If you’ve been putting off hosting webinars due to worrying that technology is going to cause you challenges then here are five tips for overcoming webinar tech fears.
We’re going to cover the webinar tech process from set up and managing webinars with ease.
Firstly it’s important to remember everyone faces technical challenges, the confidence you see from the ‘professionals’ is merely practice, they understand that the key is how you handle the challenge. With lightheartedness and the knowledge they will be sorted. Or with panic, nerves and anxiety.
With these five tips you’ll be ready to rock your next webinar, tech hiccups or otherwise.
1. Embracing Your Journey
Tech hiccups are a part of using technology in your business, there are going to be hiccups sometimes, servers are going to be down, the internet connection can be unstable, heck there might even be a power cut. When you stop trying to control every aspect of the situation you can relax, at least a little.
On my last webinar I forgot to press record, it flustered me, I’d told people there would be a replay, made promises that I needed to keep. I remembered about 5 minutes in and could have started then. But instead I chose to record a second version right after the first webinar finish. It actually created benefits, people in the room were able to share more freely knowing there wasn’t a recording, I was able to focus on connection in the room and not sticking to a recording for replay and the second run through right after the webinar I was still high on energy and had a recording free of any interruptions from the comments.
Learning and growing is essential in business, overcoming webinar tech fears is an opportunity. Plus the smaller your audience is when you get started, the less pressure there is so you can learn without 1000 people seeing.
2. Nailing the Technical Set-Up
One of the most common barriers I hear in regards to getting started with webinars is the tech set-up. Getting people signed up. Sharing the link to the room. Setting up the virtual room. Polls and Q&A boxes. Automated follow ups. The issue here is comparing the webinars you watch from established and experienced presenters with bigger businesses to what you are capable of. Comparing step 1200 of someone else’s webinar journey with your step 5.
There are three essential aspects in tech for a webinar. A place for people to register. A way to share the room link. And a virtual room. The MOST simple way, they email or message you, you email or message back to room link and you use Zoom or Google to host the room. It really can be that simple. You can add landing pages, email sequences and fancy software at any stage, but don’t let that stop you from connecting with your audience.
3. Managing a Virtual Meeting Room
If you’ve never hosted a meeting room before it can be overwhelming, there are heaps of buttons and options, how do you mute people, turn off videos, kick people out if they aren’t appropriate? In fact there’s a huge suite of things that you might need to do during a webinar, while you are trying to talk and engage in the chat.
But there are a few options that can help you out, most of them involving the people most willing to help – your friends! First – practice, ask someone to join you in a virtual meeting room so you can find the different functions and settings. How do you mute? How do you screen share. Practice. Second – ask a friend to help as a co-host, they can then manage some of these things to allow you to focus on presenting and engaging. They can mute people who accidentally unmute themselves, or admit people to the room.
4. Learn from Others
Attending webinars hosted by other people can really help with seeing how different people handle the different aspects, maybe you find a landing page that you really like, maybe you see how they use breakout rooms as part of their delivery. You might learn something useful from their content, but you’ll 100% learn about being a professional and confident webinar host.
The trick is to not look for someone with a huge audience, you learn best when someone is within your realm, as we said comparing yourself to a person who has been hosting live webinars for 10 years isn’t the next stop in overcoming webinar tech fears. Look for someone with a slightly bigger audience that you. Or someone who has hosted 10-20 webinars.
5. Embracing Imperfections
Composure is the key here and that stems from a positive mental attitude, from confidence that whatever the tech challenges you’ll find a way to make it work, it might take an agonising five minutes but you will share you screen so people can see the slides you lovingly and thoughtfully prepared. Everyone has experience tech challenges, whether connecting BlueTooth devices or computers misbehaving. If you communicate and keep calm you can weather any tech storm.
Beyond the Tech
Technology is a tool and technical aspects are crucial but it’s equally important to engage with your audience. You create connection with your audience through your presence (not a seamless tech experience) honing your presentation skills, handling challenges with good humour and lightheartedness, using engagement and interaction strategies and being the real version of you.
Conclusion
Tech doesn’t need to be your nemesis when you take these tips and apply them to your webinars, and it doesn’t need to take a long time either. Embrace the learning process, see it as an opportunity to improve your tech skills and remember every challenge you conquer adds to your confidence as a presenter. Overcoming webinar tech fears is one step on the journey of being a business owner.
Use these tips to stop putting technology between you and your audience, between you and growing your business and between you and your personal development. I believe you can tackle any challenge with grace and ease.
If you found this content helpful I’d love to hear which tip you need to implement, or what you’ve already mastered and remember you can pin the tips you need to remember.
If you need a little extra help tackling those tech troubles then reach out to talk about I can support you on your webinar journey with tech, delivery, marketing and mindset.
Pin This
