SlideShare is an uber-awesome tool and platform; It's the exact site that jumpstarted my design business. It boasts a large user-base of PMEBs (Professionals,Managers,Executives,Businesspeople) and extensive viewership.

Coveted spots on SlideShare include the 'Featured' Section and 'Top SlideShares' Section on it's front page. These are the spots that every SlideShare user wants to get onto, because you get the most viewership and reach.

I've had the good fortune of being part of the top 3 SlideShares Of The Day with great predictable success over more than ten different decks.

And very recently had the good fortune of having my SlideShare get chosen as one of the Top SlideShares Of The Day. ( on 12 June 2014 ) So I figured I'd share the strategies I have used to achieve this result time and time again.

1. An Arresting Cover

If you can't make time for anything else, at least get the cover right.

To get click-throughs or your audience's buy-in at the beginning, a strong , eye-catching cover slide is mandatory. It's the one important thing that can make or break your views and whether or not the SlideShare staff picks it up. Bold images, huge text and bright colours are strongly recommended.

It's the one important thing that can make or break your views and whether or not the SlideShare staff picks it up. Bold images, huge text and bright colours are strongly recommended.

Similar to not getting your post lost on a Facebook wall, your cover should be so striking that it initiates a click from the user.

In this deck, I used a bold font juxtaposed with a relevant image that takes up more than half the slide ( the clock ). The combination of a bold font and accompanying graphic usually works wonders to grab attention. Just make sure it's somewhat relevant to the topic, otherwise just make sure it looks attractive.

2. Practical Value

Your audience are looking to consume content that gives them instant-gratification.The key to delivering Practical Value is to give the viewers actionable content in a digestible format that they can work on immediately after consuming your deck.

They should go: " Hey, I actually learned something today". This makes them feel good, and it motivates a share or equivalent.

In essence, a successful SlideShare MUST possess value, either providing useful information or 'hacks' of sort they can instantly apply.

In this deck, I made sure to optimize the content such that viewers can obtain instant value and be able to apply some of the recommendations in the deck.

3. Wholly Skim-able Content

Much like how we typically consume photos, text and content on popular social media platforms like Facebook. We love to skim through content and slow down only on the good bits.

As a visual medium, the best SlideShares are brief and visually superior. Text take a backseat in your SlideShares but it's key to ensure that the content does not end up becoming incomprehensible.

A good rule of thumb is to keep your text in the slides minimal ( Say 1 or two sentences max ) to maximize punchiness and give them the ability to Skim through your content.

It's never about how much value one slide adds on it's own, but it's value as a whole.

In this deck, you'll notice that each slide is brief but relates to the next point, almost like a cinematic story.

4. Build Following

This is perhaps one of the most important strategies to get featured on SlideShare: To build a cult-like following for your content. One of the reasons why my content gets featured regularly is because I go to great lengths to keep in touch with people who follow my work.

I regularly send them updates when I release something I think they are going to love and I do my best to crank out new content.

Not everyone is going to enjoy the stuff you create. It becomes all the more important to continually reach out to the ones who do.

I would attribute the initial spike in views to the array of followers I've gained over the many past SlideShare decks.

5. Create Topic-Specific Content

When you create visual content on a certain school of thought exclusively, it does a couple of things:

1. It helps you build thought leadership; people think of you first when it comes to that topic ( e.g. Presentation Design ).
2. You gain loyal fans who enjoy and consume your content again and again.

When I pen content for SlideShare, my angles and topics typically revolve around design tips spliced with presentation stuff. Followers know me for that, as such they readily consume most content I put out with those angles.

In this deck, it's a fruit off the Presentation Design tree that I usually write or design content about. Viewers know what to expect and they love viewing such related content.

Now that you're well equipped, go out there and get featured!

This post was originally published on the HackYourSlides blog.

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