With so many people working remotely these days, virtual meetings have become the default. Zoom. Google Meet. Slack Calls. Our days are filled with video conferencing. Many times they can leave a lot to be desired. Here are 5 tips that can help you can improve the quality and presentation of yourself in video meetings.
Lighting
Your home office or makeshift workspace was probably not designed as a video studio 🙂 But there are small things you can do to make the video on your meetings look better, regardless of the webcam option you are using. Lighting is the easiest thing to improve that can make a big difference.
The easiest and cheapest option is to natural lighting. If you can set-up near a window that gets direct sunlight, make sure the light is not behind you. So either be facing the window or be seated next to it.
If this isn’t an option, a cheap ring light or simple LED light can really up your game. This LED selfie light is a great option to send to your team members or customers as a great branded promotional item. It is battery powered, can clip directly to your phone or laptop and provide a great simple lighting option. Bonus, also works great for selfies.
Audio
Equally important to your lighting set-up is the quality of your audio. This is also a pretty easy thing to fix. A headset, wireless earbuds or an external microphone will greatly improve your sound quality and will help everyone hear you more clearly. Here are a few great options available on swag.com that can be branded and make great promotional gifts.These Brae Headphones look great, have great audio quality and the built-in mic works great.
If you are looking for a great, but affordable wireless option, these iLuv Wireless Earbuds are a perfect choice.
If you are going to be recording webinars or really want the top quality audio solution, an external USB microphone is probably the best option for you. The Blue Yeti is a great choice. It is easy to use and gets great audio quality .
Background
The background behind sends an impression, so you’ll want to make sure it looks great. A bookcase, interesting art, or even a solid color background can all add some personality to your call. But sometimes your remote working location might not provide the ideal backdrop. If that is the case, there are plenty of tools that can help you produce a nice Zoom Background to use. Our partners at 99Designs have worked with their designers to create some great, fun free options that you can download for use for your next zoom call.
Or this is also a great opportunity for your internal team to come up with some fun branded options for you to use as a background. Here are the guidelines for creating your own Zoom ready background images.
Stay Engaged with the Audience
Multitasking can be so tempting during a virtual meeting. But, staying focussed and engaged with others on the call will make the meetings much more successful and reduce the feelings of disconnection that can come along with speaking into a camera.
Obviously don’t doing your dishes or laundry on a call is not a great way to stay engaged. But you should do more than the minimum. Ask questions. Summarize what others have said. Follow a pre-defined agenda to keep things moving. Try to keep meetings as brief as possible. These things can make your virtual meetings productive and help everyone actually enjoy them more.
Branding Opportunity
Obviously, swag is our business, so we have to mention that virtual video meetings provide a great chance for you to show off your brand. Providing your team with some great custom swag items that they can rock during their video calls is a fun way to show some company pride. A nice comfy, custom t-shirt is a perfect choice for everyone. A branded baseball cap is great the times your hair is not camera ready. Or a comfy crew sweatshirt or zip-up hoodie for keeping cozy. Or for a more traditionally ‘business-causal’ look, a branded polo can be a nice touch.
All of these options make great gifts that we can send directly to your team while they are working at home. It can show your appreciation or just help boost team morale, but also give them the option to show-off your brand while on video calls.
Quality Matters
Video conferencing has become the new normal, and the quality of your video, audio and appearance can make a big difference in helping your meetings be more productive and also give you an opportunity to make a great impression to your customers. These five tips can help improve your experience and are all relatively easy and inexpensive.
