It is normal to have problematic attendees any time you are presenting live; be it to a live stage audience or a telephone conference, or even a seminar on the web i.e. webinar.
Some have a habit of asking too many questions when given a chance to ask one or two, whereas others may be antagonistic or verbally offensive. A few other people will go ahead to disrupt the peace that the rest of the audience was enjoying as they listen to your presentation.
You have four tactics that you can engage: disregard, dismiss, reverse the protest, or turn to the audience.
Lack of maturity is the main driving force behind someone wanting to disrupt your presentation. Shouting, insulting you or other people and asking irrelevant questions are some of the schemes employed. The gotowebinar allows you to see the questions that participants are sending and allow you to pass them on to other participants who do not have access or respond to those you choose.
This is very beneficial since the conference is automatically moderated such that you are in control of the questions you want all participants to share. If you come across questions you don't like you can simply disregard them. However if someone becomes unbearable with his disruptions, you can block him from the webinar. To kick a person out of your webinar is just a matter of right clicking that participant and choosing to "dismiss" him.
All participants, though invited by you, attend on their own volition. So if anyone feels offended, or decided they are not gaining anything by attending or to some extent that they are wasting their time by participating, let them know that they are free to leave. Failure to do that will only leave you with the option of dismissing them.
There is also the issue of questions that keep cropping up from different attendees. It is unwise to ignore such questions. Instead, it is advisable you turn the said question into an opportunity to explain yourself better. A good example is on one particular presentation I was doing regarding developing a member's subscription site using a particular software. Several participants kept asking why I prefer that software yet there are cheaper or free versions of the software that could do the same.
I could have ignored the question but instead I went ahead and explained myself; gave a review of the software, stated its features and also explained why I consider it better than other free or commercial solutions. I provided proof on how the solution delivers what it is supposed to do as opposed to other solutions that promise much but deliver less.
Lastly, if someone keeps nagging with irrelevant questions or keeps complaining about an issue, you can pass their concerns to the rest of the audience to give their opinion on the matter. At one time, I had someone complaining throughout my presentation that he could not understand me. I had to stop the webinar and ask the rest of the audience whether my pace and articulation of facts was alright. They all gave me the green light and so I moved on having silenced my critic.
Please visit www.webinarcrusher.com to setup your very own webinar.
