialise in this skill only. To “get good PR” is a common view of public relations as only being publicity. Put simply publicity is making a suggestion to a journalist that leads to the inclusion of a company, person or product in a story.

Newspapers, magazines, TV programs and radio shows have large amounts of space to fill and depend upon publicists to help provide story ideas, interview subjects, background information and other material. But that doesn’t mean to say you approach every journalist there is and suggest yourself or your business as a possible story idea. You need to know the stories they want to cover whether it’s a business news story or a “feel good” piece for a weekend magazine.

Do your research; find out the most appropriate publications or TV or radio programs for your information. Put yourself in the position of the editor and ask yourself, “Is this something my readers are interested in?” People who read Financial Review are not the same people who read That’s Life. You need to give the journalist a story idea. Think of yourself as an editor coming up with ideas to fill space. Help the journalist do their work.

Publicists, PR agencies and journalists need to work together and develop good working relationships so that everybody achieves the desired result.

What’s a Media Release?

A media release is a release of a story to the media. The most important tool for making a suggestion to a journalist is the press or media release.A media release is a like a mini news story that presents the most newsworthy aspect of your product, company or service in a format and language familiar to the journalist.

A good media release answers the who, what, where, when, and why of a story. Start with an attention grabbing headline followed by an exciting lead paragraph. Usually media people don’t read beyond the first paragraph, so if you don’t capture them quickly, it will be hard to get their attention after that.

If it is well written, concise, and contains good information – your chances of getting published are increased. Paragraphs subsequent to the lead may include background information, spokesperson quotations and other information that can help put the newsworthiness of the story in perspective.

I hope this has given you a clearer understanding of the many different yet essential strategies that a business needs to implement to successfully tell people about their product or service. Fundamentally public relations is about communication and making an impression.

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Author: Sue Jan
Public relations is effective in helping:

* Corporations convey information about their products or services to potential customers

* Corporations reach local government and legislators

* Politicians attract votes and raise money, and craft their public image and legacy

* Non-profit organizations, including schools, hospitals, social service agencies etc. boost support of their programs such as awareness programs, fund-raising programs, and to increase patronage of their services

Public relations in present times employs diverse techniques such as opinion polling and focus groups to evaluate public opinion, combined with a variety of high-tech techniques for distributing information on behalf of their clients, including the internet, satellite feeds, broadcast faxes, and database-driven phone banks.

As public image is important to all organizations and prominent personalities the role of public relations specialist becomes pertinent in crisis situations. Public relations agencies provide important and timely transmission of information that helps save the face of the organization. In the words of the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA), “Public relations helps an organization and its public adopt mutually to one another.”

Experienced public relations agencies have formulation press releases into which they can plug the company news, as well as a targeted list of publications for their industry. Truly good public relations agencies generally have a good working relationship with key reporters, boosting their chances of getting coverage. Some public relations agencies deal only with large, established clients, while smaller boutique public relations agencies specialize in certain areas.

At present public relations as a career option exists in private companies or government institutions that actively market their product, service and facilities. Public relations training courses are widespread in educational institutions. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, there were 122,000 public relations specialists in the United States in 1998 and approximately 485,000 advertising, marketing, and public relations managers working in all industries.

Most public relations practitioners are recruited from the ranks of journalism. Public relations officers are highly trained professionals with expertise and knowledge in many areas, for example shareholder management during a crisis, the evolving role of the in-house public relations professional, account management skills for public relations, an introduction to financial public relations, an introduction to consumer public relations, an introduction to public relations software etc.

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