Presentation matters—a fact that is increasingly important in online content creation. How we present and package content impacts viewer behavior which, in turn, impacts content performance and visibility. Slideshows are a popular method of presenting multimedia content because viewers can interact with the content at their own pace with minimal effort. Enhancing your own content with a slideshow will maximize its overall effectiveness and audience engagement.
Getting Started with Slideshows A slideshow is a digital presentation comprised of an organized series of images and text to present information. The format condenses image-heavy content into a compact space, reducing the digital footprint of the content and eliminating the need to scroll down multiple web pages. By packaging content in a slideshow, you'll be increasing the visual appeal of your content, making it more easily accessible and boosting its shareability. To create an effective slideshow, consider the following guidelines: • Use high-quality still images. Visual appeal is the primary factor in keeping an audience interested in your content, so take time to choose photos and illustrations that are relevant, interesting and sizeable. Some slideshow players allow users to increase the viewing size to full screen, making it necessary to choose or make images that are large in dimension and can scale up or down without losing integrity. Thumbnails are an essential element in an effective slideshow as they give users a sense of presentation length and allows for quick navigation. With these slide previews, users can skip ahead or refer back to other slides. • Focus on one topic. Just as an individual blog post, the slideshow should be dedicated to one story or theme. If not serving as a complementary element of a full text story, plan out your slideshow in advance to ensure no superfluous images are included. • Consider the flow. Depending on the type of content, slideshow presentations should follow a loose narrative. An introductory slide and a summary slide will help tie content together. If part of an article, slides should be placed sequentially in order of mention within body of text. Again, plan your slideshow before importing content into a template to keep your presentation tight and organized. • Don't forget the meta content. Wherever possible, include keywords/key phrases in titles, tags and descriptions within individual slides to boost visibility of the presentation in search engine crawls. Seasoned content creators and Powerpoint pros can create presentations and upload completed documents to Slideshare. Use presentation software or page design program to format your multimedia content, save to PDF and upload to the Slideshare site. Like YouTube, Slideshare offers hosting and public access of slideshows while allowing presentations to be embedded in websites and blogs. When to Use a Slideshow It's not always appropriate to use a slideshow to display multimedia content. If you are presenting a lengthy report and video tutorial, a slideshow may not be suitable. A slideshow is much better suited for a series of infographics, charts, maps or collection of photographs. If you have a list article on hot travel destinations or easy summertime recipes, a slideshow with thumbnails is an attractive solution for presentation. Take a look at the following sites for inspiration on how to format your own slideshows: Bensky.co.uk Designsensory.com Escape Module Studio MIX Online Slideshows are great for online content because of their versatility — you can use them to supplement other media or stand alone as the main feature, interactivity and shareability across popular social media platforms. The combination of convenience and visual appeal keeps viewers engaged and makes the slideshow one of the most in-demand content displays. Comments are closed.
|
KatharineContent on this site was originally written by Katharine Miller between 2000-2015. Many feature articles and interviews were published in print and on websites that no longer exist. Katharine is reproducing her written material here for portfolio and archival purposes only. Links and credits to clients and original publication will be included where possible. ArchivesCategories
All
|