Allow Your Webinar Audience to Ask Questions Out Loud by Gihan Perera

Some webinar technology allows audience members to speak up during the webinar. You usually have their microphones turned off (on "mute"), but they can "raise their hand" to ask a question, and you selectively turn on their microphone when they're ready.

Even when this feature is available, many webinar presenters don't use it - perhaps because they fear it will break the flow of the presentation, or raise awkward questions they can't handle. But allowing questions out loud improves the experience for everybody - you, the person asking the question, and other participants. So let's explore the benefits, drawbacks and strategies for making this work in your webinars.

Benefits

This greatly increases the level of engagement and interactivity for your audience.
Even people who don't ask questions feel more comfortable when they hear somebody else's voice.
Some questions require a bit of back-and-forth conversation to clarify the exact question.
If you don't offer this option, some people just won't bother typing out their question because it will take too long.
You can use this not only for questions, but at any other time you want audience members to speak.

Drawbacks

You can't screen the questions in advance.
You can't control the order in which you answer the questions.
Some participants will have low-quality microphones, strong accents or distracting background noises that make it difficult to hear and understand them.
If they are listening to you through their computer speakers (not a headset), when you answer their question, your voice will be picked up by their microphone and fed back to the entire audience, creating a slightly distracting feedback effect.
Invariably, some participants will have trouble getting their microphone to work at all!

Making it work

If you'd like to take advantage of this feature, while minimizing the risks and drawbacks, here are some tips for your webinars.

Tell them beforehand that you'll be offering this feature, and remind them to get a headset and microphone.
Log in early and test a few users' microphones before the official start time. This makes them feel more comfortable and confident.
During your presentation, alert the audience a few minutes before you're stopping for questions (e.g. "After I finish this slide, I'm going to stop for questions."). This helps the audience get their questions ready, and avoids the awkward silence that might otherwise occur.
Before the webinar, ask a few people you know well to have a question ready, in case nobody else pipes up. You don't need to know their questions in advance; but you do know you won't get complete silence!
Finally, start small. Practice with small groups and familiar audiences, so that you become comfortable with the technology.


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