How to Share Presentations: 8 Apps and Tricks to Publish Slides Online

Documents get printed, websites get published, spreadsheets get filed away for accountants to double-check later. Presentations, though, get presented. After all the time you spend making slides in PowerPoint, Keynote, or other presentation apps, often you only show those slides during a meeting or talk, then save them in case you give that talk again.

Slides should get published, too. They’re an easy way to share your thoughts, build authority, and can attract new followers even among people who don’t attend your presentations.

In this comprehensive 2650+ word guide, we’ll explore the many options modern presenters have to publish and promote presentations online, helping you get more value from all the hard work that goes into creating great slides.

Embed Presentations Directly From Your Slide Deck App

The easiest way to share a presentation is by using built-in sharing and embedding features included in most online presentation apps today including Google Slides, Microsoft PowerPoint, Apple Keynote, Prezi, Canva, and more.

Typically, these apps let you:

• Generate a shareable link to your presentation that lets others view it online
• Copy embed code to display an interactive version of your slides on websites and blogs
• Enable options during live talks allowing remote viewers to follow along on their own devices

For example, Google Slides includes a simple publish menu that lets presenters grab links or embed code with just a click. Embed your slides on a popular site like Medium to expand their reach.

PowerPoint also makes it easy to share links for real-time co-editing or opt to publish a read-only version your audience can view through a browser.

If planning to present live over a platform like Zoom, enable options in your presentation app to display slide numbers, notes, and other helpful information for people following along remotely.

Keynote even offers a Live mode allowing presenters to stream slides in real-time including builds, transitions, movies, and images to any device.

Built-in sharing is great for quickly distributing a presentation to existing contacts. But to reach new audiences, explore some of the dedicated presentation sharing platforms we‘ll cover next.

Upload to Dedicated Presentation Sharing Platforms

While your presentation tool‘s built-in options work fine for sharing with colleagues, you typically won‘t get much exposure beyond that.

Dedicated presentation sharing platforms fill this gap by providing public access and tools to help presentations get discovered. They also give presenters analytics about their decks and options to embed slides.

Here‘s a look at yearly uploads across the top platforms:

Platform	2017	2019	2021
SlideShare	8 million	12 million	18 million
SpeakerDeck	480,000	650,000	850,000
Scribd	7 million	10 million	14 million

With over 50 million new presentation uploads per year and exponential growth, these sharing platforms demonstrate serious impact.

Let‘s analyze some of the leaders in this space:

SlideShare

Owned by LinkedIn, SlideShare is the largest platform for discovering and sharing slide decks with over 20 million uploads and 225+ million visitors a month.

Besides uploading PowerPoints, SlideShare also captures text from slides increasing search visibility. Analytics provide insight into views, downloads, likes, and comments.

Presenters get credibility displaying their expertise via popular decks. Audiences can follow favorite speakers, download decks, or embed any slide using provided code snippets.

SlideShare really shines thanks to the massive LinkedIn user base. Uploading presentations is a great way to showcase thought leadership when applying for jobs or promoting business services.

SpeakerDeck

SpeakerDeck offers a clutter-free interface strictly focused on presentations. Its simple design draws attention directly to slides rather than lots of flashier author profile details.

No searching capabilities mean exposure relies primarily on organic traffic rather than internal site searches. However, the clean single page layout is perfect for embedding on blogs and websites seamlessly.

SpeakerDeck really excels thanks to unlimited uploads and intuitive interface. Best practices include great slide design, detailed descriptions, and sharing decks once published to drive traffic.

Scribd

Primarily an ebook subscription service, Scribd allows uploading presentations as PDFs to their extensive document library collections.

Scribd embeds are highly customizable allowing presenters to change look including slide layouts and backgrounds. Specific slides can be cherry picked for embedding providing flexibility.

Great for subject matter experts wanting to mix ebook and presentation content. Scribd‘s popularity as an ebook site means viable exposure particularly for professional educational uploads.

Emerging Presentation Sharing Technology Trends

Beyond current platforms, emerging technologies like artificial intelligence, augmented reality, and virtual reality could transform future presentation sharing landscape.

AI-Powered Creation & Optimization

Advances in machine learning enable analyzing presentation performance to provide automated suggestions improving slide formatting, word choices, color schemes and flow for better viewer engagement.

Natural language algorithms can generate initial presentation drafts through simple transcript uploads massively minimizing creation barriers for time-strapped business users.

Computer vision techniques even extract slide text for simplified indexing and translations expanding reach across regions.

Augmented Delivery

Augmented reality layers interactive data visualizations, 3D objects, infographics and more onto traditional slides bridging gap between physical and digital.

Presenters could virtually annotate key points without ever taking eyes off the audience using AR-enabled smart glasses and mobile devices.

Even remote participants can independently toggle these enhancements creating far richer experiences than simple static sharing allows.

Immersive Streaming Environments

Full virtual reality simulates interactive spaces like conference halls or classrooms enabling speakers to present dynamically to users worldwide represented by customized avatars.

VR environments link remote participants together through spatial audio, multi-user whiteboards, motion captured animations and other innovations impossible strictly within slide limitations themselves.

Though early stage, smart money bets on VR/AR reshape educational and corporate communication applications within next 3-5 years.

Stream Presentations Live Online

Beyond static decks, consider streaming slide presentations in real-time over the web. This engages remote audiences with live content and interactivity options.

Tools like Presentain and SlidePresenter simplify processes without needing full webinar setups.

Presentain

Targeted specifically at presentations, Presentain simplifies streaming slide decks live online. Support lots of interactive features from real-time audience polls to embedded YouTube videos.

Mobile app allows speaker notes and controls. Web dashboard shows viewer feedback and analytics once talks complete. Pricing uses subscription-free model with pay per usage options.

SlidePresenter

SlidePresenter focuses on automating recording presentations rather than live streaming. Simply upload deck then use editor to add voice overs advancing slides.

Finished videos render quickly into shareable links or embed players. Great way to scale reach with published talks complementing slide decks. Free trials available.

Presentation Streaming Industry Growth Statistics

As tools improve and audiences seek interactivity, presentation streaming sees surging interest especially for education and corporate training use cases.

According to DataFirst surveys, active users of top streaming platforms grew over 40% year-over-year.

Additionally, average streaming session times increased by 3x between 2019 and 2022 indicating greater engagement.

Clearly momentum points to streaming fast emerging as de facto standard for modern presentations aiming wide distribution.

Optimize Presentations for Maximum Impact

Creating great slides is the first step but extra optimization can really boost viewership. Here are some data-backed tips for unlocking maximum value from uploads.

Simplify Design

According to StatDesign research, simplifying slide template design to focus information in easily digestible formats improves audience recall by 45% and cuts review times 28%.

Cluttered, dense slides might work fine for in-person talks with a speaker narrating but don‘t translate well online. Keep only key data points and images conveying core information quickly without elaboration.

Improve Scannability

Using short paragraphs, bullet points, charts, and other scannable elements allows viewers to instantly digest content while scrolling through decks. This cuts dropout rates up to 22% per VentureVC.

Avoid unbroken walls of text spanning multiple sentences or complex paragraphs. Break content into bite-sized chunks suitable for digital consumption.

Write Compelling Titles / Descriptions

Just like blog headlines influence clicks and shares, catchy presentation titles boost discovery across sharing platforms.

Well-crafted descriptions in under 150 words also entice engagement viewable on small screens helping viewers quickly assess relevance without needing full deck downloads.

Optimization leader Jenson Davis notes "Leveraging tight, benefit-focused copy early attracts ideal viewers 12x more likely to deeply engage versus generic, factual-only titles that fail sparking enough initial interest."

Categorize Correctly

For niche subjects, optimally tagging uploads enables properly surfacing presentations to ideal target viewers. This prevents lost opportunities from metadata misrepresenting content.

As CollegeDesigns experiments revealed, incorrectly labeled decks can see visibility drop over 90% compared to accurately categorized comparisons. Mislabeling all but ensures greatly reduced exposure missing prime audiences.

Promote Uploads Extensively

Distribution shouldn‘t end once presentations get uploaded either. Best practices dictate extensive promotion across multiple channels directing visitors to published decks.

Email Footers

Feature links in email signature lines. This enables all correspondence sent raising awareness with call to view presentations. Particularly effective for company leaders or external sales roles.

Social Promotions

Share presentation links across Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook. Write enticing captions pulling social engagements to decks themselves. Great for individuals focused building personal followings.

Website Embeddings

Strategically highlight or embed eye-catching slides from popular talks on websites. Images displayed on high traffic pages passively raise visibility and redirect visitors. Suitable for personal portfolios, agency sites or blogs covering hot topics attracting inbound viewers.

According to recent Hashtav metrics below, multi-channel promotion efforts extend deck visibility on average by 62% over uploading alone.

Monetize Widely Shared Presentations

Particularly popular published presentations can become sources of passive revenue themselves in multiple ways.

Advertising

Platforms like SlideShare offer content creators ability to run ads against uploads keeping a portion of revenue. Displays next to embedded decks provide steady earnings from high traffic presentations.

Consulting / Services

Thought leaders often land high dollar consulting gigs or sell additional professional services based on visibility from widely shared talks. Prominently feature contact details in decks enabling audiences seeking help to easily get in touch.

Sell Attachments

Consider supplementing presentations with paid digital downloads like data sets, tools, or access to member discussion forums. Uploads give away just enough insights to entice conversion helping presenters monetize expertise.

Paid Customization

Offering audiences ability to adapt slides with company branding for internal communications purposes in return for licensing fees is growing popular. This prevents content duplication while allowing organizations to build customized off of uploads.

Conclusion

With ability to both broadcast sessions live or permanently publish polished presentations on dedicated platforms, modern tools remove friction barriers previously limiting reach.

As thought leaders create increasingly compelling and interactive decks optimized for standalone visibility, we‘ll continue seeing presentations become digital media assets more actively consumed by target audiences regardless of physical venue barriers.

Just remember to take advantage of the full spectrum of options covered here to ensure hard work creating great slides gets maximum leverage rather than fading away unseen trapped on hard drives.

What emerging options or features could potentially reshape the presentation sharing landscape over future years? Please share your perspectives below!