Y’all.
I have been in webinar hell. Without naming any names, I’ll share that I’ve been grinding through a bunch of webinar content in order to get a specific professional certification re-upped.
The people who recorded the webinars seem to be knowledgeable, nice folks. But they are missing the mark in a couple of ways that could really make a difference to me (at least) as a viewer.
- Be very clear about what the session is for, and what the viewer can expect to walk away with. A slide listing your agenda bullet points isn’t enough: connect the dots explicitly throughout your talk.
- If you’re going to be visible, please do the basics of elevating your camera to eye-level and making sure you’re well-lit. (One gentleman’s camera was set so low that it felt like I was looking up at him from below his coffee table.)
- If you’re not going to be visible, make your voice clear and engaging without being too casual.
- If possible, have your video hosted on a platform that allows the viewer to control the viewing speed. Being able to speed up or slow down the video is a major benefit for the audience.
- Get to the point. Don’t spend a lot of time chatting, making the point repetitively, or sharing redundant slides. Concise is nice.
I finally finished watching everything I had to in order to get recertified, but I can’t tell you that I really learned that much. The user interface was such an obstacle that it left me feeling like I wanted to rush through it to get it over with.
I know you don’t want the people watching your webinars to feel this way! Take a few extra steps to make your work clear, concise, and engaging.
As always, I am grateful to all of you who are readers of this blog! If you know someone who would find it valuable, please forward this to them!
