As a presenter, can I be seen on a webinar? Yes, you can be seen. In fact, a presenter is one of the chief attractions of a webinar. It’s the knowledge and personal charisma of a presenter that to a large extent is responsible for keeping the audience glued to the presentation. A webinar can have more than one presenter and all of them can be seen. By far, this is the most popular format of a webinar in which the presenter holds the show and is seen by the audience.
Can I be seen during a webinar? A webinar is a highly interactive medium. The presenter of the webinar has to continually keep trying to engage the attendees. This is not possible if you don’t ask them questions or involve them in instant surveys. As a presenter, you need to have these skills and use them during a live webinar. This makes it necessary that you be seen during the webinar.
Do I need to be on camera for a webinar? It depends on the format whether you as a presenter of the webinar need to be seen by your audience or not. Sometimes, a webinar is more in the form of a PowerPoint presentation where the presenter’s voice comes from the background but is not seen. So…
Strictly speaking, you don’t have to be on camera and let your face be seen when presenting a webinar, but there are many reasons why you would want to anyway. Better engagement, retention, and interactivity to name a few. It is getting more and more expected as many people have been working from home and are getting used to seeing other people digitally.
The presenter of a webinar in the larger scheme
Let’s have a look at the role of the presenter of a webinar in the larger scheme of things for which a webinar is organized.
As a presenter, you should have no confusion about the two most important things about a webinar: Content and Audience. The role of a presenter is to keep the audience engaged with the content – where lies the benefits for the audience and the organizer both. A clear focus on these two very important elements of webinars is necessary to ensure the entire effort does not become a pointless exercise.
A successful presenter would do everything within his capacity to keep a laser focus on the content and the audience. For this, he may have to use the personal charisma of his presence, eloquence, and knowledge. All these require him to be on camera and be seen by the audience.
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Content is king
For a webinar to create the right impressions and emotions, the content has to be accurate, precise, and incisive. In short, the content must be the proverbial King. The role of a presenter is to present the content and talk about its supremacy, the value that it brings to the conversation, and the benefits that it promises to the audience.
The audience of your webinar has shown up to consume the content, hoping it to be of high value. If you think you can keep them engaged with housekeeping items, you will be proved wrong. Even 30 seconds of digression from the main content can make your audience rummage through their different social media accounts. Make sure your content is fresh and to the point. All housekeeping items and FAQs should be provided separately as reading material. As a presenter, you must know your audience deserves something unique for the time they are investing in your webinar.
Talk about yourself, but in brief
As a presenter of a webinar, it’s your responsibility to forge a bond of trust and reliability with your audience right in the beginning. This would help you to relate to the content that both of you are going to consume together. How is this achieved? Through introductions. No, the audience may not sit through lengthy introductions and bios. They may have already read about the speakers and the company before signing up for the webinar. They are here for the real treat. Don’t waste the time that you can use to deliver the real message.
So, while you can be seen through the webinar, as a presenter or speaker, you are not going to talk a lot about yourself. You are there to deliver a message, and you should try to do that in a manner that is both effective and goal-oriented. Instead of talking about yourself and the company, you can provide the LinkedIn profile and company website address on the registration pages.
Use creativity
As a presenter of a webinar, you should know that you are using advanced technology and the audience has come to your webinar room for a new kind of immersive experience. Kindly, don’t use screen sharing devices or PowerPoint slides. Use the webinar room features to deliver a rich and immersive experience to your audience. The webinar format is different and it is not a substitute for PowerPoint or YouTube. If you can deliver your content through PP or YouTube, there is no point in taking the effort to organize a webinar.
The webinar is an opportunity to showcase how differently and creatively you can deliver the content. It is your opportunity to show your creativity. Think about adding a short video clip, adding some pictures, streaming webcam, asking questions to your audience, and seeking their votes and opinions on some issues.
Don’t ignore your audience
The webinar is a format that allows the audience greater participation and interaction. There is no good in ignoring the audience. Webinars have many ways through which the audience can interact with the content. Ensuring audience participation in the interaction is very important to keep them sitting through the entire proceeding. A rule of thumb is to acknowledge your audience and make them participate in the interaction once every 7 minutes.
And don’t let the conversation fall silent for more than 3 seconds. Once, nothing happens for 3 seconds, your audience will start checking the connection to see if the Internet is working or not. If you have frequent episodes of 3-second silence, your audience is going to rate your webinar slow, dull, uninspiring. They will think you don’t value the participation of your audience.
Webinar best practices
If you are about to present a webinar as a presenter and you are not sure about the nitty-gritty of the business, here is how you can put things together for your event.
Apprise yourself of the title, topic, and format
Find out in all the details the purpose of the webinar. It could be lead generation, growing a contact list, selling a product, or onboarding of new users. What’s it? Then, you should familiarize yourself with the title and topic of the webinar. Finally, you should have some discussions about the possible formats. Clarity on these basic points will help you deliver the content with laser-like focus, and you would not drift or digress away from the main theme.
Prepare yourself for the presentation
As a presenter, you have to be confident both about public speaking and your knowledge and ability to field any question from the audience. For this, you must prepare yourself well enough. Besides, you should have charisma and a stress-free attitude. There can be more than one presenter in a webinar.
You also need an assistant who could act as the admin of the chat and take some of the questions coming from the audience.
You also need a person who needs to take care of the technical side of the webinar hosting such as ensuring top Internet speed and camera management so that you could be seen when required.
Structure your webinar
As a presenter, you know the objective of the webinar is to sell a product, do the marketing for it, or work for the branding of the product. No matter how nuanced the objectives of the webinar are, you should know that the audience has come looking for the content that you have promised. So, let’s not skimp on that. Give the audience engaging and powerful content, keep them engaged through interaction and participation. But don’t forget the marketing objectives of your webinar. To strike a balance between great content and great marketing initiative, you should use an 80:20 formula in which 80 % of time and energy is used in delivering the content while 20% of it is spent on talking about your company, brand, and product.
Build a rapport with your audience
As a professional webinar presenter, you should look to build a relationship of trust and reliability with your audience. For this, you should always acknowledge the presence of individual members of your audience unless the figure is too large to make it impractical. You should ask them where they are joining from.
Assure them that they have come to the right place for the kind of information and orientation they are looking for. Tell them what they are going to know and learn from this event. Also, tell them briefly about yourself. Let them understand why you are the best person to present this webinar. You can tell them a relatable story so that both you and your audience look to be on the same page. Throughout the webinar, try to keep your audience away from feeling alienated or aloof. Keep hitting them with small questions and egging them on asking the right questions.
Final thoughts
As a webinar presenter, you have some basic questions to answer before you enter the webinar room. Can I be seen on a webinar? Do I need to be on camera for a webinar? Can I be seen during a webinar? These are the kinds of questions that fill your mind. The short answer to these questions is yes you can be seen or rather should be seen on your webinar. In this post, we have tried to project the larger picture and get relevant answers for you.
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