Here are some of the best and effective public speaking tips and techniques that work to save both your time and energy and help you become a better public speaker.
Public speaking can be scary for most of us, but with the correct preparation and mindset, we can help ourselves to overcome it and become a better public speaker.
These tips and techniques will help you prepare yourself for public speaking.
It will also help you to make sure your message reaches to the audience successfully.
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What Are Some Techniques To Make Our Public Speaking More Effective?
Let’s talk about some techniques which you can use to improve your speaking skills and become a better speaker.
These techniques will also help you face any type of fear of speaking in front of people, by making you better prepared for it. If you have any speech anxiety then this would help you control it as you will already be prepared for it.
As the wise say, prevention is better than cure.
Effective Public Speaking Techniques And Tips
Research Your Audience Before Public Speaking
This is probably one of the most important point’s to remember. Before even starting to do anything, research your audience first. If you prepare something that does not resonate with the audience, then no matter what effective public speaking technique you use, the audience won’t connect with you.
If you know your audience you will be able to prepare a speech that will resonate with your audience.
By doing this, it will make your speech more effective as you will know what your audience want’s, what their problems are and what are they looking for.
It will have 2 benefits.
First of all, it will help you add more content to your speech if you aren’t able to come up with something. If you get stuck at some point this will give you a direction about where to go.
Second, it will help you make your presentation or speech more engaging and your audience will connect with you. They will listen carefully to what message you are trying to give.
Plan And Practice Your Speech Or Presentation
Now that you have researched your audience. It’s time to plan and practice your speech or presentation.
Plan Your Speech Or Presentation
Break your speech or presentation into parts.
Introduction, main content and the outro. Structure your point’s according to that, have the points which spark curiosity about what you are going to say in the introduction section.
This way they will know that you are here to give a meaningful speech or presentation and not to waste their precious time.
It will also help you connect with your audience and break a barrier between you and the audience. So, that you can say what you want to say and they listen to it with an open mind.
Then comes the main content, this is where the time you spent on researching your audience will be worth it. You structure your main content in a way that you can pass on your message and also address the audience’s problem’s and concerns while giving your speech or presentation.
In the outro section, you want to be memorable. You want your speech or presentation to be memorable. Talk about potential solutions about the problems or concern’s that you have talked about in the speech or presentation. Thus using this technique it will help you make your overall presentation or speech effective.
Practice Your Speech Or Presentation
After, you have your speech prepared. Now it’s time to practice it.
The best way to practice would be to stand in front of a mirror to give your speech and analyse yourself. Take note of your body language, the way you are saying your words and your tonality.
While giving the speech, record your voice and then listen to it how you sounded and what you can do to improve your speech or presentation.
This is one of the best effective public speaking technique to practice your speech or presentation.
It will also help you get familiar with your speech, reanalyse it and will also give you a boost in your confidence.
This confidence will come handy to make your speech or presentation effective. People will listen to you and it will also help you control your speech anxiety and nervousness issues if you have any.
Also Read: Why Students Are Afraid Of Public Speaking?
Make Eye Contact For Certain Duration For Effective Public Speaking
Make eye contact with individuals for no more than around 7-10 seconds.
If you keep staring at one person things will get awkward quickly. So, make short but effective eye contact. Eye contact is one of the things which if used correctly will make you appear confident in front of any person.
A good contact will make you and your audience feel connected to each other. One technique you can also use to make your speech effective is to make eye contact in a random pattern. Rather than looking at a specific section of the audience or a person again and again.
This will make them feel comfortable and even you will start to feel more comfortable around them.
Use Pauses Smartly For More Effectiveness
Pauses are really good to make your speech sound professional, easy to digest and make your public speaking even more effective.
When you are practising your speech, try and see where pauses would be meaningful. Don’t overdo it. Pauses need to be natural, otherwise, it will have the opposite effect of what we want our audience to have.
Watch video’s of good public speaker’s on Youtube, you will notice they use pauses. But the thing that you want to focus on and study is how do they use those pauses in their context.
You will notice how they use pauses which in turn creates curiosity in the audience to know more. It also becomes easy to digest for the audience to grab the information correctly and understand what you are trying to say.
Pauses will help the audience differentiate one thing from another, making it an effective speech or presentation.
Make A List Of Topics To Cover (While Preparing Your Speech Or Presentation)
A well-structured speech will help you stay on track.
Start writing down the topic’s that you are going to cover. While you are writing the topics take your time to review the structure of your speech.
See if you can make any changes in the structure of your speech or presentation to make it even more impactful.
Sometimes, we may not realise but if there is something we are passionate about and we are talking about it there are situations when we went a little off track.
Making a list of topics before giving the speech or presentation will help you stay on track and also help you rethink about your delivery and structure of the speech or presentation.
In the end, our goal is to clearly communicate the message or the information to our audience. So, having a list of topics is one of the things which you can use to be more confident about your speech or presentation and to make it become effective.
Encourage Participation Of The Audience When Possible
If at some point, you feel that you have tried some things and your audience isn’t connecting with you. Try to encourage the participation of the audience.
Often it happens that people feel shy to ask something in front of other people. So, if you can make them feel comfortable you can easily encourage the participation of the audience.
It is an effective technique which you can use in public speaking to warm up your audience and connect with them.
People are most likely to listen to someone who they feel connected with rather than just a complete stranger.
Speak Slowly In A Confident Manner
Now, that you have your content structured and ready, it’s time to focus on the delivery.
Speak slowly, avoid rushing things it shows that you are nervous and not confident about what you are going to say.
Speaking slowly and in a relaxed way will also help you make your content easy to digest for the audience. It is one of the most effective techniques that will help you with your public speaking.
Use of short pauses along with speaking at a normal speed like you naturally talk in is definitely one of the best combinations to ensure your public speaking is as effective as it can be.
Before giving the speech relax take deep breathes. Empty your mind with any type of thoughts.
If you are struggling to build your public speaking confidence then there is a guide to build public speaking confidence which you can try. This guide is made by a person who has been teaching people about how to become effective public speaker and build confidence in their public speaking abilities. He has been doing this for the past 30 years.
Make Use Of Metaphors, Analogies And Similes To Make Your Public Speaking More Interesting
After you have applied all of these public speaking tips and techniques to help make your content become more effective, now it’s time to make it interesting so that your audience feels even more connected with you personally and your public speaking.
As you have put so much time into making your content as informative and helpful for the audience as it can be.
To take it to the next level and help that section of your audience that isn’t that familiar with your topic understand your message we will make use of metaphors, analogies and similies.
These are really effective when used smartly.
Metaphors, analogies and similies will also help your audience understand your message even better.
Which is a really good thing.
Anything that helps us to deliver our message clearly will also help our public speaking become more effective.
So, while practising your speech or presentation if there is something that is a little complicated for you to explain then try to make use of metaphors, analogies and similies.
Also, whenever you feel like there are chances of boredom at some point of time in your speech then try to use metaphors, analogies and similes to make your public speaking more interesting and fun, for you and your audience.
Get Feedback When Possible To Improve Your Public Speaking Skills
Getting feedback is another one of the best effective technique to improve your public speaking skills.
This honest and real feedback from your audience will help you in the long run.
The good thing is your audience is helping you to improve. How much better can it get.
You can even prepare a custom feedback form by yourself with questions that will help you get focused feedback. A simple form would also work in which your audience can write anything they want.
The thing to keep in mind is, be smart and open-minded when you are reading the feedback forms. Don’t take negative feedback as an offence, instead use it as a constructive criticism to improve yourself and gain even more confidence.
Conclusion
Our goal public speaking is to ensure our message reaches to the audience successfully. Anything that will help us achieve that goal, is good for our public speaking. Try these tips and techniques the next time you go for public speaking.
Relax, be confident and prepare well.
I wish you good luck with your public speaking.