subject: How to Keep Your Audience on Its Toes [print this page] If you do a lot of public speaking, you know that you've got to keep your audience engaged in order to win them over and hold their attention. One of the ways you can do that is by shaking things up a little bit and keeping your audience on their toes. Here are some easy, fast tips for doing just that.1. Be unpredictableFor example, instead of opening with, "How's everybody doing today?" open with a funny line that doesn't start off sounding like a joke. For example, one of the funniest opening lines I ever heard from a speaker went like this:"Hey did everyone see my jacket?"(Audience answers "yes.")"Good, now I can take it off." (And he removed his jacket.)What are some fun and interesting ways that you can use to open your presentation? Pay attention to other speakers, get creative, and invent something extraordinary.2. Alter your voice and intonationAvoid a monotone voice - use a variety of inflection, emphasis and intonation to keep the audience engaged. A trick used by many grade school teachers is easy to adopt: when you suddenly lower your voice to a hushed tone, you immediately grab attention, and people listen more closely.Likewise, when you suddenly raise your voice, you easily grab the attention of your listeners (careful not to overuse this technique).3. Inject humorIf you're not a joke teller, don't worry - you can relate a funny story, insert a cartoon into your slide show or PowerPoint presentation, or ask for volunteers from the audience to tell their best clean, funny joke.4. Add surprisesIf you've got a wild or outgoing personality, don't be afraid to use props, funny hats, or whatever other surprises you can add to your presentation.Alternatively, you can bring some advertising specialties (note pads, pens, gadgets, toys, etc.) and give them to folks who participate, ask questions, jump out to share, volunteer, etc.5. Audience participationIf you want your audience to participate, just ask them. Ask for volunteers, for assistants, for jokes, for feedback, for brainstorming, for questions, etc. The more you ask them to participate, the more participation you'll get, and the more engaged your audience overall will be.By using these simple tips, you'll be able to keep your audience engaged, excited, and attentive to your message. This can translate to repeat speaking engagements, increased sales, higher retention and more.
