Working seamlessly with a computer screen has become an ever more important skill in effectively delivering messages to clients and prospects. The ball game of wooing prospective clients these days, after all, has been played increasingly via online presentations and video conferencing.
And if you want to wow them? Set the game a notch a higher and master the art of video conferencing. It is simply undeniable that we now live in a time when our digital duties are ever expanding and more and more of our professional tasks are lived using webcams. Connecting with clients through video conferences, presenting your business organization’s messages to prospects using webinars, even popularizing a video infomercial all require intimacy with computer cameras and screens.
Speaking to an audience is always a daunting task to most, and public speaking in the cyber world, such as, in the case of video conferences does not make the task any less overwhelming. But there is a good news attached to this otherwise extremely daunting task – you can up the game for your video conference presentations and take the cyber world by storm by following these few simple tips:
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Tip #1: Get it right on the setting
And when we say setting, we mean the whole visual package that you and your surroundings deliver to your audience.
Your background, the things around you, and how you appear to the audience – all these are important aspects of delivering a wow factor. Consider this for a moment: Your prospect gets into a video conference where you are to present your latest business product, takes a first look at you through their computer screen and gets so distracted from what you are saying because of the visual clutter you are transmitting through the screen.
Ask yourself this: Even if you are delivering the best content your audience could probably hope for, will you wow them if they won’t even look at their screens? The answer for sure is a resounding no. You can’t expect to wow your audience if they won’t even look at you because they don’t like what they are seeing. And by this we mean you should prepare your setting to be as visually appealing as possible.
- Choose a location with good lighting (no squinting for your audience, please) and make sure that your camera zooms in on you (your audience want to see you, not the busy wallscape around you, of course).
- Remove the clutter around you, on your desk, on the wall behind you, and never ever choose a busy hallway for a background.
- Make sure that your ‘upper half’, the part of your body seen by your audience as they watch and hear you speak, exudes orderliness and credibility.
- And one more thing, remember that horizontal and repeating patterns don’t register well on screen and could even create the illusion of movement that will distract your audience.
Tip #2: Always incorporate visuals but never, never overdo them
The best way to a presentation that ‘wows’ the audience is one which seamlessly unites form and content. While it is true that what you are saying is the most important thing for your audience, the way you say is always an enabler for grasping the message. So, pay attention to how you present your message and always keep in mind that a sprinkling of effective visual messages is a necessary factor not only to impress your audience, but also to keep their attention at bay.
There is, however, a cardinal rule when it comes to the use of visuals in presentations: Never ever overdo it. Visuals are there to simplify the discussion and guide understanding, not to overwhelm and distract your audience from the content and meaning of what you are saying.
Tip #3: Always connect with your audience
Be it through giving eye contact or keeping things interactive, you should always aim for making a connection with your audience. Always keep eye contact, talk sincerely and with a lot of room for humor and interest, give room for direct interaction with your audience through Q&A or addressing their specific concerns. Communication, even those done through video conferencing, is always a two-way street and you better keep it that way.
That you are presenting immediately to your webcam and computer screen does not mean your eyes should stray or that you go look somewhere and everywhere else. Look at the webcam (don’t look at the screen even if you are raring to see how your face registers online) and keep your webcam at eye level so you don’t appear to be looking down or up to your audience.
You may also try the trick of keeping a window open that shows yourself as you appear on screen to your audience and place it as close as possible below your webcam so you can check on how you look from time to time.
But best of all, know that you have to keep your presentation interactive.
Adding a Q&A portion, doing an online poll or interspersing ‘Do you have any questions?’ in your presentation are not the only things you can do to keep things interactive. Master the art of looking and sounding approachable, so your audience warms up to you and feel engaged with you and your presentation.
Bottom Line
These are just some of the things you may consider in striving to achieve a wow factor in your video conference presentations. As you progressively learn what works and what does not work in videoconferencing, you may also incorporate some of the best practices you have noted to further improve your mastery of videoconferencing.
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