Color is a very powerful presentation tool. In fact, some studies show that effective use of color can enhance learning and retention by as much as 75 percent, and promote up to 80 percent more interaction and participation. And, according to the Board Report of Graphic Artists, color, when used properly, can garner attention and influence moods. But, colors can be overused, or used incorrectly, which can serve to distract more than enhance.

Color can enhance learning and retention.

What are some of the best ways to use color in your presentations?

1. Color Versions

You may choose to have two versions of your presentation, one with a light background and one with a dark background. There are a couple of reasons for this. The first and most important one is readability. If you’re presenting in a dark room then a dark background like navy blue or black with lighter colored foreground elements like white or yellow will be easier for your audience to view with the lighter colored elements “popping” off the slide. In an environment with plenty of light, the reverse is true and you’ll probably want to choose a white background with darker type and slide elements. Another reason for having two background versions is printing. Darker backgrounds will use a lot more printer toner while white backgrounds will use less.

2. Choose Your Colors Wisely
Studies show that certain colors will generate different reactions from audience members. For example, black promotes authority and strength, while blue conveys reliability and trustworthiness (which is why so many companies use it in their corporate logos). Red excites people, prompting them to be more innovative and take more risks. Orange demonstrates a combination of confidence and playfulness. So, you’ll want to select colors carefully, based on the emotions you are seeking to evoke, or the perceptions you are trying to create.

3. Use Certain Colors Sparingly
While colors like red or purple can be rather effective in certain scenarios, when used too liberally, the presenter – and his or her delivery – can be viewed as overly aggressive. The opposite is true for colors like white, gray, or pastels, which create a perception of passivity or weakness. These colors should be used as highlight or accent colors only – as opposed to key colors within the presentation’s design.

4. Be Wary of Color Combinations
While certain colors may work well alone, when used in combination with other hues, they can fall flat. Of course, the most obvious color combination to avoid is red and green – you never know how many color blind people may be sitting in your audience. Studies show that orange and blue together can actually agitate or distress attendees, because of the “vibrations” the eye picks up when they are placed next to each other. And, red and blue don’t provide enough of a contrast, making it difficult to distinguish between slide elements.

5. Busy Patterns are Always a No-No
While you want your presentation to be eye-popping, you don’t want it to be distracting. Busy patterns and designs really won’t enhance the content of your slides. Sounds obvious, right? But, you’d be surprised how many presenters fill in their charts with stripes, or use a polka dotted backdrop. These will only create a sense of confusion, and prevent your audience members from fully grasping what you’re saying.

Understanding color can be a great way to create reactions or solicit emotions from your audience. Here are some other resources for you to draw from when broadening your presentation palette.

• Color in Motion – an interactive tutorial by Claudia Cortes (very fun)
• Color Theory Presentation by The Owl at Purdue
• Learning to Use Color a CreativePro article
• Color Matters a web site all about color

Want more valuable tips on effective presentation creation and delivery? Check out our archive of presentation tips and check back every week for new posts.

This week we have a guest post from Stephanie Silverman of SilvermanSpeechConsulting. Stephanie outlines 10 things for us to think about as we create and deliver presentations and some offers some great reminders for business communications and public speaking in general.

1. PEOPLE WANT YOU TO BE INTERESTING
   Though it may be hard to believe sometimes, it’s true: people want you to be interesting. It’s a popular misconception that others want to see you fail (it’s also a form of emotional quicksand).
2. FEAR IS LIKE EXCITEMENT & IT CAN BE HARNESSED
   Some professional public speakers and performers feel fear before and during every presentation – they’ve just learned how to harness that energy to serve them.
3. RELAXATION IS A SKILL
   Relaxation must be practiced, just like everything else, if you want to reap the benefits. The time it takes to “center” yourself shortens dramatically once you’re body has been properly trained.
4. CRITICISM DOESN’T HAVE TO HURT
   No successful person (success-by-birth excluded) has ever reached full potential without having to take some criticism. Knowledge is power: Once you know something needs work, you can begin making improvements. Ifyou don’t know, you can’t grow.
5. COMMUNICATION IS A GIFT
   The more you give, the more you get. When you approach communication as something that you’re giving to others, as opposed to something to which you are being subjected, self-consciousness begins to vanish and you appear more confident (because you are.)
6. REHEARSAL REQUIRED
   A great performance is one where the work has been done ahead of time. No one wants to see a play where the actors are grappling with the script after the curtain goes up. Likewise, it’s a huge mistake to work out your speech while you’re giving it. Rehearsal is the time to work it out. Skip this step at your peril!
7. WHAT’S THE ANGLE?
   Point of view is everything. No matter the topic, always have one. It will make you more interesting to listen to and it will be more enjoyable for you – and enjoyment is contagious. Besides, if they wanted cold hard facts, they’d just read about it.
8. FIND THE HOOK
   Find the “hook.” Something about what you’re saying must interest you or you will not be interesting to your listeners. If you look carefully, you will always find something.
9. BE HUMAN
   Don’t deny yourself basic human needs. So many speakers suffer needlessly. If you’re thirsty, drink some water. People will wait. If you need your glasses, pause to put them on. Think ahead and use the restroom just before you have to speak. Few things are more distracting and uncomfortable than watching someone try to work around these basic needs.
10. REPEAT AFTER ME: “I DON’T KNOW”
    In a Q & A situation, if you really do not know the answer, say so. Commend the asker for the quality of the question, tell them you are intrigued by it, and let them know you’ll look into it and get back to them. Then be sure you do. This is by far the more dignified way to respond than to try to make something up. People can generally tell when you’re faking it and that can destroy the credibility of all you said before.

If you have presentation tips you’d like to contribute to the SlideRocket blog please send them to marketing@sliderocket.com. If we post it on the blog we’ll credit you as a guest blogger and send you a SlideRocket T-Shirt. Check the blog each week for a new tip on making, managing and delivering great presentations.

As the end of the year approaches and we begin planning for 2010, it is important to think about achieving and maintaining business success in the current economic climate.

Step one in success requires that you offer a valuable product and service.

Step two, and often the more challenging one, is consistently promoting your product with a clear message in a compelling and engaging manner so prospects understand and relate to the product’s value. We think SlideRocket offers a lot of value here.

How can presentations help you win new clients, grow existing customers, and compete with competitors in the coming year?

Take a look at our newly updated Customer Page. We have added two new case studies that provide details on how our customers Bowne Virtual Datarooms and GBS Corporate Trainingare using SlideRocket to achieve business success.

Of course, it’s not just Bowne and GBS that are seeing results by maximizing their presentations. This year, we’ve seen our hundreds of customers accomplish many things, including:

• Effectively reach out to customers in a cost-efficient manner
• Easily keep an entire organization on point with consistent messaging
• Give employees more hours in a day to focus on their job and NOT building slides thanks to the Slide Library.
• Get viewing analytics on presentations to know what customers are interested in your product.
• Build audio presentations for informatively communicating product upgrades and product trainings
• Impress prospects with innovative sales pitches
• Expand business with an on-demand platform that can span time zones and technologies

In sharing these stories, we realized that many of our customers’ business needs for 2010 follow a certain pattern: they all had similar goals (winning, growing & competing), they all required a more modern alternative to PowerPoint to connect with customers and get the right results, and they all saw rapid success by using SlideRocket.

We will continue to add customer success stories, so check back often. And, do share your success with us, if you haven’t already. We are always up for a great presentation story.

Today, we are excited to announce the release of another great feature to make your on-demand presentations more personalized and impactful.

Introducing Slide Audio, our new feature enabling you to easily record audio to your slides in a matter of minutes. Forget about having to deal with the complexity of coordinating one massive audio file to an entire presentation. Now, with the mere click of a button, you can record audio to each slide, time it to your slide builds for effect and create a engaging and informative on-demand presentation. Your presentation now becomes a living document, fit to tell an entire story.

Wondering how to make it work? Create your slide, click to record your audio narration on the slide, and simply send a link of your presentation to your audience. The recorded audio will walk your audience through the details of your message, slide by slide – immediately, you have the added capability to be more descriptive and keep your slide engaging with images.

How to use your SlideRocket audio presentation? We have some great ideas:

Using presentations as a vehicle for sales pitches? Win deals. Sell More.

Using slide audio, you can create presentations with personalized sales pitches that your prospects can view and then forward around to their colleagues. With audio on each slide you can have different spokespeople for different slides to help your message come alive. Your sales team will be selling and closing deals in their sleep, thanks to SlideRocket’s on-demand presentations.

Using presentations to train your employees? Keep them engaged.

Build reusable training presentations in minutes that have all the details needed to successfully train your employees or customers. Forget about boring bullet points – thanks to your audio, you can use less text on your slides with engaging images to help keep the audience attentive.

Using presentations as a communication tool for your customers? Keep them in the loop.

By simply sending your customers a link to your presentation, your audio will walk them through the details of your message, slide by slide. Now, your entire organization can be on point, with consistent messaging.
With slide audio, building your all-in-one, on-demand presentations is easy! And of course, your audio presentations will have all the same great qualities of your other SlideRocket presentations. Continue reaping the benefits of: analytics that let you know who views your presentations, asset and slide management that allows you to update hundreds of presentations instantly, collaboration with peers in real time to build presentations and never having multiple versions of a slide running amok.

Click here to see Slide Audio in action and here for a quick demo.

With the release of SlideRocket’s audio recording features now is the perfect time to talk about best practices and techniques for creating great audio for your slides.

Creating pre-recorded content is perfect for allowing your prospects and customers to view your content at a time that’s convenient for them. It’s also less stressful for you and gives you the chance to refine your message and delivery until you get it just right. Hey, even the pros do more than one take. Here are some surefire ways to help you capture the best possible audio in your recordings:

1. Minimize Background Noise
Microphones and other devices have come along way in the past decade. In fact, some are so sensitive that they’ll pick up even the slightest sound. So, choose a nice, quiet place to record your presentation, and make sure you turn off your cell phone and disable email notifications and other noisy alerts on your PC or laptop. You may even want to condense your notes onto a single page, since the microphone will likely pick up the sound as you flip through paper or note cards.

2. Smile!
Famous radio host Casey Kasem always smiles when he speaks on air. It’s a technique that’s helped him create his unique sound and made him a household name. Smiling expands your facial and neck muscles, and opens up your vocal cords. So, if you smile while you’re recording your audio, you’ll sound happier and more convincing, and your audience will more readily embrace what you’re saying.

3. Practice, Practice, Practice
Pauses, “ums”, and “ahs” are far more noticeable in pre-recorded presentations than they are in live ones. The more familiar you are with your material, the fewer there will be. Script your presentation in advance, and practice thoroughly to avoid these types of grammar glitches. If necessary, edit them out.

4. Use Strong Voice Inflection
When a presentation has been pre-recorded, audience members can’t see the speaker’s hand gestures or facial expressions. Therefore, presenters must rely more heavily on tone and inflection to draw attention to specific details or emphasize key points.

5. Record It All at the Same Time
Weather and other environmental conditions, as well as diet, can significantly affect a person’s voice. Because your speech may sound noticeably different from one day to the next, try to record your entire session at one time.

6. Watch What You Eat
It may sound strange, but what you eat in the moments beforehand will have a big affect on how your audio sounds. For example, coffee and sugary drinks increase saliva production, forcing you to pause and swallow more often. On the other hand, the pectin in an apple will reduce excess mouth noises. And, always take a drink of water before you start recording, so your throat doesn’t dry out as you’re speaking.

Want more valuable tips on effective presentation creation and delivery? Want more valuable information on effective presentation creation and delivery? Check the SlideRocket blog every week for a new presentation tip and let us know what else you’d like to hear about.

Presenting over the Web, instead of in person, can offer many benefits – reduced travel costs and increased convenience for participants, just to name a few. But, effectively conveying information to a remote audience can be a challenge for even the most seasoned presenters. What works well in face-to-face sessions may be ineffective in a Web venue and you should think about altering your presentation style accordingly.

Great online presentations.

Here are some things to consider when delivering presentations to an online audience.

1. Keep it Short and Sweet

When you’re presenting in person, you’ve got a captive audience. But, Webcast participants are either at home or in their offices, leaving room for many distractions like ringing phones, knocks at the door, or the temptation to perform other work while they’re listening to you speak. Therefore, your discussion should be shorter than usual, 30 minutes maximum plus time for questions and answers, to avoid potential interruptions. If you find you can’t cut down your presentation then think about employing some of these other techniques to keep your audience engaged.

2. Use Stronger Voice Inflections

Remember, your audience can’t see you. You won’t be able to use hand gestures, facial expressions, or body language for emphasis. All you’ve got is your voice. So, use a stronger tone and more prominent inflections than you normally would, to make sure key points get across.

3. Keep It Interactive

It’s harder to keep your audience engaged when everyone is scattered across multiple remote locations, so speaking non-stop for a half hour, then saving Q&A until the end may not be the best approach. Take polls or surveys, ask questions, or solicit input at various points throughout the presentation. This type of ongoing interaction will keep attendees interested until the end of your session.

4. Eliminate Background Noises

Your cell phone rings. An email or pending appointment alert sets off a loud chime. A colleague enters your office, without knocking, and begins speaking. Day-to-day background noise in your office can be annoying and distracting to your audience – and your microphone will pick up all of it. Be sure to turn of any phones, intercoms, alerts, or other noise-making mechanisms, and hang a “do not disturb” sign on your door, before you start presenting.

5. Check Your Equipment Ahead of Time

If your equipment fails while you’re presenting in person, you’ve got other ways to communicate. But when you’re hosting a Webcast, your options are limited in the event of a technical disaster. That’s why its so important to do a “test run” of your presentation several hours before your session, to ensure that your slides have uploaded properly, and that your microphone and other equipment are all in working order.

Want more valuable tips on effective presentation creation and delivery? Visit our Web site at www.sliderocket.com.

My blog post last week about Netbooks and the future of Web Apps got me thinking about office ‘productivity’ suites. As we witness a computing revolution brought on by the Internet and cloud computing, can user adoption of Netbooks, Google Chrome OS and Web Apps beat out the more established rivals found in PCs, Windows OS and Microsoft Office? Many other questions come to mind in the contest of ‘Battle Cloud versus Desktop’ – who will reign supreme?

Why do people need or want office productivity suites? By suites, I mean groups of applications which, while addressing very different use cases, are bundled together in one purchasing decision for some strange reason. Buying a suite of productivity applications like this really doesn’t make a lot of sense. Customers want choice. They want to choose what is best for their specific needs and encourage vendors to compete to make the best products. Think about it, we do not buy our music or computer games in suites or watch television from only one network. Rather, we purchase the various music and games we like, watch television that interests us and see movies that we like. So why should desktop productivity suites be an exception, forcing users to purchase an entire package of programs that they may or may not use or even like? Instead, let the best application win. Let innovation win. Let costumer choice win.

You can probably guess that I stand firmly in support of ‘Team Cloud’. Why invest in bundled productivity suites such as Microsoft Office when the Internet offers customizable programs and applications aimed to work best for you and your business. Maybe you like Gmail for your email, SlideRocket for your presentations and Google Docs for word processing and spreadsheets. Great! The truth is, how many of the features in Microsoft PowerPoint, Word and Excel do you really use. And for most users the Microsoft suite is a group of silo’d programs with little to no interaction. It can’t be worth the cost when the alternatives online are turning out a phenomenal competition with revolutionary features.

A major factor in the battle is user adoption. While we see teams of people switching to ‘Team Cloud’, the battle has just begun. Here at SlideRocket we are working hard to get people to forget about firing up their static MSFT Office Suite and desktop presentation application. Instead, reach for the clouds and discover a whole new realm of functionality and the value of online presentations.

Companies like Google are making great strides, turning people on to web-based applications and productivity suites. As 2009 comes to an end and we move into 2010, I will be incredibly interested to see how the battle unfolds. Will products such as Chrome OS and Netbooks accelerate the pace of users turning away from their desktop OS and software products? We’d love to hear your thoughts on this interesting debate.

Feeling overwhelmed with holiday shopping? Couldn’t stomach the Black Friday crowds and Cyber Monday mayhem?

Don’t forget that it’s the time of year for giving. Here at SlideRocket, we are not only revolutionizing presentations, but also making your holiday shopping easier. Don’t miss your chance to win two ultimate presentation holiday packs.

You don’t want to miss this awesome opportunity. You will have two chances to win these cool prizes:

• A brand new 13″ MacBook Pro
• A SlideRocket Business Annual subscription
• 250 SlideRocket Marketplace credits
• A SlideRocket T-Shirt
• A Pico Pcket Projector from Optoma
• A Flip Mino HD Camcorder
• A Kensington wireless handheld remote
• 5 great presentation books: Presentation Zen, Slide:Ology, Beyond Bullet Points, The Presentation Secrets of Steve Jobs & The Back Channel
  

Just follow our 3 simple steps and you could win these incredible prizes just in time for the holidays. Here’s what you need to do:

1. Sign up for a free, no risk trial of SlideRocket (no credit card required).
2. Follow SlideRocket on Twitter. You’ll need a Twitter account for this, it’s free and you can sign up here.
3. Tweet about SlideRocket online presentations using the #sliderocket hash tag. You can tweet as many times as you like, the more you tweet the more chances you have to win!

You can check out all of the contest details here:

http://info.sliderocket.com/ultimateholiday.html

Remember – each tweet is considered an entry, so the more times you tweet, the more chances you have to win. Winners will be chosen at random. No bots or automated scripts please. No purchase is required, however the winner does need a SlideRocket account (can be Trial, Free, Individual, or Business) and be a SlideRocket follower on Twitter. Good luck!

As more and more research proves that visuals increase information clarity and retention, charts and diagrams continue to play a prominent role in presentations. But, there is a right way – and a wrong way – to structure and use them. Proper chart and diagram construction is critical to conveying your concepts in the best possible way.

Choose the right chart for the right data.

Here are five proven tips for designing effective charts and diagrams:

1. Choose the Right Chart for the Right Data

There are countless chart and diagram styles to choose from, each ideal for presenting specific types of information. For example, pie charts work well when you are demonstrating parts of a whole (i.e. percentage of total revenues by product), while bar charts clearly convey data variances among different items or groups (i.e. student enrollment by course). Changes in statistics or data points over time are best displayed using line charts (i.e. sales by month). And, maps are great for presenting information in the context of a physical location (i.e. where customers live, or where branch offices are located).

Avoid tabular displays whenever possible. Although they may seem like the best way to logically organize and lay out large data sets, audiences will find them dull and boring. Look for more creative and visually appealing ways to share this type of information.

2. Stick to One Message per Diagram

Charts or images that include too many data sets, ideas, or points will be sloppy, cramped, and hard to read. Stick to one simple idea per diagram, to avoid confusing or distracting your audience.

3. Label Everything Clearly

Charts without correct labels, or labels that are difficult to read, are limited in their value. Be sure everything is labeled accurately, and that you use font types and sizes that will be easy for participants to see, so they can refer to the image as you are explaining it.

4. Incorporate Builds

Some diagrams – particularly those that are mechanical or technical in nature – can be quite complex. The more components your diagram contains, the harder it will be for your audience to absorb it. Try using builds to bring in the various elements, one at a time. This will simplify the concept you are trying to present, providing attendees with a better understanding of the diagram’s individual components, and how they work together as a whole.

5. Use Color Wisely

Proper use of color will not only make your chart or diagram more stunning and attractive, it will make it more meaningful and understandable. Strategic use of shades and hues can help instantly outline differences in data points, as well relationships and similarities among them. But too much can be a distraction, so try to use no more than four or five different colors per slide.

Want more valuable information on effective presentation creation and delivery? Check back here every Tuesday morning for a new presentation tip and let us know what else you’d like to hear about.

Flipping through the Black Friday ads for Best Buy, it looks like Netbooks are going to be another hot holiday gift idea this year- some are on sale for less than $200. Cheaper and designed to be more portable than traditional laptops, Netbooks have some exciting capabilities. As consumers gear up for one of the biggest shopping days of the year, it is interesting for us in the tech world to see the Netbook buzz developing.

Revered tech blog GigaOm (recently, awesomely redesigned….) has a dedicated Netbooks section. Last week, Netbooks figured heavily in the conversation surrounding the release of Chrome’s OS and cloud computing. According to GigaOm, “The operating system [Google Chrome] is designed to imbue web applications with the ‘full functionality of desktop applications.’ As for the reasons behind the development of the new platform, they pointed to rapid growth in the Netbook market — where Chrome OS is aimed — and cloud computing.”

Did they say a free operating system, aimed for the mobile worker on the go, with the purpose of providing all the online applications you need, anywhere you are? I’m sold!

This is something we believe in strongly at SlideRocket – affordable, cloud-based solutions aimed at making work easier. Imagine a world where you never have to install or upgrade another software application on your computer – instead, you simply use powerful Netbooks and choose the best of breed web-based applications that meet your needs. Ahhhh…simplicity, choice and the reassurance that you are always using an application’s latest and greatest version. It looks like the once considered need to have ‘desktop applications’ such as the office suite software may become a thing of the past. Email, docs, calendars, spreadsheets and, of course, presentations — everything you could possibly want or need on your Netbook is now available to you, for free, and all on the web.

NetBooks + Chrome OS + web based apps will get us all that much closer to a fully web based world!