Tuesday 16 April 2013

Farewell

This was an enjoyable journey from the very start. As someone who spends the majority of her time on Internet I always welcome learning about new aspects of it. 23Things taught me many things I didn’t know about and even the things I did know I learned knew things about them. The thing I enjoyed most about it was the fact that it brought everyone closer together. I personally am a very shy person and I find it difficult to have face to face conversation with people, I have always been more comfortable with E-mails. But 23things created an opportunity for me to have conversations with people I hardly ever had a chance to talk to and by sharing experiences I got to know them a bit better and learned so much from them as well. Every Monday whilst I was doing my enquiry desk duty I was looking forward to see what the “thing” for the week is and now it’s no longer there I’m truly going to miss it. A very big thank you to the 23things team who provided nice and clear instructions, and a big thank you to all those who offered me their help and encouragement.

Tuesday 9 April 2013

Slideshare- Last one on my list


It seems like I'm finally getting there. I must admit all the other ones served some kind of purpose to me, that's why I was quite enthusiastic about doing them, but since I don't do any presentations, this one didn't appeal to me that much from the start.
However as I started looking into it more and more I realised it's not just a website for hosting your presentations, you can also share them with others and as a result this website is a great resource pool of presentations. I had so much fun exploring and I came across many entertaining and quite useful presentations. In a way it's a bit like the "Yourtube" of presentations.
Using slides for a presentation is a great idea, I think the visual aspect of it makes it easier to engage. Also the ability to synchronize an audio file with  the Slideset enables one to make a slidecast which could be very handy.
The other interesting feature is the ability to embed these presentations into one's own blog.
It's great tool to be used for business and marketing, but a bit like Youtube if you want your presentations to get alot of attention and be seen by many there are things you can do to make it stand out. Here are a few tips in my opinion:

Avoid putting too many words- You are trying to make this as visually gripping as possible, therefore you have to make it short and sweet. Do not confuse your audience with long sentences and complicated words.
Attaching an audio file- This is different from a presentation, since you're not present with your audience to use this just as an aid for your presentation, by attaching an audio file you can fill out that gap. The audio file gives you a virtual presence as the speaker.
Design is important- Try using vivid and clear pictures and divide your presentation into small chunks. This is not a novel but more like a comic, the story should unfolds itself nicely and clearly in as little time as possible.Whilst using pictures try using stock picture and look for common creative pictures on FlickR.
Sense of Humour- It doesn't matter how serious and professional your subject is, it's always a good idea to keep it light-hearted. Everyone likes a good laugh, and without putting yourself in the danger of appearing unprofessional, you can use the sense of humour to keep your audience engaged.
There were so many interesting presentations on Sideshare, but I thought this one was a really good one about Facebook:
http://www.slideshare.net/soapcreative/soap-creative-10-facebook-myths-busted

This was an enjoyable experience, and although I'm not sure if I'll be using it to create one in future, but I'll certainly spend some time there to find interesting presentations by others.