Yesterday I attended a meeting about successful change in the workplace. It was about the merger between Bank of New York and Mellon Bank. The speaker talked about the importance of employee engagement. When there is transparent communication, and regular feedback people feel engaged. And engagement is directly related to shareholder value.
I started to think about public speaking. Your audience, in a sense, is your shareholder base. They have a share or stake in your message. But too often they stop listening and are more connected to their blackberries than to the speaker. We lose our audience because they are not engaged.
One reason the audience disconnects, is because the speaker is too verbose. Studies show that shorter audio recordings have a higher per centage of play through than longer audios. After 10 minutes people stop listening. The average song is less than five minutes. So in order for people to listen longer than 10 minutes you must have compelling content.
To engage your audience remember these three simple tips:
1. Keep it short
2. Deliver information they really want
3. Ask them for feedback