Uh oh … you’re feeling a little like that didn’t go over so well, huh?
The audience felt a little flat. Nobody seemed interested.
And now you’re worried no one will come to your next one. A web conference is a great way to educate learners on a topic and generate new leads for your business. It can also bring your telecommuting employees and remote teams under one virtual roof for training, company updates or team meetings.
Fear not! Let’s see if we can’t fix a few things. Did you happen to make any of these mistakes?
✔ You ad-libbed too much. It’s best to plan your content. When you’re running a web conference or webinar, think of yourself as a teacher. Teachers spend an awful lot of time planning out their classes. You should, too.
✔ You had too much information on your slides. PowerPoint slides should be only a capture of the discussion you’re having with your participants. Keep the text brief and in bullet points, and offer information visually in graphs, pie charts, pictures and video. Statistics show 93% of communication is non-verbal.
✔ You didn’t prep your audience. Prior to your training session on the web, you should send an agenda to your participants. That gives them the opportunity to become more familiar with the topic and prepare questions, helping you drive the discussion and ensure their interests are met.
✔ You didn’t practise. Oh boy, you went in cold? Yikes. You might be the expert on the topic and that’s why people signed up for your webinar in the first place. But you need to know your presentation inside and out and have all the kinks ironed out. Proper preparation will minimize your ‘ums’ and ‘uhs’ and make you sound like the consummate professional we know you are.
✔ You didn’t do a sound check. Or a connection check. Test all your equipment several times before the day of your presentation. Fewer things are more annoying to a webinar participant than technical glitches.
✔ You went too short … or too long. When you practise your presentation, time it. Make sure it goes as long as you said it would. Too short and participants will feel they didn’t get the full value for their time; too long and you’re infringing upon their busy schedules.
✔ You weren’t interested in your audience. There could be a wealth of knowledge sitting on the other end of that computer screen. When you ask questions, not only does your audience feel involved and valued, but you have the opportunity to learn something new.
And so you stumbled. That’s OK. Always keep in mind that we learn from our mistakes and a lot of people are willing to give us all a second chance.
If you’re looking for the right service, head on over to our web conferencing page and see why OnConference is the right choice.
