Tips To Become an Influential Public Speaker

Be it in school/college, office or a social event, public speaking is an art which comes handy in dealing with the masses , lead them and to form a public opinion. In Media Line, it plays an important role in putting across a clear message to public, express to them important views and in corporate world also, public speaking skill is essential to carry forth corporate communications. However, for most people it comes across as a nerve wracking experience especially when one is required to speak before hundreds and thousands of people.

The basic essence of a good public speaker lays in his communication skills and how good he is in connecting with the audience. This might be more difficult for an introvert person but just like any other skill public speaking can also be attained through constant practice, training and exposure. Below are few points that would prove helpful for being a Successful Public Speaker

• Work on the Speech: Know the topic that needs to be addressed and prepare it well. Don’t Stick to the speech completely or else the public may lose interest. Try to make it interactive by posing frequent questions, asking opinions etc

• Put Your Skills To Use : The art of public speaking becomes much more powerful when combined with personal skills such as good humour, facial expressions,  eg a good smile, eye contact  storytelling skills, etc

• Focus On The Target Audience: Get to know your audience, its basic age group and what are the issues its dealing with on a whole. Eg in a motivational public speaking session most people are basically dealing with the issues of failure of some kind or the other. So an important key to make them to listen to you is to address their grievances and give them a solution to their problems.

• Get Comfortable With The Environment: It can be pretty scary to have hundreds of people stare at u during public speaking but try to change the perspective and take it as an opportunity to express yourself to many people at the same time. Getting comfortable would come with regular exposure.

• Work On Your Presentation and On Stage Persona: Public speaking is also a performance. Make sure u look well groomed and present yourself in an influential bold way. Let your eyes also do some talking and make full use of body language. These are important to keep the attention of audience alive 

Public Speaking serves as a bridge between one person and the public. It’s an important step to build Public relations and so isn’t something to be afraid of but an opportunity to express and lead

The author of this opinion article is Ms. Kavya Pawar at PR Professionals