Can you really measure a speech?

Did your speech impact your audience? Three ways to find out.

At least she counted the flowers.

Most of the measures I see of speeches or the meetings in which they are presented focus on audience satisfaction with various elements of the event: the length of the speech, the presenter’s delivery, the amount of Q&A, the temperature of the room. While it’s nice to have a happy audience, I’d rather know if the speech made an impact on them.

I recommend focusing on three key outcomes that most speeches should be trying to achieve. Find out to what extent the speech:

• Increases the level of knowledge on the speech’s topic. This can be measured by how many people believe they understand a topic (on a scale of 1 to 5) or by how many answer a true/false or multiple-choice question correctly.

To read the full story, log in.
Become a Ragan Insider member to read this article and all other archived content.
Sign up today

Already a member? Log in here.
Learn more about Ragan Insider.