WEBINARS
Guru Style Internet Presentations Are In Fashion
By Stu Leventhal
Introduction to the skills needed for successful public speaking (101).
Speaking well at webinars and conference calls and giving great presentations requires planning and practice. Whether you need to give a presentation socially or as a way of earning a living, thorough preparation is the key to pulling off an interactive public talk successfully.
The importance of presentations is growing in the world of internet marketing to the chagrin of many of the internet’s most successful personalities. The first internet participators reveled in the online platform’s ability to leverage anonymity. During the early days, one could ply their trade, test their theories and do a lot of stuff with no one knowing who was really pulling the strings behind the scenes. Droves of home based business owners challenged the fabric of traditional business society by leveraging the internet’s ability to sell goods and services globally from one’s bedroom or a table in the local coffee shop. Digital entrepreneurs don’t usually become online business people because they are looking forward to standing on stage giving speeches to audiences of thousands. To be honest, having to make public speeches probably scares the crap out of 90% of internet professionals today! But anyone worth their salt cannot dismiss the marketing value or the promotional impact of the newest trend in internet marketing… WEBINARS!
The results of all internet marketing efforts are heightened with the use of speeches and presentations. Web page content is easily complimented by adding video instruction or showing previously recorded conference footage. Instruction can be absorbed when one witnesses a step by step demonstration of how something is actually done. To say that Webinars are making a big splash on the internet scene would be a real understatement. Competent business speakers are in high demand everywhere online and off. Webinars are fast becoming the hottest trend in internet marketing today. If I’ve learned anything over the years concerning the internet it is not to bother swimming against the tide. Once a new internet fad catches fire it grows fast and furious. The gurus who cash in the heaviest are the ones who grab their surf boards and paddle out into the midst of it all so they can ride the wave!
Anyone involved in internet marketing or online advertising needs to step back and re-evaluate their attitude towards making speeches and giving instructional presentations. Building the skills needed to put on a great seminar are invaluable in all of today’s fields of promotion. The web pages that grab attention now use audio and video streaming to enhance their visitor’s experience. The face behind the site is going to be exposed sooner or later. Are the days of conducting business wearing your pajamas coming to an end? I sure hope not!
In webinars and conference calls, presentation skills are crucial. You may have chosen a home based business because you prefer lone working. Most people find making a speech more scary than dying! And because they dread it so much, they convince themselves it will be awful. As we all know, these predictions become self-fulfilling.
With a little preparation you can be a killer presenter rather than a dead one. The key is simple, make your presentations memorable! Fulfilling your purpose and meeting the needs of your chosen audience is after all what we do when we market online anyway. If you are camera shy, it is time you challenge yourself to take a radical approach to the whole business of presenting! With some simple techniques you can adapt your marketing styles and leverage your skills to take advantage of the new webinar trend that has everyone up in arms. With a little help you can begin to put on champion presentations and you just might have some fun too. Master the basic techniques of putting on successful webinars and you will be shortly laughing all the way to the bank!
1. Don’t tailor your style because you are going to be performing in front of the camera. If you deliver a speech in your style you will enjoy it more and so will your public.
Everyone needs to make good speeches or presentations in some form in the business world; sales pitches, employee training, informative announcements. Webinars allow you to retain the informal casual atmosphere you love about the internet while you present.
2. There’s no doubt in network marketing, presentations are becoming key to earning a living. We all see a lot of presentations and some are memorable for all the right reasons. Good webinars are entertaining, stimulating and interesting. The goal is, leaving the audience wanting more.
3. With online marketing it is important not to tailor your presentation as if it you were standing on a podium addressing a class of college physics students! The best presenters like the best bloggers, deliver a clear concise message. They work hard to engage their audience and present value with impressive results. They talk with conviction. The converse is also true: no amount of technical expertise will help a presenter if there is no connection being made with the audience. People will fall asleep, if the speaker clearly has no faith in the message he or she is conveying.
Never overload your listeners with excessive detail: few, if any, talks are purely for information exchange despite what many people think. They are for building credibility, respect, understanding, trust and for furthering relationships. Webinars for pure information download are inappropriate. Of course information is exchanged but not as much as actually perceived. Remember, the webinar is a marketing strategy with an agenda not an instructing course. The speaker’s goal is to get the listener to do something further; enroll in a full course, purchase a product, try out a service…
4. Use visual aids to enhance the audience’s experience if they serve a purpose, but not as a hiding place to avoid the camera. Videos, graphics, photos and mind maps should support the message in the way that best meets the needs of the audience. They can be very effective for hammering in an important point or to highlight something you want them to remember.
5. Never read verbatim from notes, or simply repeat the bullet points on your slides, because it’s a waste of everyone’s time. If you have nothing more to add then perhaps you are the wrong person to be giving this presentation!
I cannot stress enough the importance of ‘thorough preparation!’
The great writer Mark Twain (1835 - 1910) said, “It usually takes more than three weeks to prepare a good impromptu speech.”
6. Always know the outcome you want from a presentation then work towards that intended goal. It may be to tell people about your business, secure their co-operation, or sell them something. Ask yourself these questions as you plan your webinar to clarify the purpose and appropriate style to use. First, why are you speaking? Who is your audience and what will you want them to do as a result of listening to you? How can you influence the outcome? It is pointless giving any talk if you don’t know why you are there.
Now it is time to prepare your speech outline: like any good story a presentation needs a beginning, middle and an end. You will check that your message and tone are clear concise and on point. Can you explain each key idea in a handful of sentences? Next, add stuff that supports your key ideas in a memorable way?
BASIC WEBINAR OUTLINE
Webinar Beginning – This is the introduction where you want to tell:
· Who you are and why you are making this presentation.
· What your presentation is about and why it is being given.
· Why it will be of interest to the audience.
· How long it will take.
· When and if they can ask questions.
· Whether there will be an important reason to stick around afterwards.
· What you hope to achieve by the end of the presentation
Webinar Middle – here is where you do everything you said you were going to do during your introduction. You reveal all the essential facts relevant to the group and the discussion you are presenting to them. You give back up data supporting your statements. You stress what the key thing is you want the audience to understand? It is important to plan to present your message in a logical order that your audience will be able to follow. Remember you probably are not speaking to industry professionals you are speaking to potential student and people seeking to enhance their knowledge of your subject.
*Always be prepared with a list of ‘Nice to know’ points to be added if time permits!
Webinar’s End
· Bring it all together. Summarize the main points of your discussion.
· Thank the audience and invite questions
“Public speaking is very easy” Dan Quayle, US Vice-president to George Bush 1989- 1993
Introduction to the skills needed for successful public speaking (101).
Speaking well at webinars and conference calls and giving great presentations requires planning and practice. Whether you need to give a presentation socially or as a way of earning a living, thorough preparation is the key to pulling off an interactive public talk successfully.
The importance of presentations is growing in the world of internet marketing to the chagrin of many of the internet’s most successful personalities. The first internet participators reveled in the online platform’s ability to leverage anonymity. During the early days, one could ply their trade, test their theories and do a lot of stuff with no one knowing who was really pulling the strings behind the scenes. Droves of home based business owners challenged the fabric of traditional business society by leveraging the internet’s ability to sell goods and services globally from one’s bedroom or a table in the local coffee shop. Digital entrepreneurs don’t usually become online business people because they are looking forward to standing on stage giving speeches to audiences of thousands. To be honest, having to make public speeches probably scares the crap out of 90% of internet professionals today! But anyone worth their salt cannot dismiss the marketing value or the promotional impact of the newest trend in internet marketing… WEBINARS!
The results of all internet marketing efforts are heightened with the use of speeches and presentations. Web page content is easily complimented by adding video instruction or showing previously recorded conference footage. Instruction can be absorbed when one witnesses a step by step demonstration of how something is actually done. To say that Webinars are making a big splash on the internet scene would be a real understatement. Competent business speakers are in high demand everywhere online and off. Webinars are fast becoming the hottest trend in internet marketing today. If I’ve learned anything over the years concerning the internet it is not to bother swimming against the tide. Once a new internet fad catches fire it grows fast and furious. The gurus who cash in the heaviest are the ones who grab their surf boards and paddle out into the midst of it all so they can ride the wave!
Anyone involved in internet marketing or online advertising needs to step back and re-evaluate their attitude towards making speeches and giving instructional presentations. Building the skills needed to put on a great seminar are invaluable in all of today’s fields of promotion. The web pages that grab attention now use audio and video streaming to enhance their visitor’s experience. The face behind the site is going to be exposed sooner or later. Are the days of conducting business wearing your pajamas coming to an end? I sure hope not!
In webinars and conference calls, presentation skills are crucial. You may have chosen a home based business because you prefer lone working. Most people find making a speech more scary than dying! And because they dread it so much, they convince themselves it will be awful. As we all know, these predictions become self-fulfilling.
With a little preparation you can be a killer presenter rather than a dead one. The key is simple, make your presentations memorable! Fulfilling your purpose and meeting the needs of your chosen audience is after all what we do when we market online anyway. If you are camera shy, it is time you challenge yourself to take a radical approach to the whole business of presenting! With some simple techniques you can adapt your marketing styles and leverage your skills to take advantage of the new webinar trend that has everyone up in arms. With a little help you can begin to put on champion presentations and you just might have some fun too. Master the basic techniques of putting on successful webinars and you will be shortly laughing all the way to the bank!
1. Don’t tailor your style because you are going to be performing in front of the camera. If you deliver a speech in your style you will enjoy it more and so will your public.
Everyone needs to make good speeches or presentations in some form in the business world; sales pitches, employee training, informative announcements. Webinars allow you to retain the informal casual atmosphere you love about the internet while you present.
2. There’s no doubt in network marketing, presentations are becoming key to earning a living. We all see a lot of presentations and some are memorable for all the right reasons. Good webinars are entertaining, stimulating and interesting. The goal is, leaving the audience wanting more.
3. With online marketing it is important not to tailor your presentation as if it you were standing on a podium addressing a class of college physics students! The best presenters like the best bloggers, deliver a clear concise message. They work hard to engage their audience and present value with impressive results. They talk with conviction. The converse is also true: no amount of technical expertise will help a presenter if there is no connection being made with the audience. People will fall asleep, if the speaker clearly has no faith in the message he or she is conveying.
Never overload your listeners with excessive detail: few, if any, talks are purely for information exchange despite what many people think. They are for building credibility, respect, understanding, trust and for furthering relationships. Webinars for pure information download are inappropriate. Of course information is exchanged but not as much as actually perceived. Remember, the webinar is a marketing strategy with an agenda not an instructing course. The speaker’s goal is to get the listener to do something further; enroll in a full course, purchase a product, try out a service…
4. Use visual aids to enhance the audience’s experience if they serve a purpose, but not as a hiding place to avoid the camera. Videos, graphics, photos and mind maps should support the message in the way that best meets the needs of the audience. They can be very effective for hammering in an important point or to highlight something you want them to remember.
5. Never read verbatim from notes, or simply repeat the bullet points on your slides, because it’s a waste of everyone’s time. If you have nothing more to add then perhaps you are the wrong person to be giving this presentation!
I cannot stress enough the importance of ‘thorough preparation!’
The great writer Mark Twain (1835 - 1910) said, “It usually takes more than three weeks to prepare a good impromptu speech.”
6. Always know the outcome you want from a presentation then work towards that intended goal. It may be to tell people about your business, secure their co-operation, or sell them something. Ask yourself these questions as you plan your webinar to clarify the purpose and appropriate style to use. First, why are you speaking? Who is your audience and what will you want them to do as a result of listening to you? How can you influence the outcome? It is pointless giving any talk if you don’t know why you are there.
Now it is time to prepare your speech outline: like any good story a presentation needs a beginning, middle and an end. You will check that your message and tone are clear concise and on point. Can you explain each key idea in a handful of sentences? Next, add stuff that supports your key ideas in a memorable way?
BASIC WEBINAR OUTLINE
Webinar Beginning – This is the introduction where you want to tell:
· Who you are and why you are making this presentation.
· What your presentation is about and why it is being given.
· Why it will be of interest to the audience.
· How long it will take.
· When and if they can ask questions.
· Whether there will be an important reason to stick around afterwards.
· What you hope to achieve by the end of the presentation
Webinar Middle – here is where you do everything you said you were going to do during your introduction. You reveal all the essential facts relevant to the group and the discussion you are presenting to them. You give back up data supporting your statements. You stress what the key thing is you want the audience to understand? It is important to plan to present your message in a logical order that your audience will be able to follow. Remember you probably are not speaking to industry professionals you are speaking to potential student and people seeking to enhance their knowledge of your subject.
*Always be prepared with a list of ‘Nice to know’ points to be added if time permits!
Webinar’s End
· Bring it all together. Summarize the main points of your discussion.
· Thank the audience and invite questions
“Public speaking is very easy” Dan Quayle, US Vice-president to George Bush 1989- 1993
Tips For Pulling Off A Great Webinar
Emotional State – Your mood will have an enormous effect on your webinar audience!
The best way to build a calm, confident emotional state is to come to the webinar thoroughly prepared! Practicing extensively beforehand is a courtesy to your audience. It is a fact that stage fright is less apparent to the audience than to the speaker. Most accomplished speakers still experience it, but they manage their emotional state to overcome it. It does not matter how you get into a good emotional state; just know that the results of having a relaxed, cheerful and confident attitude are the game changers of producing successful Webinars.
Always arrive early for presentations of all kinds and review your notes. Next, find a quiet spot where you can relax alone for a few minutes. Mentally rehearse how you want the webinar to go. Experienced speakers and performers say, the difference between enjoying your presentation and dreading it is the way you manage your nervous reaction. By taking control and using the adrenalin rush positively you can perform over and above your expectations and thus come away satisfied that you have achieved what you aimed for in your presentation and more.
Take care of your immediate physical state as show time approaches. It will help support your emotional state. Keep your voice well-lubricated, but not with tea, coffee or alcohol. These dry out your vocal chords! Drink water and remember to have a cup with you, placed safely out of the way during your presentation but within reach. If you find your mouth getting dry during the presentation – gently bite the tip of your tongue. This releases saliva back into your mouth.
Warm up your voice! Chew an imaginary toffee! Hum gently up and down! A properly warmed-up voice will sound alive and free. Massage your face to warm and relax the muscles. Stretch, tense and relax your whole body. Shake your fingers and wrists, roll right and left shoulders individually and then together.
Be conscious of how you breathe. When you breathe in, aim to feel as if you take air in as low down in your body as possible without your shoulders having to rise. Take a relaxed, deep breath before you start to speak. It will make you feel calmer and more confident.
Good posture is very important if you want to get the best out of your voice. Remember, don’t slouch it portrays tiredness and fatigue. Stand or sit up straight.
Webinar Presentation Skills
Don’t plan to do all the talking during your webinar. Have questions ready that will get the audience involved in the discussions. The key to getting others to participate is to come prepared to challenge your listeners. Ask them questions that have more than a quick simple answer and that stimulate more discussion.
Your presentation skills give your words life. It is not a good idea to give a ‘canned’ presentation nor to attempt to just adlib. Rehearse! Rehearse! Rehearse!
Prepare and practice by all means but remember to always let the material take second place to your energy and individuality. If you fix your presentation too rigidly it becomes an end in itself rather than a means to an end. You are not a professor giving a lecture, you are an industry professional giving a talk to other likeminded industry professionals who have come to participate in the discussion with you as the monitor. Webinar audiences are used to a certain informal tone and style that encourages and leverages audience participation. Always bear in mind that you want a certain outcome so don’t get hung up anywhere. Keep the affair moving along towards your intended goal.
Your talk to be effective must communicate your arguments and ideas. Your main points must persuade your audience that your message is true, while also being interesting and entertaining. Business speakers sometimes forget about the entertainment aspect, thinking that work is serious and entertainment plays no part in formal presentations. This is a big mistake when it comes to webinars! Many speakers believe that if a talk is entertaining, it can’t at the same time contain a serious message. Not true! You can and must communicate and persuade effectively and entertain at the same time. Keeping your audience interested and involved is essential because you need their full attention to get your whole message across.
Another mistake is thinking that light hearted entertainment will just flow automatically (it doesn't). You have to prepare and rehearse being funny and entertaining to pull off being funny and entertaining!
In Webinar terms, the true meaning of "entertainment", especially with serious topics doesn't mean making your audience laugh out loud. Instead, entertainment is about helping them stay focused and interested in what you have to say all the way thru.
Listening is hard work, especially in conference type settings. Audiences, whether live or remote, rely on the speaker's help to maintain their attention.
As you start the webinar, remind the audience how long your speech will be and whether you are taking questions during the presentation, afterwards or even not at all. This will set the tone, the rules and everyone will know how they are expected to conduct themself!
During the webinar, if it is a live presentation being taped, look around and make eye contact with as many people as possible. Move around if you feel more comfortable. Use your hands to express yourself but avoid distracting mannerisms. Remember to smile often! Some of the participating audience members may be as nervous as you. Focus on the people who are nodding and showing the most interest. Engage with the easiest members of the audience first. Getting the first few people to participate will help bring the rest on board.
When winding up, finish your speech with a positive summary of your key points and point the way ahead to your desired result be it getting them to fill out a form with their contact info or purchasing a book or course. Announce “question time.”
Follow up by giving the audience a way to contact you as well as a way to purchase or receive whatever you are offering. THANK THEM for listening.
Note: Occasionally, audiences can get out of hand. Always stay professional even with a hostile audience. Stay calm and the rest of the audience will take their cue from you.
It is a myth that experienced presenters don’t need to prepare thoroughly. After all, the audience is going out of their way to hear what you have to say. People may even be paying to hear you. Just because you are an expert on your subject don’t forget you have to practice the performance elements and if you are a great public speaker you still have to brush up on your subject matter. If you are properly prepared for your webinar your results will be astonishing and you will be remembered for a long time, for all the right reasons.
The best way to build a calm, confident emotional state is to come to the webinar thoroughly prepared! Practicing extensively beforehand is a courtesy to your audience. It is a fact that stage fright is less apparent to the audience than to the speaker. Most accomplished speakers still experience it, but they manage their emotional state to overcome it. It does not matter how you get into a good emotional state; just know that the results of having a relaxed, cheerful and confident attitude are the game changers of producing successful Webinars.
Always arrive early for presentations of all kinds and review your notes. Next, find a quiet spot where you can relax alone for a few minutes. Mentally rehearse how you want the webinar to go. Experienced speakers and performers say, the difference between enjoying your presentation and dreading it is the way you manage your nervous reaction. By taking control and using the adrenalin rush positively you can perform over and above your expectations and thus come away satisfied that you have achieved what you aimed for in your presentation and more.
Take care of your immediate physical state as show time approaches. It will help support your emotional state. Keep your voice well-lubricated, but not with tea, coffee or alcohol. These dry out your vocal chords! Drink water and remember to have a cup with you, placed safely out of the way during your presentation but within reach. If you find your mouth getting dry during the presentation – gently bite the tip of your tongue. This releases saliva back into your mouth.
Warm up your voice! Chew an imaginary toffee! Hum gently up and down! A properly warmed-up voice will sound alive and free. Massage your face to warm and relax the muscles. Stretch, tense and relax your whole body. Shake your fingers and wrists, roll right and left shoulders individually and then together.
Be conscious of how you breathe. When you breathe in, aim to feel as if you take air in as low down in your body as possible without your shoulders having to rise. Take a relaxed, deep breath before you start to speak. It will make you feel calmer and more confident.
Good posture is very important if you want to get the best out of your voice. Remember, don’t slouch it portrays tiredness and fatigue. Stand or sit up straight.
Webinar Presentation Skills
Don’t plan to do all the talking during your webinar. Have questions ready that will get the audience involved in the discussions. The key to getting others to participate is to come prepared to challenge your listeners. Ask them questions that have more than a quick simple answer and that stimulate more discussion.
Your presentation skills give your words life. It is not a good idea to give a ‘canned’ presentation nor to attempt to just adlib. Rehearse! Rehearse! Rehearse!
Prepare and practice by all means but remember to always let the material take second place to your energy and individuality. If you fix your presentation too rigidly it becomes an end in itself rather than a means to an end. You are not a professor giving a lecture, you are an industry professional giving a talk to other likeminded industry professionals who have come to participate in the discussion with you as the monitor. Webinar audiences are used to a certain informal tone and style that encourages and leverages audience participation. Always bear in mind that you want a certain outcome so don’t get hung up anywhere. Keep the affair moving along towards your intended goal.
Your talk to be effective must communicate your arguments and ideas. Your main points must persuade your audience that your message is true, while also being interesting and entertaining. Business speakers sometimes forget about the entertainment aspect, thinking that work is serious and entertainment plays no part in formal presentations. This is a big mistake when it comes to webinars! Many speakers believe that if a talk is entertaining, it can’t at the same time contain a serious message. Not true! You can and must communicate and persuade effectively and entertain at the same time. Keeping your audience interested and involved is essential because you need their full attention to get your whole message across.
Another mistake is thinking that light hearted entertainment will just flow automatically (it doesn't). You have to prepare and rehearse being funny and entertaining to pull off being funny and entertaining!
In Webinar terms, the true meaning of "entertainment", especially with serious topics doesn't mean making your audience laugh out loud. Instead, entertainment is about helping them stay focused and interested in what you have to say all the way thru.
Listening is hard work, especially in conference type settings. Audiences, whether live or remote, rely on the speaker's help to maintain their attention.
As you start the webinar, remind the audience how long your speech will be and whether you are taking questions during the presentation, afterwards or even not at all. This will set the tone, the rules and everyone will know how they are expected to conduct themself!
During the webinar, if it is a live presentation being taped, look around and make eye contact with as many people as possible. Move around if you feel more comfortable. Use your hands to express yourself but avoid distracting mannerisms. Remember to smile often! Some of the participating audience members may be as nervous as you. Focus on the people who are nodding and showing the most interest. Engage with the easiest members of the audience first. Getting the first few people to participate will help bring the rest on board.
When winding up, finish your speech with a positive summary of your key points and point the way ahead to your desired result be it getting them to fill out a form with their contact info or purchasing a book or course. Announce “question time.”
Follow up by giving the audience a way to contact you as well as a way to purchase or receive whatever you are offering. THANK THEM for listening.
Note: Occasionally, audiences can get out of hand. Always stay professional even with a hostile audience. Stay calm and the rest of the audience will take their cue from you.
It is a myth that experienced presenters don’t need to prepare thoroughly. After all, the audience is going out of their way to hear what you have to say. People may even be paying to hear you. Just because you are an expert on your subject don’t forget you have to practice the performance elements and if you are a great public speaker you still have to brush up on your subject matter. If you are properly prepared for your webinar your results will be astonishing and you will be remembered for a long time, for all the right reasons.