5 Keys to a Victorious Virtual Meeting

Today, the most pervasive new way to communicate is via video meetings. But, unfortunately, many people do it poorly. Someone who doesn’t know how to navigate their video calls properly is the virtual equivalent to that person you meet at a networking event with their tie askew and their collar flipped over. Practice these five keys to a virtual meeting and own the “room” like never before!

1. Proper Preparation

After nearly three months of practice, the expectation is growing that everyone should be proficient in the use of video tools. While each video tool has a different layout and different settings, it could be a good practice to download each and do some rehearsals. Some key things to know are how to turn your video on and off, how to mute yourself, and how to effectively share your screen.

The most common tools to practice on include: Microsoft Teams, Zoom, Google Meet, WebEx, and GoToMeeting. If nothing else, if you’re scheduled to go on a call with a tool you aren’t comfortable with, do yourself a favor and practice using it for 15 minutes the day before. This will ensure that the tools works on your computer and you are familiar before video meeting with others. Oftentimes, people show up late for meetings because they failed to download or update the software ahead of time. Make sure to be proactive so this doesn’t happen to you.

Internet Connectivity:

Poor internet connection can wreak havoc on a video call. Whether you’re calling in from home or the office, ensure you have fast and capable internet connection. If you have a history of slow internet at home, consider an upgrade. Some companies are investing in this on behalf of their employees and subsidizing their monthly expenditure on connectivity. You can test your internet speed here.

2. Plan Ahead

Just like in-person, meetings need to be well run in order to be worthwhile and effective. A few simple steps can make sure your virtual meetings are run well.

Who’s in charge here?

Designate one single person to be in charge. Having one individual unequivocally running the meeting will save time, energy, and confusion. This is especially true when you pick the right person. The facilitator of meeting means they’re in charge of start and end times. Virtual, and in-person, meetings should start on time and end on time. The meeting runner also ensures attendees adhere to the meeting expectations and agenda. They also do the difficult job of ensuring everyone has time to speak as well as calls on people when they “raise” their hands. Facilitators should also make sure to closely monitor the chat for any side questions that may be raised during large group virtual meetings.

While being the meeting runner might not sound exciting, it is certainly a role that saves the meeting from dysfunction and the attendees from frustration.

What’s on the agenda?

Establish a clearly defined meeting objective. Your agenda makes sure that objective is reached.

For example, if you’re holding a virtual sales presentation your objective might be, “We’re here to determine whether our product is a fit for your business.” On the other hand, an internal management objective might be, “This meeting is to ensure management is aware of current projects by providing updates form key internal departments.”

It might be a good idea to include time limits on your agenda for sub items, or speakers when appropriate. This specific outline will ensure that everything you want to cover, gets covered. (Pro tip: don’t forget to include time for question and answer if it fits with your meeting type).

An agenda should be sent out 24 hours before the meeting so that attendees have a chance to review and prepare.

3. Comprehensive Calendars

If it isn’t on the calendar, it isn’t going to happen. A common (and simple) mistake that people make when it comes to virtual meetings and events is not properly and effectively using calendars.

First off, make sure that everyone who should be at the meeting is invited to it beforehand.

If you’re sharing an event with people outside of your organization, they may be using a different calendar tool. For example, you might be on Outlook, they might use Google Calendar. These various tools don’t always talk to each other very well. So, take the time to follow-up with meeting invitees to ensure they have the information they need ahead of time and can access all of the associated video links.

Meeting notes on calendar invitations can serve as a great space for details. Use it! Include the agenda in the meeting notes, links to join the meeting, and any other reference information that might be useful to attendees. This helps prevent searching tirelessly through email inboxes- it’s all included right on the calendar!

Event Promotion:

Now is a great time for many to be actively involved in virtual events. Even if the event doesn’t look that great, people will probably show up for it. Let’s be honest here, many people are LOOKING for things to do! Plus, signing on to a virtual event is far less of a commitment than driving to one. So, you have an opportunity to engage a lot more people that normally might be hesitant. So, make sure you’re promoting your event well. Poor virtual attendance is a symptom of poor promotion. If people aren’t showing up to your event, it’s likely because they aren’t hearing about it.

There are plenty of online resources to help you promote your event. LinkedIn Events table for Company pages is an incredibly powerful way to invite people to an event. You could also use Eventbrite, Facebook, your local Chamber of Commerce, partnerships, your email list, and good old fashioned press releases. Here’s a great resource for hosting your own virtual event. (https://blog.hootsuite.com/virtual-events/)

Remember to give people enough time to get it on their calendars. Two to three weeks in advance is a sweet spot for events. If you’re posting only five days before the event, there is more than likely a conflict for more people.

4. Microphone Mastery

Know how to mute and unmute yourself. This is a BIG ONE. There are mistakes, and then there are big mistakes. A mistake is forgetting to mute your microphone. A big mistake is forgetting to mute your microphone and then going to the bathroom while on a call. Yes, it happens.

Background noise ruins meetings. If the person speaking is the only one that is unmuted, then meetings will not get microphone feedback or interruptions from background noise.

Pro tip: keep your cursor over the microphone button for the vast majority of the meeting. So, all you have to do is click!

When you’re about to speak, click to unmute.
When you’re done speaking, click to mute.
It’s that simple.

Always enter meetings on mute. There is typically a conversation happening when you first log in that you don’t want to interrupt. Unmute yourself and say hi once people have said hello.

Meeting facilitators should take on the role of monitoring when others are unmuted and causing a disruption. Don’t be afraid to ask attendees to mute themselves. If your virtual conferencing tool offers a hand-raise feature, encourage use of it and have your meeting facilitator monitor when hands are raised. This is a great tool for encouraging engagement, without running the risk of meeting disruptions.

5. Vivacious Video

The key to looking good on video chats is to… make the effort to look good. While working remotely presents the opportunity for lackadaisical grooming and dress- it also says something about your personal brand, and how seriously you take your work.

Wear something nice. Shower before a meeting. Shave. Comb your hair.

Remember that the impressions you would normally leave in person are narrowed in video calls. So things like how you shake hands or the way you smell are all narrowed down to how you look and the voice they hear. That’s it. So, control what’s in your control and you’ll make a great impression.

Captivating Camera:

Your camera placement can play a huge role in how you portray yourself.

Put your camera at eyelevel. That way, when people see you on their screen, it looks as though you are looking at them in the eye. It’s a simple little hack that makes people feel more human and connected.

Invest in great technology. If your camera gives a poor quality, upgrade it. If you look fuzzy on the screen, consider making a change.

Beautiful Background:

Control your background area by ensuring your back is to a wall. This way, you won’t get housemates walking back and forth in the background.

Make sure to keep your area clean. A simple way to ensure your background looks good is to have a bookshelf behind you. As an added bonus- pick out books and décor for your bookshelf based on who you are talking with. You’d be surprised how many people notice what you have behind you.

Many video conferencing tools allow you to change your video background to some other picture, design, or location. These can certainly be used for humorous purposes, but be prudent in who you show off your Martian planet background to. Not used in an appropriate setting, and these background end up looking chest and unprofessional.

Own your space:

If you really want to rock virtual meetings, take them from the same place every time. This way, you can perfect your lighting, background, and camera placement. You’ll be comfortable knowing that you look terrific each time you log on. This also eliminates variables, ensuring your housemates or office mates give you your space when you need it.

Lovely lighting:

Getting lighting right can be the difference between looking dashing, and looking like a DC comic villain. But getting the lighting right is also simple.

Make sure you do not have your back to a window or some other light source. The light should come from in front of you, illuminating your face.

But be careful, too much light will wash you out.

You can easily find the balance of too much light and not enough when you practice ahead of time. A great idea if to put a small, adjustable desk lamp near you, so you can change its angle to manipulate how much light goes on your face.

You’ve got this!

It doesn’t take much to look, feel, and display yourself as incredible, just a few minutes of preparation and thoughtfulness. Elevate your brand and implement the five key steps to virtual meetings. You’ll be so glad you did.

#ProblemSolved: Need more tips on virtually communicating? Our marketing team would be happy to help. Send us an email at information@ssmgroup.com