I have spent the last few months participating in a large number of video conferences. Sometimes, as many as six or seven video conferences a day because most of us are, indeed, now utilizing video.
In particular, I have discovered five strategies that will help you accomplish more successful video calls.
1. Test Early
If you’re hosting or playing an important role, open your video conferencing platform early and test. Ensure there’s no echo, you can see yourself, and your camera is positioned correctly. Also, when you test, have someone log in early with you. It makes a huge difference to the quality of the broadcast.
2. Quality Mic
Invest in a good mic. You don’t want to sound echoey, and you don’t want your sound to disappear when you turn your head slightly left or right. In particular, invest in a mic that clips on to your shirt or a Lavalier mic that plugs right into your computer.
3. Watch Your Lighting
The light has to be shining on you, not behind you. Too many times, I’m on video conferences with clients where they appear to be a grayed out shell—like those images you get if you don’t upload a profile photo on Facebook or LinkedIn. You don’t want to look like that! Think about it as if you’re on a stage: for the audience to actually see you, the spotlight has to shine on you, not from behind you.
4. Ensure You Can See Yourself
Always make sure that you can see yourself in the video calls. I know a number of the video conferencing platforms have options for you to turn off the video of yourself. Keep it on to verify that you constantly look and sound great.
5. Look Up
If you have the option to configure the video interface on your screen, take those small video screens of the participants that you see in GoToMeeting or Zoom and try to place them at the top of your screen. You want to appear that you’re looking up and making eye contact.
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Great tip about “look up”. I hear a lot of ppl suggesting to look directly into the camera. If you can, great, but a trick I used when I hosted cablevision shows, if I used a teleprompter or good ol’ fashioned cue cards, they were always slightly off from the camera … and no one could tell. POINT: you can appear that you’re looking dead into the camera while maintaining an eye on your full screen.
[…] it’s crucial to be technically competent with video calls during these uncertain times, it’s also imperative that you don’t neglect the personal aspect […]