Every time Steven Van Belleghem posts a new SlideShare presentation to his account, people flock to see it.
He posses the unique talent to blend great storytelling and savvy, crystal clear design. Maybe that’s why more than 4,000 people follow him on SlideShare.
Steven shared his wisdom as part of the Masters of SlideShare project. But that was just the start. Today, we share Steven’s full interview for even more insights into his process.
When did you first start using SlideShare and what drew you to it?
I started with Slideshare in 2009. I gave a lot of presentations in that time and people always asked for the slides. So I started using SlideShare to share my stuff more easily with my existing audience.
A lot of your presentations are big topics. How do you decide whether a topic is too big or too small for SlideShare?
“People should be able to understand my point of view in a fast, easy, and fun way.” @StevenVBe
I make a mix of keynote presentations about big trends and big topics. These presentations have to be easy to go through and people should be able to understand my point of view in a fast, easy, and fun way.
Next to that, I work with vision papers. These papers are about specific topics with in-depth content. These require more time from reader to understand all of my points.
How long does it take you to create a SlideShare from idea to production? How long should it take someone?
It depends, of course. My keynote story, Marketing 2020, took quite some time. I guess it took me about three to four months to create the storyline and the cases. Designing it and finishing up the details took another month. So, the real big stories do take some time because all aspects need to be good: story and design.
For someone just getting started with SlideShare, what would be your first piece of advice?
There are three criteria for success:
- Good content: that means a strong story.
- Strong design: invest a lot in design. I learned that fantastic design can increase the impact by 12 times.
- A content plan: make sure you have a plan to tell the world about your story with blogs and articles.
There are 3 criteria for success: good content, strong design, a content plan. @StevenVBe on #SlideShare
What kind of promotion do you do to get the word out about your SlideShares?
I create a content plan for each SlideShare document. It contains blogs on my own site and on other sites. I send my deck to all my clients to inform them about the new story.
Which metrics do you watch closely, if at all?
Reach, likes, and business leads I get from it.