Slideshare of the Day: How to Make Your Cover Pop

I am pleased to say that today, Ideate is a  Top Presentation of the Day on Slideshare.

I’ve written about Slideshare before, and I’ve loved sharing my work with others and learning via the presentation form on the site for several years now. This year, however, I can see the site really taking off and coming into its own as the premier social networking site for presentations, infographics, and documents. What I love about Slideshare is that a great majority of its users are focused on the free and open sharing of design-driven, insightful, impacting content. Through Slideshare, users learn, they gain inspiration for their own projects, they both see and get to practice (some) good design. In addition to providing a platform for sharing visual content, Slideshare’s blog contains articles from top presentation authorities as well as links to excellent webcasts like this one on how to succeed on Slideshare.

Today’s share is one that I studied as I was working on Ideate. It comes from designer Damon Nofar, who has released a series of quick infoproducts on design and marketing. The cover slide is one of the most important parts to creating a strong Slideshare. It’s one of the areas I focus the most attention on when developing a deck. Nofar’s advice is straightforward and applicable. He also includes a tutorial on how to create an engaging and enticing cover (it features cats, making it the best tutorial ever). Check out the deck below.

What are your favorite Slideshares? Do any of them have a cover that pops?

Slideshare of the Day: Pitching Ideas

Pitching the ultimate idea, yourself, will be the main focus of the Professional Communication and Presentation Reboot. I am busy working on my own body of work today, a collaborative meet up for instructors in the Liberal Studies Department, of which I am a part, but I wanted to take a moment to share an excellent deck on the subject of pitching ideas. What will lead one student to success and another to failure could be all in the way the student sells him or herself. One of my favorite takeaways from this deck, created by Jeroen van Geel, Creative director & partner at Oak & Morrow BV is that a great pitch is all about “them”, the target audience! Keep your audience’s needs and wants in mind and you’ll be that much closer to convincing them you are “The One.”