Presentations as social media

for businesses

A view from behind the scenes at SlideShare

Rashmi Sinha

1981

Whitfield Diffie from

Bell Northern

Research who came

up with initial idea

behind PowerPoint

Robert Gaskins

recognized the power

of Whitefield’s idea

and created

PowerPoint

• Forethought the company behind

PowerPoint acquired by Microsoft, but

remained an (obstinately) independent unit

in Mountain View

“From PowerPoint business plan: "Allows the

content-originator to control presentation."

For Gaskins, that had been the point: to get rid

of the intermediaries-graphic designers - and

never mind the consequences. Whenever

colleagues sought to restrict the design

possibilities of the program (to make a design

disaster less likely), Gaskins would overrule

them.”

Ian Parker, New Yorker, 2001

Growth in usage and love hate relationship

Tufte Critique

http://www.aaronsw.com/weblog/000931

“Let's face it: most people

give poor talks… We have

had poor talks long before

PowerPoint. We had bullet

points long before

PowerPoint - long before

computers. In the old days,

people typed, stenciled or

hand-lettered their slides onto

transparencies, or later, 35

mm. slides. These talks were

also dull and tedious.”

Don Norman

David Bryne’s love of PowerPoint

E.E.E.I.: Envisioning Emotional Epistemological Information

“Although I began by making

fun of the medium, I soon

realized I could actually create

things that were beautiful. I

could bend the program to my

own whim and use it as an

artistic agent…What had I

stumbled upon?”

Still, "Sea of Possibilities"

“PowerPoint is a form of

theater. It has [a lot] in

common with Asian theater

and developments in

modern theater. The stage

mechanisms are revealed.

They are not hidden. ...

PowerPoint is like that. It

comes with the laptop and

the podium and the stage.

It’s a type of performance.”

Still, "The End of Reason"

I began to see PowerPoint

as a metaprogram, one

that organizes and

presents stuff created in

other applications. Initially,

I made presentations

about presentations; I

discovered that I could

attach my photographs,

short videos, scanned

images, and music.

http://www.slideshare.net/fatuousplatitudes/gettysburg-address

Original at: http://norvig.com/Gettysburg/

Option One: To Be

PROS

Nobler in the mind

CONS

Slings

Arrows

Option Two: Not To Be

HAMLET

PROS

Sleep

CONS

Dreams (???)

Meet Lolita

• Qualifications

Light of life

Fire of loins

Sin

Soul

• Steps taken by tip of

tongue on pronunciation

1. Upper palate (“Lo”)

2. Transitional (“Lee”)

3. Teeth (“Ta”)

Morning/One Sock

Slacks

School

DottedLine

My Arms

Lo

Lola

Dolly

Dolores

Lolita

• Name as function of situation

Doctors, teachers, speakers,

consulting companies, big

companies, artists…

Characteristics of medium

• A mashup medium

• For both visuals or text

• Linear, one thought at a time (rather than flow)

• Landscape (visual heavy)

• Constrained (need to be succinct)

• Recognizes individual creative instinct

How sharing on web is different

• User in control of navigation

• Needs to be fast, let people skim through

• Might need elaboration (+audio, video,

notes)

Emerging styles

• Visual Essays (use of creative commons

imagery with attribution)

• Lessig style

• Visual Resumes

• Meet Henry (inspiration from each other)

• David Armano creation style: creation on

the web

• Dave McClure style

How to get popular

• Make front slide attractive

• Catchy title

• Send it to friends (get a bit.ly URL)

• Have enough text to bring search

• Add video, notes, audio

• Make (or borrow visuals)

• Share on all social networks

• Send a link, not a file

Building a presentation

sharing community

Nurturing community

• Make it personally useful

• Useful at different levels of participation

• Make experience social

• Embrace community outside Slideshare

• Community through contests, giveways,

newsletter, blog

10/21/2009 40

Leave room for play

Part III: How businesses share

presentations

Businesses use of social media

is growing• What social spaces?

– FaceBook

– LinkedIn

– Twitter

• What formats?

– Video

– Presentations

– Documents

How businesses currently use

presentations• Lingua franca of corporate America

• Synchronous sharing: Webinars used for

lead generation

• Whitepapers: to share knowledge and for

lead generation

• Everyone can create. Easier than making

website

Content on SlideShare

• About 25% business and 25% tech

• 30% self-identify as educational!

• Almost 50% have business intent of some

kind

Three quarters of neurons in our brain

that process sensory information are

focused on vision. While most people

in business think they can’t draw (they

can) or that they’re “not visual” (they

are), we can all get better at

discovering, developing, and sharing

new ideas by taking advantage of our

innate “visual thinking” system: our

eyes, our minds-eye, and our ability to

draw simple shapes.

Dan Roam

author: Back of the napkin,

winner: Best Presentation

Contest

“Using visuals isn’t

just a trend in

PowerPoint design;

using pictures to

think, work, and

share is the

dominant business

communication trend

of our time, period.”

Social media

growing

rapidly, but

hard to tie it

to business

goals

CitiBank / GFK Roper Small Business Survey Oct 09

% helpfulness of social networking sites

such as Facebook, Twitter & LinkedIn in

generating leads

SlideShare Business Model

• Inspired by what users do

• Core functionality remains free. Business

use costs money

• Rewards good content (not spam)

• Presentations as advertisements!

AdShare: Promote content to a

community of professionals

Contextual, targeted promotion

• Shown only to people interested in your

topic or on searches for related keywords

• Pay only for clicks

LeadShare: Collect customer

leads on presentations

• On your

presentations

• Form shows up

on any slides

• Customize form

• On SlideShare

or on embeds

Two way communication

• Viewers can talk back, get in touch

• Cost on a per lead basis: $1 to $22

depending on no of questions and targeting

Three takeaways

• Be visual

• Have fun with presentations

• Business communication can inform,

entertain and inspire while serving

business goals

Find me:

www.slideshare.net/rashmi

www.twitter.com/rashmi