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On the Web today, all content can be social. Social media isn't limited to blog posts, tweets and YouTube videos. In fact, one of the most powerful forms of social media for B2B companies is presentations. Presentations span all aspects of the company from sales and marketing to product development and human resources.
While presentations online can be shared in different ways, SlideShare has emerged as the leader in making presentations social. SlideShare allows businesses and individuals to upload their presentations to the Web and share them for free. At HubSpot we love SlideShare, and if you ever want to check out our presentations, be sure to visit our SlideShare channel. Now that we have an understanding of how people use SlideShare, let's look at how marketers can make this platform a useful instrument in their inbound marketing tool belt.
10 Ways to Master SlideShare
1. Leverage Content You Already Have - Most likely, you have presentations sitting on your hard drive that would be interesting to prospects and peers. Make sure that you upload your existing presentations to maximize the reach of your SlideShare channel.
2. Pay Attention to Presentation Design - Just like with any type of content you share online, your presentation needs to be interesting and have good production value. Take an extra hour or hire a designer to make sure that important presentations are visually powerful.
Here's an example of a well-designed presentation we're particularly fond of:
3. Include Calls-To-Action - SlideShare isn't much different from any other social network. Make sure that your presentations include calls-to-action that take viewers on SlideShare to a landing page offer on your website related to the specific presentation. A presentation can often get a prospect to convert into a lead for more detailed information on a topic.
4. Keep SEO In Mind - The basics of search engine optimization apply to SlideShare. As a marketer, you want prospects to find your presentations when they search on Google as well as within SlideShare. So make sure you incorporate keywords from your website's search engine optimization strategy into your SlideShare presence. Use them in the titles and descriptions of your presentations.
5. The Longer, the Better - HubSpot's Dan Zarrella, in his Science of Presentations research, found that presentations that were longer received more views on SlideShare.
6. Understand Online Presentations Are Different Than In Person - When you are giving a presentation in person, the slideshow is there to simply guide your talk. When that presentation sits on SlideShare, it stands alone and acts more as a document. Make sure that your presentation still has meaning and is helpful when you are not there to speak to it.
7. Don't Forget to Tag - SlideShare has its own tagging system to identify the presentation topics shared on its network. So every time you upload a presentation to SlideShare, make sure you tag it appropriately. In this way, you will make it more discoverable for people looking for content on that topic.
8. Include Links - SlideShare doesn't simply expand the reach of your presentations, but it can also serve as a valuable source of referral traffic and leads to your business. When giving a presentation, you don't think much about including links because people can't click on them while you are speaking. However, on SlideShare you can include multiple links in your presntations. Create more lead generation opportunities by refering viewers to your blog posts and website pages that provide extra value on the topic.
9. Create a SlideShare Version - Many of the points made in this post expose one major need for becoming a SlideShare master. The presentation you give to an audience might need to be slightly modified for SlideShare. So consider creating another version of the same presentation.
10. Add Audio or Video - Incorporating audio or video elements in a SlideShare presentation can add value and make it easier for your audience to understand it. SlideShare's Slidecasts allow you to upload audio to your presentation and sync that audio to your slides to create a more complete version of your presentation on the Web. Additionally, SlideShare lets you insert video in your presentation to add more content.
How do you use SlideShare? What tips are missing from this list?
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