Let us give a standing ovation to Steve Jobs, who was not only an innovative technology pioneer, but also the architect of a new and more effective way to make a presentation.

The genius of Jobs wasn't simply that he made audiences—even those in remote locations—rise to their feet and roar with approval, but rather that he made it look easy.

It's sometimes said that the former Apple CEO was a "natural" presenter, but this does him an injustice. While it’s true that he was naturally charismatic, and that’s a trait that can’t be taught, he sweated out his presentations, painstakingly planning each minute that he was to be on stage, refining and rehearsing his message.

Far from being innate, the tactics Jobs used can be learned and applied by anyone. Here are four approaches that he used for presenting that you can use to become a better presenter:

Show Your Passion

To get your audience excited about your message, you have to show your own excitement about it. One way to express this feeling is with energetic movement. Wearing a wireless mic, Jobs would take big strides across the front of the room, emphasizing his important points with large-scale gestures using his arms and hands, turning his head at critical points of the presentation, and changing his facial expressions.

He also varied his rate of speech, tone, and volume, alternately quickening the pace and using dramatic pauses. Every presentation can be punched up in this way. But as you use movement and voice changes to show your passion for your message, be sure to maintain a level of natural communication and comfort, because otherwise you might appear inauthentic.

The Apple CEO also expressed his passion with his choice of words. “This is a day I've been looking forward to for two-and-a-half years,” he said at the original iPhone launch. “Today Apple is going to reinvent the phone.” His authoritative statements, including colorful ones like “Brilliance, squared” for the Mac Mini revision of early 2009, dared anyone to question his—and his company’s—claims.

This particularly came into play when Jobs went on to show his passion for his products by telling stories that had a hero and a villain—with IBM playing the heavy during Apple’s early days and Microsoft taking the role later. The “us versus them” approach was particularly effective with Apple employees and customers, who strongly identify with the company, but it also can work whenever the audience believes in the speaker.

Try to let your choice of phrasing express your passion the way Jobs did. You’ll increase your credibility and maintain the audience’s involvement too.

Support Your Presentation with Visuals

It’s long been recognized that giving information both verbally and visually makes a stronger impact and the content is better retained than by using words alone.

Many presenters, however, put too much emphasis on their visuals.

Oftentimes they use the visuals to help them keep track of what they want to say. They talk to the visuals instead of to the audience, and they overload the visuals with so much content that the people they’re speaking to don’t know what's important.

Jobs was a master user of visuals, mixing and matching them with tremendous effect. He used slides and demonstration videos on a huge screen behind him, props, and even low-tech flipcharts. His slides didn't use bullets or lists, but represented single concepts. Many of them used dramatic pictures without captions. Others used a single word. The audience never knew what would come next, and, as a result, paid rapt attention.