Webinars are cursed. Everyone firmly believes that others are answering emails, playing Minesweeper or doing anything other than paying attention. Why do so many people believe this? Simply because they do exactly the same thing when they are on the receiving end.
Don’t expect your colleagues to pay attention to you because it is polite or the right thing to do. You must do something to earn their attention. You have to motivate them to listen to you and to watch what you are presenting.
1) Your audience must know why they should pay attention
They need to know why the webinar is more important than the other ten urgent things they could be doing instead. Make sure that they will pay attention to you even before your online presentation starts. Mention the explicit benefits and why it matters in the invitation and when the webinar opens.
2) Inform their boss
When you lead an online meeting, it is pretty annoying when people get diverted to other tasks by their bosses. Perhaps try to inform the bosses of your attendees that your webinar or online meeting is truly important.
3) Don’t take it personally
We all have a limited attention span. If your audience is not interested in the topic or they don’t see anything even remotely interesting, they will tune out.
4) Engage your audience somehow
When people are expected to sit passively for some time, they begin to seek stimulation elsewhere. Many webinar tools allow you to engage your audience. Use them. Make your audience do something, make them watch something worth watching.
-jk-