Legal Marketing & PR

Public Speaking Tip: Hold Eye Contact With Your Audience

By Tom Kane

Here's an interesting idea worth trying. Tom Antion over on Great Public Speaking suggests making eye contact with individuals  in the audience and hold it for 4 seconds. I think that four seconds is a l-o-o-o-o-n-g time. So, maybe 2-3 seconds.

His point is that if you do so, you are more likely to make a personal connection that will get people to come up to talk with you after your speech. That's a good thing, as a meaningful relationship may develop as a result. I can see how making eye contact with half a dozen people or so during your talk could have an impact on those people and make them feel special – if not overdone, of course.

Tom also suggests trying this out with your next five speeches. You should notice the difference in the reaction of your listeners by then. And let's face it, if you do get people to take advantage of more one-on-one contact with you after your speech, the likelihood of your speech producing results sooner rather than later is very good.

Full post as published by Legal Marketing Blog on August 28, 2009 (boomark / email).