Does anybody use Powerpoint in IM?

A lot of people have used Powerpoint to make a presentation which they record with a voice over. It's kind of cheesy these days, since Powerpoint is way overused in business settings... but no more so than the mindmap thing a lot of people are doing these days.

Hi Deanna,

I would say it depends on how you use it.

If you're giving a group presentation/training in an office environment, then yes, use Power Point.

If you're talking about visitors who go to your Web site, then just make Web pages. There's no need to use PP slides and possibly make somebody download something that they don't have/need/want or slow down your delivery by using a different format (waiting for the program to load for example). (And those on a Mac won't be able to access it if it's in PP since PP is a Microsoft program.) Remember, we all have ADD attention spans online and everyone is click-happy. So don't delay and waste precious seconds by making your visitor transition to another format. They're not likely to wait and will just click away.

If you're doing a 1-to-1 consultation with a prospect (if you were doing an offline consultation for example), then just use your Web site pages as a Power Point presentation (especially if you have a laptop).

Hope that helps!

Michelle

I've seen several Powerpoint videos that are well done. In fact, I believe there was just a huge launch for a new product that uses Powerpoint video presentations as a part of their program. Just because it's simple, doesn't mean it isn't an effective marketing tool.

have you tried Google docs version. In fact Google docs office suite is awsome and free!

We use it in our clinics and seminars for a teaching tool -- but always accompanied by someone talking and working through the points on the screen. Keynote would work just as well, of course. It's nice for visual learners and note-takers.

It's also handy to provide a follow-along deck for a live conference call with subscribers.

Deanna,

It's been used in online videos for a few years now. Some of them good and many bad hence some of the negative comments.

Like anything else it depends how you use them. If you use uncluttered custom backgrounds and combine them with subtle background music with good voiceovers you can get quite usable results.

The things to avoid are "busy" backgrounds with loud music which doesn't fit well with the subject and unedited voiceovers full of erms and umms.

Nigel

I use is in a good number of my videos on my site. Powerpoint is good if you don't make it look like a powerpoint presentation (i.e. use it as a JPEG).

Hi Deanna

I have used a Powerpoint presentation to promote a client's site by placing it on slideshare.com and when using the proper tagging based on niche related keywords I managed a page 1 position on Google in just a couple hours.

That was just one test and actually it was my first presentation so it was pretty cheezy too.

After that, I used the same presentation and turned it into my first video using camtasia studio. I used a different key phrase when tagging that on youtube and also got page 1 Google results the same day.

So I would recommend it based on those test results.

Hope that is some help.
Vince

Hey.

I use PowerPoint and PowerPoint only for me presentations.

It is very simply once you get the hang of it and very effective if done right.

Check this out video.google.com/videosearch?hl=en&q=how+to+make+a+video+using+powe rpoint&um=1&ie=UTF-8&ei=2FZSSqX2C4TCNqKKlMIB&sa=X&oi=video_result_gro up&ct=title&resnum=4#

A fellow warrior Robert Plank has made a nice chunk of change by using PowerPoint to create various products. Its definitely something that can be done. If you search through his blog I think he even told how he did it a few times.

For presentations to large audiences - its become a cliche and people make fun of it - but as others have said - you can't beat using power point to bore the heck out of folks. J/K if you do it well, powerpoint or Impress, the free open office equivalent, are great for presentations.


good luck,
--Jack

I convert my articles to powerpoint format, then submit them to slideshare.net. But if you're going to do it, make sure you read their terms as they are very strict when it comes to advertising.

Some of my powerpoints, I also outsource and convert them to video format with voice-over, which I will then submit to video-sharing sites using tubemogul.com

I use powerpoint in a few ways.

I use powerpoint as the basis for my webseminars. I put together a 25-30 slide presentation for an hour. I present the thing on gotowebinar. I use my mouse-pen to mark up the slides while I talk. I use camtasia to record the seminar. And then I create a video out of it and post that on my main blog...I then have someone off of rentacoder to transcribe it for bout 20 bucks and then I have a ebook giveaway....

Now I have a few of these "ebooks" that I will use as unadvertised bonuses in my microcontinuity program..

It has helped me tremendously...Although I use OpenOffice and not PowerPoint to create the slides....