Telework Cool Tools: SlideRocket

SlideRocket is a web-based service for creating, managing, and sharing online multimedia slideshow presentations. We regard it as a TechSoup green product donation in that it makes it easy to for people to communicate easily regardless of where they are, thus making telework more manageable.

TechSoup’s Telework Team 

SlideRocket is one of 26 cloud donors on TechSoup.org. TechSoup started putting it to use right away, particularly on our Online Community and Social Media Team. This team brings you our discussion forums among many other things, and its members are among the strongest users of cloud services at TechSoup. They are an actively teleworking team with members in many locales. 

Instead of booking a room and inviting people to come and see what they’re up to, our community team is much more likely to host an online demonstration like this one so they can reach many more people, regardless of where they are. Also, online presentations allow people to attend an event at a later date.

How SlideRocket Works

SlideRocket is very easy to use. You can upload an existing PowerPoint or Google Docs presentation, and it’s instantly online and ready for folks to view. SlideRocket also has drag-and-drop authoring tools and customizable presentation templates that allow users to create presentations from any web browser. SlideRocket's free Desktop Presenter tool allows you to download the presentation to your Windows, Mac, or Linux computer.

Presentations are stored online on SlideRocket's site; they can be modified by anyone who is on the same SlideRocket account. You can share presentations publicly with anyone or make them password-protected. SlideRocket has a short video tour that’s worth checking out.

Using SlideRocket for Fundraising

If you use presentations for fundraising or outreach, note that SlideRocket keeps track of viewer data and provides analytics tools that let you to see how popular a presentation is. An example is the nonprofit Hoshyar Foundation’s beautiful presentation about educating girls in Pakistan that went viral and got 2,000 to 5,000 hits per day. This presentation is also a great example of what can be done with multimedia (music and video) in SlideRocket.

Check out some additional examples at the recent SlideRocket Nonprofit Presentation Contest. The international environmental NGO, Waste Ventures, won the contest with their presentation that demonstrates the problem of trash collection in developing countries.

How To Get SlideRocket

SlideRocket is a "freemium" cloud service in that it offers a SlideRocket Lite account at no cost. The full-featured SlideRocket Pro service is available as a donation for nonprofits and libraries with budgets under $10 million per year for a $24 per year admin fee. It’s definitely worth checking out!

We’d love to hear how you’re using telework tools in your organization. Send us your comments!