7 Ways to Tell Stories with PowerPoint

In the past few weeks I’ve spoken to sales and business professionals who have expressed their frustration with PowerPoint.  Although they use PowerPoint to deliver information, they’re bored with their slides, they don’t like delivering the presentations and they certainly don’t like watching PowerPoint presentations.  PowerPoint is not inherently evil.  It’s actually a great tool if you use it not to deliver information but to tell a story instead.

The best way to explain how to use PowerPoint as a storytelling tool is to show you. I’ve spent the past eight months interviewing business owners and brand marketers for a new book on location-based mobile marketing.  When it came time to create a presentation based on the topic I worked with an outside presentation design agency because, while I believe I’m a good storyteller, I don’t make my living designing slides.  A second set of eyes is a good thing.

Here is the presentation that we created together followed by several tips.  The call-outs on the slide summarize what I would say when delivering the presentation in person.

1. Draft the narrative. Don’t start by opening PowerPoint. Think about the narrative first. What’s your title?  Does the content lend itself to a list?  What stories are you going to tell?  What are the key messages?  Answer these questions on a notepad.
2. Compile photos and images. Interesting PowerPoint presentations have more images than words.  Compile the photos that you will use to support the narrative (your design firm will need these early in the process).  Stay away from clip-art and keep to high-quality images such as those offer by iStockphoto.com. Use faces whenever possible.  The brain responds more favorably to faces than it does to abstract images.
3. Create video clips. I also include multimedia video clips in my presentations.  It breaks up the slides.  While you’re creating the content in step one, think about existing videos you can insert or develop your own.  You can see a sample video in my foursquare presentation that we created just for the presentation.
4. Storyboard the slides. We’re on step four and have yet to open PowerPoint!  In this step, begin to visualize your deck. Use a notebook, sketchpad or whiteboard. It doesn’t matter if you’re good at drawing.  I can’t draw a stick figure to save my life but this step will help you and your team develop compelling visuals.
5. Create the presentation. Now you can open PowerPoint and begin transferring the narrative, content, video, images and sketches to the actual slides.
6. Rehearse the entire presentation.  Remember slides complement the story but you are the storyteller.  Stand up, hold the clicker and practice.  If you’re delivering a new presentation I would recommend that you practice it ten times before delivering it for real.  By the 10^th time, you’ll have it nailed.
7. Hire a professional. If you simply do not have an eye for design, please don’t leave your critical presentation in the hands of a 12-year-old because it’s free and he just took a PowerPoint class.  I know a lot about slide design but my outside designers still blow me away with their insight.  Don’t jeopardize a lucrative project because you didn’t want to pay for a pro.

Stand apart from your competition.  Impress your audience by crafting, designing and delivering a style of presentation they’ve never seen.

Carmine Gallo is the communications coach for the world’s most admired brands. He is a popular keynote speaker and author of several books including the international bestsellers, The Presentation Secrets of Steve Jobs and The Innovation Secrets of Steve Jobs. His new book, The Power of Foursquare, reveals how businesses can use mobile social media to attract, reward, and engage customers in ways that were never possible. Follow him on Twitter: carminegallo