Sit Still
Chair-swivellers and seat-squirmers can appear nervous (ready for escape) or predatory (ready to attack). Appearing ‘grounded’ can signal that you’re in control and mean what you say: in essence, that you’re not a pushover. This rigidity should apply to the lower body, seat and trunk, and not the face (if you look like a still image you may look frozen in fear). Movement, especially fast movement, can look jerky on many devices.
Sit up
An erect spine can make a speaker look attentive and
prepared. If you’re slumped in a seat or hunched over, it can appear that you’re
not making an effort, and looking bored can reflect this feeling onto your
audience.
Shoulders down
Shoulders should be square to the camera and kept
low/relaxed. When feeling anxious the shoulders have a tendency to raise up for
protection with the head lowered (turtle effect). Avoid this to look more
confident.
Hand gestures
Limit the use of gestures. Hands that are constantly moving
in front of the camera can distract the receiver from your message, and many
internal cameras and webcams produce jerky pictures in response to this movement. By
slowing down gestures and making them more deliberate this jerkiness can be
reduced. Gestures should then appear smooth and controlled, achieving a more
favourable impression. It’s also worth avoiding gestures that are too close to
the camera, which might mean keeping your hands nearer to the body than usual
and not extending the arms/hands forward.
Rather than 'regulating', use gestures to illustrate
consciously. This means that gestures could be choreographed, only using them to
signal key points (or that a key point is about to be made). Make sure that
these gestures can be seen, this might require raising your hands a little higher
than normal.
It might be worth using an open palms gesture early in your speech given the gesture's associations with honesty and trust.
Expressions
Use your face. Animated faces are more interesting to look at and you have
over 20,000 facial expressions to choose from. It’s usually good to begin with
a genuine smile, helping you and your audience relax. Beyond that, expressions
should match the tone or subject matter to achieve a congruent message. To
appear upbeat and inviting, think about raising your face’s centre of gravity, pulling up your cheeks in a slight smile (avoiding a long/sad face). Perhaps raise the eyebrows a little
– the eyebrows being an indicator of mood (lifted or lowered).
Eye contact
For the vast majority of the speech, maintain eye contact with
the audience by looking into/near the lens. If you are sitting close to camera it
might be better to gaze just above/beyond this to avoid a slight cross-eyed look.
The camera lens should be close to eye height and angled horizontally to the eyes. If for some reason you want to look dominant/intimidating/superior it
might be worth gazing downward to the camera.
If you can’t help but look at the faces on the screen then
sit farther away from the camera lens, this way it's less noticeable when your gaze direction changes. This is also true if you plan on glancing down at your notes.
Using notes
Notes can be positioned really close to the camera lens
without being seen by the camera/audience. It’s also possible to use a teleprompter
or basic word document with a scrolling feature. With wide margins, and by
keeping the text at the top of the screen, you can read without a noticeable
glancing down. Using bullet points in this manner can be good to keep your
speech on track whilst flowing naturally.
Where are you?
The position that you appear on the screen is an important
consideration. Ideally, your eyes should be 2/3rds of the way up the image, leaving some space for your trunk below. This means that any gestures can appear in an almost natural
position. If hands are needed to be raised to the height of the face in order
to be seen then the speaker may appear to have lost some control.
Most people, correctly, appear right in the middle of the screen but this depends to
some extent on the background. If there are nonverbal messages in the
background that you wish to highlight you may move to the side BUT in doing so,
keep 1/3 of the way in from one side of the screen. This is an aesthetically
pleasing position for the audience to see you in. You may also consider any perspective in the background which directs the audience's gaze to your mouth or eyes.
Smartphones and some laptops allow for portrait views which can work well when standing, gesturing or creating content to be viewed primarily on phones or Instagram.
Slow your speech
Being mindful of technology it’s advisable to speak a little
slower and deeper than you normally would. Breathing properly can help with this.
Breath
Take a deep breath before you begin, smile, and remember to
breathe throughout. Many people hold their breath unconsciously when nervous. In the short
term this negatively affects the voice. In the medium term the speaker will
sound anxious (or overemotional). In the long term, well, you’ll pass out.
Clothing, grooming and adornments
How you dress will contribute to the effectiveness of your
communication. Going for the unshaved casual-clothed ‘working from home’ look
might not be appropriate. As a general rule, dress the way you would if you
were speaking/presenting in person. That goes for hats, jewellery, hair style
and general grooming and cleanliness.
Ventral display
Keep your ventral region (which in the case of video
conferencing may only be the upper chest) free from barriers. Don’t cross arms
or reach across your chest, and try to keep your neck visible. By sitting up straight
and having the camera at the correct level this should allow for some neck
visibility which suggests confidence and openness.
Avoid visible adaptors
Touching the face, rubbing the back of the neck, ventilating
(pulling your collar), etc. are signs of stress – the need to adapt to the
situation. Whilst self-touching pacifiers such as twirling the hair or
self-punishing ones (biting nails) should be avoided, you might be able to
release nervous tension in other hidden ways, such as bouncing the feet.
It’s worth being aware that although the audience might not
be able to see your closed body language (arms, legs, ankles crossed), the
negative effect it may have on you can not only hinder your performance but unconsciously
affect the audience.
Lighting
Natural light is better (you can get bulbs which give a
natural light as opposed to a yellow/golden glow). Natural lighting is best
achieved through facing a window (daylight). In addition, use a side light/lamp and backlighting.
Technology
A good webcam and mic should be considered. If you intend to
move around (perhaps to demonstrate something) then a lavalier mic helps.
Practice
Before entering the virtual room there’s a chance to see how
you look on video. Do this. Get your seat and camera in the right positions and
practice gesturing to see where your hand(s) need to be placed.
Read your audience
With an audience’s audible back-channeling signals limited (they may even be on mute) it can be worth glancing at the audience to gage their reaction. Viewing them in a grid format you might want to look at their faces, especially at certain moments. But don't be put off by any movement or any individual's negative reaction, look for trends/patterns.
Good signs to look out for include:
- Tilted heads, indicating that the speaker has the ear of the receiver, unless the tilted heads are being supported.
- Slightly raised eyebrows.
- Nodding – if slow then agreement is being shown.
- An absence of movement.
- Mirroring.
- Forward leaning.
- Prolonged eye gaze.
- Dilated pupils - suggest interest or aroused.
- Genuine (Duchenne) smiles.
Bad signs from your audience:
- Nodding – if fast, could be a sign of impatience.
- Head shaking, often disagreement (but a slow nod can be shared incredulity).
- Eye blocking.
- Disappearing lips.
- Lowered eyebrows (but this could mean concentration or deliberation so consider context).
- Slow blinking - can be disinterest.
- Constricted pupils.
- Fast blinking - can be stress (but this may be a good stress like excitement - context).