Improve your webinar presentations with these practical tips

1)  Write an Outline and Script

This might sound like a commonly-practiced presentation tip, but many people prefer to “wing it” rather than outline and script their webinar.  An outline is the number one step to guarantee focus.  Make sure you know and outline what key points you want to cover, what you want to show the audience–as far as visuals, and what types of activities you will want to include (like guest speakers, polling, Q&A-style chat, etc.)

After a bulleted outline is created, development of a basic script is recommended.  This will keep you on-track, focused, and perhaps more comfortable. Memorizing the entire script is not for everyone, but memorizing key bullet points will ensure a smooth and professional presentation.

2)  Keep the Introduction Short

Introductions are important, and should always be part of your webinar presentation, but this tip suggests that you design your introduction to be brief in order to grab audience attention.  Tailor your intro to be unique—with a question, quote, statement, visual, or sound.

Go into the basics: who you are, why you are holding a webinar, why the attendee should listen/watch.  Plan to provide your attendees a minute or two to join the meeting before executing your well-crafted introduction, beginning the webinar with music or visuals (like slides or photos.)

3) Practice and Hold a Full Run-Through

Once you have crafted your outline and/or script, be sure to run through the presentation out loud.  Actors and public speakers suggest practicing speaking in front of a mirror, or even a camera, so you are able to get comfortable and observe your actions. InstantPresenter’s platform affords you the opportunity for presentation rehearsal. It is highly recommended that you rehearse your webinar online.

This way, you are able to test lighting and sound.  Your rehearsal should include all features of your presentation such as slide transitions, polling, questions, and so forth. Allow time for every feature in a realistic manner. You can set up an online “practice room” to hold a rehearsal that is visible to someone else.  Ask a friend or colleague to log-on to that practice arena, so they can view the presentation and provide you with feedback.  You can also record your rehearsal using the on-demand recording feature.

4) Dress Appropriately

The way you appear, will most likely provide a first impression to your audience, so be sure to look appropriate when presenting.  In most cases, you can never go wrong with professional or business attire, and it is highly recommended. If your message, company, product, or webinar attendees are more on the casual side, you might want to dress in something comfortable and basic. No matter the style, dress in solid colors; stripes tend to transfer poorly through a webcam, creating blurring lines.

Grooming yourself is important, but there is no “right” or “wrong” way to look. If you want your facial features to stand out clearly, and not be washed-out by lighting, make-up is typically encouraged.  It is also ideal to make sure that your hair is pulled back, so your face is seen, and there are no disturbances when you present.

5) Adjust Levels Prior to the Webinar

During your rehearsal, you have an opportunity to test volume levels and camera angles.  InstantPresenter will prompt you to check the volume when you are ready to start your presentation, but it is always smart to know this type of information in advance. Make sure that your voice, sound, and music levels are not “clipping” (this is when your voice sounds sharp and abrupt when the volume hits a certain level.)

6) Relax

During rehearsal and when it comes time to present live, just relax. Remember to breathe, and stay in the moment. If you keep your objective in sight, you will present more effectively and comfortably.  Whether you are presenting to many, or to a small audience, try to remain confident.  Expect the unexpected, and remember to continue if you flub a line or click to your next slide too quickly. Your recovery will determine the success of your presentation.

7) Speak Loud, Clear, and Enunciate

Your voice may be one of the strongest elements in your presentation, and if you sound nervous or shy, no one will buy-in. You can eliminate such an issue by speaking loud, clear, and fully enunciate your words. Not to be overdone and silly, enunciation is vital in public speaking.  Not every word will be reiterated by your slide presentation, so it is important that your attendees hear what you are trying to convey.

Vocal patterns can sometimes sound boring or too scripted, so be sure to change your vocal patterns from time to time. This will grab audience attention when an important or exciting point is conveyed. Try to read your audience, knowing the demographic ahead of time if possible, so you can adjust your enthusiasm level appropriately. You want to excite and motivate, but do not want to scare anyone.

8) Pace Yourself

Pacing the presentation appropriately is important, and can make or break an event. Try not to speed through the webinar out of nervousness, or speak and present too slowly. Practice a smooth pace, and time yourself.  You will most likely indicate a presentation length ahead of time, so make sure you follow this time frame.

Of course, if audience participation calls for an extension, or the webinar is winding down for any reason, use your best judgment in when to stop broadcasting. Try not to start late, but as addressed earlier, it is a courtesy to give the attendees a minute or two to log-in and get adjusted. On the other hand, do not stall too long, or you may upset the audience members who have arrived on time.

9) Engage Your Audience and Maintain Attendee Interest

The most important tip I can offer is to engage and maintain your attendee interest during the presentation. InstantPresenter feels strongly about this, and continues to develop features that foster attendee engagement and participation.  Questions can easily be asked or answered by attendees through a chat module during the presentation, and polls can be included for instant feedback.

You can engage your audience members with slide sharing, as well as sharing your own screen.  There are annotation tools available for a whiteboard effect—highlighting the key points. Additionally, InstantPresenter offers a High Quality Video feature, which is a great way to grab and maintain audience focus.

Read more about InstantPresenter web conferencing features that engage audience members here.

10) Call to Action

Lastly, your presentation needs to conclude with a clear “call to action.”  What are your goals? Make sure your objectives are known, and your audience members act immediately. You can design this key webinar component similarly to your introduction, so it is memorable, short, and concise.  Start developing this statement when you create your outline, and write down what you are ultimately trying to achieve.

Make sure that this is in the form of short or long-term “goals.” Sort out the “why” and “how” for each goal, keeping your audience and demographic needs in mind.  From there, you will be able to narrow your statement down, and form a catchy and effective “call to action.” Implement this statement at the end of your presentation, and make sure this is done with great emphasis.

Our goal is to make using our Web conferencing platform as easy as having a conversation. Even so, we know you might have some questions on how best to deliver presentations, interact with diverse audiences worldwide and put your best personal brand forward. Here, for your ease, we’ve compiled some of the most frequently asked questions about our features.

Q: Is InstantPresenter compatible with Mac users to attend online events? Absolutely! You can attend or present any meeting or event using a Mac-based computer and either Safari or Firefox browser.

Q: Can we present with PowerPoint slides on InstantPresenter? What about PDFs? Yes, you can use PowerPoint 2003 and PowerPoint 2007 slides.  You not only can load PowerPoint presentations, you also can load PDF documents, Word documents and Excel spreadsheets. You even can conduct screen sharing to show online collaborators and audiences documents from your desktop.

Q: How do I change an attendee to a presenter during the presentation? It’s as simple as two clicks. First, click on the attendee’s name and then on “Make a Presenter.” To allow this person to be the current speaker, and be able to control the slides, screen share and more, click on the presenter and click on “Set as Current Speaker.”

Q: How can I enlarge the video of the presenters? To adjust the video feed screen size, click and drag the icon in the lower right-hand corner and stretch toward the right.

Q: Can I collect payments from invited participants with InstantPresenter? Yes. You can turn your online content into a money-generating tool! With the PayPal feature, you can collect payments from participants for events with your merchant PayPal account. You can charge for live as well as recorded Webinars — meaning you can make money from your presentations long after you delivered them.

Q: Are URL links active within slides for attendees viewing the presentation with InstantPresenter? You bet. Links are active within the text chat module and slides of presentation module! A new browser window will open once the link is clicked. Attendees are able to return to the presentation without any interruptions.

These are just a few of the features we offer to make your experience with InstantPresenter as easy and productive as possible. As you can tell we like to say “yes” to you — so let us know what other features you’d like to see added to our platform. For a complete list of our FAQs, please visit our FAQ page on the Web site.

InstantPresenter released our new Q & A tool this week that creates a more efficient online presentation and allows your moderator a simpler way to navigate through your attendees questions.  Our new Q & A tool  allows for greater fluidity of your presentations and verifies you have answered all the questions you want to answer and ignore the ones you don’t.

The Q & A tool is found under the Text Chat Tab at the top of the presenters interface and takes the place of the text chat.  You can switch between the Text Chat and Q & A tool without losing any texts or questions, but only one of the tools can be displayed at a time.  The Q & A tool allows you to manage your questions, mark them as answered or ignored, and lets you arrange or edit the questions for validity.  The Q & A tool works in screen sharing mode as well as the new Webcast Interface.  You can create your own questions for yourself and also Hide certain questions and answer them later.

The Questions from the Q & A tool are displayed on your recordings, and you can find a log of the online presentation questions in the Chat Log under the “Reports” button for the Presentation Room.  If you have any questions about the Q & A tool or would like a demo please feel free to contact us at 1-800-706-6762.

 It is our business to ensure you have the technology to give a terrific presentation.  But once the Technology is in place it is up to you to deliver.  We have put together a short report full of tips on how to deliver a successful presentation.  Enjoy!

The time has now arrived for you to conduct your online meeting. You may want to preview your slides to guarantee the presentation is how you want it before starting your session. We suggest you start 15 minutes before and after the presentation to account for waiting for the audience to log in and then to finish any questions at the end of your presentation. With that in mind, start your session a little early and wait for your audience. They will be unable to join the presentation until, you, the presenter, have started the session.

When you’re ready to present, simply click on the “Start Meeting” button and you will be taken to your presentation URL. When the session is first started, you will be asked whether or not you will allow your microphone and web cam to be used. If you would like to use these features, click allow. If not, deny it. InstantPresenter is most effective when these tools are used.

Near the upper left part of the screen is a button to start the session. When you want to start the presentation, simply click on this button and your presentation has begun. The amount of presentation time remaining will be shown so you can monitor your time during your meeting, unless you are on an unlimited plan. With the 15 minutes before and after the presentation, you have time to have everyone join the meeting as well as finish with any questions the audience may have. The web cam will be in effect at this point so you may want to wait for people and cover your web cam until you’re ready to present.

In the Attendance List, you will be able to monitor who is currently attending the session. This will help you start your session on time and will benefit your audience so they don’t miss out on any of the presentation. See when people have joined the session and when they leave with this roll call tool.

Encourage people to collaborate and ask questions with the online chat and annotation tools provided by InstantPresenter. As a presenter, you can enable or disable these tools at your discretion. There is a disable chat tab as well as clear chat tab. Once the chat has been disabled, it can easily be enabled again. Every participant will be able to view the chat session.

The presenter also has the option of enabling or disabling audience participation of the whiteboard. They can also clear it at any time. To create a whiteboard, simply click on the whiteboard tool on the left of the slideshow screen and it will appear over the current slide. To go back to your presentation, click on the whiteboard tool again and you will return to the last viewed slide.

NOTE: If you do not clear the whiteboard before returning to your slides, the notes made on the whiteboard will now be shown on the slide within your slideshow until you clear the white board.

Take advantage of the web cam tool for a more effective online presentation. Your points will be more clear by being able to have visual enhancements to your presentation. When using the web cam, make sure you are visible in the screen where the presenter is shown. When you have gone to the URL of your presentation but not yet started the session, verify how you will be seen by your audience.

Use the audio to eliminate your conference calls. Before starting the meeting, verify that everyone participating can hear you clearly. Use the extra time allowed before the meeting to adjust the microphone as needed. In the email invitation, verify that the audience members will need to have access to their sound on their computer with headphones or speakers.

If you have any technical issues our support staff is available 24/7 at 1-800-706-6762.  Good Luck

InstantPresenter now offers a Pro Package for our customers.  The Pro Package is a compilation of all our web conferencing features wrapped together with our seating plans, delivered in a lower price.  We still offer our traditional web conferencing pricing with all of our features individually, but the new Pro Package allows you to have all the paraphernalia necessary to delivering a professional webinar.

Our Pro Package includes Video/Audio/Power Point Presentations, Recording Hosting, Registration, Survey, PayPal Integration, Screen Sharing, etc.  The plans are broken down into the number of seats in a room.  Our plans begin with 5 seats and go all the way to 1000 seats.  Each plan comes with the ability for up-to-6-presenters, Audio and Video broadcasting, polling and instant file uploading during your presentation.  A traditional 15 seat video plan is $39, and to add Recording Hosting and Paypal would put the price over $79/month.  The Pro 15 seat plan costs $59 with no additional cost because all features are included.

If you would like to sign up, upgrade your current plan, or get more information, please contact our sales team at 1-800-706-6762 or through the contact page on our website.

We recently added an extremely helpful feature in the Survey Tool.  The survey tool allows you to receive feedback regarding your presentation and your performance.  When you send out an invitation, you may attach a survey when you add a registration to an invitation. The survey is completely customizable with personally tailored questions, multiple-choice and fill-in answers.  The survey also includes required and optional fields where you can determine which questions must be answered in order to complete the survey.

The survey can be launched immediately following the completion of your presentation.  The attendees are sent to the survey URL as soon as you survey presentation is complete.  The survey opens and asks the participant for their input. Upon completion of the survey you are emailed a confirmation of completion. You can view the completed surveys on your Account Manager page under Registrations. Click on View Surveys to see all completed surveys with responses.

If you would like a demo of the Survey Tool or to add it to your current plan, contact our sales department at 1-800-706-6762.

We pride ourselves on excellent customer service.  We constantly receive feedback on the quality of customer care and quick response of our service.  Just to blow-the-roof-off the entire experience we have launched our Community Forum.

The Community Forum allows our customers to ask questions of our staff, make comments about InstantPresenter, talk about your likes and dislikes of the application, and take part in our weekly polls. Our staff monitors the forum during the day, and if you post a question  you will receive an answer within a short time frame.  The part that makes our forum a community is our clients and customers.  Joining the forum will allow you to answer a question or reply to a comment. The forum is open to all clients.  We are promoting peer to peer support as well as creating a great resource for info and answers.

Our Forum can be found at http://forum.instantpresenter.com.   Signing up for an account on the forum is free and easy and gives you access to and ever-expanding resource.  Once again, if you have any questions feel free to contact us through the contact page on our website.  Have a great day.

In our ever expanding InstantPresenter universe, we always try to keep our clients up on all the latest products and features.  In the past, to help keep everyone informed, we launched the support number (1-800-706-6762), the support email address, the Blog, and now the Frequently Asked Questions.  We spent numerous hours and tons of brain storming sessions to create a list of the most-asked questions. The FAQs can be found off our main home page under the support tab.

We researched years of questions asked of support and found we could break them down into seven categories: Getting started, How To, Features, Troubleshooting, Screen Sharing, Billing, and Technical.  The purpose of the FAQs was to allow you to find an answer to your question without having to pick up the phone or writing an email.  We understand you time is short and in demand so we want you to find answers fast.  We feel that 90-95% of questions that come into support can be answered from the FAQs.

If you feel you have a question that should be on the FAQs, let us know.  You can call us (1-800-706-6762) or contact us through the contact page on our website.

On January 3, 2009, we introduced the new Account Manager.  This new Account Manager has the same useful tools but presented with a more “user-friendly” template.  All options are still located on the Account Manager page but we designed this interface with an contemporary feel.  We have added easier short cuts to all your favorite features and designed a socially pleasing appearance.

We here at InstantPresenter enjoy all facets of website design especially when it correlates to our personal product.  When we were percolating potential blueprints for our new Account Manager we took influences from our own lives.  We used technology and effects that produce our personal beings.  We looked at cell phones, MP3 players, gaming consoles, etc, and developed our foundation.

Our Development Team here is very impressive and can take a few influential ingredients to construct a masterpiece.  We are very pleased with our new Account Manager and welcome any personal feedback from our valued clients.  Please write us through the contact page on our website.

When presenting a Webinar, the object is to educate your audience and create an atmosphere which entertains all learning styles.  Our vision for creating this experience is to create tools that allow the presenter to customize and personalize his/her webinar.  One of our valuable tools that complete this goal is the Whiteboard.

The Whiteboard allows you to be the “John Madden” of your Webinar.  While you are discussing your topic on your uploaded slides, you can draw attention to specific areas or points.  The Whiteboard gives you the feeling of an interactive touch pen and monitor.  You can choose the color and size of your markings along with shaped stamps, inserted shapes, text boxes, arrows, lines, and many more. 

Below is a presentation with the Whiteboard uploaded:  Arrow A points to the “Options” button where the presenter can select “Show Whiteboard,” Arrow B points to the editing options of the Whiteboard tools, and Arrow C points to the applicable objects and characters available on the whiteboard.