8 Actionable Tips on Virtual Presentation to Rise above the Competition

You received a memo informing you that your organization has canceled all international and domestic road trips or flights due to the ongoing pandemic. Including that quarterly regional sales convention you have been prepping for months or that invitation to deliver a keynote at a B2B conference. So now what? How are you ever going to exhibit your impressive numbers and showcase your presenting skills?

Thankfully, in the ever-growing digital workplace, virtual presentations are on the rise. Consequently, with the right planning, decent internet connection, and video conferencing tools, you can deliver a high-quality, engaging presentation to the rest of the team in a virtual environment.

Virtual presentations, like in-person presentations, need to be meticulously designed. Small mistakes can make or break their success, particularly when you may not see your audience, which introduces another tier of challenges. Therefore, as a presenter, there are individual things that you should and should not do to deliver a seamless presentation.

The following are some general considerations and suggestions for running any virtual presentation and transporting live activities into a virtual setting. Note that the specific tools, features, and technological capabilities available will vary by platform.

Tip 1: Choosing a virtual platform

Choosing the wrong platform can be the difference between having a poor presentation or a great one. As the host or organizer, you get to pick the virtual presentation platform for the event. Carefully consider the size of the audience, bandwidth limitations of other attendees, and available features.

As the visiting speaker at an external event, you probably have little to no influence in choosing the platform. However, once you are aware of the selected virtual platform, ensure that you familiarize yourself with the platform, particularly if you will be switching between slides and or screen sharing. As a host or co-host, ensure other facilitators and participants receive proper training.

Tip 2: Dynamic Presentation

During an in-person presentation, we habitually employ various vital tips and tricks to keep our audience engaged. These include using appropriate facial expressions, maintaining eye contact, and hand gestures. Similarly, in a virtual presentation, you have to maintain a dynamic presence. Otherwise, statistics have shown that a passive display is one of the quickest ways to lose audience engagement other than an overly lengthy presentation. According to a Barco ClickShare study, 72% of respondents agreed that using multimedia elements made presentations more engaging.

Future predictions indicate that Augmented Reality (AR) and Virtual Reality (VR) technology will be at the forefront of virtual presentations. Businesses have already begun leveraging augmented reality in presentations to engage their audience on an elevated level, sell their products and services more effectively, and more importantly, develop a memorable brand experience. However, for traditional slideshow presentations, endeavor to keep your slides minimal, clean & colorful; be creative and make use of multimedia (bold visuals, videos, and links) content to keep your presentation exciting and attention-seeking. The content they say is King in the virtual space.

Tip 3: Involve your audience

Another critical tip is the employment of several engagement tools to increase audience involvement, such as polls, quizzes, hands-raising, asking pertinent questions, with answers given auditorily or in the chat window.  Notwithstanding, do not use these tools for the sake of inclusion. So, if a poll is inserted, ensure that the questions match your content and relevant to the presented topic.

Tip 4: The Three S’s (Stand, Stay Still & Smile)

Standing during a virtual presentation is an often-overlooked factor, particularly during the recent pandemic that forced most businesses to shutter their physical offices and workers to work from home. You may not always possess the choice of choosing whether to sit or stand. However, if you can stand, do so, as you may be able to convey more authority, avoid many potential presentation difficulties, and make it easier for your listeners to focus on you and your ideas.

Standing also improves your breathing by ensuring that you can breathe more quickly from your diaphragm and that energy can flow smoothly through your body. Additionally, standing makes it less likely for you to lean on a table or surface, which can be regarded as unprofessional. Employ hand gestures even when you are invisible.

While standing, it is crucial to remain still and in front of the camera. Balance your weight equally on both legs to keep your lower body still and minimize or eliminate shifting. Should your presentation involve moving around, gesture a bit higher than usual to ensure your audience can see them. Taking care not to move outside the camera’s viewing angle, keep your gestures contained and deliberate; doing otherwise would come off as amateurish and unprofessional.

Smiling or, at a minimum, keeping one’s facial expression neutral yet pleasant makes for a more relatable presenter. Do a few practice runs while watching yourself present. You may notice that you frown too much and or look overly serious in concentration. So, when practicing your presentation, also work on relaxing your face and smiling at appropriate moments. Eventually, you get comfortable with the content, and in turn, feel more relaxed and come across naturally.

Tip 5: Environment

Humans are highly visually stimulated animals, and our brains instantaneously register color. Thus, when setting up your camera, avoid setting up in locations with a messy or distracting background, as this may inadvertently draw the attention of your viewers away from you onto objects or other happenings besides your presentation.

Studies have shown that our brain registers color before anything else. Given that color is a powerful communicator, it helps to know how to use it effectively during presentations. Consequently, ensure you are correctly and adequately lit from above, wear neutral-colored clothing, and avoid all-black attires. From the viewer’s perspective, black-colored clothing tends to ‘swallow’ the presenter. If you have to wear black or a dark color, consider design and texture or introduce other colors to generate interest. Summarily, when choosing an outfit, think about how it fits with your overall branding.

Tip 6: Voice Modulation

Voice modulation is one of the most formidable weapons you can possess in your virtual presenting arsenal while delivering a speech. Not only does it reflect confidence, but it also helps in compelling your audience about your opinions or ideas. Many great orators have attributed their successful command over people partly due to voice modulation.

Use your voice to convey that passion and energy. When your audience cannot see you, your voice is all you have to keep your audience engaged. Therefore, your voice needs to be dynamic and engaging, or you will lose people’s attention. Practice by reading a script using exaggerated emotion, volume, and intonation. If you have a wireless headset on hand, get up and move around the room as you speak; doing this simple task may help you generate the right amount of energy in your voice.

Practice speaking at a measured pace, not too slow and not too fast. Occasionally, pause for 2 – 3 seconds when you have made a vital or transition point. Because your audience is reliant on your speech, a stillness will not only catch their attention but also return them to you.

Tip 7: Bring in a guest speaker or co-presenter.

When possible, particularly on lengthy presentations, consider bringing in a guest speaker or co-presenter to mix things up a bit. The changes in voice and style from having two presenters can keep the presentation interesting, and the audience engaged.

Still, it would be best if you choreographed the collaboration – as only one of you should be speaking at a time. Resist the temptation to interrupt each other or talk over each other. Depending on your content material and the audience, excessive inside jokes with your co-presenter might not be a good idea, as it can make the audience feel excluded.

Tip 8: Keep it short.

Lastly, presenting in person is already in itself a challenging experience. As discussed above, when we take presentations virtual, those challenges increase exponentially. During in-person presentations, we employ hand gestures, intentional body movements, track the audience’s engagement levels, use deliberate eye contact to connect with a drifting individual or sections of the audience, and redirect their attention back to us.

Virtual audiences can turn you off with a mouse click or a tap on their mobile device. Thankfully, this does not mean that all hope is completely lost. It is better to create or cover less BUT engaging content in the virtual world while keeping your presentation’s overall length to 10 – 15 minutes.

“It is not your customer’s job to remember you. It is your obligation and responsibility to make sure they don’t have the chance to forget you.”

– Patricia Fripp (Executive Speech Coach and Sales Presentation Skills Trainer)

Final Thoughts

Paying close attention and integrating these tips will undoubtedly assist in creating an engaging virtual presentation. Virtual presentations are here to stay. They are convenient, cost-effective, and gradually becoming the preferred choice for many organizations.

However, it will take some time and effort to radiate a strong virtual presence for the less experienced. Highly ranked and engaging presenters have had much-structured practice and development feedback under their belt to become masters of the art. Some have undergone coaching from skilled orators and presenters. All these merged made them the excellent presenters they are.

As time goes on, your virtual presentation skills will get better. Your knowledge and mastery of the software and various other complementary tools will improve. You become more efficient, taking less and less time to produce engaging content.