Congratulations! You’ve just delivered a well-received presentation.
As we advised in our first two posts on preparing for the presentation and giving a presentation, you still have work to do.
Critique Your Speech
After the speech, if you’ve been audio or video taped, make time to listen or watch yourself in action. You’ll likely never improve without learning how other people hear or see you. Some speakers are simply afraid of a repeat visit. They may feel they could have done better, and don’t want to relive their mistakes. But you are doomed to repeat yourself if you don’t take steps to get better.
Invite your PR adviser or presentation coach to sit in and offer tips for improvement. You may find you’re being too hard on yourself – or possibly not hard enough!
Then practice the speech, as if you were going to give it again. You’ll learn what you need to do to eliminate your mistakes and enliven your delivery.
Say “Thank You”
Of course, you will thank your hosts immediately following your presentation in an office or at a conference. That’s only polite.
But be sure to also send thank-you notes to those who have helped you. This includes the conference organizers, clients or prospects, as well as your internal staff and expert resources you may have interviewed for facts and case studies.
You can never thank too many people. They will remember your thank-you notes because so many people neglect to send them.
Continue to send follow-up notes, updates and articles they would enjoy reading to build your positive relationships with them.
Amortize Your Speech
You’ve put a lot of hard work into preparing and delivering your presentation. Work with your PR Department in getting publicity for you and your organization. If appropriate, send out a press release summarizing the major points and pitch individual reporters to interview you.
You can also submit your presentation to Vital Speeches of the Day, which has a large following of readers seeking topics of interest – you never know if one of them could become your next client.
Don’t forget social media. Go viral by posting your slide presentation on SlideShare and to your LinkedIn, Facebook and Google+ profiles. Do a series of tweets on Twitter with key points from your speech.
The possibilities are endless for spreading your key messages and seeing them live on long after you’ve delivered your presentation.
For our first two posts in this three-part series on presentations, visit The Presentation Begins When You Book the Date and The Presentation is Not About You.
