7 Top Tips On Getting The Most Out Of Your Zoom Meetings

If you haven’t used virtual meeting software before, you will do very soon. Some of you may have been using Zoom as your chosen virtual meeting software and may be a Zoom pro, or maybe you have recently been forced into downloading it by colleagues or friends, and don’t know about how to use it.

To help you become quickly familiar with virtual meeting software and Zoom in particular, we have put together our top 7 tips for getting the most out of your virtual meetings.

Virtual meeting software is used widely by companies and organisations for a number of reasons including:

Zoom is particularly popular in agency environments, as many of these are likely to have a remote workforce and engage regularly with freelancers for their projects. It is also popular among the digital nomad community, freelancers, project workers and some C-Suite executives.

However more recently and in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic – we have seen many organisations, including government departments, educational institutions, politicians, teachers and students all-embracing video conferencing systems, such as Zoom.

A laggy meeting is a frustrating one. If you’re concerned about bandwidth issues, turn your video off. 

Why? Keeping your camera on when using Zoom and other virtual meeting software uses more data and bandwidth than just using audio, and can cause a lag when somebody is speaking. If you are trying to have an important meeting with your colleague or a client this can prove quite challenging and frustrating.

Source: Whitelist

We are used to speaking face to face, and for some of us it will be quite strange talking to a computer screen. If you’re not using your video, an alternative is to make sure your Zoom profile picture is updated and visible to your meeting attendees. Try using a photo that displays your face, and stay away from landscapes, it looks more professional.

Zoom and other video conferencing systems let you record your meetings. It is a really useful feature especially if you have to dip out of the meeting early or if you can’t attend. You can ask your colleague to record the meeting for you and send it across afterwards. Remember: if you keep the video (and screen sharing) off in your meetings, the recorded file will be an audio file and will be much easier and faster to send.

Before you start work for the day, make sure you test your microphone and speakers (or headset), that way, when your boss calls you for a sudden project update, you won’t waste any time on ‘technical difficulties’. Trust me, they will appreciate it.

This one is quite neat and very useful at times. This feature allows you to essentially take over a meeting attendee’s screen. For example, your colleague might be sharing their screen so everybody in the meeting can see it. Once you request for remote access you can then use your own keyboard and mouse to navigate around your colleague’s screen. 

This is especially helpful when you want to explain something or navigate to a particular area on someone’s screen – for example, for training or troubleshooting purposes. The remote access allows this to be done quickly.

A few useful keyboard shortcuts for Zoom:

Don’t be that person who starts talking to their cat mid-meeting because you forgot to mute yourself!

Be aware of when you are and aren’t on mute when video conferencing, this will make sure your meeting flows more smoothly, and you won’t end up talking to yourself for 10 minutes only to have to repeat it all over again.

When selecting and using a virtual meeting software it is important to make sure you understand how to use it securely to avoid potential information breaches. The Australian Cyber Security Centre provides further guidance on staying safe when using video software. Please make sure you share this guide with your colleagues, students, family, friends and other contacts.

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