How to Present and Meet Online

The pandemic forced a lot of people into the world of looking professional online. Unfortunately, a lot of people have not picked up that skill. I unfortunately see this not just on web meetings, but in professional presentations and even among my friends doing on-air TV interviews.

The result is not career ending, but it doesn't do a person any favors when their expertise is hampered by their delivery. While it isn't hard to look professional online, it is not common sense. Common sense requires common knowledge, and most people never had to learn that before. Worse, I do not see many people trying to help. As I always say, opinions are like noses, everybody has one. If it helps, I've been doing online TV interviews for news outlets, remote presentations, etc for longer than I can remember. I also had a well watched web blog. So, here is my input that is hopefully a little bit better than the average "nose".

• YOU DON'T WANT DISTRACTIONS. There are a lot of little things that can distract from the message you want to get across. There are also some big things, but they are obvious. Clearly, you want to proactively avoid distractions by trying to ensure you have a quiet environment, children and pets won't interrupt, etc. All of the other recommendations are designed to ensure minimize distractions, especially the small ones. You are doing the presentation, interview, meeting, etc. for some purpose. While it is unlikely you will have a critical flaw, why not put your best foot forward.
• Acknowledge any distraction and move on. If you do enough meetings something will eventually not go perfectly. I was doing a presentation recently, and all of a sudden, my cat woke up and decided he wanted attention, and was moving the camera. I just picked him up, let everyone know what was going on, and moved on. It was less distracting than trying to ignore it, which is what happened on the infamous BBC interview, where the person tried to ignore his children barging in.

• Position the camera slightly above eye level. If you get nothing else out of this article, do this. This is so important. Too many people just use their laptop camera and position it as is; which is normally just looking up at their chin. It is a very unflattering angle. While it might be awkward at first, put your laptop/camera on top of boxes, books, etc, so that it is looking down slightly. It is the most flattering angle. While looks aren't everything, why would you not want to put your best foot forward? Regarding framing, think of it looking like an ID photo. Your eyes should be about 1/3 from the top, and just your shoulders should appear on screen. This isn't alway practical with widescreen cameras and positioning of your computer, but you should ideally take up most of your screen. While I am not separating this into a separate bullet, when you speak, keep looking into the camera; not to the side, at papers, at other viewers on the screen, etc.
• Reboot your computer and turn off all unnecessary applications. This is especially important if you are doing an interview or presentation. Any processes running can impact the meeting or video application and can result in what appears to be a poor connection and delayed video. Rebooting the computer takes care of possible memory leaks in applications and other conditions that may slow down the computer.
• Make sure your Internet connection clear. To the extent possible, make sure there are no other devices on your WiFi. Ideally, use a wired ethernet connection directly into your router. Again, this will minimize lag and prevent any distractions in response time.
• Proper lighting. While this may seem obvious, you want to look at yourself and ensure that your properly lit. You do not want to have a light shining directly into your face. Angled lighting can work best. Likewise, facing a window during the daytime can help. At that same do not have a bright background. It will make your face appear too dark.
• Test sound quality in advance. Much like the lighting, you want to test your sound quality. While many headphones offer good quality, computer microphones tend to be very good these days. However, you also want to test your connection to ensure that there are no reverberations. This results when your microphone picks up the audio coming out of your computer, which echos the incoming sound back into the web tool. If that happens, you want to consider headphones.
• Look at your background for distractions and embarrassment. If you are in a web meeting with friends, this matters much less. However, if you are doing a formal presentation or on TV, you want to look at every possible element of your background to see if it is going to be more interesting than what you are trying to say. There have also been many cases of things that people didn't want others to see.
• Your clothes should not be distracting. While this is not specific to web meetings, you want to wear clothes that are not notable. You do not want audience members to be trying to figure out what's on your tie, instead of listening to what you're saying.

There are clearly other things you can do, but these are the basics. They should be common sense, but again, they are not yet common knowledge.