Webinar Etiquette

As technology is advancing and people are not traveling as much anymore, webinars have become increasingly popular. Unfortunately, they are not all of the same quality or are consistent in following pretty common business etiquette.

Here are some tips on how you can be sure that your webinar is professional and positively impactful:

1. Start on Time- be prepared and log-in to the webinar at least ten minutes prior to start time if you are the host. Remember, you will have those early birds who will arrive five minutes before it begins.

2. Make sure to apologize for any technical difficulties but not too excessively.

3. End on time- keep your webinar moving along at a pace to end on time. If you have to cut some things out, then you have to do what you need to do. If you absolutely have to go over time, make sure that you make a point to state it. Let them know that you respect everyone's time but you want to make sure that they get all of the information and will be running X amount over time. People do have a life; they have other things scheduled after your webinar so don't assume that your information is so important that they will cancel their plans to keep listening. Now, my date night did get canceled because of how long Than's webinar lasted and that didn't leave me with the best impression!

4. Become familiar with the webinar platform you choose to use. Try this out with friends/family- you don't want it to look like this is the first time you have done a webinar before.

5. If you're trying to sell something in the webinar, be sure to welcome the participants to contact you via email or phone if they have any clarifying questions on the content that was provided-not just on the promotional offer. Being available to provide clarification on content given after the webinar, will go along way if you want to make a sale with them.

6. Background noise- turn off all cell phones, home phones, radios, or televisions when hosting the webinar. No one wants to hear food wrappers or anything else you have going on the other end.

If you treat the webinar as if you were in your office or in a business environment, you will be more likely to behave in a more professional manner. Feel free to offer any additional tips!