Are you ready for your close-up? Virtually Speaking with Roz Usheroff

When economies stumble, so does corporate spending. As global markets react poorly to international financial uncertainty, you can almost hear the off-site conferences, training courses and team meetings fall off the budget. Even the cost of flying in a single consultant or manager to make a presentation or attend a meeting starts to seem expensive.

Add to that, increasingly far-flung teams, more professionals working from home and the dramatically improved capability and affordability of communications technologies, and it’s plain to see that virtual communication situations of all types are on the rise.

The implications for all of us are enormous. Those who do not immediately boost their virtual communication skills are going to find themselves and their careers going the way of rotary telephones and fax machines. Your personal brand already depends largely on your skill and savvy in this arena. And ladies and gentlemen, it is tricky business.

The virtual world is expanding

Most of us are familiar with webinars, video conference calls and podcasts, but increasingly you may be asked to participate in the following types of activities virtually: job interviews, negotiations, brainstorming sessions, client reviews, team presentations, networking events, convention booth presentations and even virtual lunches. I know an executive who holds regular “virtual coffee breaks” with global team members.

The advantages in cost savings, time savings and the chance to reach global audiences impossible to meet in person all offer a world of opportunities.

A daunting task

As a communicator, however, the disadvantages can appear daunting.

Studies indicate that over 93 percent of communication is non-verbal. To compensate for this inherent loss during virtual communication, you must deliver your message to a remote audience in multiple ways.

The techniques applied in talk shows and radio broadcasts are good models. Timothy Koegel, in his book, “The Exceptional Presenter Goes Virtual”, suggests studying your favorite news or talk shows and noting the ways they structure and order their presentations, use multiple presenters and even “tease” upcoming content to keep their audience tuned in.

Are you ready?

Virtual meetings are now competing for front stage.  Are you prepared? Can you compete with highly stressed colleagues and reports who feel compelled to multi-task, especially on virtual conference calls? Virtual presentations require you to elevate your level of detail and planning, to deliver your message in a more assertive style and execute a compelling call to action.

If you thought it was hard to hold the attention of an audience sitting in front of you glancing at their smart phones, try even getting their attention when you can’t see them, hear them, or tell for sure if they’re still there.

If only we could reach out through the wires and physically connect with a team member, then solidify that special bond with a warm handshake and eye-to-eye connectivity.  Unfortunately, you are shortchanged within a virtual environment. And there is no opportunity to reinforce messages and solidify relationships at those after-work bonding dinners where borders dissolve and friendships evolve.

The rules of engagement have changed

Some of the rules of good presentation skills transfer to the virtual environment, but many do not. Plus, news skills are critical to your success as a virtual communicator – from choosing the appropriate technology, to using it effectively, to making sure your audience is engaged and comfortable interacting in the virtual environment. Traditional ways of connecting with an audience in person – such as body language and eye contact – must be compensated for using new, virtual contact tools.

I feel so strongly about the urgency for all of us to accelerate our skill sets in this area that I am devoting this and the next few e-newsletters to this topic.  We will explore everything from choosing and leveraging virtual meeting technology to creating your virtual presentation, delivering it, engaging your audience during it and following up afterwards.

Four Principles of Remote Presenting

Never assume that your virtual attendees will be listening.  To become a master of virtual meetings, you must remember four key principles:

1.  MAKE YOUR MESSAGE RELEVANT:  Your virtual presentation opening must grab the immediate attention of your listeners and be clear, relevant and succinct.

2.  MAKE YOUR ATTENDEES IMPORTANT:  Participants need to feel that their participation is valued and important. Express your appreciation and explain why you asked them to join in.

3. MAKE YOUR MESSAGE EXCITING:  You must deliver your message with greater passion, inflection and conviction than in person.

4. MAKE YOUR MEETING INTERACTIVE:  Your virtual meeting must be interactive and quick paced. The sooner you involve your audience, the quicker you create a virtual community and inspire others to participate.

What kind of participant are you?

Equally important to your personal brand is how you approach virtual meetings as a participant. The way you attend a virtual meeting, how actively you participate and support the presenter, is a leadership opportunity that I believe few have even contemplated. I don’t want you to miss a single opportunity to leverage these new ways of communicating to build your personal brand.

Tips for having a stronger virtual voice:

• Stand for projection when you are speaking
• Walk to keep your energy up
• Smile when you speak
• Vary your intonations (including pitch, volume and inflection)
• Sound animated and excited about your material
• Use pauses frequently to separate important points and when delivering complex information
• Gesture as if you have a live audience

Tomorrow we’ll look at how you plan a virtual presentation and the technologies and support tools that can help you become an engaging and successful virtual communicator.

For now, become a student of virtual communication. Next time you’re a participant, jot down what worked well and what didn’t. What would you have done differently as the presenter? Don’t forget to take notes next time you watch the news. Watch how the professionals come across screen to screen and start thinking about how you can emulate their best practices.

Making a connection with your audience . . . virtually speaking

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“Power Points” To Make Your Virtual Meetings Visually Entertaining

How many of you would bet that your audience will be multi-tasking as you host your typical Monday virtual meeting? Grabbing and holding their attention is not an easy task, but it can be done and, as usual, I have my perspectives.

To lead a successful virtual meeting, add facilitator to your role. You then become responsible for setting the stage by engaging them with thought provoking questions and entertaining them with visuals that capture and hold their attention. Sadly, virtual meetings can often appear to be a disorganized assortment of unprocessed ideas, boring delivery and overstuffed slides that leave participants frustrated and feeling that nothing much was accomplished.

If you invest your time and talent to capture your participants’ attention, you’ll brand your meetings as productive and entertaining. This eletter will provide you with visual tips to assist you.

Make your visuals as important as your agenda

Put yourself in the shoes of your participants. Will they understand your perspectives? Will they see the logical progression that must come together to achieve your desired outcome? Will they enjoy the delivery as much as the content? If the information is critical to seeking consensus or a decision, ask yourself if your visuals paint the picture you want to paint?

Studies by 3M/Wharton School demonstrated the positive effects of using visuals in presentations and witnessed improved group consensus by 79 percent. Another study determined that audiences retain 10 percent of audio heard and 20 percent of visuals seen, but retain 65 percent when audio and visuals are combined. If you really want to excel as a virtual presenter, your visuals must be purposeful and memorable.

Death by PowerPoint

PowerPoint does provide a visual element to what would often otherwise just be a conference call.

But one of the biggest mistake presenters make is to view their PowerPoint deck as their presentation. A successful virtual presenter knows PowerPoint is simply a vehicle for varied and creative visual images that support a powerful and well-constructed message.

The PowerPoint experts will tell you to plan one to two slides per minute and approximately six lines with six words per line. I suggest using photos, video, YouTube clips and even animations liberally along with 10 words or less per slide.

Three things you must never say during your virtual PowerPoint presentation:

• “I have a lot of slides here, so I am going to move through them quickly.”

• “I know this slide is a little hard to read.”

• “This chart is really too complicated to explain.”

It’s not your audience’s job to blink through too many slides. As a presenter, it’s your job to hone your presentation until every slide is clear, creative and absolutely necessary.

Four things you must never do while making a virtual PowerPoint presentation:

• Never read your slides. It sounds obvious, but this can insult your virtual colleagues.

• Never write your entire presentation in bullet points on a series of slides. This is called “Death by PowerPoint” because that’s what it feels like to your audience.

• Never present more than one idea per slide. Your audience will finish reading your third point before your first one leaves your lips; then good luck getting their attention to make a U turn.

• Never recycle a slide deck from another presentation just because it already exists. If you start flipping through and skipping less-relevant slides, you are showing your audience they are not important enough to merit creating a presentation specific to them and their needs.

Interactive and personal

We have discussed in previous newsletters the challenge of engaging the virtual audience and making your presentation personally relevant to them. This is where PowerPoint can actually be your pal.

Let’s say you are planning a presentation to an international team, many of whom may not have met in person. You might solicit photos or trivia from your participants in advance that you could work into your PowerPoint slides. I did this recently in Mexico City and the participants were so appreciative.

Tips for a successful virtual PowerPoint presentation:

• Create at least one slide that calls your audience to action. For example, a simple quiz that asks them to write something down or choose between options or vote for their favorite idea. If you get them to pick up a pen or click on a polling question, they are engaged.

• Count your slide; count your minutes. Practice your presentation out loud and time it. Plan to take at least five minutes less than your allotted time.

• Think white space. When creating your slides, go long on photos, evocative quotes and symbolic images and short on words. A slide should be aesthetically attractive, simple and easy to digest. It should never be cluttered, crowded, or cause your audience to squint.

• Use simple charts and graphs. Each should illustrate a single point. If it takes you two minutes to explain a graphic, it’s a bad graphic. Toss it and start over.

• Use photos liberally. The cliché is correct: a picture is worth 1,000 words, especially to the substantial portion of your audience who are visual learners. A memorable photo appropriately paired with a core message will anchor that message in their brains.

• Consider creating separate handouts that you can email your participants after your presentation to fill in details that are not fleshed out in your slides.

Remember, your PowerPoint is NOT your presentation. It is an entertaining visual vehicle to reinforce your core messages. So keep the momentum going and use your slides to animate your ideas, help your audience to visualize a key point or share a personal side of you. Never use slides as a substitute for not knowing your material. Remember: It is quality not quantity that counts.

Expand your creative talents and listen for the applause!

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