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.
You can use a unique code for each link in the deck. You see
which link the viewer clicked on if you have multiple links to the
same destination.
Click the image above to read a great article by Joanna Wiebe
on making your call-to-action buttons better
Never added a website hyperlink in PowerPoint? Heres how you do
it. Select any shape, text, or image you want to add the hyperlink
to On the tab, click the button
1. Select the Existing File or Web Page category 2. Enter the
full URL of the link, including tracking code 3. Click OK
Testing your deck
You can simulate viewing on SlideShare using the PowerPoint
Show file format A PowerPoint Show file opens directly in Slide
Show mode, so you can email the file to others and get their
input.
Spelling and grammar of all text The visuals look good on
different devices (view the PPSX file on mobile devices) Any builds
across slides The message flows smoothly from start to finish
Before you upload your deck to SlideShare, test the following:
The fonts did not get substituted The text aligns properly The
visuals look correct on all devices After you upload your deck to
SlideShare, check the following: If you find any issues, correct
them and re- upload the deck to SlideShare.
Distribute your SlideShare Social media like Twitter and
LinkedIn Email Embed in your website
Embed using the iframe code Use the iframe code that SlideShare
gives you for embedding instead of the WordPress shortcode. This
will ensure views get correctly counted in the SlideShare stats.
Use this code to embed in your website
Watch page load times Monitor the page load time after
embedding a SlideShare deck. The embed can sometimes increase the
load time because the page now loads images of each slide from the
SlideShare servers.
You can do this! You dont need to be a designer & You dont
need special software You can follow the process in this deck and
convert your written content into SlideShare decks
1. Select the written content you want to convert to SlideShare
2. Plan the slides that will cover the key messages from the
written piece 3. Create the slides 4. Test the slides 5. Save as a
PDF file 6. Upload to SlideShare 7. Make sure it looks correct on
SlideShare 8. Share the SlideShare deck Here are the steps to
follow:
SlideShare FAQ & support site Article on Buffer blog by
Kevan Lee Article on Kissmetrics by Mauro DAndrea Article on Social
Media Examiner by David Waring Other good information on using
SlideShare: (Yes, those links are live and will take you to the
articles.)
Add your thoughts to the discussion on LinkedIn If you are a
member of the Authority community on Copyblogger, join me for a
webinar on June 27 Read the article this deck is based on Check out
my website for more resources on creating effective PowerPoint
presentations All logos and product names are trademarks or
copyrights of the respective companies. This work is not endorsed
by any of these companies. 2014 Dave Paradi What to do next: