One of the biggest mistakes I see corporate leaders and executives make when they are delivering a keynote speech or presentation is a complete lack of audience engagement. Remember just because you are speaking does NOT mean people are actually listening to you. We live in a very distracted world so you must be able to speak in a way that rises above the nose and resonates with your listeners. Audience engagement is the act of proactively getting your audience to connect with you, pay attention to what you have to say and listen to you. It doesn’t happen by accident, you need to incorporate advanced techniques into your conference speech or presentation to get people to listen. Here we are going to discuss three old school ways to increase audience engagement. By “old school” I mean techniques that do NOT involve using an app or technology to send in questions. I think those apps while very useful and great for collecting data, however in my experience they have resulted in many speakers becoming complacent and lazy when they speak. They are also not going to help you form actual human connections with your audience members.
So let’s dig into three powerful ways that you can increase the audience engagement the next time you are speaking or presenting:
- Research Your Audience In Advance. This step is absolutely critical and cannot be overlooked. Who is your audience going to be? Do you know their demographics? Gender identification, age/generation, education level, industry, background etc… There are so many things you can look at here. Look for information from social media channels and previous events to find out if the event organizer doesn’t know. You must know your audience if you are going to connect with them and present information to them in a way that is inspiring and compelling so they listen to you.
- Ask Direct and Rhetorical Questions. There are two ways to ask questions of your audience. First you can ask a direct question where you expect a reply. This would involve using gestures to indicate you are asking a question, plus pausing to show you are expecting an answer. If we were working together on your speech we would craft this out and practice it. The other way is to ask a rhetorical question that gets your audience to think but does not require an answer from them. It’s still a powerful and often overlooked technique. Again there are different gestures and facial expressions involved that I would show you. These techniques are often used by the best TED and TEDx speakers.
- Tell Compelling Stories. Telling a compelling personal or brand story is a powerful way to get your audience to listen to you and form a deeper connection to what you’re saying. It’s one of the best things that you can do to elevate your public speaking and communication skills in almost any situation when you are speaking or presenting. Once again it takes time and expertise to craft out the story so that is something we would do together. I also have an excellent program coming up in March 2025 my Tell Your Story: Public Speaking Masterclass Program when you can check out on my website if you are interested in taking a deeper dive into this exciting area of speaking. Reach out to me through our contact page if you are interested.
We’ve gone through three great ways that you can increase audience engagement in your next speech, panel interview or presentation. Try implementing one of these and you will see the difference it makes. One very important thought I want to leave you with is this, you are not there to speak for your own self-glorification you are there to speak as a service to your audience. Once you understand that it makes the most profound difference to how you look at communication and the incredibly important role it plays in helping you achieve your strategic goals.
