Features and types of public speaking

What is public speaking

Public speaking is a complex concept that combines speaking in front of an audience, in open areas, on television, as well as communication with management, an employer, and just friendly communication in the company of good friends.
Knowledge of the psychology of public speaking will be useful in any situation where you need to show your best qualities, demonstrate your ability to communicate, and present your professional skills. Successful oral public speaking is not just a conversation, but a signed contract, a new job, business partners, and public recognition. The purpose of public speaking is to interest the audience so that listeners catch your every word, gesture, react to the intonations of your voice, this is the ability to inspire people with your ideas. If we talk about pragmatic speaking in front of an audience, as a form of business communication, it is influencing the audience not only with words, but also with posture, facial expressions, gestures, pauses, rhythm of speech, visual contact, and strength of voice. This requires the speaker to master his own voice, body, facial expressions, follow special rules and use specific techniques.

Not every person can master such an art. From our material you will learn what public speaking is, its types and forms, and the rules for successful speaking.

Working with space and moving around

A very important component of a great presentation is the dynamics of the speakers. This is a very strong feature in the speeches of Apple employees.

All speakers move correctly around the stage: right and left, forward and backward. They change the pace of movement, some even run out onto the stage, which looks very cool and dynamic.

For such a large hall this is extremely necessary. The performance becomes more emotional, and the audience’s attention is better retained for a long time.

Types and forms of public speaking

Oral presentations to an audience depending on the purpose:

informational speech - used in reports on political or scientific topics, lectures for students, speeches to students, stories about any phenomenon;
protocol and etiquette - in this form delegations are welcomed, congratulations on the birthday or anniversary are prepared, opening or closing remarks at an official event;
entertaining - any informal speech (toast, life story about a funny incident);
persuasive - the main goal is to convince listeners that the speaker is right, to demonstrate the correctness of the position and judgments, used in commercials, political and scientific discussions, and propaganda programs.

Important! One speech can have different goals, as a result, the types of speeches to the public are combined and the results are information-persuasive or information-entertaining.

In addition, there are different forms of speaking to an audience:

report - a speech on an important topic (social, scientific, medical), duration from a quarter of an hour to 3 hours;
message - a short speech devoted to one topic, maximum duration 10 minutes, must contain facts and statistical information;
speech - a short message lasting up to 5 minutes, the topic is chosen in advance or arises as a result of discussion of a specific topic;
lecture - presentation of a specific topic by a specialist using scientific facts, duration ranging from a quarter of an hour to 1.5 hours;
conversation - a dialogue between the lecturer and the audience, the topic and format are determined in advance, is not limited to a time frame, involves questions from the audience, and answers from the speaker.

Using Emotional Words

Speeches at Apple company presentations have always been emotional, which really captivates the audience and allows them to become imbued with the company’s ideas.
The main technique that allows you to do this is a large number of words expressing emotions about the new product: “amazing, incredible, proud of, exciting, unbelievable, so exited, fantastic, you”ll be amazed, I'm exited, realy enjoy , the best, the most, powerfull” (amazing, amazing, proud, exciting, incredible, so delighted, fantastic, you will be shocked, I am delighted, truly enjoying, the best, the most, powerful) and many other words.

Of course, this gives a powerful color to the performance and creates the mood of the audience. Of course, it is important to emphasize these words with your behavior, especially with your facial expressions! A common mistake in the example of Tim Cook: he says the phrase I'm so happy (I'm so happy), but his facial expressions clearly demonstrate the opposite! Another speaker, Susan, perfectly combines facial expressions and words, which is not as easy as it seems at first glance: sometimes it can be very difficult to control the non-verbal component of a speech, especially when nervous.

Working with a wide target audience

Apple is a company with a diverse target audience. Therefore, they masterfully know how to engage a variety of people, using both well-known, classic values and modern trends. For example, fans of the game Super Mario, which Nintendo created back in 1985, will soon be able to play it on their Apple devices.

For another part of the audience, stories were prepared about the education and development of children, consistent with family values.

A huge emphasis is placed on athletes from a variety of sports: this has always been in fashion, and recently it has been gaining even more momentum. Athletes with disabilities were also not forgotten, to whom part of the speech was also dedicated.

Of course, there are also Pokemon fans who will soon be able to catch them using the Apple Watch.

Gesticulation

One of the main signs of insecurity is clasped or crossed hands in front of you.
This instantly shows the speaker's uncertainty. Unfortunately, many speakers experienced this! For such a large room with a large audience, it is better to use broad gestures, be more active, and have bright gestures. Nondescript gestures will instantly get lost against the backdrop of a huge screen and a crowd of spectators.

How to Prepare for a Presentation If You're an Expert: A Step-by-Step Guide

Making a storyboard

So, the story plan is ready, we have taken feedback from the listeners - we begin to storyboard the future performance, like real directors.
We don’t study the slides in detail, but figure out which images will strengthen the story. Again. We don’t assemble ready-made slides, we don’t waste time on aligning headings, we just put together: structure – story – visualization.

We use directors' tools to prepare presentations

We show the finished storyboard to the working group, collect feedback, and record insights.

Designing slides

When there is a clear understanding of the goals of the presentation, the Client’s Empathy Map has been worked out, and the structure of the story is clear, then much less time and effort is spent on preparing the presentation.

Nancy Duarte’s book “Slide:ology” is about how to convey your idea to the listener, convince and inspire

Design

The purpose of this article is to highlight the step-by-step process of preparing for a presentation, so it is better to discuss the design of presentation slides in detail in a separate article.

Let me briefly note the points that we try to keep in focus at this stage:

more pictures and less text;
stories and visualizations with humor are remembered better;
diagrams, infographics for ideas that are already clear;
several interim summaries during the report;
one thought - one slide;
no more than three fonts per presentation;
text and graphics are visible from the last rows;
align to the grid;
We adhere to the corporate style;
all illustrations are in the same style.

First slide

The important slide with which most presentations begin is “About Us” or “About Me.” In these seconds, listeners decide whether this speaker is worth spending time on. If you fail to hook, the audience will go to gadgets or take a break.

Try to tell about yourself through the prism of the interests and needs of the audience: so that your experience and portfolio are in tune with the tasks of those present. Choose words, examples, phrases that will resonate with the audience - the Empathy Map to help.

Use the first slide to voice and work out possible doubts and stereotypes of the audience (“too young”, “little experience”). Clearly, objectively and with a dose of self-irony.

And remember the principle of “social proof”: we are more willing to listen to a speaker who is in demand, is published in significant media, is a member of a professional association, has awards, diplomas, certificates, is the author of a book or a popular blog.

Coffee cup and road map

After the presentation, the speaker usually says what his report is about and what exactly he plans to tell. Many speakers make the mistake of jumping straight to the problem and solution.

Carmine Gallo, in his book iPresentation, makes a great analogy about a cup of coffee: “An investor once told me, ‘You need to create new empty space in my brain so that I have a place to put your information. I switch off as soon as an entrepreneur starts offering a solution without explaining the problem. They have coffee - their idea, but there is no cup to pass this coffee to me."

Carmine Gallo, a public speaking coach and journalist, studied all of Steve Jobs's presentations, analyzed his working methods and compiled his findings in his book

The speaker’s task is to create a “cup” at the very beginning - introduce a category, voice the problem and only then offer coffee.

At the same stage, give the user a road map of the speech - highlight 3-4 main points of the speech and tell the audience about them. Listeners will understand at any time where they are in the story, it will be easier for them to follow the performance and perceive information.

Conclusion or super offer

A performance is a story, and a popular story should have a clear and clear ending, like a good blockbuster (not like an auteur movie).

At the very beginning of preparation, we set the goals of the speech, looking for answers to the questions “what do I want the audience to do, understand or remember?”

End your report with a proposal for the audience that will work for these purposes: discounts and bonuses, special conditions, useful materials, and so on.

Access code - a little about perception

In a large audience, there are necessarily not only visual learners, but also auditory and kinesthetic learners. Everyone has their own access code:

For visual learners, a clear picture is important - we visualize the information, draw on a flipchart, and engage with the help of special questions that engage their “native” channel of perception: “Is it clearly visible, is there enough light?”
For auditory learners, sound variety is critical: clear speech with pauses, changes in intonation, voice timbre, special words “listen”, “I’ll tell you”, “sounds”.
For kinesthetic learners, it is important to involve the sphere of sensations and movements: ask them to do a simple action (raise their hand or nod in response to a question, offer to sit more comfortably, open handouts, make notes in a notebook), gesture, move in space. If you ask the audience to raise their hand, start with yourself so that the mirroring technique works.

Unusual product demonstration

Classic presentations depicting the product alternated with real on-line demonstrations of capabilities. In my opinion, this is a great technique that shows the thoughtfulness and quality of the performance! This is one of the best ways to present an innovative invention - to clearly show how it functions.

It's strange, but many people don't use such a simple technique. As a rule, boring slides are created with a text description of the characteristics of the product and its competitive advantages. Apple abandoned text on slides and began showing all the advantages of new devices directly on their screens, which is much more interesting and obvious to the viewer than the text spoken by the speaker and written on the slide.