The Do’s and Don’ts of Hosting a Webinar

In today’s age of technology, webinars are becoming more popular. One reason is that they offer a great deal of value to both members and hosts. They’re an open forum for hosts and members to ask questions and receive real-time answers.

But before hosting a webinar, there are some dos and don’ts that apply. In this article, we’ll explore the dos and don’ts and why they matter. Let’s start with the “Do’s.”

1. Do use a welcome slide to introduce yourself and the webinar.

It is essential that the first slide be an introduction to you and your business. Why? Because you need to establish your credentials.

If you’re speaking professionally on a subject, you should have the authority to speak on it because of your experience or education. Introducing yourself to your audience will help your audience trust you because you’ve established that you are a source to be trusted. 

2. Do have an agenda 

After introducing yourself, it is important that you share the plan for what’s going to happen over the course of the webinar. In other words, have a blueprint of what they can expect.

Not only does this help keep everything organized, but also, your audience will follow your train of thought more easily once they have a clear understanding of your logic. 

3. Do rehearse

It might seem silly to rehearse a live webinar, but it is very important for the function and flow of your performance. Sometimes even the best laid plan can fail.

Scheduling a full rehearsal a few days before you launch will ensure that everything goes more smoothly. You’ll be able to anticipate technical troubleshooting, or make sure your timing is within the time limits. A prepared speaker is a good speaker. 

4. Do make the most of visuals

People respond best to visuals. Make sure to include plenty of images, graphics, and infographics to support your speaking topics. Not only does this help connect your point to the audience, but it also helps them retain the information longer. 

5. Do interact with the audience

Don’t be afraid to interact with your audience. Engage them in your discussion by asking them to respond either aloud or in a chat box. This ensures that they are paying attention, that they are present and engaged in the conversation.

Your speech will also be remembered because they felt like they were an active participant in the exchanging of information.

6. Do leave time for questions

Going along with our point about interacting with the audience, do remember to leave time at the end of the webinar for questions. Even if you’ve perfectly explained your topic, there might be a few questions for clarity or elaboration. Make sure you’ve anticipated potential questions and prepared an answer.

If a question catches you off guard, you can always refer them back to your website and promise to answer their question after additional research. But always leave about 5 minutes at the end of the presentation for a few questions. 

7. Do follow up with a summary

A few days after your webinar, it is important to follow up with the participants. Not only does this act as a friendly reminder to the attendees, but it also shows that you care about their business and time (also, many people have busy schedules and your webinar may have simply slipped their mind).

Ask them to respond in a way that will be beneficial to your future webinars. This can either mean that you request they offer feedback like a survey or poll, or you could send them a valuable summary so they could pass it along to their inner professional circle. Either way, the summary is important for keeping the connection and communication flowing.

Now that we’ve looked at what to do for hosting a webinar, let’s look at the “don’ts”

1. Don’t forget to make eye contact with the camera.

This may seem like a silly thing to remind yourself, but it is important to remember to look at the camera (consider placing a sticky note near your webcam as a reminder). Why is it important? Because if you are looking directly at your audience, they will feel more connected to your message.

Even if you can’t see them, they can see you and the eye contact will engage them. If you’re looking at your screen the whole time, they will feel as though you are uninterested and disengaged.

Looking at the camera occasionally will engage your audience and help them connect with your message.

 2. Don’t speak from memory

When hosting a webinar, it can be easy to feel yourself ramble on without thinking about your audience’s attention span. Keep to a script. It is best to not speak from memory, because you might forget an important point, or you might accidentally spend too much time on one slide.

If you have a narrative script on hand, you can stick to your main points while keeping to the time limit. 

3. Don’t lose track of time

Time is valuable, especially for your audience. They are spending time on you in exchange for information you’re providing. If your webinar goes over the allotted time, this communicates to them that you do not value their time.

Be courteous of their time by carefully planning your script, and making sure you speak at a proper speed without going off script. This will ensure that you stay on task and value their time.

4. Don’t use text-heavy slides

When constructing your presentation, it is important to make sure your slides are not text-heavy. Seeing a long paragraph on the screen will only overwhelm your audience; and more importantly, it will cause them to stop listening to you because they are reading the full text.

Instead, provide a few simple sentences for them to glean the main points of your message, and include a few pictures or graphics to illustrate the message.

5. Don’t schedule your webinar last minute

Webinars are increasing in popularity. But the truth is, it takes an extensive amount of time to prepare, plan, and present a webinar.

The last thing you want to do is schedule your webinar at the last minute. You need time to prepare, advertise, and also market the webinar to your audience (people also need time to make room in their schedule).

Successful webinars take time, preparation and careful planning—so get out your whiteboards, do your research on the topic, and after you’re sure that you know what you’re talking about, start building that presentation. And most importantly—have fun! It’s going to be exciting taking on a new challenge, no matter how much or little experience you have with presenting.