Screen sharing can add a lot to your online meetings and presentations. If you’re not tech savvy, don’t worry. Although it may take a few moments for you to learn how to screen share, your future meeting participants will thank you.
Screen sharing is a simple but useful tool that lets you present your slide decks, graphs, images, and more to everyone in your conference call that is joining over the web. Your screen sharing can also be recorded, if you have a paid subscription.
To share your screen while in an online meeting, simply click Share near the top of your screen. The first time you do this, you will be asked to download the screen sharing extension. Click Add Extension to continue, and be allowed to screen share. You can select whether you want to share your entire screen, or one specific window --and voila! You are now screen sharing!
Learning how to screen share is important, but so is designing your slide deck or other shareable documents so it is easy for your participants to read and understand. Here are some quick and easy-to-follow rules to keep in mind when formatting your shareables:
Design: Keep the design simple and visually appealing. You can use Powerpoint, or other online apps such as Canva to create your slides.
Copy: You should not read your text right off of your screen. This text is intended to guide your audience through your content, and should only reference what you’re talking about, without going too in-depth on it.
Transition: plan your transitions well so that your audience can follow along when you change topics. Try having a title page between segments and ensure you take time to pause.
Duration: Longer is not better. People tend to grasp ideas quickly and have little patience for detail. Try preparing a handout which you can leave with your audience. You can share this file during your online meeting by dropping it into the chat box.
Keep these tips in mind when you’re creating your presentations, and you’ll be a master screen sharer before you know it.
It’s great to be prepared, but sometimes you’ll find that having a good presentation is not enough. Even the best of content can fall flat on some audiences, especially if they are tired or preoccupied. That’s why it’s always handy to have a few ways to keep your audience engaged and listening.
Asking for audience participation is a tried and true method that has worked for as long as there have been presentations. You could also try quizzes, or questionnaires, or even puzzles, using screen sharing to add an extra dimension to the engagement.
If you take everything you’ve just learned so far to heart, you’ll be an expert at using screen sharing for your online presentations --but why stop there? After you’ve mastered everything above, these final tips will put the cherry on your conferencing cake.
Body language: if you are on a video conference, be mindful of your posture and try to sit up straight. Looking right into the camera instead of at your screen will feel a little weird at first, but will give the impression that you are looking at your meeting participants directly.
Brevity: People’s attention spans are shorter during online meetings, so be sure not to ramble.
Rehearsal: Always rehearse important presentations, even if it means just going over them in your head. It’s also key to internalize the order of your slides so you transition with ease.
Moderator controls: Remember that you have moderator controls in the event of echoing or other disruptions during your meeting.
Now that you’ve learned how to screen share, it’s time to close your presentation in style.
Firstly, always remember to recap your points at the end of your presentation because people have short attention spans. After that, include a call-to-action by telling your participants exactly what you want them to do, whether it is to work on their individual tasks, sign up for a newsletter or promotion, or just agree on the next time to meet.
After your presentation, it’s always a good idea to send a follow up. These can be the meeting notes, the time and date of the next meeting, or a recording of the meeting if you are subscribed to any of our paid plans. Consider giving it a try if you want to give your participants a little extra after your meeting is done.
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