How to Keep Your Virtual Audience Engaged
Photo by Luca Upper on Unsplash
When presenting virtually, it can be difficult to hold your audience’s attention. With multiple screens, incoming email, chats, alerts, children, pets, and the doorbell, you’ve got your work cut out for you.
Here are three ways to keep your audience engaged:
Ask your audience to answer a question related to your topic at the beginning. Use their answers in chat as a springboard for discussion or refer to them throughout your presentation. This ensures that everyone is engaged right from the get go. When I’m leading training on presentation skills, I often ask “What’s the biggest challenge you face when presenting to a virtual audience?” Not only can I refer to their answers throughout my training, but I can learn more about their specific challenges and can speak to what they care about.
Creating participation. Sprinkle your presentation with polls, questions and breakout rooms. Any time you can get your audience to DO something rather than be passive, they’re going to have a better experience. If using breakout rooms, be sure to give your audience a heads up at the beginning, and plan the breakouts for later in the session in case some people can’t (or don’t want to) participate.
Show a video or invite a guest speaker. Attention spans are shorter than ever, so shift the voice by showing a short video or introducing a guest speaker to keep folks tuned in. Just be sure to test the video beforehand, and have someone assigned as your tech host to assure all is running smoothly. I log into the meeting beforehand on my ipad and have it as an additional monitor to get an audience view, so I know I’m sharing what I want them to see.
Need help facilitating a group, leading a team, or preparing for a high-stakes presentation? Not sure of the best way to lead a meeting over Zoom? Book a discovery call with me here!