In this article, I’m going to talk about SlideShare, including what it is, why you should care, and how to use SlideShare.
First of all, what is SlideShare?
This is a social media site/network similar to YouTube. The difference between SlideShare and YouTube is that SlideShare puts the emphasis on presentations/slideshows instead of just videos. You CAN add videos to SlideShare, but it’s primarily for slideshows and presentations.
This is a site that averages dozens of millions of visits each month, so there is a fair amount of traffic to this site. It’s a great place to tap into a new source of traffic if you have a few slideshows and/or presentations or even videos to share.
You create a profile like in any other social network and you can start uploading your content immediately. I recommend uploading any existing videos or presentations you have from scratch.
If you don’t have many presentations or slideshows, then it’s very easy to make one. Simply create a PowerPoint or Open Office Impress (the free equivalent) presentation, save it, and you can upload it just like that to SlideShare.
If you don’t know what to create a presentation about, I recommend taking one or a few of your best performing blog posts, if you have one, and breaking them up into slides/slideshows. You also have the option to narrate that presentation to give it a more professional presentation feel and make the experience more enjoyable and engaging for your audience.
There are additional things you can do to make it more engaging, like adding music, images, and even videos to your slideshows. This creates a nice contrast as the slideshow progresses. You can upload as many slideshows as you want and you can make friends on the net like you can on any other online social network and this is a great way to get more viewers for your slideshows.
So we’ve covered giving, how about taking? Well, you can add as many links as you want to your presentations. Simply include them as live links on your slides and your viewers will be able to click on your links as the slideshow progresses. Keep in mind that these are not follow links, but they are still a valuable source of traffic that you should not let go untapped.