With SlideShare now so popular among content creators and marketers, it comes as no surprise that virtually every platform – from Twitter to WordPress – seems like the perfect place to showcase a new presentation. Those who wish to increase their social signals, search engine rankings and conversions will find that SlideShare is versatile enough to handle all of this if done properly. Many people new to SlideShare may be wondering how to accomplish everything at once, but the key at first is to focus on excellent content and well-designed slides. In the following article, we will outline four tips that can help augment your SlideShare’s appeal and potential.

Tell a Story

Regardless of the subject, any good presentation should function much like a story. You have an introduction, several chapters of information broken down into relevant pieces and a conclusion that ties everything together. Users do not want to be scanning through dozens of slides to piece together various correlations and pieces of information: if you have an outline before you begin building each slide, then it will make it far easier to assemble the pieces into a coherent, flowing story that users will appreciate and share. While pinging for SEO is important, it is equally vital that quality content is being pinged to search engines that makes sense to readers.

Incorporate Audio & Video

When done properly, the addition of multimedia to slide-shows can be a rewarding and informative experience for readers. While text may often be adequate for summarizing key concepts, do not forget that you are competing with others regardless of niche – you owe it to yourself to use a variety of relevant YouTube videos, MP3s and other interactive elements within your SlideShare. Many presentations now feature user-created videos, which can make the multimedia experience even richer as it directly pertains to the slide-show in question.

Optimize, Optimize, Optimize

Too many people forget about the opportunities in each slide of their presentation for additional exposure. One great way to optimize your presentation in this regard is to include links to all of your social media profiles in each slide (preferably at the bottom) that will alert users to your social media presence. You will also want to use event hashtags whenever you publish your SlideShares to social media, as this will help interested parties who also use the hashtag systems to find your content. Titles, tags and meta descriptions are also other consideration you may wish to make in order to be pinging for SEO as much as possible.

Monitor Your Analytics

Paid SlideShare accounts include analytics software that allows you to see how many people have viewed your presentations and what slides were the most popular. Armed with this information, you can then begin to determine which slides in particular may need to be revisited or eliminated. As you determine which slides are more popular based on views, shares and tweets, you can then figure out which slides to use as teaser material for other promotions of the presentation, such as Facebook status updates and emails.