6 Tips to Keep Your Audience Engaged

According to research, an average human has an attention span of 8 seconds. As a speaker, one should always keep this fact in mind and design their presentation to keep the audience engaged for an extended period. The thought haunts nearly every speaker that the audience may not be paying attention to what they are saying or ignoring their presentation entirely due to a relatively bland subject. Hence, this article will provide you with six tips that can help you keep your audience engaged.  

Maintain Eye Contact  

Quite often, the topics that we are discussing with the audience are dense in nature. Such issues are usually filled with excessive PowerPoint presentations or Excel files that deal primarily with numbers. As the presenter, you will often find those in the audience either yawning or not paying attention. In such a scenario, one of the easiest ways of keeping your audience on their toes is to maintain eye contact. If you look at the person in the audience, they will likely stare back at you. However, this will make them slightly uncomfortable but would be less distracted and more attentive towards you and your content.

Break the Ice 

Nervousness and hesitance are common elements when you are addressing a new crowd. Not just the speaker but even the audience may feel slightly uncomfortable initially. Therefore, since you are holding the mic, it is your responsibility to make your audience feel at ease. An audience is more likely to pay attention when the person they are listening to is familiar. So, you must conduct some icebreaking activities that will get the audience to warm up to you. Some of these activities include conducting life polls or even something as simple as asking to raise their hands. Once they start feeling more comfortable, you will notice better engagement. You must also be enthusiastic as a speaker. Even if you embarrass yourself in front of them and they laugh, you have successfully struck a bond with them. The more you are conscious or hesitant on your part, the more your audience will doubt you.   

Focus on the Key Words 

Voice modulation is essential while giving a presentation, and your voice must indicate the important terms the audience must focus on. Besides changing your tone while mentioning the keywords, you can also be a little softer so that the audience can better grasp it. This is because you talk softly when you are sharing personal things like giving out a secret. This trick can make them more interested in what you are saying. Other tips to engage your audience while discussing keywords include informing them beforehand that you are about to discuss something important, or you can also repeat those terms more than once. You can also discuss those critical terms at the very end, similar to the climax of a movie.   

Incorporate Humor 

You are off to a good start if your presentation is creative. A creative presentation can make you stand out and get better audience engagement. Another crucial element is having a sense of humor, especially when dealing with a heavy subject. With humor, you can not only inform but entertain your listeners as well. Additionally, your audience is likely to be far more engaged than a speaker with a serious approach.  

Be Interactive 

You might have noticed that during a presentation, the speaker often asks the members of the audience to raise their hands. They might say things like ‘raise your hands if you have done this before’ or ‘raise your hands if you agree. These are tricks to encourage engagement. The speaker can also find out whether the audience is attentive or not through such maneuvers. Other tricks to interact with your audience include conducting online polls or quizzes. Such activities help in kickstarting a discussion. The audience is also likely to pay more attention to activities that require them to participate actively.     

Keep it Short  

You may be the perfect speaker in the world or use every trick in the book to hold your audience’s attention, but even then, there is a limitation. Research says that an interested human can listen to a speaker for around 18 to 20 minutes. A student may be sitting in a 90-minute lecture, but they can only pay attention for a similar amount of time, and that too in the first half. Hence you must keep your speeches brief while trying to incorporate all the important information. You must identify and eliminate such topics that may cause your audience to lose focus.

 As a speaker, your most important duty is to look confident. A hesitant speaker with an interesting topic is more likely to fail than a confident speaker with a dull subject. Secondly, you must treat your audience as the people you are familiar with and interact with them in a similar manner. Such an approach can help you reach out to your audience on a more personal level, making them comfortable and engaged. The above-mentioned tips will not only make you a confident and attractive speaker, but you can also pass on the information to your target audience in an efficient manner.