Whether you’re an experienced specialist with pre-presentation jitters, or a student with a head full of anxiety – or anyone else in between, let me start by telling you: you got this. There ain’t nothing that a well-crafted list of Zoom presentation tips can’t solve!
It’s possible you’ve already scrolled through some tips for presenting on Zoom and still have that fidgety feeling of anxiety. So let’s get the first one out in the open straight away. Nerves are normal – but not neccessary. In fact, that’s maybe the most important thing to remember – so let’s make that our first tip.
1. Embrace the Fear
A lot of people seem to think that nerves are a sign of weakness: “if I’m nervous before presenting, maybe I don’t know the subject well enough.”
Bullsh*t!
Everybody gets nervous, especially when they have to navigate the technical factors of presenting on Zoom, or lack public speaking experience. Throw in someone asking ‘can we record this presentation?‘ and you’re surely bound to get nervous.
Even those with tons of experience feel a little tense every now and then. Maybe the audience is larger than normal, the topic more complex, or the people listening need to make some critical decision based on your presentation.
Feeling fear is normal. Feeling anxious is normal. Feeling tense is normal. These emotions are your body’s way of telling you that you are in a new situation that it doesn’t quite know how to deal with, so it places you on red alert. You become more aware. The tension you feel in your muscles is your body’s primitive instinct kicking in and preparing you for action.
Your body reacts the same way with excitement. In fact, there is very little difference between excitement and fear – which means you can choose to turn fear into excitement. The only difference between the two emotions is what you choose to associate them with. If it’s something you’re scared to do, it becomes a negative feeling. If it’s something you’re delighted to do, it becomes a positive feeling.
By recognizing your instincts, you are able to overcome them. Embrace the fear.
Not only that – but who is your audience to judge you? We’re all human. Taking a few deep breaths is scientifically proven to help calm nerves. Speak slowly – don’t try to rush through. If you make a small blunder, don’t sweat it. Don’t take yourself too seriously. Chances are, when the meeting starts, your audience is wondering what to have for dinner tonight, not analyzing your every move. Which is why it’s important to grab their attention early…
2. Grab Your Audience’s Attention and Don’t Let Go
Want to know how to do a presentation on Zoom that your audience will remember? Get their attention early and don’t let go until it’s time to end the call.
Most people who have to attend a presentation are probably bored before it’s even begun. This is why you need to set your tone from the very beginning, and maintain it throughout. If you take too long to get started, or waste time fumbling with your presentation mode settings, your audience will lose interest. Fast. As you’re not going to let that happen, you need to start as you mean to go on. First impressions are important – and preperation is key.
Enter with 100% clarity on your presentation’s purpose. What’s the goal? What do you want the audience to do with the information you’re about to give them? How will you convey the key information? When will your audience get to ask questions?
Establish your credibility early. Why are you the right person to be speaking about this topic? There may be gaps in your knowldge with regards to certain aeras – and that’s OK too. Acknoweldge what you don’t know.
Consider starting with an icebreaker. I’d recommend avoiding dad jokes (unless your audience is full of Dads, of course). A good idea is to start with a warm welcome and a relevant fact about yourself that helps make a connection with the audience.
3. Configure Your Zoom Settings in Advance
Another thing for making your presentation start on the right foot: make sure you’ve got everything configured in advance. This includes:
- Lighting
- Camera
- Mic
- Backgrounds
- Screenshare settings
- Recording permissions
If you want to add some professionalism to your presentation, you can blur your background on Zoom and thereby declutter your camera view. On the other hand, if you’d like to get some laughs out of your audience, you could choose a funny Zoom background that’s relevant to the topics of the presentation. Either way, get your background sorted before you begin.
Same goes for your camera and mic. Since you’ll probably be sharing your screen, make sure you have closed all non-relevant tabs, have all the presentation material to hand – and your speaker notes readily available.
Get ready before the meeting begins by running a test or two before you join. It’ll make you more confident straight off the bat when you know that you won’t need to fiddle with your settings under pressure.
Tip for Recording Presentations on Zoom
Typically, an important Zoom presentation will be recorded. If that is the case, you’ll want to ensure beforehand that you have the neccessary Admin permission. If you want to record the Zoom meeting without host permission, you can do so easily with a free meeting recorder like tl;dv.
The benefit of tl;dv is that you’ll also be able to edit the Zoom presentation afterwards (cutting out any small talk, or technical blips) and lift take-aways directly from the free transcript. You can also add timestamps to your recorded presentation before you share it with anyone – so viewers can jump directly to the moment in the presentation where you tackle different agenda items.
4. Use Good Visuals
A critical aspect of most presentations is the visual side of them. Will it just be you talking, or will you have a slideshow to share? If so, follow the point above and make sure you know how to present a ppt on Zoom via the Screen Share option before you start presenting.
It’s also a good idea to include relevant:
- Data and Statistics
- Graphs
- Maps
- Images and Videos
- GIFs and Stickers
Presentation templates can be a game-changer here, streamlining the process and helping you create impactful presentations effortlessly, ensuring your audience stays engaged.
Don’t hide behind the slides though. The last thing people want to see is a non-stop slideshow with your face in a tiny box in the corner. Be sure to only show what’s necessary, and cover the rest yourself.
5. Put Your Notes in the Right Place
If you’re wondering how to present on Zoom without showing notes, you have a few options. One way to make sure you keep eye contact with your audience – or your camera – without forgetting your notes, is to have them on sticky notes stuck to your screen. Even better if you have a dual screen set up, you can have notes on your other monitor and not have to look down every ten seconds.
There are also apps you can get for notes that you can leave open over the top of your Zoom presentation. It’s more engaging and professional when you at least appear to know what you’re talking about without having to look down to read what you wrote.
Legend has it that every time you look down at your notes, the mind of at least one audience member wanders away, never to return…
6. Dress to Impress
We know it can be tempting to go with the good old fashioned shirt and underwear combo, but if you’re presenting, it helps to get in the zone and dress for the occasion. If you’re feeling smart, chances are you’ll be more engaging and more powerful in your speech.
Having said that, if you’re still feeling nervous, you can also just imagine that everyone in your audience is naked – half of them probably are from the waist down anyway. 🤷
7. Practice, Practice, Practice
Everyone’s heard the saying, practice makes perfect, but 21% of people don’t practice their presentations at all. On the other hand, the same survey showed that 22% of the ones that did practice spent more than 5 hours rehearsing! We believe there is probably a healthy midground.
With tl;dv, your practice time just became a whole lot more productive. You can record unlimited Zoom calls, so you can literally do your presentation to yourself and then rewatch it to see how it went.
Looking down at your notes too much? Stick them somewhere you can see. Lighting not as good as you’d hoped? Switch it up. Gone are the days where practicing meant just repeating the presentation to yourself and arbitrarily judging whether it was good or not. Now you have the proof.
The Zoom extension is free to download and you can learn a lot from revisiting your presentations to identify strengths and areas for improvement. You can also timestamp certain areas that you’d like feedback on, so your colleagues can jump straight to the relevant part.
Know your introduction is spot on but need to add a little more oomph to end CTA? Just timestamp it, and get someone else’s eyes on it! It’s a great way to collect input and feedback.
8. Non-verbal Communication
Just because you’re presenting online doesn’t mean you can skimp on the body language. One of the little-utilized Zoom presentation tips is to make use of non-verbal communication.
We don’t want to advocate for you to start throwing your arms all over the place in a frenzied rush, but one of the ways to engage your audience and express empathy from behind a screen is by slightly exaggerating your body language. As this is an online presentation, you need to emphasize each movement just a little more so that it can be felt the same way it would in a face-to-face presentation.
It’s also important to be purposeful with your actions. Sit up straight to display confidence. Use hand gestures for emphasis. Avoid slumping, slouching or leaning as these subtle actions tend to disengage the audience.
It sounds obvious, but smiling, nodding and other forms of positive feedback are great ways to warm an audience. It makes them feel welcome and ready to interact.
9. Verbal Communication
Talking to a screen can often be more intimidating than talking to actual people. With less feedback from your audience, you can often go off on tangents and ramble a little more than necessary.
Remember not to talk too fast. Articulate yourself clearly and speak with purpose, emphasizing tone and pitch where necessary. Use well-placed notes to stay on topic.
Silence can be your best friend. If you want to make a hard-hitting statistic really hit home, deliver it and let it sit for a beat. A pause in the right place can do way more than words.
Remember to hold eye contact while you’re speaking too, and complement your voice with some non-verbal gestures outlined above.
Filler-words like ‘uhm’ can distract from your message and make you sound less confident. Though totally normal in everyday speech, you can make a presentation even more amazing by avoiding some of the classic ‘uuuhs’ and ‘like’. When you’re tempted to use a filler word, practise being silent instead. As mentioned, a simple pause can be a lot more effective than rambling the entire time!
10. Give a Call to Action
Even if you give the most mind-blowing presentation known to man, it can still fall flat if there is no call to action (CTA). This is one of the most important, yet often overlooked, Zoom presentation tips.
What do you want your audience to do after your presentation? What’s their next move? What was the crucial core of your talk and how does it influence them to act? Always give a clear call to action to your audience so that they know what to do with the new information you’ve presented to them.
Let’s say you’re giving a presentation on why tl;dv is the best online meeting software. End the presentation by telling your audience to install the tool for free, accompanying this CTA with a clear, concise message about why it’s beneficial to do so: it’s a free extension that lets you catch up on meetings in minutes.
11. Master the Agenda
By showing your audience a clear and agenda at the beginning of the presentation, you’ll help them feel prepared. An agenda shows the progression of the presentation, so your audience knows when to expect specific aspects to be covered, and roughly how much time will be spent touching upon each agenda item.
If you have guest speakers, an agenda will let them mentally prepare for the moment it will be their turn to contribute. For longer presentations, you’ll want to factor in a ‘short break’ into the agenda, so everyone knows when they can expect that much-needed toilet break.
12. End With Impact
Just like with storytelling, you want to hook your audience from the start, keep them thoroughly engaged throughout, then end with a BANG! There are many ways you can do this, but one that we love is with a quote.
Choose a quote relevant to your Zoom presentation topic, preferably something that will make your audience stop and think. A good quote can still be ringing in their ears days later.
If you can’t think of a quote from the top of your head, Google is your best friend. Just type in your purpose or topic followed by the word “quotes” and you’ll get hundreds to choose from. Obviously, you might have to sift through some crap before you get to the goodies, but it’ll be worth it.
But what if you can’t summarize your topic focus with a succint quote? Albert Einstein has some words of wisdom for you:
“If you can’t explain it simply, you don’t understand it well enough."
tl;dr: How to ace your Zoom presentation
- Prepare well in advance
- Serve up an amazing agenda
- Learn from recordings of past presentations
- Turn your fear into excitement
- Use the power of a simple ‘pause’
- Make your slides engaging with visuals
- Don’t panic!
You got this. Now go WOW your audience.
