📣 7 Common Mistakes People Make When Delivering a Webinar

“Argh! That just wasn’t what I expected!”

Over the last 12 months I have delivered over 50 online training sessions: Conferences, Awards, Webinars, Programs, Classes etc...

Here are the 7 most common mistakes people make when delivering a webinar and how to avoid them.

Unfamiliar with tech

Being unfamiliar with the tech that you are using is mistake #1. You must know the tech that you are using to deliver your webinar, whether Zoom or another webinar platform. You must know your tech, not just from the perspective of yourself as the person delivering the webinar, but also from the perspective of the people who are going to be joining your webinar. When you are familiar with your tech, you’re able to troubleshoot and support your attendees to be able to use the technology that they are hosting their webinar on.

Remaining invisible

People are there to see you. If you do not turn your camera on, and continue to hide behind your PowerPoint and remaining invisible, then people don't need you there. You can literally just send them your PowerPoint presentation or send them an audio. They joined your webinar because they want to see you there as the presenter.

Being boring

Please, don't be boring. Let your personality shine through. Flash a smile, learn to engage with your audience, learn to utilize all of your body language and all of your tonality, all of your intonation, make eye contact, communicate and engage. Create an experience for your audience, not just a boring presentation. Boredom is an event killer. If you have attended one of those boring webinars, you probably know what I'm talking about. So don't be that person.

Creating confusion

In online events, it is more imperative than in any other type of event to be clear and concise and provide great instruction and clear direction. Because the moment the audience gets confused is the moment that they drop off. They disengage, they disconnect, when you are no longer providing them any value. Be concise and instructive in the way that you deliver your event, especially when it comes to empowering people to turn on their camera or to communicate in a chat or to participate in a poll or in a breakout room or a Q&A. Be clear with your instructions. Writing it down helps too. Like what's going to happen next is X, Y, Z. It's going to happen for the next X amount of time. Or you could say “please open up the chat functionality and pop into the chat - "Yes!", or thumbs up.”

Talking too much

When you don't know your content very well, when you are nervous, when you are stressed - that’s the time where we tend to talk too much. We can waffle. We tend to get really in our heads and start to try and remember our script. So be very, very aware of the information that you're delivering, how to deliver that information in the most concise manner is going to be the key to success. Because on an online event, you will have so much less time to engage and connect and to continue to hold on to that connection and conversation. Being very strategic in your content will empower you to not talk too much, not to give away too much information and to be very clear and concise in what it is that you are delivering.

Narrating problems

This is probably my favorite. How often have you seen/heard someone go, "Okay. I'm just going to share my screen now.” “Oh, can you see that?” “Oh no, you can't see that.” “Oh, okay. Just hang on a second. It might be just on another screen." Or, "Oh, damn this worked last time." Or "Just please hang tight with me."

Do not narrate your problems while having the webinar. If you are facing some technical difficulties, instead of narrating the problems, encourage the audience to chat in a different space. This could be something like - "Pop in the chat what is the number one challenge that you're facing right now." Or you could play the magician card where the magician takes the attention with this hand and then does what they need to do with the other hand. This simply means, if you are experiencing technical problems or technical difficulties, don't narrate those problems to your audience. Encourage the people to focus somewhere else, to "chat" amongst themselves while you sort out what is happening.

Death by PowerPoint

People are there to see you, to see your face, to connect with you. Don’t have too much information on your slides. Make sure that your slides show the minimum possible information so that the maximum possible information comes out of your mouth. They are there to see you. You are your most important piece of real estate. So please make sure that you do engage using your voice, using the information in your mind rather than death by PowerPoint and having too much information.

Conclusion

They say you can learn the hard way or the easy way. This is your opportunity to learn the easy way, how to not make mistakes that others have made delivering webinars.

For more great tips on how to plan, promote and present successful events head to annaosherov.com and check out the blog!

Finally, you've liked this, if it's been valuable, please like, comment and share and I am always happy for some feedback or some extra advice. 

Remember: You Are Born To Influence Your Industry ♡