Virtual Presentations: How to Engage Your Audience — When You Can’t See Them

It can be a challenge to know how your audience is reacting when you can’t see them.

You schedule a call with a few people on your team to discuss progress on a project. With a geographically-dispersed team, you get on your company’s Skype, Zoom or WebEx, and start the call. Some people join via video, while others join by phone only, because they’re in the car, at the airport, or because “they’re having trouble with the video” (code for: I’m not wearing any makeup, I’m still in my pyjamas, or truthfully, I’m actually having trouble with the video).

As the meeting goes on, you find that you’re doing much of the talking – almost too much. The others on the call aren’t joining in the conversation so readily, they’re not speaking up unless asked, and sometimes when you call on them, you could swear that they just aren’t paying attention.

If you’re reading this post, it’s probably because you’ve been on calls just like this. Either as the leader who is trying to get the listeners engaged — or as the person on the other end, pretending to listen (don’t worry, no judgement here!)

And so goes the problem with web-based meetings and conference calls.

So what can you do about it?

There are so many videoconferencing systems being integrated into organizations today (like Skype, Zoom, WebEx, and so many more). Video-based meetings can certainly increase engagement levels of those on a call. But even with the video option, some people may turn off their camera so that they can’t be seen — and as a result, they may feel like they have a ‘free pass’ to pay less attention to the meeting, assuming that their presence is enough. They then proceed to answer their emails, check their phone, go onto mute and speak to someone else in the room, or zone out on Facebook or Instagram.

Here are a few questions about this topic I received while delivering this topic at a recent conference:

1. How do I deal with virtual presentations where I can’t see my audience?
2. How to I deal with people on conference calls when I can’t see them and don’t know if they’re zoning out? 
3. What are some tips/strategies to engage my audience when delivering a virtual presentation, and how can I ‘check in’ with them to ensure they are still listening?

You can still stop your audience from disengaging even if you can’t see them. Some of the advanced features in the webinar systems, like polls or multiple-choice questions, have proven to be very effective for online calls. However, if you’re worried that those features may only engage them for a moment and then they’ll drop off again, here are some other ideas that you can integrate right from the START of your presentation – and throughout it — to let them know that you’re expecting some engagement (as opposed to just blindly delivering information):

• “Throughout this presentation I’ll be asking for some of your feedback and ideas, so if you can just keep your finger on the mute button to ‘un-mute’ yourself and pop in at those times, that would be appreciated.” (this assumes that you will be adding elements to your presentation that requests their feedback)
• “I have questions for some specific people on this call. Their answers will help us move this project/pitch forward, so it would be very helpful to have your full attention.”
• “I’ll keep this call/presentation as short as possible, and we’ll be able to power through it if I can get your full attention so that we can work through all the issues and ‘moving pieces.’”

Directing your questions or update requests to specific individuals, asking for their feedback, input, comments, insights and advice, can be a very effective tactic to keep them listening. If they know that this is your style of presentation — a style that requires them to participate, because you’ll be regularly calling on them — it will make it far more difficult (and even unpleasant!) for them to tune out. On top of that, if you call them out and they’re not paying attention, it may make them feel awkward among the others on the call, for being caught zoning out. The flipside is, being caught not paying attention can make them actually pay more attention and participate more actively for the rest of the call. Which is a total win, and exactly the result we want from our virtual calls.

To run a truly successful web-based meeting or conference call may require some extra preparation from you at the outset, so that you can plan exactly where and when you are going to ‘force’ your audience to engage. So while you’re diligently putting in that preparation, just think of that great feeling of reward — and recognition from your clients and colleagues — when YOU become one of the few select individuals who can run a highly-effective and highly-engaged virtual meeting or conference call.