This is a quick product review for web-based video animation company ANIMOTO. I use them for making mind movies and for video gifts for my family and friends. Anyone can create a state-of-the-art video presentation using this tool and I highly recommend it.

Using ANIMOTO is easy, you go to their website, upload some pictures, add a few comments, move them around until you like the flow and then hit create. After few minutes it’s ready for you to add the music (either yours or theirs is fine), and then their system completes the video and makes it available to you through a link, download etc. Nothing could be easier and the results are so impressive that you will earn points with whoever sees your work. If you want to use it for professional use not branded with the ANIMOTO name that too is available for a higher fee.

Product Description

While ANIMOTO has a free 30 second option, I recommend the annual all access pass for $30. This allows you to create videos of any length. As mentioned above, the resource is easy to use and involves simply uploading some pictures, adding some words and telling their system to publish. The magic is in the kinds of unusual animation available in the background styles that they give you to work with.

They have accurate and easy help desk resources, although in fairness I’ve never had to use them because the way they work is incredibly intuitive. They also have a place where you can request new features, and in the year that I’ve worked with them I have seen them act on those requests. ANIMOTO is obviously an up-and-coming company, using the Web in the very best way to help people and to go their business.

ANIMOTO has natural implications for business as well. Whether or not you are a photographer we all have needs to show off what we do in the best light, and a quick 30 second or minute ending to a presentation that shows the happy faces of your customers and staff leaves your viewers thinking well of their potential experience doing business with your firm. The excitement generated by their great products makes them easy to pass on to others. This is great because they also have an affiliate program where, if you recommend them to others who purchase their annual process, you can get some money back. In my experience, people are so excited, that they write to thank you for you telling them what a good product it is — couldn’t have better testimonials in that.

Product Performance

From personal experience there are only pros when I discus this product. I have never had any bad experience with ANIMOTO. I find the moving of the pictures around to create the presentation very easy. The web-based environment works without glitches. In the year I have been using the product, the company has added more and more styles from which I can choose to create the background feeling for my presentations. This makes me keep coming back to do more. It’s very exciting to see my pictures come alive using this tool. If I had to come up with a few suggestions to the company, I might want to be able to write more words on the slides, but their constraints have always been easy for me to work within.

I use ANIMOTO to create mind movies or as gifts for friends. For example, a family member recently got married and I created several: one for my family, a short one representing a congratulations card, and a long one that included all the pictures of people I did and did not know for the bride and groom. I also use it at the end of the presentation about my work to leave my audience with a sense of my own capacity and also the good feelings that my consulting practice with action research generates in my clients.

In summary, ANIMOTO is the greatest easiest tool anyone can use who wants to look far more professional than they may actually have the skills to pull off. If you want to add the WOW factor to your pictures and presentations this is the way to go.

When someone makes the difficult look easy, we tend to label him or her “a natural.” President Barack Obama is no exception.

His ability to move people through soaring rhetoric and appealing rhythms of his delivery is now the stuff of legends. Detractors often attribute the president’s strong popularity in large part to his oratorical skills, not his ideas. It is the president’s personae and sheer natural magnetism at work they insist, nothing more.

The problem with the argument is that it assumes good communication skills are the same as good acting skills. It presumes that intent and belief by the speaker in what is said is irrelevant, and that, cynically, people can’t tell the difference. It’s that one assumption, that substance takes a back seat to style (and sometimes isn’t even riding in the same car), that holds back many if not most executives from communicating effectively in public.

Any executive looking to improve presentation skill or public speaking confidence must first understand the basics.

In fact, acting and presenting are not the same. In the real world, ideas and words have to align with what an audience knows or thinks they know about a subject and speaker. Contrary to popular notion, assuming audience ignorance or indifference of your own involvement is dangerous. In fact, what other reason is there in this day and age to expect others to leave their offices and devote valuable time listening to presentations or speeches, if not for the audience to “see for themselves” the relevance of both the speaker and what the speaker has to say. If the speaker really made no difference in our judgments, then all communication could take place out of each other’s sight or in written formats.

There are still powerful reasons for us to watch someone communicate their ideas to us directly and to judge what they have to say for ourselves. The president’s communication mastery is no lucky accident. Mr. Obama has developed his strengths as a public communicator precisely by understanding the links between his ideas and the way those ideas can most powerfully persuade others; ideas any executive can borrow:

1.) Start with what you know. Yes, there will be times when you do not have or cannot address the full picture. Minimize discomfort through preparation and practice. Work to build your presentation or speech around those areas you are comfortable speaking about. If you are forthcoming about what you do know, your audience will understand if you do not have all the answers immediately.

2.) Don’t speculate about what you don’t know. Being forthcoming does not mean taking a stab at addressing every possible concern or question on the topic, regardless of your expertise. Be clear on your purpose for presenting or speaking, and the value you bring on that topic to your audience. Don’t seek to lecture. Seek to communicate.

3.) Be clear Never leave an audience wondering what your position is, why they are listening to you or what you expect them to do with the information you’re giving them. Of all the things you could say about your topic, only choose the things that are relevant to your audience and that they need to know.

4.) They’re listening, not reading Write and speak “for the ear”, the way you normally communicate orally. Your audience cannot re-read your remarks, so seek to be understood the first time. Use a natural communication style, enunciating your words and using the vocabulary you’re comfortable with.

5.) Let them judge Understand your audience is looking for your perspective, not just data. Welcome their attention and build on it with examples, stories and experiences, not just facts. Relate those facts and data to some larger points and conclusions. Look for something to give your audience that they couldn’t have gotten from you any other way than by watching and listening.

Powerful public speaking and presentation skills aren’t “bestowed” on a few lucky individuals. They take work and practice. Start with something you want to communicate, match it with your strengths as a communicator, and leave the acting to actors.

The interesting thing about human groups is everyone says they want change, but in reality no one really does. Change makes them uneasy and when things change too fast it makes people crazy. People like the status quo, even if they complain against it. People like the way things are, and they expect things to be the same.

People get freaked out when things are too different, too radical, or not what they expect. Take architecture for instance and new radical designs, often humans will say we need something very special here, something different, something that will revolutionize the concept and make this a place where people will want to come and meet.

Then they hire a top-notch architectural designer, who has done projects in other cities and made spectacular and radical designs. Still, often these architectural designers get into problems when presenting, because although they do present something that is revolutionary, a new concept that has never been seen before, and something that will knock your socks off, they fail to please the crowd or the decision makers.

The problem is that the exact people who hired him for the project all of a sudden are fearful for their lives. This is why when you are presenting a radical architectural design you must do it with passion, vision, and visual displays to really sell it. It is true that the end project will be spectacular in every regard, but getting the people to go for it is quite another matter.

Once it’s done everyone will be happy, but it’s extremely hard getting everyone on the same page with someone else’s radical idea. But if you can present with passion, you can win over the crowds. I sure hope you will consider all this and present your dreams with passionate streams.

Presenting seminars and workshops is a great strategic marketing tool and Your Strategic Thinking Business Coach strongly recommends the use of this tool. An effective presentation will build your credibility; increase your value in the market, provide an opportunity to further qualify prospects and possibly convert prospects to clients and customers. One of the most important times for the presenter, beyond the preparation time and the actual delivery time, is the day of the presentation and the opportunity that exists that day. Your Strategic Thinking Business Coach offers the following ten strategic tips, to seminar presenters to gain maximum benefits from their efforts.

Strategic Tip #1: Greet every seminar attendee as they arrive at the seminar and sincerely welcome him or her and engage him or her in some meaningful conversation.

Strategic Tip #2: Meet with the person that will introduce you and review key elements of your introduction to ensure there will be a smooth introduction.

Strategic Tip #3: Make sure that every seminar attendee registers and provides their key contact information so you can follow-up after the seminar.

Strategic Tip #4: Make sure that all seminar attendees have a nametag to facilitate you getting to know them, which is one of your primary goals.

Strategic Tip #5: Be yourself during your presentation and engage your audience. Involve the audience and ask them to interact with you.

Strategic Tip #6: Commit to demonstrating your respect for the value of time of each seminar attendee. Be sure that you end on time, or even a few minutes early.

Strategic Tip #7: Focus on your audience, rather than yourself.

Strategic Tip #8: Make sure you deliver what you promoted and promised and focus on discussing specific problems and solutions pertaining to the attendees.

Strategic Tip #9: Develop an effective and memorable closing to your seminar presentation. This could be in the form of a quotation, a “catchy” phrase with advice, a thought provoking question, a challenge, a creative handout, or a special and unique gift.

Strategic Tip #10: Provide an evaluation sheet for the seminar at the conclusion of the event. Be sure to offer the opportunity for attendees to request an appointment with you and place that offer on the evaluation sheet.

Your Strategic Thinking Business Coach encourages you to using the power of seminar presentations as a strategic marketing tool to grow your business. If you would like to learn more about how a strategic thinking business coach can facilitate and guide you in that endeavor, please contact Glenn Ebersole today through his website at http://www.businesscoach4u.com or by email at [email protected]

Take a moment to travel back to your schooldays. What were some of the thumb rules you followed to score more marks in your school examinations?

Let me make a guess…

Rule 1: Write more

The more pages you filled the more marks you got in your exams. It made the evaluator feel that you knew a lot. So, you learnt the habit of fluffing up your content in presentations as well.

Rule 2: Make it look beautiful

Decorating your answers with highlighters and sketch pens got you more marks. So, you learnt the habit of decorating your presentations.

Rule 3: Sound knowledgeable

Using jargon and acronyms made you look intelligent. By littering your answers with some technical words, you could impress your evaluators into give you more marks. So, you learnt the habit of using technical mumbo jumbo as your weapon against objections.

Unfortunately, those very habits that got you more marks in your school might be killing your sales presentations.

The rules that your customers follow to evaluate your presentations are very different. Here are some of their rules:

Rule 1: More is bore

Your audience is allergic to long winding presentations. The moment you put up that bullet point slide with 6 points and 4 sub-points your audience take a walk mentally. You need to say it in a crisp and clear manner to score more with your audience.

Rule 2: Bling is cheap

Your audience won’t fall for that cool animation or a ‘Zen’ picture. Your slide should make your message memorable by explaining your ideas in a visual way. Concept diagrams are a very useful tool.

Rule 3: Jargon is rude

It is not about what you know; it is about what they learn. Jargon puts a distance between you and your audience. Always talk at their level to win them over.

So, play by the new rules and unlearn your old habits. You will score more in your sales presentations. Happy selling!