Why A Joke Can Help Your Presentation
Although most people don’t think of it, one of the best ways to make your presentation more interactive and engaging is to add humor to your speech or presentation. In fact, if you can make the audience laugh, you’re likely doing something right! This article will cover why you should use humor in your presentation and how you can craft jokes that are not only relevant but will get laughs from your audience. By incorporating humor into your presentations and speeches, you’ll be surprised at how much better they are received by your audience!
Test Their Participation
The best way to see if your audience is engaged with your presentation is to use a joke. In most cases, jokes immediately get people’s attention, especially when it comes as a surprise. If you can make them laugh and they stay interested in what you have to say after that, then you know that they are actively participating in your presentation. If not, then there might be something wrong with your material or delivery style. Either way, using a joke during your presentation can help you identify where things need improvement so that you can improve them before moving on to other parts of your talk.
Give The Audience Something To Do
It’s important to give your audience something to do. This can be a survey, an interactive game, or even just some sort of fun activity that they can participate in while you talk. If your presentation is interactive, it will keep them engaged and focused on what you have to say. If it isn’t interactive, then at least try to make it interesting by adding humor and stories. You don’t want them looking at their phones instead of listening to you!
Use Humor To Keep Them Engaged
People like to feel like they’re in on a joke, so it can help your presentation by using humor. However, make sure you don’t use jokes that are offensive or embarrassing. This will only hurt your credibility and distract from what you’re trying to say. If used correctly, humor can be a great way to keep people engaged during your speech and show them that you aren’t afraid of making fun of yourself.
Introduce Some Interactivity Into Your Presentation
While adding humor to your presentation is a great way to get your audience more engaged there are other ways. For example you can use a Q&A quiz to get the conversation going. Open questions are also a great way to boost the audience interaction levels. Because no matter how good your presentation is, the audience will remember it best when there is some sort of interaction. If you’re not sure where to start, check out this blogpost on how to make any type of business event or meeting interactive!
Robert Daverschot
Robert is a professional moderator, presenter and speaker coach. Robert has years of experience at home and abroad and works for a broad range of industries. He has interviewed ministers, captains of industry and even His Holiness the Dalai Lama. In his dealings with the audience, he always uses Sendsteps. With it, an audience is able to voice their opinions, whereby attendees can cast votes or send in comments to speakers and panels on stage. As such, events turn into lively dialogues with everyone being able to speak up!