2020 has been the year of turning everything virtual, on doing no matter what, to keep reaching the people, transforming into online services, communicating through screens. Figure out along the way how to do it. After twelve months of already trial and error, 2021 is the year of succeeding in the virtual world. Trying is not an option anymore, we need to know how to do it and we are expected to know how to do it, whether we are CEOs, mid-managers or occasional speakers. Turning virtual all sorts of previous live events turned out to be quite a challenge, one bigger than expected. For example, we were used to giving presentations in front of a large room of people, or organizing relevant meetings are now struggling on their laptops, and now we are trying to reach our audience via teleconferencing software. And there, they found a huge new challenge: keep the audience engaged with the content, ensuring they’ll stick around to the end of the webinar to hear the call to action or receive the necessary guidance to move forward effectively with a project. 
If it is already hard enough to get people to pay attention in meetings when everyone’s in the same room, imagine if they are calling from home. How can you get people to actually participate in a virtual meeting? How can you ensure they are paying attention and recalling the messages you are sending? How can you make the attendees feel engaged and connected? Why is this so difficult? Why cannot we give the exact same presentation and expect the same impact as doing it live? Because:
So, what do we do? What options do we have? How to ensure an equally intense and productive experience virtually?
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If it is already hard enough to get people to pay attention in meetings when everyone’s in the same room, imagine if they are calling from home. How can you get people to actually participate in a virtual meeting? How can you ensure they are paying attention and recalling the messages you are sending? How can you make the attendees feel engaged and connected? Why is this so difficult? Why cannot we give the exact same presentation and expect the same impact as doing it live? Because:
- Expectations. It is a fact that most of the virtual meetings or events are not the best experiences, so we already attend them assuming they will get boring at some point, with a back up plan to do something else meanwhile.
- Easy distractions. There is a lot of competition for the participants’ attention: emails, calls, phone notifications, social media… Participants can “pretend” to pay attention and be doing something else without you realizing it. And they know it.
- Overload of very similar stimulus. The participants are sitting down looking at the screen all the time, at a full of information powerpoint listening to the same voice. And chances are that is not their first virtual meeting/event of the day, neither the last one. So their brain gets saturated and loses interests in paying attention passively to the immobile screen.
- Lack of feedback. Humans normally rely heavily on visual feedback when we work with a team: in a video call, we get less visual feedback, which makes us more tired trying to pick up other cues to gather the same amount of non-verbal information. It makes us feel more vulnerable.
- Lack of natural connexion. In a physical environment, the moments just right before the start of the meeting or the event, the breaks, the coffee time.. Those are precious moments where participants disconnect, move, reactivate their body and bring back oxygen to their brains and, most importantly, talk to each other and connect. Those random moments are the ones that, we as social species, we value the most. And they don’t happen naturally in a virtual environment.
- Technology is unpredictable. Doesn’t matter how “experts” we claim to be, we are not as familiar with softwares as we are in live social situations, so there will be always this tiny fear that something will go wrong and we won’t be able to fix it.
So, what do we do? What options do we have? How to ensure an equally intense and productive experience virtually?
- The first 60 seconds. Hook the attention of your audience with a compelling story, make them feel it is worth their time to give you all their attention. Surprise them! In only 60 seconds you can win or lose your audience. Make them count!
- Be relevant to your audience. You are competing with many more distractions than in a live world, so you need to personalize your content and make it even more relevant for them to stay and listen to your whole message.
- Adapt the content. Instead of just delivering information in the same way you would do live, reframe your content with a virtual audience in mind. How are you going to engage people? Use breakout rooms, polls, chat.. The possibilities are endless!
- Engage. Engage. Engage. Frontal presentations are boring. And most of the information can be found on the internet or in an email. Participants go to events to talk to each other, to learn from each other, to share their own experiences and practices. Facilitate that opportunity and you won’t miss!
- Mind your body language. Make it easy for the audience to get your non verbal cues. Mind how they see you and hear you through the camera and move and talk and express accordingly. Make them feel you are talking just to them. How? For example, look straight to the camera instead to the screen. The audience will feel you are looking straight at them.
- Stand up. Present standing up, as you would do in a live stage. That would help to keep your energy high and your tone less monotone, which will be transmitted to the audience. But don’t forget to put your computer in front of your eyes!
- Watch out your background. Keep in mind what it is seen behind you through the camera. And adjust the lighting so the audience can see you perfectly.
- Technology back up plan. Have a plan B for all the activities or possible internet of software failures you can anticipate. And test it all in advance. That will give you back some of the control and security of being fully prepared.
Did you like these tips? Would you like more? Discover our training in virtual needs in http://innovao.cluster030.hosting.ovh.net/services/online-trainings/ and learn how to …
- Keep the attention
- Maintain a high energy of the audience
- Intensify the experience
- Boost the engagement and interaction between the attendees
- How to forget you are online!