Ask the Expert » online learning

When you host webinars and web meetings, you want to look prepared and professional.  But nothing can ruin that desired image more than being unfamiliar with the technology you are using.  If you can’t figure out how to get attendees to see your slides or use interaction tools, your presentation will look unprofessional now matter how good your delivery and content are.  To make sure a technology snafu doesn’t ruin your online presentation, use these tips:

1. Practice beforehand.  Do a run-through of your presentation on the webinar technology you will be using.  Make sure you know how to advance your slides, share documents, and use interaction tools like video and chat.  If you don’t know how to use the software, take a tutorial. 
2. Do a sound-check.  Ask someone to get on the call early with you so they can help you make sure that your phone or headset is loud and clear enough. 
3. Have tech support.  Have someone on the call with you who knows the software and can help you if something goes wrong.  If you can’t get anyone like this, make sure you have quick access to a tech support phone number for the software.

Technological mishaps can still happen even if you’re prepared and knowledgeable about the software.  What have you experienced? Tell me about your technical trouble and how you handled it.

Make Every Presentation Great,

Sheri Jeavons
Virtual Communications Coach

Your goal is to conduct virtual communications that keep your attendees interested and informed.  But when people attend webinars and web meetings, they have shorter attention spans and feel less accountable.  So how do you keep your audience engaged instead of off checking their e-mail?

1. Provide guidelines for focused participation.  At the start of your session, tell your listeners to shut their office doors and close their e-mail.  Even if they don’t actually do this, at least you’ve established your expectations. 
2. Check in periodically.  Don’t just talk non-stop.  Every two or three slides, reach out to see if there are questions or comments.  Get people to type in the chat box.  Don’t ignore your attendees, or they will ignore you. 
3. Use people’s names.  This personalizes your message.  If someone hears their name, they will be more likely to pay attention and process what you are telling them. 

 These quick and easy tips will help your listeners stay enthralled! 

Make Every Presentation Great,

Sheri Jeavons

Virtual Communications Coach

Video can be a great way to connect with your virtual audiences during webinars.  By periodically and briefly using a webcam during online presentations, you can capture your audience’s attention and add a personal touch that helps them identify your voice with your picture.  Use the following tips to help your use of video be appropriate and captivating rather than just plain distracting:

1. Make limited use video.  Don’t leave it on for your entire presentation.  This creates a diverse visual experience without distracting your attendees. 

2. Look directly into the webcam when speaking.  This replaces face-to-face eye contact.  If you look down at your computer instead of into the webcam, you will look nervous, distracted, and dull. 

3. Tell the attendees what you are doing.  Tell them when you are turning the camera on and off, so they don’t get confused and so they can alert you if they are having technical difficulties. 

These simple steps will help you use video sparingly but effectively to create excitement for your virtual audience. 

Make Every Presentation Great,
Sheri Jeavons

When you deliver an online presentation, you want your slides to be captivating.  To achieve this, don’t simply take your existing slides from live presentations and put them into your webinar—it won’t work!  On a webinar, your audience is more easily distracted, has a shorter attention span, and can’t see you giving the information.  So to keep your slides interesting for the virtual format, make the following adjustments:

1. Use more slides.  Take the information that may have been on one slide for a live presentation, and spread it out over two or four slides for your webinar.  That way, you will be changing slides more frequently, capturing your audience’s attention.

2. Put less on each slide.  Make sure you only have 1-2 key points per slide.  This will help your audience focus and recognize the important information more easily. 

3. Use bullet points and a minimum font size of 24.  This will help your slides look clean, simple, and easy to read, and it will highlight your key points.

4. 4×6 Rule.  On each slide, try to use only four bullet points with six words per bullet point, or six bullet points with four words per bullet point.  This way, your slides won’t look busy or confusing. 

These guidelines will help your slides become attractive and concise, so that you can keep your audience’s attention. 

Make Every Presentation Great,

Sheri Jeavons

When you conduct webinars and web meetings, you want to engage your listeners by periodically reaching out to them and answering their questions.  If you are conducting a small session (with five or fewer participants) you can handle questions by keeping the phone lines open and having a conversation with your attendees.  But if you are hosting a session with more than five attendees, you need to establish some ground rules for submitting and answering questions to make sure things don’t get out of hand:

1. Let participants know they are muted and should type any questions in the chat panel
2. Have someone on the call with you whose designated role is to answer chat panel questions
3. Check your chat panel every couple of slides to make sure no questions have gone un-answered
4. Prepare a few questions in advance or have a “plant” in the audience to ask questions if the attendees are slow or reluctant to submit questions

Following these steps will help you handle questions promptly and professionally while engaging your virtual listeners. 

Make Every Presentation Great,
Sheri Jeavons

When conducting webinars and web meetings your goal is to be a dynamic presenter and to engage your virtual audience.  Since your audience can’t see you while you present, you need to keep them interested and on-track using just your voice.  While you may be a dynamic speaker in person, you’ve probably noticed that you fall flat during web sessions.  So how do you adjust your voice to the virtual medium? The following steps will get you on track:

1. Push your enthusiasm. One of the easiest ways to become more dynamic online is to push your enthusiasm.  Your voice can lose a lot of energy and enthusiasm when you speak on conference calls or webinars, because you are usually just speaking to your computer screen instead of to an audience.  So to re-energize your voice, ask a colleague to sit in your office with you during the webinar.  That way, you will have a live (if small) audience that you can feed off of.  Presenting to even one live audience member will automatically increase your speaking volume and enthusiasm. 
2. Stand while you talk.  This will help energize your body and voice. If you are standing, you will be more likely to gesture, which will help you to be more relaxed.
3. No reading. Make sure you only use bullet points, not sentences.  If you have sentences on your slides or if you use a script you will read and sound very monotone.

Also consider telling a story, calling out someone’s name on the call or refer to an experience or conversation you had with one of the attendees. If you follow these simple steps, you’ll be on your way to increasing your vocal enthusiasm and being an engaging online presenter!

Make Every Presentation Great,
Sheri Jeavons

To sound as dynamic and engaging as possible while conducting Webinars and Web Meetings, consider using a headset.  It is tempting to just use a speakerphone or a cell phone when calling into a Web session, but speakerphones and cell phones can make you sound distant or unclear, and they can inhibit your natural vocal energy. 

Using a headset, on the other hand, reduces background noise and helps your voice sound clearer and louder to your colleagues on the call.  And unlike a phone, a headset leaves your hands free to gesture, generating energy and enthusiasm that comes across in your voice.  Headsets have better sound quality than speakerphones, don’t have issues with bad reception (like cell phones), and allow you to gesture to unleash your vocal and physical energy.  So to help your voice sound clear and compelling on conference calls and Webinars, stop using that speakerphone and invest in a headset!

Make Every Presentation Great,
Sheri Jeavons

Many of you are conducting online meetings and webinars, and we want to help you make your virtual communications run as smoothly as possible!  All too often, Webinars and Web meetings can be disorganized and poorly moderated, because the virtual format leads to greater anonymity and less accountability.  To help your Webinars and Web meetings run smoothly and professionally, and to keep your audience engaged, I suggest setting some Guidelines for Participation at the beginning of each Web session. 

• Establish roles: who will be the presenter, host, note-taker, time-keeper, and technical support? 
• Decide whether or not the session will be recorded.  
• Make an announcement about reducing noise and distraction by having participants mute their phones.  
• Explain how questions and technical difficulties will be handled, so that participants know where to direct their issues during the session.  
• Describe which interactive tools the participants will be expected to use, such as chat, emoticons, video, or poll questions. 

By explaining your expectations, you can encourage focused and organized participation.  Announcing your Guidelines for Participation at the beginning of each Web session is a quick and easy step that can help you avoid confusion and headaches later on!
 
Make Every Presentation Great!
Sheri Jeavons

To keep your virtual audience from tuning out of your presentation, consider using interaction tools every one to two minutes. This lets your audience know that you’ll be asking for their input, looking for their response and requesting questions.

No matter what web-based meeting platform you use, it surely offers tools for interacting with attendees. These tools are the key to keeping your attendees focused and engaged.  The following tips will help you plan for interaction and help ensure your attendees are focused and getting the most out of your presentation

1. Strategize – Ask yourself:

• Who is going to be on the call? How many attendees?
• What do they want to know?
• From whom?
• When?
• At what point might my attendees lose focus?
• What is the best way to ask questions? Live questions, use chat or polls?

2. Build in time for interacting instead of powering through your presentation.

3. Plan on creating more slides with less information on each. This allows for more movement on the screen.

Make every presentation great!
Sheri Jeavons

If you’ve attended webinars or web meetings, chances are you had a hard time paying attention. It is my opinion that the responsibility for holding attendee’s attention falls solely with the presenter. 

If you find yourself in the position of having to conduct virtual communications, here are a few tips to help keep your audience on track and engaged in your presentation.

1. Set guidelines for focused participation. A few ground rules go a long way in managing the expectations of your virtual audience.
2. Quit “um-ing” and “ah-ing”.  Instead of using these distracting non-words, pause.
3. Build in time for interaction.  Plan on reaching out to your attendees using the tools available in your online meeting software including polls, chat, emoticons and the whiteboard.

For more in-depth training on how to conduct dynamic webinars, sign up for our Webinars that Wow Virtual Public Program.

Make Every Presentation Great!
Sheri Jeavons