At BuyAPresentation, we post presentations online regularly. We frequently get featured on AuthorSTREAM and Slideshare a few times and have won a presentation contest on Slideshare. Very few presentations actually make it to the top favourtied. So, we analyzed the top presentations online averaging over 3000 favorites and here are the results on what audience online like and conclusions on how to make your next presentation top favorited:
1. Title Slides Look and Feel: Simplicity tops
About 70% of the top presentations (14 of 20) use large text in the title slides. Even if used, the title slide carries a small or subdued picture. Presentation Content and not the first slide is king.
2. Popular Topics: Technology and Marketing
Given that these are presentations shared on a social media, it is probably not surprising that presentations related to Technology are the most popular. Marketing (technology in marketing) is the other broad category which is popular. 93% of top favorited presentations are related to Marketing, Social Media or Presentation Skills. Some tags in the top presentations: PowerPoint Tips, Social Media, Marketing, Trends, Technology, Future, Creativity, Design.
3. Expertise matters, advertising is ok at the end:
In relation to the popular topics selected above, it is also interesting to note that the authors of the presentations are some sorts of experts in their field. Almost all presentations (9 of 10 presentations) are posted by people who represent their company and would like you to buy a book ( Eg: Brain Rules for presenters) or to market their company (Shift Happens). This also shows that it is alright to talk about and sell your company or product at the end of the presentation.
4. Coverage: Number of slides matter:
Top presentations have at least 45 slides or more with the average number being 90 slides. The number of words per slide averages 17. The range for number of words per slide however is quite wide as some presenters have used a lot of text for some slides (like a document).
5. Design: Few pictures, more diagrams and visuals
Typically most of the presentations use few pictures and a lot of visuals and Diagrams. By visuals, I mean play with text (small/big, different font sizes, styles) to highlight a point. A lot of the presentations use loads of diagrams like process flow, data graphs etc. This makes the presentation more interesting to read and understand.
All top presentations also have one important feature in common. They do not have standard presentation template or background colors. The backgrounds are usually white and they make use of a range of colors and different slide formats. Some presentations use visual cues – for example all slides with rules have a standard look.
6. Structure: Clear story
All presentations use a clear and simple structure. They are designed for reading online and are complete in themselves i.e. can be understood without a presenter. A typical structure used is as follows:
• Agenda or Introduction to topic
• Definition
• Current situation with examples
• Reasons why it is important to change / know the information
• 3 to 5 clear Guidelines with examples
• Summary or Conclusion
This structure makes it easy to read the presentation right through and understand why it is posted. The clear rules and statistics probably make the presentation useful enough to be shared with others readers.
7. Components: Quotes, Statistics, Examples, some humor and engagement
All presentations have these components – quotes from consumers, authority figures, statistics (even if they are approximations), examples that can be verified and some element of humor through pictures. Some presentations try to incorporate some amount of interaction and engagement by addressing the audience, for example, “Did you know…” or “Here is a quiz..”
Some other things to think about:
• Ratio of views to favorites: Around 0.6% of people who view the presentation mark the presentation as favourties. So the trick is to first get enough people to visit and share the presentation. Most of these presentations are very popular on Twitter, Facebook, Buzz and are embedded in hundreds of other sites.
• Should it be Downloadable: If you are wondering if your presentation should be marked downloadable to be more popular, it is not required. 2 of top 5 presentations are not allowed for download.
• Takes time and repetition: All the presentations evaluated have been around for a while – 1 to 4 years. Many have multiple presentations by the same author on almost same topic.
If you are looking for presentation templates with professional design and lots of diagrams and charts for your presentation, I recommend you visit buyapresentation.com.
Source for top presentations: Slideshare.net – all time favorites including: Brand Gap,,Death by PowerPoint,Social Media,What The F**k is Social Media,Shift Happens,Brain Rules for Presenters,The Real Life Social Network,Visual and Creative Thinking,Steal this presentation,All About Google
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