I used to think of Slideshare as completely lame. (The way a lot of social media marketers think of LinkedIn, which bought Slideshare a couple years back!)
I would use it occasionally to upload some presentation I did when a conference asked for it, but that’s about it.
However, lately I’ve been diving in and have gotten a lot more out of it.
First off, there’s some AMAZING content there. Look at this recent slidedeck that has 64,507 views so far (and counting.) It’s called Hot to (Not) Fail. 

Second, I’ve taken old blog posts and converted them into slidedecks (or had an employee do it) and reached 100′s of additional people with very little work. Here’s an example called Facebook Marketing: 13 Secrets of Successful Facebook Marketing for Small Business. Just over 700 views and counting. (Transparency: it’s mine.)

Third, you can build subscribers at Slideshare just like at YouTube. 

Fourth, you can get your slide deck onto the home page for tons more traffic!

Fifth, you can embed your slide deck into blog posts.

Sixth, you can embed your slide deck into your LinkedIn profile for better engagement.

I feel slideshare could benefit almost ANY type of small biz. Have you tried it yet? 

@rich-brooks @judithgotwald   

I had NO idea about this – sounds fantastic.  SO many great new tools out there; SO little time to explore them all.

Will try to give this one a whirl real soon.

Thanks Rich!

Eileen

Ditto everything Rich said. While it’s relatively easy to rank first page with YouTube, over the last few months, I’ve noticed SlideShare beat out YouTube videos for the top spots over and over again.

And since I’m usually competely against the same people for the top YT spots, I’ve noticed those guys are now reconfiguring slides from their vids and loading them to SlideShare, too, giving their SS and YT posts a BIG boost.

So guess it’s time I do the same.

Good call, Rich. I think one of the reasons it’s gotten so popular is that IMers need constant new slides for videos. I’ve seen several courses sold on how to use ready made slideshows (by other people) to turn them into YT videos. Not always “lawful” unless permission is granted or it falls under Creative Commons, but the fact that this is being touted as a “short-route” to video production is one of the reasons for the high viewer counts. I’d attribute a good  500 viewers to just plain prospective video “scouting.”

Whatever the reasons, for sure SlideShare is getting MORE than its fair share of first page rankings these days, so Rich’s advice is right on point.

Robin Carlisle
@rich-brooks