The trouble is that with an online presentation there is only very limited feedback available. Presenting in real life is totally different because you are always getting a lot of feedback. When you are in the room, you can hear your audience laugh or, on your less effective days, see them yawning. The people are visible and you can observe their reactions.
Virtual presentation: talking into a void
During an online session there is no non-verbal feedback – unless it is a video call with just one or two people. Why is feedback so important? Because we use it to adjust our speech as we go, according to an article on the management-issues.com website. We can:
- speed up
- slow down
- check for understanding if we aren’t sure people are following us
Highly competent presenters do this all the time: they scan their audience for indications of how things are going. But when you are presenting online, suddenly it is a whole different ball game.
Lack of feedback leads to mistakes
When you are talking to a larger group, everyone but you is probably on mute. Moreover, you cannot see faces. So there are no nods, no smiles and no eye-rolling. You receive no non-verbal feedback, whether it be negative or positive.
It is then very difficult to check whether the pace is correct. We then have a tendency to speed up and go through what we have to say really quickly. We may even start just reading from our notes. That makes our vocal tone less engaging. And the result? The listeners will get bored.
-jk-