Today’s business world is full of technology, one of which is commonplace now thanks partly to the pandemic: video conferencing. While the trend was on the rise before COVID, it’s seen as a necessity, particularly for businesses with remote teams. It’s important to ensure that you practice good video conferencing etiquette; otherwise, you could suffer from poor—or worse, boring—meetings.
The Dos
Prepare and Test Your Equipment
Before any scheduled meeting, it’s important that you test any webcams, microphones, speakers, headsets, or any other broadcasting equipment that you might use. Ensuring it all works before the meeting will help you focus your efforts on the meeting itself rather than fumbling with finicky technology.
Create a Professional Environment
While the protocols for meetings will vary from business to business, you should do your best to create a professional environment that is conducive to effective video conferencing. This includes making sure you have enough lighting, having a bland or neutral background (you can blur it if you need to), and dressing the part if that’s your preference.
Establish Clear Meeting Guidelines
Meetings with technology are just that: meetings. The only difference is that they are being conducted virtually rather than in person. You should have a clear agenda for the meeting and an expectation that others in the meeting mute their microphones unless they would like to speak. This will help cut out distractions and noise from keyboards, mouse clicks, or other people in the office, apartment, or room.
The Don’ts
Avoid Multitasking or Distractions
Whether you are the presenter or an attendee, it’s best to avoid multitasking and distractions while you are in a virtual meeting. This means that you should be fully present by keeping your eyes off your email inbox, browsing the web, or engaging in other conversations with others outside the meeting. Granted, we know business owners are busy, so avoiding this altogether might not be possible, but the quality of your meeting should increase if you keep it to a minimum.
Ignore Security Protocols
This one goes out to all the techies out there managing video conferencing solutions; make sure your system requires authentication and encryption to keep meetings—including any documents or files shared throughout them—safe and secure from external threats. This also goes for sharing information like credentials or meeting links with those not in attendance, although this should go without saying.
Overwhelm the Audience
Technology can surely enrich a meeting and make it interesting in ways that in-person meetings might not be. Still, you should practice the rule of only using technology that is absolutely necessary for the planned agenda. If you get too caught up in elaborate plans to share screens, require user input, audience engagement through polls, and so on, you run a greater risk of running into issues that might distract you from meeting objectives. It’s best to just keep things as simple as possible most of the time.
Implement Powerful Video Conferencing Tools Today
Does your business have a video conferencing platform that it can rely on? Data Net can help you implement a solution that takes into account your company’s specific needs. To learn more, call us today at (760) 466-1200.
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