6 ways to engage your audience through the social channel
February 24, 2009
Just as we have a verbal channel for words and a visual channel for images, we have a social channel for non-verbal signals.
That’s the big idea of Alex Pentland’s book “Honest Signals”.
Alex Pentland is a professor at MIT Media Lab. He and his team have used a specially designed digital sensor called a sociometer to monitor and analyze non-verbal signals between people. Pentland calls them “honest signals” because we send them out unconsciously and therefore they’re difficult to fake. His research shows the great influence this social channel has over our communications.
In my work as a presentation trainer, I emphasize the importance of having well-organized, logical and engaging content ie: the verbal channel. When I first started reading this book I felt a little unnerved – would this research refute my approach.
How to establish your credibility without bragging
September 23, 2008
It’s hard to pull-off establishing your credentials without sounding like you’re bragging. The public speaking blogosphere is alive with stories of presenters who didn’t quite hit the right note. Lisa Braithwaite says in her blog post on establishing your credentials, they haven’t come to the presentation to hear all about you. Dave Paradi also warns against talking about yourself too much.
It’s like we have a braggart alarm bell. We’ve learnt not to trust people who speak too well of themselves. So how can you avoid setting off the braggart alarm bells of your audience while still establishing your authority to speak on the topic?
The secret is to make it look as if it’s not you doing the bragging. [Read more]
Lessons from Cialdini #2: How to persuade using the power of the negative
July 24, 2008
Pop psychology culture says focus on the positive. But if you do, you’re missing out on huge persuasive power.
In Yes: 50 secrets from the science of persuasion Robert Cialdini and his co-authors explore the concept of “loss aversion“. Loss aversion means that most people would rather avoid a loss than receive a benefit. You can use the power of loss aversion by thinking carefully about how you frame your messages.
This was demonstrated by researchers from the University of California. They told one group of homeowners that they could save 50 cents a day by carrying out energy efficiency improvements in their home. They told a second group of homeowners that they would continue to lose 50 cents a day if they did nothing. The second group were 300% more likely to carry out the improvements.
How can you use the psychology of loss aversion to persuade your audience: [Read more]
Lessons from Cialdini: what can we learn from hotel towels?
July 22, 2008
Robert Cialdini is recognised as an authority on persuasion. His latest book Yes: 50 Secrets from the Science of Persuasion co-authored with Noah Goldstein and Steve Martin has many nuggets for presenters. I’ll be reviewing these in a series of posts. Here’s the first one:
We are strongly persuaded by what people like us do.
In the book Cialdini and his co-authors outline a series of experiments on the cards in hotel bathrooms attempting to persuade us to reuse the towels. The standard appeal on these cards is to our concern for the environment. The authors experimented with changes to the wording on these cards. Here’s what they found: [Read more]
The 6 reasons why face-to-face presenting is more persuasive
May 31, 2008
Seth Godin recently posted that as online methods of engaging and interacting improve, the expectations for face-to-face interactions such as sales calls, presentations and conferences will increase:
In other words, “I flew all the way here for this?” is going to be far more common than it used to be.
This got me thinking about whether we will continue to have face-to-face presentations. Does face-to-face presenting have an edge over video-conferencing and other online presentation technology?
