For the past several months I’ve been an active visitor to slideshare.com. It is becoming one of my favorite sites. My guess in time it will become one of the largest search engines on the Internet. I’m not sure if it will ever rival Google or YouTube but it will be a force to be reckoned with that’s for sure.
What is SlideShare?
Here’s the definition from Wikipedia:
SlideShare is a Web 2.0 based slide hosting service. Users can upload files privately or publicly in the following file formats: PowerPoint, PDF, Keynote or OpenOffice presentations. Slide decks can then be viewed on the site itself, on hand held devices or embedded on other sites.[2] Launched on October 4, 2006, the website is considered to be similar to YouTube, but for slideshows.
You can find engaging and educating presentations on almost any topic. And in many cases they are even more helpful then a full blown video. The biggest reason is because you can go through a slide deck at your own pace to better absorb the material.
3 Benefits of Using SlideShare in Your Business
While I have just begun to use SlideShare for my business – I have uploaded my first slide deck (see below) – I can see some HUGE advantages for this as a powerful marketing strategy.
In today’s marketing world its all about content. But not just any content. You want to provide value that actually helps solve problems or guides the reader from point A to point B. In other words, from where they are now to where they want to be.
So just like using free reports or videos you can create a slide deck to accomplish the same exact thing! In fact, why not do all three and cast as wide a net as possible?
As I see it there are three big benefits your business can receive from using slide share:
- Exposure to prospects and potential partners that you never would have seen before
- Having a direct connection to LinkedIn which builds great credibility
- Helps keep marketing costs down
I’m sure there are plenty more benefits but I just wanted to outline a few of the more powerful ones.
A SlideShare Plan of Action
Make a commitment to create short, powerful slide decks every time you create content for your blog, website, YouTube channel, etc. Uploading them to SlideShare takes less than 60-seconds but can bring traffic for months and years to come.
An easy way to create content that you can quickly use in various media is by first creating it in PowerPoint – or whatever slide presentation program you prefer. PowerPoint is perfect for outlining your ideas – and that’s all you need for a successful SlideDeck. Then you can record a video of your slide deck explaining your thoughts and ideas. Lastly, go to fiverr.com and pay $5 to get your video transcribed and now you have your blog post. Sure you may need to do a little editing but talk about a powerful way to create content quickly that you can use in three different media! And we didn’t even mention taking the audio from the video and creating a podcast… we’ll leave that for another day.
My First SlideShare
Here’s my first slide deck I just uploaded. Please feel free to share any comments below…
If you’re thinking your slide deck design skills won’t be up to snuff, check this out…
http://www.slideshare.net/slidesthatrock/templates-that-dont-suck