Why Slideshare Shouldn't Work

I’ve got this thing with Slideshare.  I feel odd posting presentations that make no sense.  What I mean is that my presentations visuals make no sense without my narrative.  When I speak my presentation is from me to the audience.  The money’s in what I have to say, not what I show.  My visuals only accent my message. Consequently my ‘slides’ alone make only a little sense.

For example when you see an image of a question mark or a child standing alone in a field the Slideshare viewer obviously misses something.  Sure there are other graphics that can stand on their own but to suggest you’ve experienced my presentation is crazy.

I like to think I’m growing as a speaker. 

In my younger days my bullet-ridden Powerpoint slides (always with the classic blue background) doubled as a handout.  And speaking was easy:  I leaned against the podium, waved a shaky laser pointer and dutifully read along with the listeners.  Life was so much simpler.

But now as a presenter I prefer speaking to reading.  And as a participant I much prefer listening to reading.   This is why I find Slidshare so tricky.  The solution, of course, is to record voiceovers for my Keynote presentations.  I’ll do that in my free time.

Comments

[Rashmi]

You can use SlideShare as you want - with text annotations so slides make more sense, or add audio. Or even add video. We give you a range of options to enhance your slides. And lots of people do use those options.

Rashmi
SlideShare CEO & Cofounder

[Kristi]

I get it! You are a wonderful speaker and do add so much more to a talk than just bullet points and reading! Perhaps just posting a few of the "information laden" slides would work best. You know, the ones where you quickly click to the next slide and 10 hands go up asking you to go back and papers rustle as people try to find their pen to jot the info down.

[DrV]

Rashmi, thanks for chiming in. Indeed, SlideShare offers a number of options that help overcome my issue. At its most basic level the post was more about public speaking than it was about SlideShare. Love the service and the quick response from the CEO! Thanks for commenting.

Kristi, this post wasn't about you : ) I will be putting my probiotics talk on Slideshare before the end of the weekend.

[EdBennett]

I added audio to my standard presentation a few months ago, and have gotten good feedback from folks. (see it here: http://bit.ly/jczGN )

Just record your one of your in-person events and edit it in. Makes a big difference, slides without narration is like a book with just the illustrations.

[DrV]

If Ed's doin' it I have to do it.

[Meredith Gould]

I share your "thing" with on-the-screen presentations, possibly because after a decade of college teaching when these tools hadn't yet been invented, I learned that I needed my presentations to inform, educate, and entertain without bells and whistles.

Plus, with an art background in addition to the writing foreground, I'm generally disgusted by the crappy aesthetics of most decks.

Is there a point to this rant on your blog? Uh, yes.

Despite all my "issues," I've come to accept that some people do, in fact, need to read to hear what the presenter is saying, just as some need to hear what the presenter is showing. Learning styles. Must accommodate for them all.

Just so you know, I'm still under the thrall of your 2 Patients presentation at e-Patient Connections.

[Brandon]

I’ve thought about how to put my presentations on SlideShare as well, given that I too use a lot of images and very little words with my presentation. I tend to use a lot of visuals that support my narrative, as opposed to using the deck as my “teleprompter” or be my narrative.

However, I think that just like we often change how we communicate on Twitter vs Facebook vs one’s blog, we also have to change how we communicate on Slideshare. In other words, our message might be the same, but we tend to communicate it differently depending on the tools we are using. Thus, slide decks need to be modified in such a way that fits well with the tool. Don’t you think?

[Sarah aka Mainline Mom]

I actually wish that Slideshare automatically imported my speaker notes that I write in with my slides in Powerpoint. I generally put a great deal of my narrative in there, because like you, I have learned that bullets are bad and visuals are good! I generally present before all engineers who are not at all adept at public speaking and don't know the meaning of charisma...they tend to pack slides full of text and graphs with 100 important points on them. Drives me nuts, especially since I've been attending presentations on SM by PR and marketing folks who knock the socks off their audiences. I agree with you, I've come a long way in my speaking...

[DrV]

Sarah - I live in an academic medicine environment where the next generation is trained just like some of those engineers. Very few examples of engaging speakers.

I think SM folks naturally understand how to connect and so they translate that in their speaking. Thanks for commenting.