Rules for Effective Video Conferencing

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Video conferencing has made communication remarkably easy. Read on for tips on how you and your team can make the most out of this:

Mute Your Mic

If you aren’t using your microphone, remember to turn it off, says the Entrepreneur. This way, if you’re a heavy breather or if there’s a fair amount of background noise from your end, you won’t have to distract everyone else. The meeting will go on, with none of your colleagues being the wiser.

Know Your Tools

You want to make sure you give people the best impression, especially if you’re using video to make a pitch to a client, close a deal or attend a meeting with the higher-ups. The last thing you want to do is make the impression that you’re woefully unequipped to handle the tools on your end. Not the best way to inspire confidence in your skills and abilities. If you want them to view you in the best possible light, know your tools inside and out.

Change the Settings

It’s never a good idea to go with the default settings. Play around with the different camera angles until you find the perfect one. Otherwise, you could end up with an awkward or unflattering camera angle, one that gives people a view up your nose or down your blouse. If you want to keep that meeting on a professional keel, take steps to ensure the camera angle contributes to that end.

Check the Light

Don’t forget to check the light in the room you’ve picked out. If possible, try to find a well-lighted spot. You wouldn’t want to give everyone else the impression that you’re logging onto the meeting from a dungeon. Also, the point of video calls is to be able to see each other face to face. If yours is in shadows, though, that might not be the best way to move forward and can prove counter-productive to the meeting.

Wear Appropriate Clothing

How many people have made this mistake? Countless, no doubt. Logging onto a video meeting from home isn’t a license to pop up in your PJs or ratty shirts and shorts. If you don’t wear those clothes to a board meeting, there’s no reason to wear them during a video conference as well. Worse, some wear the right top only to pair that up with shorts, thinking no one else would be able to see it. You won’t know if something comes up during the meeting that would force you to stand up or walk away from the screen. Spare yourself the embarrassment and awkwardness of showing colleagues you prefer boxers over briefs by donning pants before your meeting. 

Get the Right Tools

A web video conference with BlueJeans gives you the HD quality as well as multi-platform functionality you’ll need to pull off those meetings, whenever and wherever you are. That’s why it’s a sound option to go for. The tools you use is are going to directly impact the quality, ease and convenience of your communication. Substandard systems will only succeed in frustrating you and your team to no end. If you’ve ever had to do a video call with someone halfway across the world and got nothing out of that hour-long conversation than a rocky sound environment and video so blurry you can’t tell if you’re talking to your colleague or a grainy image of a sasquatch, you know the difference the right tools can make.

Test Your Systems

Don’t log onto the meeting with only a few minutes to spare. If you need to do a software update, that’s going to make you late for the meeting. The whole idea of video calls is that you can get to your meetings anytime, anywhere. If this doesn’t happen because you’ve been felled by a software update, then you aren’t using your tools right. To make sure this doesn’t happen, always test your systems a day or a few hours before. That way, you’ll be confident that nothing will get in your way.

Eliminate Distracting Behavior

That means don’t engage in behavior that could prove distracting like playing with your hair or eating or drinking. Unless you know the people in that meeting and you’re well acquainted with the lot, then beat down the urge to nosh on those cookies or eat through your dinner while the meeting is underway, says Inc. In some cultures, this could be misconstrued as a sign of disrespect. If you’re dealing with foreign clients, you might want to keep this in mind.

Keep Your Pets Out

Lock the door if you must. That should prove effective in keeping your pets out of the room until the conference is over. It would also prevent distractions of any kind, allowing you to dedicate your full and undivided attention to the meeting.

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