ONLINE PRESENTATIONS - why so boring?

If we would like our audience to pay attention to us, we must understand what engages them. What should we do to create that energy and commitment that is needed for them to PAY us with their ATTENTION? We need to give them something of VALUE, we cannot afford to be boring!

During months at home-office I have seen many online presentations. I have seen many webinars. I have seen many online trainings. I have to admit that while I have «followed along», I have responded to emails, made lunch, eaten lunch, been sketching, planning the weekend, etc. I guess it is not fair of me not to pay attention, but I don't think I'm alone doing it. I think we can all relate to that. But why do we do it?

Energy and engagement are the key words

In my trainings on presentation skills, I tend to ask what makes a presenter good, what makes a presentation good. The participants create a word cloud, and just about without exception, the two most important keywords I bring with me are energy and engagement. I also asked my children (youth) what makes them follow one person's vlog and not another's. They answered the same thing: energy and the fact that they can see the presenter - it is engaging.

I think the reason is that the only thing that is a stronger snore warning than a long and tedious physical presentation is a long and tedious online presentation. If we are to get the audience to pay attention, we need to understand what engages them. Understand what to do to create energy and engagement? If we don’t, I understand that people do other things during a meeting or presentation. It is our responsibility to make people want to listen to us.

Surveys we have made, where we ask people what recognizes a good webinar/online meeting, almost 90% say energy and engagement, more than 70% say good sound and 70% say that the presentation/story needs to be easy to follow. So then you know what to do!

I presume that your content and your message is clear, the goal with your presentation is clear and that you have a concrete structure of your story which makes it easy to follow. If not, give me a good old call and I’ll help you out. What I'm dealing with in this article is how you can convey your goal and your story with energy and dedication online. I’ve got 7 tips for you.

Building a clear message with a specific structure is covered in other articles, unfortunately at this time only available in Norwegian - but again, give me a call.

1. Visuality

We must be visible for those who listen to us. They need to see us, not just our slides, sometimes maybe just us?

After all, we are social animals and we like to look at each other. One thing is that we like it and are used to it, but we have to keep in mind that a lot of communication happens non-verbally. This means that when the audience sees us, they get more than just our words . They get our gestures and mimicry of our faces too. They receive more of our communication by getting both sound and image. 

Our meetings become more engaging, more personal and closer when we can see one another. So let's hope that the threshold for turning our cameras on stays lower in the future than it has been earlier.

But, I hear from many people that they think they sound weird and look weird through the PC. Sorry folks, that's actually the way we look and the way we sound. Sorry, that’s the way it is, so get used to it. In other words: the more you can make yourself visible - and not just be a monotonous voice - the more engaged you will be and the audience will be. So, turn on your camera and look into it as you present! Do not look at your screen! Be someone who adds energy, not suck it out of the participants!

2. Good sound

Although it is important to show who you are through the camera, the sound quality is incredibly important. (as seen in our survey) I know how annoying it is when there is a lot of noise or I experience a bad line and the sound sometimes fades or is gritty. So make sure you have a good internet line and have a good microphone. If you are unsure, test it with a colleague who sits somewhere else before going live. If you can cable your connection, cable it!

3. Interactivity

We have to make sure that something happens in our presentations, that the participants are drawn into it, otherwise it gets boring quickly. We need active not passive listeners/viewers, so not just slides and monologue.

But what works? What opportunities do we have? What value does it add? Lately I have held more than 30 courses in online presentation skills with more than 750 participants. During these courses I have tested several types of interactivity, and one of them was a poll on what the participants themselves thought were good activities to run, obviously depending on the situation. 

The four most liked activities were polls, word clouds, Kahoot quizzes and discussions/breakout rooms. And I used all four, but what do they give and in what context did I use them?

Poll

I often start my course with a poll, where I ask the participants when they will give their next online presentation, and give them four response options. What I achieve with this is to set the standard early on that I expect everyone to participate in my presentations. So I create interaction, and at the same time I receive information from the participants that I use in my presentation, to make it more relevant to the participants.

WordCloud

Furthermore, I asked everyone to write 1-5 words on what they think makes a good presentation, which together became a word cloud. Again something happens, they have to be involved and they share information with me and the others. On activities like these, the tip is to be patient, it often takes time before people respond, so "rush" them a bit. The best is to send the link to the tool through your chat option. Don't panic if no one answers right away. Give them time, and you can chat a little while you wait. It always works very well and most of the time most people respond to these kinds of exercises and give you useful information.

To make it work well you need to plan it, prepare it well, then it does not have to take much time. With the right tools it is really easy to make, and there are several good tools out there. I use Multimeter or Polleverywhere, which are available in free versions that you can test before you buy. Some webinar tools also have built-in polling options, which is very good, since then you don’t have to switch applications. (both Zoom and GoToWebinar have this option)

Kahoot

As mentioned, Kahoot is also a frequently used activity. I have seen many presentation ending with a short quiz, which is entertaining, it gives a competitive feel and it reinforces your message in a good way. That said, there are a number of other great options with the payment version of Kahoot, where you can add even more to your online presentations and online courses. You can actually add your whole presentation into Kahoot. Check it out!

Discussions

You don't necessarily need a tool to run an online discussíon, but it is hard. To unmute everyone and expect people to be active is hard. When you ask an open, simple question to them, very few answers. What I normally do if I have discussions is to pick out someone, point at someone to answer. I ask one or more of the participants directly. This will at least get people to pay attention afterwards. Here we have to be kind and ask questions everyone can answer and make sure not to humiliate people, not cause anyone to lose face.

A discussion type that works really good in longer sessions, is to divide your participants into groups using i.e. the automatic breakout rooms option in Zoom. I give them all a task to solve or discuss and then I break the group into smaller groups using the option. It is really easy to visit every room during the discussion to make sure they have understood the task. WHen the discussion time is up, you close the rooms and everyone gathers again in the larger online room we started in. Then you ask for the highlights from each group, so all groups can share their findings.

This is a fantastic option making sure we have interactivity and that everyone participates in your session. This need to be well planned, but it is absolutely worth it.

4. The voice

Get up! Stand up! One thing that I always do and that I recommend everyone to do is stand up when presenting. You do it in physical meetings, so why not in online meetings?

Anyone can do it, whether you need to raise the PC with a kettle on the kitchen counter or on your ironing board, or you are lucky enough to have an option to elevate your desk, do it! Your voice is important, and your non verbal communication is important, and both will be positively affected when you stand up. You will naturally inject more energy into your voice and you will have a better, more free body language when standing up. What often makes digital presentations sleepy is monotony.

Of course, being interactive will help, as well as people seeing you will help. But think about varying your voice, and it will also help to vary your language, which is covered in paragraph 6 below. 

Why is this important? Yes, because then something happens to your voice, body language and mimicry. Those at the other end will experience more energy and dedication, and that's what we want!

 5. Slides

Spend time creating relevant and energizing slides without too much info - if you have to use slides.

Slides can be pretty boring. Some go so far as claiming that bad slides can be deadly? There are books on this, such as "Death by PowerPoint". When creating your slides, keep in mind that they should be there to support your message, not to take focus away from it.

Remember: 

• It is always you who bring the message to the audience, not the slides.
• Slides support your message with a word, short points, a figure, a picture, etc
• if the slides can add energy and feelgood there is a big plus
• someone may follow via mobile, so turn up the font size
• to showcase a process on one slide while talking about it, it can be smart to use animations, so that each step is visible at a mouse click as you talk about it 

A final tip: Sometimes we talk about things that is not on the slide, then we can press point (.) or “b” on your keyboard and your screen turns completely black. This creates awareness and people will pay attention - this I use quite often, both physically and digitally. Test it yourself.

6. Language

Also invest time in your language and plan analogies, metaphors and stories. Yes, it may take longer, but don't think too much about your time, think more about the time of the participants. Invest your time in making yourself worth listening to!

Not only should people have the pleasure of seeing you, they should also have the pleasure of seeing pictures in their minds when listening to your visually vibrant language. So don't just share facts with them - facts are boring! You also have to engage them in varying your language by using metaphors, thinking about relevant analogies, comparisons and sharing your own stories - facts tell, stories sell! Also important to be specific. You tell them they can save a lot? Tell them how much they can save? 

7. Start and finish

Start soft and plan your presentation so you can end it before the scheduled time. Then people do not have to leave before you have summarized and given them your urges as to what they should do next - your call to action!

My experience is that more people come into online meetings or presentations later than those held in a physical room. Therefore, we should plan for this, although we would like to start straight on schedule. We do not want to waste people's time. But you can start soft with something that is not essential for everyone to hear or participate in, and then dive more deeply into your message. In this way no one will be bothered by people coming late, while those who arrive late do not miss anything.

Leaving an online meeting is also easier than leaving a physical meeting. Therefore, it is especially important to finnish within the scheduled time. It is better to add 10 minutes extra to the scheduled time, so you don't have to cut anything or speed up towards the end. It is better to finish a few minutes before schedule, before people have to "run" into their next meeting.

Remember that a digital presentation is something other than a physical presentation, so make it something else too. You can't just copy what you do in a meeting room and do it online. It's not working! Believe me, I have tried.

Good luck with your next presentation!

As mentioned, I have already held 30 courses in online presentation skills. I am continuing doing so to hopefully inspire and create a big wave of great online presenters that can inspire more people out there. 

Please help me get rid of all the long and boring online presentations!  

Contact me for a customized interactive course for your company so we can get started.

Do not hesitate, email me: espenj@laeng.no or give me a call: +47 920 40 333  

You can also message me on LinkedIn if I can help you.

Yours truly

Espen J Laeng

(Illustrations by Ida Nicoline Glosimot)