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

If you’ve conducted or have been a part of webinars or web meetings, chances are you were less than impressed.  While it’s tempting to blame the technology, the real issue is with the presenter. When communicating during these meetings, the presenter absolutely must adjust their voice to keep their audience engaged.

Because your voice is your client’s only contact with you, you must transform your voice. Learning to be more enthusiastic, insert more dramatic pauses and emphasize key words and phrases requires practice. You will need to adjust the way you speak… and believe me it is harder than you think! The number one way to do this is to avoid talking to your computer screen. Either have someone in your office with you or pretend to speak to someone far away. During one training program, one attendee even told me he was speaking to a picture of his family. When he did this, the difference in the enthusiasm in his voice was noticeable.

Another tip is to practice. Try recording yourself and listen to it to really understand what other people are hearing. It does take practice, but the first step in transforming your face-to-face communications into web-based communications is to make sure you sound engaging. Check out our Webinars that Wow Public Program for help on how to do this! 

Make every presentation great!

Sheri Jeavons