If you were hoping that online meetings or web meetings would fall by the wayside, I’m afraid you’re out of luck. Global markets are in distress. Budgets are cut. Travel isn’t an option. More companies are turning to web-based communication to stay competitive and productive during these difficult times. If your company is conducting web meetings, you’re likely going to have to learn to adapt.

Unfortunately, a lot of business professionals I talk to find web meetings challenging and unproductive, which is the exact opposite of what business leaders hope to accomplish. Whether you’re using WebEx, Citrix, Live Meeting or Adobe Connect, the functionality is similar. We have discovered that it’s not the platform that determines the success or failure of web meetings; it’s the communicator.

Hosting web meetings poses many challenges and requires you to communicate differently. If you thought you could take your face-to-face meetings and use the same format in an online format, it’s not going to work very well. But don’t fear, there are strategies that can help you make the most of your web meetings. Here are three tips you can implement today:

1. Stay on Track: It is true that online meetings save you time and travel dollars. However, you’ll need to allocate more time to preparing for your online meeting. In order to make your meetings effective, keep attendees engaged and accomplish your desired outcomes, you need to plan more aspects of the meeting than ever before. You need to plan for interaction. You need to have more slides and more animation in your presentation. You need to spend more time thinking about your attendees, what they need to accomplish, and how you can make the process easy for them. When you develop your agenda and presentation, be sure to think of your audience first. Never before has an audience-focused agenda been so important.

2. Stay on Topic: Within the first two minutes of your meeting be sure to state your audience’s goal and the value the information you are presenting brings to them. This will help everyone stay focused and leaves no doubt about what’s in it for them. Within those first two minutes you should also state the agenda including timeframes, who will be speaking, when they will be speaking, and on what topics. Create the agenda and stick to it! If you’re known for sticking to your agenda, your audience will log in to your meetings anticipating an informative and productive session.

3. Stay on Time: The days of two-hour meetings are over. It is simply too long to expect people to pay attention while sitting at a computer. Your web meetings should run no longer than 45 minutes. If necessary, schedule shorter meetings that occur more frequently. Believe me; it is more productive to have four 30-minute sessions than one two-hour session. People will be interrupted by colleagues, check e-mails, surf the web or just zone out after 45 minutes.

By now we all know about the physical disconnect that occurs with Webinars and Web meetings. There is a way around it. Watch my video blog for tips to use the webcam effectively.

Make Every Presentation Great!

Sheri Jeavons

When you conduct Webinars, you want your attendees focused on your message. It is up to you to keep them on track. Check out this week’s video blog for tips to keep your webinar attendees enthralled:

When I ask my webinar attendees what they find boring or frustrating about Webinars, I often hear about boring slides, a lack of interaction, and about presenters who read text straight from the slides. We’ve all been there… mind numbing, isn’t it? Here are a few tips to help you create great webinar slides:

When conducting webinars, it is crucial that you pause while speaking. This allows your attendees time to digest what you’ve said. Here is how you can implement pausing into your delivery style to create great webinars:

When conducting virtual meetings, your voice serves as your main connection with the attendees. It is important that you sound confident and decisive to maintain their attention. To do this, consider implementing the following techniques:

1.       Push your energy and enthusiasm

2.       Pause and breathe

3.       Articulate, enunciate and use good diction

4.       Use inflection

5.       Vary your voice: speed up and slow down

6.       Use a natural, conversational voice

To make sure that you are sounding confident, conduct a mock meeting and record yourself. As painful as it can be, hearing yourself is the best way to make the improvements to conduct dynamic virtual meetings.

Make every presentation great!

Sheri Jeavons

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