As a professional who is using written content to market your products or services, you probably have many articles, special reports, and white papers. How can you take the content you have already created and convert it to take advantage of the SlideShare platform? Do you need to hire a designer? No. You can do it yourself. In this deck, presentation expert Dave Paradi partners with copyblogger to walk you through the process for converting written content into a SlideShare deck. This deck is based on an article by Dave published by copyblogger on June 12, 2014.
Text of Converting your written content to a SlideShare deck
Converting your written content to SlideShare By Dave Paradi of partnering with
At the recent Authority 2014 conference, a lot of attendees and speakers talked about the great opportunity to convert written content to SlideShare
As a presentation expert, I saw this need, and decided to offer some ideas on how marketing experts can convert their existing written content to the visual format of SlideShare. Dave Paradi Author of seven books, four Kindle ebooks. One of thirteen people in North America recognized by Microsoft with the PowerPoint Most Valuable Professional Award.
Heres what this deck covers: A A What is the same A B What is different Planning the slides Creating the slides Testing the deck
A A What is the same in written content and a SlideShare deck
They both have a story structure There needs to be a flow through the deck, just like there is a flow through the written piece
They both have sections Written content uses sub-headings to denote the sections. A SlideShare deck uses section header slides to denote each section of the deck.
They both have calls to action Start sending me tips! The calls to action can be shapes, like buttons, text, or images. Click here to read the detailed data sheet Click on the book cover to purchase
They both need to be consistent with your brand identity Colors Fonts Logos Brand voice
A B What is different between written content and a SlideShare deck
Primarily visual Written piece SlideShare deck
Restricted fonts in PowerPoint format SlideShare recommends you save your presentation as a PDF file so that fonts are preserved. You can easily do this from PowerPoint. If you upload a PowerPoint file, you are restricted in the fonts you can use. SlideShare does not support a wide variety of fonts in PowerPoint format files.
50%of the words in your written piece, or fewer. This is a visual, not text medium. You will still have text to enhance the visuals, but not as much as the written piece.
2-5xthe number of slides you would usually create for a typical presentation
Plan your slides based on the written piece
Create a hierarchical outline of the content using sticky notes on a wall, whiteboard, or table. Write down what that slide will say to move the story along. What is the same Story structure What is different Sections (like sub-heads) Primarily visual medium Font restrictions if using PPt format Plan the slides Hierarchical outline Select best visual for the message
You can also create the outline in Word. Use a landscape page and a table to organize the outline.
Graphs show numeric data 67 54 52 49 Product A Product B Product C Product D Product A has greater tensile strength than competing products psi required to cause product failure in lab tests
Diagrams show processes Invoice entered in system Invoice sent to manager for approval Invoice sent to VP for approval Invoice returned to AP Dept. Approval entered into system
Timelines show when things happen Jan Feb Mar Apr May June 1 RFP sent to vendors 15 RFP response due back 31 Vendor selected 15 Project initiated 31 First version available for testing 30 Testing complete
Make a conscious choice of the visual. The visuals in a SlideShare deck are important. You dont need to hire a designer to select visuals. You can do it yourself. No matter what your background. I have a Chemical Engineering degree and an MBA no design background at all. I figured out a way that anyone can select a visual based on the message they want to communicate. I call it What Visual To Use and you can learn more about it in this SlideShare deck.
Creating your slides
What tool should you use? There is no one tool that is significantly better than the others. As long as you can save the deck to a format that SlideShare supports, you will be fine. If you are already familiar with PowerPoint, just use that.
There are four types of slides you will likely use in your SlideShare deck: Title slide Organization slides Narration slides Visuals Lets look at each of these individually
The title slide is the thumbnail that people will first see on SlideShare or wherever your deck is embedded. Make it noticeable. Large enough font so it can be read on a mobile device Large visual that is easy to understand
Organization slides help the viewer know where they are going at the start and where they are during viewing. Agenda style slide at start gives the roadmap Section header slides announce a new section
Narration slides help move the viewer through the story. Not every slide must be visual. Text slides are OK too. Write narration slides in your brand voice so the viewer hears you when they read it.
Most of your slides will be visuals. Make the visual large so it is easy to see on a mobile device and it makes an impact. vs.
Direct the viewers attention in a visual by using a callout. Like the one above. It makes sure the viewer understands the message we want them to understand.
Building a visual piece by piece is a good way to keep viewer interest. In PowerPoint you can do this with the animation feature. But SlideShare doesnt support animation sequences. So you have to create multiple slides to end up with the same effect. Like this
How to decide what speed of internet service you need Do you regularly watch videos or listen to audio online? Do you use an online backup service? Level 1 service No No
How to decide what speed of internet service you need Do you regularly watch videos or listen to audio online? Do you use an online backup service? Level 1 service Level 2 service No No Yes
How to decide what speed of internet service you need Do you regularly watch videos or listen to audio online? Do you use an online backup service? Do you watch videos more than twice per week? Level 1 service Level 2 service No Yes No Yes
How to decide what speed of internet service you need Do you regularly watch videos or listen to audio online? Do you use an online backup service? Do you watch videos more than twice per week? Level 1 service Level 2 service Level 3 service No Yes No Yes No
How to decide what speed of internet service you need Do you regularly watch videos or listen to audio online? Do you use an online backup service? Do you watch videos more than twice per week? Level 1 service Level 2 service Level 3 service Level 4 service No Yes No Yes Yes No
If you are using an image, like a screen capture, where there is one area you want the viewer to focus on, you can use a zoom in sequence of slides. Start with the full screen capture, then use a shape to show the viewer where on the image you want them to focus. Finish with a larger view of just that one area of the image. Like this
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Decide which slides you want to have calls to action on. Earlier you learned you can use any object or text as a call to action (CTA) link. SlideShare converts PowerPoint website hyperlinks to active links in your SlideShare deck. That means you can put CTAs anywhere in your deck. Because the hyperlink is a regular URL, you can use a URL that tracks the clicks, such as a Google Analytics campaign code.
