Four Ways to Make Your Webinar a Boring Waste of Time

November 8, 2011

Think about the last webinar you attended. Did it have your full attention? Or did you also open your mail? Wave a passing colleague into your office for a quick chat? Catch up on scores from last night's games? Run to the kitchen for a snack?

According to Killer Webinars' Shelley Ryan, 88% of the respondents to one survey admitted multitasking during webinar presentations. She blames this lack of focus on an element she dubs a BWOT or Boring Waste Of Time. And here are a few classics BWOTs:

Logistics. Make a good first impression by starting with relevant material—not blah-blah-blah administrative notes that an audience will ignore. "Most people already know this drill," says Ryan. "You can put the same information in the reminder email, or display it in a text box next to your slides. You can share it in the Q&A window. You can do all of those things—just don't read it in the intro."

Bios. You want to underscore the value of a speaker's experience, obviously. But a lengthy litany of clients and credentials won't help your cause. "Introduce your speaker in one simple sentence," advises Ryan.

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Customer Behavior, Marketing Tips, Surveys, Webinars

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Comments

by Mick Tue Nov 8, 2011 via web
I'm mixed on these points. I'd like to know how many people the person writing this has virtually trained or presented to and how many webinars / virtual classes a year they have presented. That information may qualify some of these statements.
The biggest waste of time is not setting a goal and expectations to make sure the right people are in the right event and then teaching / presenting to those points.
The second biggest waste is not having the participants "Do something". Engage them. Make them do an activity, tweet, click a feedback button, something!!!! (just not check their email). The value add of that something may just be reingagement. more than not, it should add value too.
Bios should be short. I know who I am and if I do a good job, by the end, you will too.
Know your audience to understand what level of logistics you need to cover. I frequently have webinars and virtual classes where more than 50% don't know where the Q&A is and 20% have a hard time understanding how to hear (VOIP) or how to interact in during the session. Basically, if I've teaching tech savy people, It's a quick "Type your name in the Q&A and let's get going" to diverse groups that need 4 minutes of overview.
Side Note - PRACTICE the presentation and technology platform.

-For those interested, I've trained over 4,000 people virtually in the last 4 years. I've felt both sides of the pain.
by DC Marketer Tue Nov 8, 2011 via web
I enthusiastically agree with all but the last points. I love polls and our attendees love polls. Anything that keeps people engaged is good. How many of us really have the ability to change our webinars mid-stream based on poll results?
by Shelley Ryan Tue Nov 8, 2011 via web
Hi, Mick and DC Marketer!

I produced weekly MarketingProfs webinars for about five years, and I've spoken in many myself. Now I spend my time helping other companies do online seminars. A huge part that is coaching speakers -- we've all seen enough crappy online presentations, right? Painful is the right word, Mick.

This article captures points from a presentation I've done about the BWOTs that are pervasive in the first several minutes of most webinars. It's clear the three of us feel the same that the "meat" needs to have terrific and engaging content. I think a lot of folks need to break out of the Logistics, Bio, Agenda, Frivolous Poll routine because it sucks the energy out of the remaining time (and the audience).

Regarding polls, I see people putting meaningless questions out there (not YOU, DC!) simply because someone said it would engage the audience. I actually LOVE including polls, but only if they are well-thought-out so they can produce interesting results. A quick example:

"Tell me about multi-tasking during webinars."
__ I usually plan to multi-task during a webinar.
__ I planned to multi-task during THIS webinar, but I'm totally riveted.
__ I'm multi-tasking right now.

I particularly like that example because most webinar apps indicate what percent of the audience didn't respond to your poll, which probably means (you guessed it!) those folks are multi-tasking. :)
by Mick Tue Nov 8, 2011 via web
@Shelley Do you also find the selected technology platform (MS Live Meeting, Adobe Connect, Saba Centra, etc...) play a big roll for the attendee in finding the webinar riveting vs boring? Maybe more so frustrating vs. engaging?
Great example, by the way. It is funny, expecially if you have a smaller group and open mic because you'll hear some participants laugh.
by Belinda Weaver Tue Nov 8, 2011 via web
I am just about to present my first webinar so this was a very timely read! I am a bit of a habitual webinar attendee and I love the accessibility of online presentations.

I'd extend your point about the agenda slide - and not letting the speaker read it aloud - to all slides. Packing the slides full of text and then just regurgitating it to the audience is the quickest way to push me back to my to do list. I love the slides with just a couple of words or even just an image because they force me to listen to the speaker. Of course I'm still on twitter and answering emails but I'm paying more attention that I might otherwise.

That reminds me... must de-text my slides some more!
by Shelley Ryan Tue Nov 8, 2011 via web
Mick, the web conferencing technology CAN make a difference if you use the features wisely and creatively. But the speaker, her content, and her delivery style matter most. You can use a platform with enough gadgets and gizmos to make NASA engineers envious and still put the audience into a coma.

Belinda, I think in Nancy Duarte's book RESONATE (or maybe her SLIDE:OLOGY book), she says the slide deck you just described isn't a presentation at all -- it's a teleprompter. Don't you love that? I quote her all the time.
by Belinda Weaver Tue Nov 8, 2011 via web
That's exactly it Shelley! I love watching some TED speakers who have words flashing up seamlessly timed with their speech. Pure class and utterly engaging.
by Nick Stamoulis Wed Nov 9, 2011 via web
I freely admit that I have am guilty of multitasking during a webinar. I'll keep it up in the background while working on something else, but keep my ear tuned. If something catches my attention I'll shelve my other project for a while. It's hard to keep an audience captive for an hour straight when they have so many distractions around them.
by Shelley Ryan Wed Nov 9, 2011 via web
I feel a blog post forming in my head, Nick. Or maybe an episode of Law and Order.

"The Sixty-Minute Murder"

SCENE OF THE CRIME: A Webinar

SUSPECTS IN THE CASE:

The webinar viewers...
all freely admitting that they are performing other tasks during an online presentation.

The speaker...
unwittingly delivering a presentation that would put a chronic insomniac to sleep.

The laptop, the internet, the browser, LOLcats and social media...
converging into a multi-tabbed, lightning-fast, always-connected barrage of interruptions and distractions.

I'd hate to be the prosecutor in a trial trying to convict the killer of those 60 minutes. I believe most of the guilt lies with the speaker, but any defense attorney could easily convince a jury that the glove doesn't fit. :)