How can you tailor your public speaking style to different audiences?

Understanding your audience is paramount in public speaking, regardless of the setting or objective. A key strategy to achieve this is through comprehensive audience analysis. Start by defining the purpose of your speech—whether it's to inform, persuade, inspire, or provoke discussion. Next, research the event to grasp its theme, format, and attendee demographics. Dive into audience analysis by studying their background, knowledge level, interests, and expectations. Leverage available resources like attendee lists, surveys, or social media profiles to gather insights. Tailor your content and delivery style accordingly, ensuring your message resonates authentically with the specific audience.

If you are speaking to a small group of people, presenting results/recommendations, providing education, or proposing services, take time if you can to research each person's background. This may include looking at their Linkedin profiles and talking to colleagues or contacts who know them or have worked with them before. I try to understand key characteristics to anticipate the audiences point of view, what presentation style would best suit them, and what questions they might ask. 1. Does this audience typically ask a lot of questions/speak up? 2. What is their level of technical expertise on this topic in comparison to mine? 3. What collateral is likely to best resonate with them (i.e., finance - tables with numbers)?

If you can gather data beforehand by sending a brief questionnaire to assess knowledge level and pain points that helps you the experience. As best as possible try to get an idea of who the audience is. If the audience is mixed be flexible around your delivery and break concepts down, invite questions to ensure the audience is getting what they need

Do some audience analysis before stepping on the stage, it is important to understand their background, ethnicity, political influence, working style, and intellectual capacity well in advance, no matter whether you are from your own country, a salesperson, an educationist, or an artist, or maybe a stand-up comedian, your presence on stage demands responsibility towards the audience, only when they will feel connected and respected they will be majorly engaged with you. You cannot deliver the same presentation to a college graduate that you did to a group of middle-aged people working in senior positions at any big corporation. The examples, tone, humor, case studies, and activities must change to grab the attention and better output.

Tailoring your public speaking style to different audiences starts with understanding who they are. Understand your audience demographics- what is the average age and interest levels? Are they senior leaders or college students? What field of work is their core? For example, if your audience is predominantly technical, you might focus on content related to that area. If they're marketing professionals, case studies presented through storytelling and relatable examples could work better. Also ask yourself what language do they resonate with? Your tone will be decided accordingly. Knowing their interests, knowledge level, and expectations helps you adjust your tone, vocabulary, and content to resonate with them effectively.

If you are in a small to medium setting, read the room as you are setting up/pulling up the presentation. Do they seem stressed? Do they seem to be in a good mood? Are they talkative leading up to the start of the presentation? Take this into account to gauge the level of formality that matches their energy.

While your goal and core message may stay the same from one audience to the next, adapting your tone to meet both the audience and the style of event is critical to meeting your goals and having your core message land with your audience. Understand both your audience and the overall tone of the event you will be speaking at, then decided on the level of depth, the language, and the style. Get ready to tailor your tone on the fly. Even in more formal setting, don't be afraid to break the imaginary distance between you and your audience, by stopping mid-talk and changing tone in order to more directly address them if you feel you have lost their attention.

Speaking is dynamic. Read the room and adjust accordingly based on reactions and feedback verbal and non verbal. Having good command of language and grasp of tone and body language is key here.

A speech should flow smoothly if it has structure. All elements must be relevant and feel like a natural progression and you move through it. Again tailoring to appropriate level is important and determine the content and where the emphasis lies in the message

You might consider: 1. Prepping certain members of the audience that you will ask for their opinions/insights at a certain stage/slide of the presentation. 2. If questions/conversations are not flowing, pause and ask if this is resonating, what questions they have, or if they are looking for additional detail.

I believe in active learning so all my talks are participatory. This makes it a collaboration and the audience is more likely to engage, enjoy and retain. I have used word clouds, polls, quizzes that punctuate the talk and apps that require the audience to participate on their phone or watch the presentation on their phone. Creating a comfortable environment and being approachable goes a long way

Be ready to condense down, jump to the appendix, or go out of order if it's where your audience is leading the conversation. To best be prepared for this, have a written inventory of where each section starts (slide number) on a notepad next to you so you can show your mastery of the material and your slide deck.

In considering what is appropriate and appealing and all these factors, remember to be you. Authenticity and strong clear simple visual presentation of yourself and your materials always works well