If you went to business school or gave presentations for past jobs, you probably have plenty of PowerPoint slides hanging around. You can repurpose these slides by posting them on SlideShare, a slideshow-sharing social network that can get you ranked in Google. Not only does SlideShare have hundreds of thousands of fascinating presentations to learn from, but it also lets you share your slideshow directly on your LinkedIn profile.
What makes SlideShare such a powerful Google ranking tool is that it actually reads and indexes the content of the slide and activates the links in the body of the slide. So if you use your name in the slide and include links to your LinkedIn profile and other online properties, that slideshow has a good chance of showing up when someone searches for your name.
Here are the steps to take when repurposing slides:
Polish your slideshow.
Because you won’t be around every time someone views your slideshow, it needs to stand on its own and be self-explanatory. Imagine someone going through your slideshow without you narrating it. Make sure that person can understand the content and get the point of each slide. If you have any doubt, make changes to the slideshow so that each slide has this level of clarity.
Look at some of the more popular presentations on SlideShare and taking careful notes on how the authors make each slide communicate the point. Notice how the better slideshows get a single point across for each slide and aren’t overly bulleted.
Give your slideshow links.
Include live hyperlinks inside the slideshow itself. Be sure to link to your LinkedIn profile, online résumé, or other web properties. However, don’t overdo it; one on each slide is enough.
Include keywords, such as your name and field of interest.
You’re trying to get your own name to rank in Google, so be sure it appears at least two times in your slideshow. You may also want to use some of the keywords you researched when forming your personal brand.
Use your name as footer text in your slides so it appears on every page without being obnoxious. For the most impact, create a footer for each slide that looks like this (with your full name linking to your blog or LinkedIn profile): “Copyright 2014 Your Name. If you publish or borrow any of these ideas, kindly reference this link: www.YourBlogOrResume.net.”
Submit your slideshow to SlideShare.
After you upload your slideshow, SlideShare converts it to an online format.
Add the SlideShare application to your LinkedIn profile.
Log into your LinkedIn profile and add the link to your profile. Doing so is a great way of showing a future employer what value you can provide to his organization by demonstrating your professional work.
