Zoom Professional Services
Online Event Best Practices
March 2016
www.zoom.us
Use annotation to grab and direct attention:
Zoom’s annotation tools are top notch. You have a lot of options for drawing, highlighting, making
lines and arrows, and even blocking out areas on your screen under the “draw” menu. Use the
spotlight menu to access the arrow pointer, and (our personal favorite) the red spotlight tool tip that
will even let you use your mouse as normal while it’s active, which is ideal for demos.
Manage the aesthetics of your webcam view:
Zoom lets you get face-to-face with your audience, which adds a high level of engagement
opportunities for you as a host. Take advantage of this by optimizing your meeting space for video.
Lighting should come from in front of you and never behind you to avoid casting shadows on your
face. One or two crane lamps set up behind your computer monitor and facing you will accomplish
this nicely. Your background should be interesting but not distracting – consider a canvas to pretty
up your wall or a folding/modular screen if you have no wall behind you.
Make eye contact:
Want to really pull your attendees in? Look at your webcam instead of your screen. This will give
the eect of eye contact and visual engagement. Use the gestures and mannerisms that you would
typically use in person. If you are viewing the video feed of others, try moving that feed to a monitor
position just below your webcam to make this easier.
Provide presenters with a final comment:
Sometimes that final question is a doozy. Other times it may be a bit lackluster. After you wrap up
your Q&A portion of the event, turn it back over to your presenters for a final comment. Let them
know ahead of time that you will be doing this to give them a chance to draft some compelling final
remarks to help you end your session smoothly and concisely. They are the subject matter experts
after all. If you are presenting solo, give yourself this opportunity.
Leave attendees with a call-to-action:
What’s the purpose of your event? Whether you are prospecting, providing education, or building your
community, you have a great opportunity with online events to ask your participants to take action.
We recommend saving this call-to-action for the end of your event to avoid appearing to “salesy.”
Don’t miss this opportunity to promote any upcoming events that you are hosting or are involved
with as well. Make your call-to-action clear and concise, and be sure to provide your audience with
everything that they need to succeed.
Post-Event Best Practices:
Download the Q&A report and respond to unanswered questions*:
Zoom gives you the opportunity to respond to questions while in session either verbally by selecting
“answer live” or via text by selecting “answer by text.” Using these options accurately in your webinar
will help you review your Q&A report to find questions that were not addressed in session. Take some
time after your event to review the report and respond to any unanswered questions via email. All
questions including name and email of the asker will be represented in the report. Be sure to review
the document completely as some attendees may have more than one unanswered question. View
this article on our support site for instructions on accessing your webinar reports.