Engaging Your Audience

by Cindy Stradling CSP, CPC

During a recent Presentation Skills program that I was delivering I was asked the question “How do you keep an audience that you cannot see engaged?”  I had not been asked that question in the past and it made perfect sense that I should include this in my future programs, given the amount of teleconferences and webinars that take place today.

I asked my alliance partner Claire Sookman , who does virtual training for a few tips.  I also did a little research and thought I would share with you my findings:

Tips to Promote Engagement when you cannot see the audience

Use language to promote engagement:

ASK:  What questions do you have?  Instead of:  Are there any questions? (this will likely result in silence)

STATE:  I’ll give each of you one minute to write down your question and then we will begin with  ________________________

OPTIONAL QUESTIONS TO ASK:

If you had a question, what might it be?
What question might someone else on the call have?

When I first heard this information I had some questions and they were __________________ so what might be some of yours?

TIPS:

Whenever possible, enforce a strict no mute button rule during a teleconference or web conference
Check with group regularly e.g. every 6 minutes or after 3 slides
Call the behavior (ex. if you hear silence it can mean many things – I’m thinking, I agree, disagree, I stepped away from the computer) ask people directly, I am hearing silence and I am not sure what it is about.

I recommend publishing the following 10 Conference Etiquette Tips to participants:

1. Distribute and agenda – start and stop on time
2. Arrange call in non-lunch time hours (encouraging people to not eat on the call)
3. Treat the conference call the same as a face-to-face meeting (no emails, no cell phones or texting)
4. Be on time for the call (if you are the moderator send dail in #, pass code and instructions multiple times)
5. Participate with the assumption your line is never muted (can save embarrassment)
6. One person speaks at a time (do not talk over people)
7. Don’t shuffle papers
8. Do not take another call
9. Do not use hold button (this can make annoying and distracting noises)
10. Speak loudly and clearly – identify yourself when you speak