This blog post has been authored by Diahana Barnes, Diahana Barnes Coaching & Consulting

#1 – Get your energy up. This is the most important one in my opinion when you’re speaking online. When you show up on camera you want to be engaging and powerful.

You want to be who you are, introverted or extroverted whatever it is you still have the ability to exude energy, love, and engagement. Whether it is Facebook live or on Zoom, you want to have your energy up. It will come through the camera, people will feel you. Get into a powerful space, a powerful mindset, and that high energy that really attracts people to you.

#2 Dress On Brand
Make sure you dress on brand, when you’re online and when you’re getting on stage – I really like to encourage people to dress on brand.

What does that mean, dressing on brand? It doesn’t just mean your brand colors. it’s not necessarily just being in that color it’s being in what do you want people to feel when they see you and it’s also about consistency. How you show up on stage with an in-person stage or online stage needs to be consistent with everything else that you do.

Your brand should be consistent across all Platforms – in person and online, so you want to convey that same feeling. A couple tips that work particularly well: don’t wear a busy pattern on your shirt. No wild patterns because they show up kind of funky and that can be distracting on camera. Not too many colors you can have one or two colors, but not a lot you don’t want too much going on and it’s distracting.

#3 Use Notes (if you need to)
Don’t be afraid to have and use notes, bullet point out your notes you don’t want to be sitting there reading. You want to be really authentic. What you’re communicating is less about the words and more about the energy and the message, but stay on task.

You don’t want to be all over the place. A tip that I give some of my clients is look at your webcam as if it’s somebody’s eyeball. I sometimes put a three-by-five card with a picture of a person on it so I remember to talk to one person.

#4 Have a Clear Space on Camera
Your space behind should also be clear, so when you’re on camera you do not want anything above your head. I had someone who had a fan, it’s super distracting. You want a little space around you right white wall or colored wall behind you. Then you can have a little something: a little plant, something for visual interest. You want your message to be clear and people are focused on you and not looking at the other stuff on camera.

#5 Don’t Create a “studio”
While in #4 I talk about having a clear space, try not to create a studio environment. In my opinion when you’re speaking online, I believe now more than ever people want connection not perfection. Showing up authentically. You want it to look nice but my area does not look like a professional studio. I’m at my desk, I got my dual monitors, I got my coffee, my dog might come barking in at any time. They want to see you, they don’t care about the perfect environment.

#6 Be Engaging
Create an opportunity for engagement. I’m a huge fan of engagement – when you’re in person it’s so much easier. Online you want to recreate that exact same experience but it takes a little more work. You’ll notice at the very beginning of my live’s I say drop a comment “say hi say good morning tell me what you’re drinking I’m drinking coffee”, that’s how you create engagement and build that into your online talk. I’ll say “type in the comments if this is resonating”, this is how you can create engagement in your online talk.

#7 Create and Answer Questions
My last tip is create and answer your own questions. If you’re new to speaking online, the difference with speaking online versus speaking on stage is sometimes your audience isn’t there the minute you’re presenting. You want to create engagement and you want to prepare for questions in advance and answer them in your live.

My point is don’t underestimate the power of the replay. You get 10 or 20 or a hundred or two hundred people watching your replay later. The best part about live video is people will watch it later and so asking questions, answering the questions, asking for engagement while it may not happen in that exact moment, people are watching later and getting value after your live is over. Don’t underestimate the value of asking questions.

So that’s this week’s tip on Speaking Online. Feel free to share with other Visionary Leaders who are looking to create a powerful online presence.

When it comes to speaking online, what is your strategy? Are you using lives on Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube, a business page, timeline or in a private group? Leave me a comment and let’s continue the conversation.

Diahana is an award winning Trainer, Speaker, Success Strategist, and Executive Coach with over 23 years of experience. Mom, former corporate woman, and entrepreneur

She’s worked with Fortune 500 executives on their keynotes, been personally trained by their executive coaches and spoken on stages with audience sizes ranging from 25 to 500.

Her mission is to help 10,000 heart centered entrepreneurs be the Harmonious CEOs of their businesses.