Using SlideShare to Boost Your Reputation: How to Do it Right

 Publisher Channel Content by InternetReputation.com

Anytime you can create a piece of information about yourself or your company and get it in front of a huge audience, that’s good for your reputation. This is a point we’ve hammered home again and again on our blog (here’s one example, and if you need more convincing, here’s another example). When it comes to your reputation, more is always better.

Here’s yet another piece of content you can use to boost your rep: An online presentation.

Common Reputation-Building Presentations

A somewhat old (and a little debated) statistic suggests that some 30 million PowerPoint presentations are made every single day. You might use a presentation like this to:

• Introduce your company to a new client
• Unveil a new product
• Release exciting quarterly earnings information
• Talk up company research
• Highlight a company accomplishment

A typical presentation takes quite awhile to put together, as there are graphics to find, charts to make, pithy statements to type out and data to gather. You also have a number of very challenging rules to follow in order to make a PowerPoint presentation look great.

But when you’re all done with that hard work, you have a document that could do wonders for your reputation. After all, this is a document that says something exciting about your company. It details something new, something positive and something newsworthy. And, it’s a document that probably contains a great deal of sweat equity.

Why not make it do more for your reputation? You’ll take one piece of work and make it do two different things. What could be better, right?

A Great Reputation Solution

The website SlideShare can help. When your presentation is complete, you’ll use SlideShare to push that presentation in front of a number of people. And, your reach with this site could be huge. In fact, the company suggests that about 60 million people visit the site each month. If just one or two of those visitors spots your presentation, you could do wonders for your reputation.

So how can you make it work for you? Here are our top 5 tips:

1. Make sure your content is visual. When you’re pulling together a PowerPoint presentation, you’re probably planning to talk with the slides as a backdrop. In SlideShare, you’ll do no talking. Your slides will need to stand alone. Make sure they get all of your main points across, without any speech at all. Put text over photos, or add in slides that contain the top statistics you need to mention. You’ll have no audio, so remember to do everything you need to do with images.
2. Use your reputation keywords. Each slide gives you an opportunity to reframe a phrase that’s killing your reputation. If your company is linked to the word “quality” (as in “low quality”), make sure the word “quality” is in your slides and your headlines. Reframe the word by surrounding it with better companions (as in “high quality” or “great quality). Take advantage of the opportunity and make sure you’re using your keywords to help your company’s reputation.
3. Explain what happens next. At the end of your presentation, you might have a slide that prompts your audience to ask you questions. Replace that baby with a slide that provides viewers with a chance to contact your company. Think about it this way: If someone comes to your slide show with a reputation concern and sees all of your lovely data, you’ll want that person to come to you with more questions. Tell them how by including an email address or a website address. Better yet, create an email inbox that’s made just for this particular SlideShare opportunity, and track how often people contact you after seeing your slides online. That data could prompt you to share yet more in the future.
4. Fill out the form completely. When you’re done uploading your presentation, SlideShare will send you to a page in which you can fill in tags and descriptions for your presentation. Take advantage of that! This is the information that will help viewers to find your presentation, and again, it’s an opportunity to reframe those reputation-killing keywords. Never, ever pass up that opportunity. Use the reputation-killing keywords here as-is, or again, take charge of the conversation by surrounding those damaging words with more flattering companions. That way, your slides will be seen on a search, and your readers will walk away with a more positive view of your company.
5. Promote, promote, promote. Once your slides are up and running, share the good news on all of your social media accounts. By Tweeting, blogging and posting about these slides, you’ll give more people the opportunity to share in the good news about your company. And with each view, they might be compelled to do more sharing. In no time, you’ll see your reputation improve. Sure, the SlideShare system will make your work visible. But with this extra promotion work, you can make sure it’s got a bit of a buzz to it.

The Takeaway

Will SlideShare alone fix a reputation management problem? Probably not. In addition to sharing information, you’ll also need to remove information that’s harming your company’s name. That’s not something this site can do for you. And, you’ll need to create presentations that are good enough, and entertaining enough, to generate viewer interest. Without that, no one will pay much attention to your efforts.

But, if you’re already generating content that could help your company’s reputation, SlideShare could help you to distribute that content effectively, and that could be a great supplement to your reputation management plans.

If you’re already using SlideShare to assist your company’s success, we’d love to hear from you. What kind of content did you share, and what sort of reaction did you get? Is this a tool you’d use again? Everything you share with us could help another reader down the line, so let us know! We’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments section.

Images: “Gil C/Shutterstock.com“

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