Best Ways to Capture audience attention
1. Make your audience laugh
Humor can help you lighten the mood, and it’s integrally persuasive too. Laughter will help communicate that you’re accessible and will allow the audience to feel more engaged and comfortable with whatever you have to say.
2. Use a powerful quote
Tap into another well-known person’s credibility by quoting a wise person. Make sure, however, that the quote is relevant for the audience.
If you’re speaking at a charity event, for example, start by using Gandhi’s quote, “Mahatma Gandhi once said, ‘Be the change you want to see in the world.’ We must ourselves take the responsibility of making the world a better place rather than relying on someone else to take action.”
3. Interact with your audience
Create a give-and-take relationship with your audience by getting them involved through rhetoric questions and other things. Such interaction has been known to be far more persuasive and engaging rather than just speaking at the audience for a certain duration of time.
4. Engage with senses
The more people utilize the senses (touch, smell, taste, sight and hear), the better you engage with them. To build interest among your audience, you can show images of neglected animals, give them something to eat, play sad music and even give them a cuddle toy during your speech.
For a winning presentation, you have to combine the effects and do your best. To increase involvement, you can also ask questions and grab their attention. The only thing to be mindful of is to stay true and relevant to your topic.
5. Make it about the audience
Use the most unexpected approach to get the audience’s attention. Once you get it, make the story about them. Improve your me-to-you ratio and talk about their lives, aspirations, their goals, insecurities, and problems.
Many speakers sell fear to grab the audience’s attention. While you do not have to belittle anybody or make them anxious, you can be positive and bring about the change. Be in alliance with them and mold your words so they know you care for their well-being.
6. Keep it going — Don’t stop
You need to keep moving, not just in terms of pace but in terms of developing your speech style. Make sure that every piece of information you share with the audience is built on the previous text. Moreover, the information you share must allow the audience to anticipate. A human brain longs for suspense, drama, and action. This holds true for the content you produce as well. Your audience is content-driven, result-oriented, and time-pressed.
Be mindful of your audience’s insatiable desire and vary your content to make winning presentations. Make sure things are always moving forward.
7. Deliver your message well
Delivering your message in the right manner is as important as the central idea behind it. No one can captivate the audience with a monotone or stiff voice. Learn to speak pleasantly with a good flow and maintain the quality of words throughout. You have to focus on 4 main points while giving a presentation: vary your volume, vary your tone, learn to pause at the appropriate time, and vary the speed to make a greater impact.
Moreover, develop a habit to leave all distractions behind. A distracting habit of yours can divert the audience’s attention. Break the habit if you really want people to get your message.
8. Provide value to the audience
Make sure that you are addressing a specific challenge or a problem faced by a large group of people. To captivate your audience, you must know about the current challenges they are facing or have faced to an extent where they want a solution from you.
Be sure to provide a viable solution during your presentation to hook the audience. Give them hope as well as actionable steps that they can implement in their lives. Moreover, make a clear call-to-action so that you benefit from your word. Before giving the presentation, ask yourself- What is it that you want from the audience? How are you going to gain from all the attention?
9. Keep the presentation fresh
I am a motivational speaker and a part of me believes that I can captivate an audience because I do not use outdated content. I avoid sharing the same content or stories over and over again. At times when I can’t think of new content, I twist my stories and address them with a different perspective.
Another trick is to add current events into your speech. Include something fresh which can reinforce further discussion among the audience. Before every event, I try to read the audience and alter my tone as per their culture.
Originally published here: Best Ways to Capture Audience Attention.
