Small Business

10 Rules for Better Presentations

By Rick Broida

Updated on: September 18, 2007 / 1:59 PM EDT / MoneyWatch

It's hard enough to stand in front of a group of peers, bosses, customers, or the general public without the added worry that you're boring them to death. Success-building blog Quick Sprout offers 10 tips for giving killer presentations; here are three of the best:

Make them laugh - Although you want to educate your audience, you need to make them laugh as well. I learned this from Guy Kawasaki and if you ever hear any of his speeches you'll understand why. In essence, it keeps the audience alert and they'll learn more from you than someone who just educates.
Talk to your audience, not at them - People hate it when they get talked at, so don't do it. You need to interact with your audience and create a conversation. An easy way to do this is to ask them questions as well as letting them ask you questions.
Be honest - A lot of people present to the audience what they want to hear, instead of what they need to hear. Make sure you tell the truth even if they don't want to hear it because they will respect you for that and it will make you more human.

We've been down this road a few times before: Check Friday's post on improving your presentation body language and these 18 additional presentation-improvement tips from August. It's all in the interest of raising the presentation bar for presenter and audience alike. Because let's face it: You don't want to bore them, and they don't want to be bored! Photo by dan taylor.