132: How to Build - Not Ruin - Your Reputation on a Zoom Call: 3 Things You Must Know

Do you remember this epic zoom fail from this past February? I'm sure you do.

Mr. Ponton, I believe you have a filter turned on in the video settings. You might want to.

Can you hear me, Judge?

I can hear you. I think it's a filter.

It is, and I don't know how to remove it. I've got my assistant here. She's trying to. But I'm prepared to go forward with it. That's. I'm here live. I'm not a cat.

I'm here live and not a cat. Oh, hysterical. It can be so easy to forget the tech or to forget about your camera or that your mic is on when you're in these virtual calls. One simple mistake, however, can lead to a completely ruined reputation in minutes, or you can become a laughingstock. Welcome to the Confident Communications Podcast, where we help communicators create the right response at the right time and deliver it in the right place. On the podcast this week, what is the proper etiquette on a conference call when you're on these Zoom calls? Webex calls, team calls, whatever they are, but we're just going to call them Zoom for the sake of the podcast. How can you make a good impression on that call? And some tips for preventing a Spec Hatchler fail. Yuck. Yuck. I just finished giving a presentation today on Zoom. Last week, I did two presentations on WebEx. This week, I still have three more presentations and I have to attend a board meeting. It's a lot of Zoom hours that I have under my belt, so I feel as if I can be somewhat of a expert when it comes to giving feedback on how to protect your reputation and to prevent these Zoom fails. So on this episode, just quick. This is a quick episode. Three ways, three areas that you need to think about when you are on a Zoom call. How can you be your best self on a Zoom call and prevent the zoom fails from happening? All right, the first one, number one, is be considerate. What this means is you need to be aware of your surroundings at all times around you and in front of you. That includes make sure you know where the mute button is and make sure you know how it works, know precisely where it's located. If you are attending a call and you are on a tablet, know where that mute button is. Um, I cannot tell you how many, many times when someone is speaking, they're muted. It still happens. Of course it's going to happen. It even. It even happens to me. But when you're in a call, just be wired into that mute Button. And if you start speaking and you realize you're on mute, try and come off a mute as quickly as possible. Make sure your background, your surroundings, that they're clean, they're presentable, make sure that you are dressed appropriately. Also, don't put a private message on Zoom Chat unless you have to, unless it's part of the meeting itself. How many times has someone done a private message or they thought was a private message and was public? I've done this a number of times. Not to my peril. It was about, you know, events that were happening there. But it goes out to everyone. And I'm sure everyone's thinking like, what the heck is she talking about? But definitely there have been fails, many fails that I know about, where people have been chit chatting in the private. And it went to everyone. Try and avoid talking over people at the same time as other participants. You could do a nonverbal, put your hand up, do something, and someone can call on you. Also, learn how to position your camera properly. As soon as you log on and you're getting ready to attend this event, make sure you're right smack in the middle. I was just on one recently. We were getting ready and the moderate, not the moderator, but the person running the event, had to tell one of the participants, hey, you need to move your screen. At this point, a year into all these virtual calls, you should be doing that on your own. You should know that instinctively. Also, avoid multitasking, avoid checking your email, avoid checking your phone, don't eat, don't. I mean, you can drink coffee, of course, but don't be doing all of the other things. Don't be working on a second screen. I'm guilty of this one, definitely, but try not to do that. And the reason why is this is because there's someone on the other end of that call. There is a presenter, there is someone who's giving a workshop, there is a keynote speaker. It is bad enough in this virtual environment and I'm speaking for myself and I know I'm speaking for many, many other people when I say this. It is bad enough to have to speak into a computer screen all day. The person has been robbed of that in person interaction. But now that we're a year into our Zoom Calls, what I'm noticing, and because I'm in the mix of it right now, because I'm doing so many presentations, all of a sudden I'm noticing that people are more lax when I sign into a call for a workshop or a keynote, no matter what I'm doing. I'm always noticing that the black screens are more prevalent than they've ever been before. And if you're a presenter, it's like, I have to ask people, almost like beg people, can you put on your screen? Can you put on your screen? Um, so that's just, it's, it's a consideration. So if you have it off or if it needs to be off for some reason, let's say you don't have. You have broadband issues, you have streaming issues. Keep in mind, your presenter knows usually the streaming issues. So if you're saying, hey, I got a streaming problem and all the bars are green, you don't let the presenter know in the chat. Let them know, like, hey, I'm going to have to be off camera. But they will know. They'll make that mental note in their brain. But if it's not, you're sending the signal to your presenter that you just really don't care. So it's, it's a way to be quite inconsiderate. All right, number two is be a participant. What this means is, just like I said in the last bullet point, go on screen. Like right now, when I give a presentation and someone is on screen and I'm looking at them, I'm like, oh, oh, my gosh, you're there. I can see you. You can interact with people more when you're on screen. And I will. Here's an admission from a recent presentation that I did. There were so many people on the black part of the screen that I had two panels. I didn't even know that I had a whole second panel that was there for the first part of this training. So I was only interacting with the people, um, on who are on my page one. And the reason why is because I could see all their faces when I finally figured out. Cause I was looking at my invite list and I said, wait a minute, where are these people? Um, I finally figured out in the break, like, oh, my gosh, I missed a complete room doing this. Now, I'm sure some of them were probably happy because, I mean, part of it was like a, a mandatory training that they had to do and they thought, oh, good, she's not calling on me. I, you know, I don't have to answer because I'm one of those trainers who will definitely call on people, but because it was filled with black screens, I didn't even know that they were there. So that, that kind of sends a message there. Zoom knows they're going to just like social media, they're going to engage with the people who are on camera. So again, being a participant means that, you know that mute button when someone asks you a question, you're turning that mute button on or off like right away. And, and also, you know, again, like being at that participant means that you are there, you are eng are participating in whatever training that you're doing. Remember, like for this year, for the most part, where we are right now, I bet for many of you, if you're on virtual meetings, that meeting has replaced an in person meeting. If you were in person, you would not be sitting in that room with another computer, scrolling on another computer. You wouldn't be sitting down and looking at your phone the, the entire time. You wouldn't be eating your lunch. You wouldn't be like reading a book and doing all these other things. You just wouldn't. You would participate. So not. Are you missing out in that, you know, that training or the workshop or the meeting, you can't retain that information. You're also just not sending a signal to the moderator, to the presenter that you even care. So make the effort if you can. And above all, don't be that one zoom meeting attendee who just isn't participating. There's always one and you don't want to be that person. Even if you are on screen, like you're taking notes and you're listening and you're engaging. Trust me when I tell you that your moderator, the facilitator, the speaker is going to know that they are searching for eye contact virtually. If you are the person locking eyes with them, don't look at it as oh God, like something punitive. Now they're going to keep calling on me. Chances are you're going to have a much, much better. Not even chances are, I guarantee you, you're going to have a much better experience. Find the moments throughout the meeting where you can offer comments or ask questions, ask questions. No one ever jumps in and asks a question. And if you do that, do that at your next meeting or your next workshop, just jump in and say, hey, I have a question. Could I ask. You will see your presenter's face light up. Because it's spring now of 2021, we're all drained doing these, these online workshops. People just aren't participating anymore. If you're that person, you're that person who's asking that question. You are going to be at the head of the class. Remember that game, that board game, Head of the class. But anyway, your presenter is going to love you for it. All right? Number three, be a connector, be a communicator. They all go hand in hand with the person who's speaking or organizing the event, whatever it is. Even though it might be, it might seem like you're, you know, you're sucking up to the person who's running the meeting or maybe a boss of yours planned it. It really is a good practice to have. There almost isn't really any sucking up in these meetings. It's just a considerate way to say, I want to connect with you, I want to communicate with you. Some other ways that you can do this, thank the host or thank the organizer for the meeting or for the training or for whatever it is, just thank them for setting it up. Because what that does do is it turns the organizer's attention to you. And again, not in a suck up, but in a, oh my gosh, a reliable way, like, thank you. I can, I can rely on you, but it also opens up the opportunity to provide input to the meeting. So if the organizer, the speaker, the facilitator, you know, someone like me who's presenting, the more you engage with me, the more I can track what's happening. I can modulate, I can adjust, I can figure out, okay, this piece is resonating or this piece could be confusing. If someone asks a follow up question like, do you mean this when you ask this? Like, okay, that means I need to change how I'm doing that. But if no one speaks up, if no one is on camera and no one wants to engage, no one is going to get a good experience in that meeting. Here's the list. One, be considerate. Two, be a participant. And three, be a connector, be a communicator. That's all for this week on the podcast. Thanks so much for listening. You can follow me on Twitter Molly McPherson or now on Facebook Molly McPherson PR and arriving soon, the Indestructible PR Masterclass. This is going to be an online offering for how to create an indestructible reputation in the age of social media. I have online modules that are going to walk you through what you need for your full set of resources for creating an indestructible PR presence at your company or organization. So keep listening to the podcast for more information. You can also sign up in advance for more information@molly mcferson.com subscribe thanks so much for listening. We'll see you again next week. Bye for now.