If you’re considering webinars as a way of getting your message across to a large audience or would like to know how to conduct better webinars, then you might want to read on. Webinars not only offer a valuable e-learning experience to guests, members, or employees, but are also a cost-effective, time saving way of keeping people in the know.
Whether you’re looking to host your first webinar or are a seasoned pro, here are 4 top tips that you could learn from that will make your future presentations both slick and professional.
Do a test run
‘Prior preparation prevents poor performance‘ or so the saying goes. So if you don’t want your webinar to be full of glitches, don’t wait until the eleventh hour before logging into the platform. Instead do a test run at least the day before. Ask friends, employees, or family to attend a mock webinar and get feedback on factors such as background noise, clarity, organisation, and the learning experience as a whole. Then take action on constructive feedback by ironing out any problems. This way, when it’s time for light’s, camera, action, you’ll be ready to go.
Provide concise instructions
Even though you may be an old hand at web based seminars, chances are your audience won’t be. So if you want to conduct better webinars moving forwards then you’ll need to provide clear concise instructions before they log on to the interface. You should take the time to walk them through the various features and functions that they might need during the event and most importantly, make it clear when they can ask or answer questions. Don’t forget to check sound levels. Get your audience to give a signal in the chat box if they can hear you. Remember the easier you make it for your audience, the more successful your presentation is likely to be.
Get yourself a wingman
If you’ve held webinars before then you’ll know that something almost always goes wrong. So to keep your webinar on track have a wingman who is ready to jump right in to deal with any given situation as and when the need arises. This way you won’t be distracted and lose focus. That said, you shouldn’t be afraid to pause the webinar temporarily if a situation calls for it. Besides, your audience won’t mind finding out that you’re only human too. Try to stay flexible, have a back up-plan and above all maintain a sense of humour.
Record the event
Finally you should always look to record any webinar you hold for various reasons.
Firstly – Any attendees will have the opportunity to reference the meeting at a later date, but in addition, any people who couldn’t for whatever reason make the webinar can still access the information.
Secondly – It gives you a chance to edit out any problems or glitches as mentioned above, so anyone listening to the recording gets a problem-free webinar experience.
Thirdly – By playing back the recording it gives you a great opportunity to go over your performance and find out where your strengths and weaknesses lie. You might find that you need to speak clearer or more slowly, or there may be places where you waffled on unnecessarily, or over-explained a point. The bottom line is that by making notes, you can use this recording as a platform to conduct even better webinars moving forwards.
So there you have it. 4 top tips to conducting better webinars in 2016. Remember with a little prior preparation, planning, and a sense of humour, you can create slick, professional webinars that will leave your audience impressed.