Engaging with your audience using a webinar goes beyond the capability of using social media, your website, or your professional blog.
Webinar breathes life into the eLearning content you create, it develops trust between you and your audience or attendees, and it allows you to create new relations and form prosperous professional connections.
Usually, being the host of your webinar means that you have total control over its flow and outcome.
But is this something that you can do? Would you be able to convey amusing eLearning content and engage with your audience all at the same time? Could you encourage their curiosity, motivate them, and protect their interest up to the last minute? Of course, you can do all that.
In this article, I’ll try and share some simple tips on how you can successfully host a webinar so that you can feel comfortable and highly skilled while you deliver a flawless, exciting, and encouraging webinar.
Pay good attention to the sound.
Audio is certainly the most crucial aspect of your webinar. To be sure that everything runs smoothly, keep in mind the following tips:
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Choose the right location.
Find a quiet or, if possible, a soundproof room to record. Also, make sure you are not using a wireless internet connection; rather use a landline, to prevent technical problems.
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Have a technical assistant.
Speaking of technical difficulties, have it in mind that during your webinar you are required to be focused on conveying your content. Have an assistant who simply knows how to handle technical problems, if they happen, in real-time.
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Use the right microphone.
Don’t fully depend on the built-in microphones in your desktop computer or laptop; instead, make use of external mics. If your webinar involves multiple speakers, provide yourself with a high-quality speakerphone
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Using remote interpreting as a digital tool
If you are working across international offices, make a list to help find a qualified translator or find a remote interpreting tool that covers your needs. Every report that is important to the entire company should be translated into the primary language of your other offices.
Be cautious when finding a translation service, and ensure you view their credential. You will see different free websites that claim to translate text from one language to the other, but they may not account for several languages. And sometimes, these words have distinct usages or meanings in many cultures.
But when you use remote interpreting tools it not only helps you with translating the message but is also a saver means to do so.
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Practice, practice, practice.
Do not underrate the power of practicing as people do say practice makes perfect, so try and practice multiple times before going live. To be sure that your voice is effective, you’ll want to make sure that you try as much as you can to remove every “Um” and “err” from your speech, and by practicing you’ll gain more speaking confidence.
Have your assistant or someone listen to you and offer you their honest opinion. Ask them to tell you about things you did well and the ones you should improve on. Is your vocal pace ok? Are you speaking loud enough? Is your tone okay? Are you being friendly or too serious and on point? Ask them to listen to you over and over while accessing you, to be sure that you don’t end up having to dash through your last slides.
Again, try recording yourself and reviewing the footage to see what needs working and what doesn’t.
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Remember that your voice is the connection.
Of course, you’ll need to make pauses or breaks while you are talking to your audience. Use them, but try and keep them short; do not let it pass more than 3 or 4 seconds of silence, otherwise, your audience listening to you might think that they have lost their sound.
Also, if you’re to be silent, let your audience know. For example, when you choose to give them some time to read or go through something, tell them “I will now let you read a few lines about…” based on the content or discussion you and your audience are having.
Conclusion
Webinars are here to stay. Follow these simple tips on how to successfully host a webinar and be sure that not only you have total control over this important eLearning tool, but also your audience will always keep coming back for more.
