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Master the Art of Preparing Scientific Presentations [Cheatsheet For Beginners]

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Master the Art of Preparing Scientific Presentations [Cheatsheet For Beginners]

Humans have been searching for answers to the world around them since the dawn of creation. Our scientific method was first fairly primitive and perhaps unsophisticated. We watched and reflected. But, as research methodologies and thinking paradigms evolved, we arrived at the modern period of enlightenment and science.

So, what is the current scientific method, and how can you discuss and explain your research outcomes to others accurately?

These are the two essential questions addressed in this blog. But before that, if you want to cut down your efforts to half while creating a scientific presentation, try the exclusive range of Google Slides templates by SlideUpLift!

What is the Scientific Method?

The scientific method is a technique of doing research that is based on theory creation, hypothesis generation, empirical testing, and theory modification if the hypothesis is rejected.

A scientific method, in essence, is a catch-all word for the procedure that every scientist use to objectively evaluate the world (and particular phenomena) around them.

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The scientific method is the polar opposite of beliefs and cognitive biases, which are mainly irrational and frequently unconscious interpretations of various events that we rely on as a mental shortcut.

The scientific method in research, on the other hand, compels the thinker to analyze and test our methods of data interpretation holistically in order to achieve reliable and non-arbitrary results.

According to the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Plato and Aristotle are thought to be the founders of the scientific method. They were among the first to use the scientific method, experimentation, and logical reasoning to try to defend and develop their thought process.

Examples of common scientific methods include:

  • Methodical observation
  • Experimentation
  • Reasoning inductively and deductively
  • Hypotheses and theories are developed and tested

All of the aforementioned methods are used by both scientists and companies to better understand the data and/or phenomena at hand.

Importance of Scientific Method in Today’s Era

Because our forefathers did not have as much information as we do, we currently live in an era of unparalleled data accessibility and connection, with over 2.5 quintillion bytes of data created every day. This has greatly expedited the generation of knowledge.

At the same time, such excessive data exposure makes us more susceptible to external influences, prejudices, and erroneous beliefs. These can undermine the objectivity of any research you do.

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Scientific discoveries must be objective, verified, accurate, and consistent. The careful application of scientific methods in business world and science helps to assure appropriate data interpretation, replication of outcomes, and undeniable validity.

5-Step Process To Deliver a Ground-breaking Scientific Presentation

Whether you’re presenting a poster session, a conference lecture, or a follow-up presentation on a newly published journal article, the majority of your colleagues will want to know how you arrived at the results you’ve provided.

In other words, they will look for flaws in your scientific method to guarantee that your outcomes are fair and reproducible so that they may use your theories in their study as well. As a result, your scientific presentation must be concise, on-point, and explicitly focused on your research methodologies.

A basic foundation for producing a convincing scientific presentation is provided here.

1. Begin Your Presentation with a Research Question

Here’s how to easily begin a scientific presentation: Tell about your research question. On the first slide, simply summarize your thought process. Briefly describe the overarching goal of your research: Share your primary theory and indicate if you can prove or disprove it.

It may be tempting to cram a lot of information onto your first slide but don’t. Keep your presentation’s start brief in order to pique the audience’s curiosity and prepare the stage for the follow-up story.

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2. Reveal Your Scientific Methods

Many audience members will be interested in how you got to your conclusions, whether you are giving a science poster presentation or a conference discussion. To avoid ambiguity, provide this information at the start of your presentation.

In a presentation, here’s how to structure your scientific methods:

Use bullet points instead of complete sentences. To list the methods, use diagrams and organized graphics.

When feasible, utilize images and iconography to illustrate metaphors.

Sort your methods into categories, such as measurable and non-quantifiable.

Finally, while creating visuals for your presentation, such as charts, graphs, pictures, and so on, consider yourself as a subject newbie.

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Is the image conveying the most important information about the subject?

Does it aid in the breakdown of complicated ideas?

3. Highlight the Results to Your Audience

Obviously, the research findings will be your most valuable source of bragging rights. Do not, however, overburden your presentation with a lengthy description of your results and how revolutionary they may be for the community.

Instead of writing a wall of words, try this:

  • To demonstrate the facts in great detail, use graphs with huge axis values/numbers.
  • Prioritize formats that everyone is familiar with (odds ratios, Kaplan Meier curves)
  • Allow no more than five lines of simple text on each slide.

Overall, if the results slide becomes too crowded, it’s advisable to shift the data to a new one.

4. Don’t Forget To Mention The Limitations of the Studies

Objectivity is required by the scientific method. As a result, every researcher must indicate precisely what was omitted from their study. Remember that no piece of scientific study is genuinely universal and has limits.

However, if you do not declare them explicitly, people may struggle to draw the boundary and duplicate your results. If they fail to do so, they will doubt the feasibility of your study.

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5. Conclude with an Unforgettable Takeaway

Every seasoned speaker will tell you that the stuff they hear first and last is the most memorable. During the day, many people will join more than one scientific presentation.

So, if you want your audience to remember your presentation, create a take-home message for the final slide. Consider your last slide text to be an elevator pitch – a brief statement that summarizes your findings.

Wrapping It Up

There is no shortage of study and scientific tools available today for testing and validating our hypotheses. However, unlike our forefathers, most scientists face greater scrutiny when presenting and explaining their discoveries to others.

That is why it is critical that your scientific presentation properly conveys the goal, direction, and thinking process underlying your study.

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How To Combine PR and Content Marketing Superpowers To Achieve Business Goals

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A figure pulls open a dress shirt to reveal the term PR on a Superman-like costume, reflecting the superpower resulting from combining content and PR.

A transformative shift is happening, and it’s not AI.

The aisle between public relations and content marketing is rapidly narrowing. If you’re smart about the convergence, you can forever enhance your brand’s storytelling.

The goals and roles of content marketing and PR overlap more and more. The job descriptions look awfully similar. Shrinking budgets and a shrewd eye for efficiency mean you and your PR pals could face the chopping block if you don’t streamline operations and deliver on the company’s goals (because marketing communications is always first to be axed, right?).

Yikes. Let’s take a big, deep breath. This is not a threat. It’s an opportunity.

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Reach across the aisle to PR and streamline content creation, improve distribution strategies, and get back to the heart of what you both are meant to do: Build strong relationships and tell impactful stories.

So, before you panic-post that open-to-work banner on LinkedIn, consider these tips from content marketing, PR, and journalism pros who’ve figured out how to thrive in an increasingly narrowing content ecosystem.

1. See journalists as your audience

Savvy pros know the ability to tell an impactful story — and support it with publish-ready collateral — grounds successful media relationships. And as a content marketer, your skills in storytelling and connecting with audiences, including journalists, naturally support your PR pals’ media outreach.

Strategic storytelling creates content focused on what the audience needs and wants. Sharing content on your blog or social media builds relationships with journalists who source those channels for story ideas, event updates, and subject matter experts.

“Embedding PR strategies in your content marketing pieces informs your audience and can easily be picked up by media,” says Alex Sanchez, chief experience officer at BeWell, New Mexico’s Health Insurance Marketplace. “We have seen reporters do this many times, pulling stories from our blogs and putting them in the nightly news — most of the time without even reaching out to us.”

Acacia James, weekend producer/morning associate producer at WTOP radio in Washington, D.C., says blogs and social media posts are helpful to her work. “If I see a story idea, and I see that they’re willing to share information, it’s easier to contact them — and we can also backlink their content. It’s huge for us to be able to use every avenue.” 

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Kirby Winn, manager of PR at ImpactLife, says reporters and assignment editors are key consumers of their content. “And I don’t mean a news release that just hit their inbox. They’re going to our blog and consuming our stories, just like any other audience member,” he says. “Our organization has put more focus into content marketing in the past few years — it supports a media pitch so well and highlights the stories we have to tell.”

Storytelling attracts earned media that might not pick up the generic news topic. “It’s one thing to pitch a general story about how we help consumers sign up for low-cost health insurance,” Alex says. “Now, imagine a single mom who just got a plan after years of thinking it was too expensive. She had a terrible car accident, and the $60,000 ER bill that would have ruined her financially was covered. Now that’s a story journalists will want to cover, and that will be relatable to their audience and ours.” 

2. Learn the media outlet’s audience

Seventy-three percent of reporters say one-fourth or less of the stories pitched are relevant to their audiences, according to Cision’s 2023 State of the Media Report (registration required).

PR pros are known for building relationships with journalists, while content marketers thrive in building communities around content. Merge these best practices to build desirable content that works for your target audience and the media’s audiences simultaneously.

WTOP’s Acacia James says sources who show they’re ready to share helpful, relevant content often win pitches for coverage. “In radio, we do a lot of research on who is listening to us, and we’re focused on a prototype called ‘Mike and Jen’ — normal, everyday people in Generation X … So when we get press releases and pitches, we ask, ‘How interested will Mike and Jen be in this story?’” 

3. Deliver the full content package (and make journalists’ jobs easier)

Cranking out content to their media outlet’s standards has never been tougher for journalists. Newsrooms are significantly understaffed, and anything you can do to make their lives easier will be appreciated and potentially rewarded with coverage. Content marketers are built to think about all the elements to tell the story through multiple mediums and channels.

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“Today’s content marketing pretty much provides a package to the media outlet,” says So Young Pak, director of media relations at MedStar Washington Hospital Center. “PR is doing a lot of storytelling work in advance of media publication. We (and content marketing) work together to provide the elements to go with each story — photos, subject matter experts, patients, videos, and data points, if needed.”   

At WTOP, the successful content package includes audio. “As a radio station, we are focused on high-quality sound,” Acacia James says. “Savvy sources know to record and send us voice memos, and then we pull cuts from the audio … You will naturally want to do someone a favor if they did you one — like providing helpful soundbites, audio, and newsworthy stories.”  

While production value matters to some media, you shouldn’t stress about it. “In the past decade, how we work with reporters has changed. Back in the day, if they couldn’t be there in person, they weren’t going to interview your expert,” says Jason Carlton, an accredited PR professional and manager of marketing and communications at Intermountain Health. “During COVID, we had to switch to virtual interviewing. Now, many journalists are OK with running a Teams or Zoom interview they’ve done with an expert on the news.”

BeWell’s Alex Sanchez agrees. “I’ve heard old school PR folks cringe at the idea of putting up a Zoom video instead of getting traditional video interviews. It doesn’t really matter to consumers. Focus on the story, on the timeliness, and the relevance. Consumers want authenticity, not super stylized, stiff content.”

4. Unite great minds to maximize efficiency

Everyone needs to set aside the debate about which team — PR or content marketing — gets credit for the resulting media coverage.

At MedStar Washington Hospital Center, So Young and colleagues adopt a collaborative mindset on multichannel stories. “We can get the interview and gather information for all the different pieces — blog, audio, video, press release, internal newsletter, or magazine. That way, we’re not trying to figure things out individually, and the subject matter experts only have to have that conversation once,” she says.

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Regular, cross-team meetings are essential to understand the best channels for reaching key audiences, including the media. A story that began life as a press release might reap SEO and earned media gold if it’s strategized as a blog, video, and media pitch.

“At Intermountain Health, we have individual teams for media relations, marketing, social media, and hospital communications. That setup works well because it allows us to bring in the people who are the given experts in those areas,” says Intermountain’s Jason Carlton. “Together, we decide if a story is best for the blog, a media pitch, or a mix of channels — that way, we avoid duplicating work and the risk of diluting the story’s impact.”

5. Measure what matters

Cutting through the noise to earn media mentions requires keen attention to metrics. Since content marketing and PR metrics overlap, synthesizing the data in your team meetings can save time while streamlining your storytelling efforts.

“For content marketers, using analytical tools such as GA4 can help measure the effectiveness of their content campaigns and landing pages to determine meaningful KPIs such as organic traffic, keyword rankings, lead generation, and conversion rates,” says John Martino, director of digital marketing for Visiting Angels. “PR teams can use media coverage and social interactions to assess user engagement and brand awareness. A unified and omnichannel approach can help both teams demonstrate their value in enhancing brand visibility, engagement, and overall business success.”

To track your shared goals, launch a shared dashboard that helps tell the combined “story of your stories” to internal and executive teams. Among the metrics to monitor:

  • Page views: Obviously, this queen of metrics continues to be important across PR and content marketing. Take your analysis to the next level by evaluating which niche audiences are contributing to these views to further hone your storytelling targets, including media outlets.
  • Earned media mentions: Through a media tracker service or good old Google Alerts, you can tally the echo of your content marketing and PR. Look at your site’s referral traffic report to identify media outlets that send traffic to your blog or other web pages.
  • Organic search queries: Dive into your analytics platform to surface organic search queries that lead to visitors. Build from those questions to develop stories that further resonate with your audience and your targeted media.
  • On-page actions: When visitors show up on your content, what are they doing? What do they click? Where do they go next? Building next-step pathways is your bread and butter in content marketing — and PR can use them as a natural pipeline for media to pick up more stories, angles, and quotes.

But perhaps the biggest metric to track is team satisfaction. Who on the collaborative team had the most fun writing blogs, producing videos, or calling the news stations? Lean into the natural skills and passions of your team members to distribute work properly, maximize the team output, and improve relationships with the media, your audience, and internal teams.

“It’s really trying to understand the problem to solve — the needle to move — and determining a plan that will help them achieve their goal,” Jason says. “If you don’t have those measurable objectives, you’re not going to know whether you made a difference.”

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Don’t fear the merger

Whether you deliberately work together or not, content marketing and public relations are tied together. ImpactLife’s Kirby Winn explains, “As soon as we begin to talk about (ourselves) to a reporter who doesn’t know us, they are certainly going to check out our stories.”

But consciously uniting PR and content marketing will ease the challenges you both face. Working together allows you to save time, eliminate duplicate work, and gain free time to tell more stories and drive them into impactful media placements.

Register to attend Content Marketing World in San Diego. Use the code BLOG100 to save $100. Can’t attend in person this year? Check out the Digital Pass for access to on-demand session recordings from the live event through the end of the year.

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Cover image by Joseph Kalinowski/Content Marketing Institute

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Trends in Content Localization – Moz

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Trends in Content Localization - Moz

Multinational fast food chains are one of the best-known examples of recognizing that product menus may sometimes have to change significantly to serve distinct audiences. The above video is just a short run-through of the same business selling smokehouse burgers, kofta, paneer, and rice bowls in an effort to appeal to people in a variety of places. I can’t personally judge the validity of these representations, but what I can see is that, in such cases, you don’t merely localize your content but the products on which your content is founded.

Sometimes, even the branding of businesses is different around the world; what we call Burger King in America is Hungry Jack’s in Australia, Lays potato chips here are Sabritas in Mexico, and DiGiorno frozen pizza is familiar in the US, but Canada knows it as Delissio.

Tales of product tailoring failures often become famous, likely because some of them may seem humorous from a distance, but cultural sensitivity should always be taken seriously. If a brand you are marketing is on its way to becoming a large global seller, the best insurance against reputation damage and revenue loss as a result of cultural insensitivity is to employ regional and cultural experts whose first-hand and lived experiences can steward the organization in acting with awareness and respect.

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How AI Is Redefining Startup GTM Strategy

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How AI Is Redefining Startup GTM Strategy

AI and startups? It just makes sense.

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