Engage Your Audience So Everyone Wins
By Tony Jeary

When you engage your audience, you create an atmosphere that allows them to enjoy the experience and benefit from it. When people feel good about what they are experiencing, when they are complimented for their contributions, when they are touched by whatever you are sharing—they win! Look for ways to engage your audience so that people win, and connection will happen!

Engaging your audience is one of the best ways to keep their attention. I have found that most audiences today prefer to be talked “with,” not “at.” Consider leading your audience about half of the time and facilitating the other half by asking others to participate. Designing much of your presentation as a conversation with your audience is a great practice that keeps them involved and connected. The more you engage your audience, the more “takeaways” they will have.

The tone, or atmosphere, of your presentation affects the way your audience perceives your message. By engaging your audience and creating an atmosphere that is enjoyable, inviting, and user-friendly, your audience is more likely to feel welcome, interested, and involved. When you engage your audience, they are much more receptive to buying in to your presentation objective—whether it is to inspire, guide, persuade, or share knowledge.

To grab their attention and keep it, engage your audience in the presentation immediately. Call audience members by name (using nametags or name cards if you need to), ask them questions, and give them opportunities to respond. Another great way to engage your audience is to make them your partners in the presentation by asking them to share their expectations. Or suggest that they write something down, like points of your presentation that are useful to them, or questions they would like to ask at the end.

One of the most effective ways to engage your audience and create a winning atmosphere is to use what I call Strategic Engagement. The degree to which people enjoy an experience usually has a direct bearing on how well they absorb it and take appropriate action. Simply put, Strategic Engagement is an activity that breaks up the monotony of hearing one speaking voice and makes a point with something other than words. It revitalizes your audience and adds the “fun factor.” One of my favorite Strategic Engagement methods is to pass out dollar bills in reward for audience participation. Games, skits, activities, and events are creative ways to engage your audience through Strategic Engagement, because they get your audience members up and moving.

Verbal Surveying and Target Polling are also great ways to engage your audience. Verbal Surveying is simply asking the audience how things are going. About a third of the way into your presentation, you may ask your audience questions like “How are we doing?” or “Is everything making sense, or should we go back to something?” Then make necessary adjustments according to their responses. It’s a great tool to help you engage your audience and deliver your best presentation.

In Target Polling, you engage your audience by polling individuals before your presentation or during a break and asking them to share their expectations for your time together or provide background information about the group, audience, or region. Be sure to make adjustments according to the feedback you receive in order to improve the remainder of your presentation.

I cannot emphasize enough the power of engaging your audience to create and maintain a winning environment. When people win, they want to come back, they want to be involved, and they want to take that action or make that change you are suggesting.