Using hooks to follow a visual

This vlog talk is about opening a presentation and getting the most out of your hooks.

Using hooks to open your presentation

Here’s the summary if you don’t have the opportunity to watch the video.

Using hooks to engage the audience from the start

When we look to open up a presentation, we want to have massive impact.

We want to make sure that people are drawn in, engaged, curious, and on board with what we’re saying from the very get go.

So, we use a technique called hooks.

Common hooks in presentations

Here is a view on some very common hooks that people use, but don’t always necessarily use them in the best way or get the most out of them.

 There are very good reasons to use hooks such as:

  • a piece of video,
  • some audio,
  • a slideshow,
  • a fabulous visual,
  • a photograph or picture,
  • dancing girls,
  • CEOs coming in on motorbikes.

(and believe me, I’ve seen all of those things)!

And carefully chosen and understanding the reason why you’re using a good quality visual, and having it all set up so that it all works, can be great.

Does it hook the audience to you though?

AND, you knew there was something else coming, didn’t you?

And the AND is this.

Your visual will hook the audience to the video, to the slideshow, to the picture or photograph, to the dancing girls, or the audio, but it hasn’t hooked them to you.

So even if you’re going to use a visual as your opening gambit, you still need to think really carefully about the words that are going to come out of your mouth to follow on from that.

So what is your hook?

Because you could imagine, couldn’t you, you have this fabulous video and it’s music and its emotion and its pictures and its moving and it’s all of that stuff, and then you come on and go,

“Good Morning. My name is…” and it’s really going to flatten it.

So, you need to come in with a hook.

I guess what I’m saying is if you’re going to use other stuff, to start your presentation and to hook them, you’ve still got to be using hooks that are to do with you and what you’re going to say.

Using hooks to start your presentations

I’ll leave that one for you to have a little think about.

If you think you’d like to use a question as your hook, you can find out more about them in this blog.

And of course, if you’ve got any questions about stories, then please get in touch.