Part of my job involves regularly giving a talk on a specific topic. This may be at a conference, a local workshop, or in class.

These talks are often limited to the participants in attendance. I spend a lot of time building the presentation. Why should my ideas be limited to the people that decide to show up in the room that day?

In addition, my talks are like the pieces I share in my slam poetry classes. They’re designed to provide some emotional response, and maximum intellectual response. That is to say that I’ll tug at the heart strings, but also leave you with a sticky problem you’ll think about for some weeks.

Lastly, how do participants keep in touch, or stay connected? In my talks, I indicate that this is the “start of the discussion.” This means that they could & should reach out to ask more questions, check my notes, or just say hey!

To that end, here’s what I do as I repurpose and reshare my talk on social media.

Add your online identity (or identities)

One of the first slides I include in a PPT for a talk is where I live online. I usually duplicate this slide for the end of the talk as well.

In this I share my Twitter account, website, and newsletter.

As a PRO move, I leave the slide deck and head over to my Twitter handle and website where I show the audience that the materials are already online. No need to take notes on the session. Just sit back, enjoy, and think.

Add a Tweetable Summary

At the beginning of the slide deck, I include a “Tweetable Summary.” This is one sentence that share (in a tweetable length) the focus of the talk.

Now, you may not use Twitter and/or do not understand anything about tweets. But, you should understand essential questions, or driving questions of your work. That is to say, what is your focus for the talk? State that in one sentence here.

I also create a slide at the beginning of the talk to indicate the general outline of our time together. This allows the audience to understand my logic and build anticipation. Lastly, I place the slide at the end to remind the audience of what we did in the session.

It’ll keep you…and your audience focused.

Ask your audience to get involved

If you feel comfortable, encourage your audience to send tweets and social media posts.

You’ve just shared your online identities, links to the presentations, and the tweetable summary. Encourage them to take a photo, or share bits from your talk while you’re presenting.

Your audience may feel cautious and not want to share your great ideas. Give them permission at the beginning of the talk.

There are some horror stories about audiences sharing less than flattering comments about a presenter using social media as a back channel. I’ve been doing this for years, and have not had this happen to me as of yet. If the talk is bad, people will usually let you know…or nervously wait for the session to end so they can get out immediately. Or…they’re already sleeping. 🙂

Make your talk shareable

If you want your audience to share your ideas, you need to make it easier for them to share.

All of my presentation materials (slide decks) I build using Google Slides. This allows me to quickly build and share my presentations. I can also make revisions as needed in the presentation quickly and update for all viewers.

In some talks, I share the ability to leave comments on the slide deck. This allows for quick discussions about specific elements of the presentation as needed.

And…yes. I have misspelled words in my slide decks before. Thankfully, I sent the slides out to my PLN the morning of the talk, and a colleague in Germany indicated there was a spelling error before I got up on stage. 🙂

Use multimodal content

Google Slides provides a great opportunity to embed multimodal content (images, videos, audio, GIFs) in your presentations.

First, keep in mind that more text on a screen is never a good move. I strive for the one by six by six rule. Less is more.

I also use text only when needed. Mainly I use text to give myself a visual cue if I want to make sure I make a point.

I use a lot of images in my talks.

I use a lot of video in my talks.

I use a lot of GIFs in my talks.

Unsplash and Flickr are two great places to find high-quality images to use in your presentations.

Record your session

When I started giving talks, I would use Hangouts On Air to livestream the talk to my YouTube channel. This didn’t work as no one was showing up randomly on my YouTube channel for the talk. It also presented challenges as the Internet access and connectivity is sometimes spotty (or non-existent) at a location.

I now record a screencast of all talks and class lectures that I provide. This is super simple as you use software to show a video of you going through your slides and recording the audio of you talking. If this makes you nervous, I sometimes record a version just before or after the talk or lecture. This provides additional practice, and you can control the process (Internet connectivity, audio, lights, computer, etc.).

If possible, ask a colleague to record your presentation on a smartphone or video camera. It can be hard to watch ourselves presenting, but it is great feedback and a chance to improve. If you’re going to do this, use a tripod and camera. Also, think about a good mic…or record audio on your laptop. There’s nothing worse than finishing your talk and realizing the colleague had shaky arms, the battery died, or the camera operator was so enthralled with your talk, they forgot to press record. 🙂

Recycle, Repurpose, & Reshare

You spend a lot of time preparing and presenting materials for talk or lectures. After the event has concluded, hopefully, you don’t leave them collecting dust on a hard drive, or with your Google Docs.

Give your materials a second life by publishing online.

You can share your materials on social media before, during, and after a presentation. It is also a great opportunity to archive your thinking on your blog. Write a follow-up post on your thoughts after you presented.

I also frequently write up blog posts on fundamental concepts in my presentation that I may have unpacked much too briefly in my talk. In this, I have time and space to write out my ideas on a topic, and include images, videos, publications, and supporting materials.

Reflective blog posts are also powerful ways to unpack audience questions and think more deeply about your work.

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Photo by Riccardo Annandale on Unsplash