In today’s world, 87% of businesses prefer using conference calls to other kinds of meetings. And why wouldn’t they? It’s convenient for everyone since no commute has to be made, and it easily lets people in all different places interact with each other.
If you’re running a virtual meeting, you’re probably wondering how to make it the best it can be. Never fear, because here, we’re going to give you six insider tips on how to make your conference call a success.
#1. Decide What You Want
Decide ahead of time what you want both yourself and other employees and coworkers to get out of the conference meeting. Is there something specific you want to be decided? A specific course of action you want to be laid out?
It can be really helpful to set out an agenda for what you want to happen. This will help to keep everyone in the conference call on track and stop distractions from popping up.
#2. Make Sure It’s Secure
A major concern about screen share and conference calls can be their security. After all, you wouldn’t want competitors to breach your virtual meetings and learn your business secrets. You also don’t want the software you use to download viruses to everyone’s devices.
To avoid breaches in security, make sure you get a secure server and check on that security. Don’t condemn your meeting before it starts!
#3. Research Your Virtual Meeting
Before you start running your virtual meeting, make sure you do your research. If you don’t look into all the different conference call services that are out there, you might get something that doesn’t work for you. This will hurt your productivity, so looking into these services is well worth your time!
Another plus to doing your research is that it will save you money. You don’t want to be out a couple hundred dollars in profits because you didn’t take the time to do a couple Google searches!
#4. Keep Everyone Engaged
Keeping everyone engaged in a virtual meeting is tough; we’ve all seen the movies where someone is playing a video game or sitting in the bath when they should be paying attention to a call.
It falls on the person running the meeting to keep everyone engaged. Give everyone a chance to participate and feel like they’re making a contribution. Otherwise, you’re going to have people who aren’t really engaged with work.
#5. Focus on Content
Make sure that your virtual meeting is more content-focused than anything. You don’t want to spend all your time fiddling with calling services or technology issues.
Test out the technology you’re using beforehand. Also, make sure to email everyone their agenda in advance so you don’t waste time bringing up topics that everyone should have ideas about already!
#6. Network, Network, Network
One great thing about virtual meetings is that they’re great for networking. Since they bring people together who work in different parts of the country or even the world, people will have the chance to talk to people they couldn’t share ideas with otherwise.
Take advantage of this! Everyone has something fresh to bring to the table.
Get Out There!
Conference calls can be tough to manage, but if you do your research and know your focus, they can be a fun and rewarding experience. Now that you know the six best tips to run your virtual meeting, have fun and be productive!
