5 Best Virtual Meetings Practices

Updated

June 15, 2020

Written by

Eman Rieza

The widespread and ongoing threat of COVID-19 continues to proliferate societies across the globe. Despite the leniency of mass gatherings in certain countries due to the vaccines coming in, most industries still opt to assemble online. Virtual meetings thus became the staple for communication in several companies.

Running effective virtual meetings or online conferences may be a viable alternative in setting up conferences without exhausting one’s time or budget excessively. Unfortunately, the increasing number of businesses and groups adopting the use of online conferences have made it even difficult to achieve a seamless and cohesive connection for all the participants.

The New Normal: An Introduction To The Best Practices For Engagement In Virtual Meetings

The chances are, seven out of 10 participants will only listen with half an ear, while preoccupied with activities or thoughts not related to the topic discussed among the group. Some participants deliberately turn off their cameras while pretending that their internet connection is unstable. 

In other cases, there are people who intentionally angle their cameras in such a way that their lenses focus on an open window or a bright light. In this manner, other participants will most likely see faint silhouettes on their screens or have difficulty seeing the physical features of their colleagues.

The same scenario holds true for other forms of virtual gatherings, such as online training sessions and virtual classes. That’s just the tip of the possible problems coupled with online conferences and gatherings. Another concern that must be addressed involves the intrusion of third-party individuals into private or exclusive virtual meetings. 

On April 13 of this year, Forbes reported that a staggering 500,000 Zoom accounts had already been hacked and distributed across the web for free. There have also been several incident reports stating that during their meeting, some of the users’ screens were either manipulated or blocked, some received explicit images without their consent, while some groups had their calls interjected by unauthorized or unidentified individuals.

One of the primary reasons behind these occurrences is the lack of an efficient and organized moderation system for virtual meetings; thereby declining the quality of virtual meeting norms.

When conducting a virtual meeting, moderation is the key to having meetings run smoothly with maximum cooperation as well as reducing the occurrence of members being exposed to offensive and unnecessary content. Likewise, proper moderation keeps all participants in virtual meetings or forums engaged throughout the discussion’s duration.

What is Virtual Meeting Moderation?

With the pandemic still ongoing, virtual meetings and conferences are among the best alternatives that can help businesses carry on with their essential operations. Since online conferences are fairly new to most businesses and industries, it is not surprising how there are vague rules and moderation practices implemented for it. A properly executed moderation process for virtual meetings helps promote more secure interaction.

Online conferences have become the primary mode of communication that allows companies to discuss issues and brainstorm from different regions of the world. The virtual meeting’s goal is to keep bridges between the employees of companies intact to enrich their professional relationship despite physical distances and time zone differences.Adding moderation to the mix allows your digital meetings to become a safe space without the risk of trolls invading the sanctity of the call and disrupting the already familiar process between the attendees. With this in mind, learning online meetings best practices would aid you in your next virtual meeting.

With the pandemic still ongoing, virtual meetings and conferences are among the best alternatives that can help businesses carry on with their essential operations. Since online conferences are fairly new to most businesses and industries, it is not surprising how there are vague rules and moderation practices implemented for it. A properly executed moderation process for virtual meetings helps promote more secure interaction.

Online conferences have become the primary mode of communication that allows companies to discuss issues and brainstorm from different regions of the world. The virtual meeting’s goal is to keep bridges between the employees of companies intact to enrich their professional relationship despite physical distances and time zone differences.Adding moderation to the mix allows your digital meetings to become a safe space without the risk of trolls invading the sanctity of the call and disrupting the already familiar process between the attendees. With this in mind, learning online meetings best practices would aid you in your next virtual meeting.

Online conferences have become the primary mode of communication that allows companies to discuss issues and brainstorm from different regions of the world. The virtual meeting’s goal is to keep bridges between the employees of companies intact to enrich their professional relationship despite physical distances and time zone differences.Adding moderation to the mix allows your digital meetings to become a safe space without the risk of trolls invading the sanctity of the call and disrupting the already familiar process between the attendees. With this in mind, learning online meetings best practices would aid you in your next virtual meeting.

How to Facilitate a Teleconference Meeting Successfully and Efficiently with Moderation:

Virtual meetings are tedious to handle especially if you are the host and have to keep your attendees in line with the meeting’s ground rules. Also, establishing and implementing a moderation plan to keep trolls at bay during your conference call can prove stressful if you have several participants to check on every now and then. Here are practices to employ on your next conference:

Check Privacy Settings

Set the meeting’s accessibility to “Private” or “Members-only”. Some web conferencing platforms create exclusive links to private virtual meetings. Only those who have the link to the online conference can gain access and participate. People who are not familiar with how privacy settings in online meetings work often make the mistake of making their meetings open to the public.

Introduce House Rules

Before getting started with the forum or discussion, establish specific house rules and proper virtual meeting etiquette that every member must follow. Make sure that all participants are able to hear and understand each item in the guidelines clearly. Reiterate the rules every once in a while if needed. Specify topics or words (like profanities) that are allowed and banned from the meeting. You can also set your meeting’s chat room in such a way that only a few people can access it and send files to other participants. 

New Media Services provides customized moderation expertise to businesses and entities in need of protection for their team or virtual meeting attendees. The advantages of hiring our moderation services include, but are not limited to the following:

  1. Maintaining a well-moderated virtual meeting free from offensive content
  2. Filtering attendees through profile checking
  3. Limiting distractions caused by the influx of spam and unrelated content
  4. Gaining a rock-solid chatroom defense against scammers, hackers, and fake user profiles

Schedule Meetings in Advance

Arrange a fixed time and date for each meeting. If the group or participants are required to check on each other’s progress and output on a regular basis, then all members included in the conference must agree on a schedule for their virtual meeting. Fixed schedules help prime the mind and anticipation of participants before and during the meeting.

Assign a Person to Lead the Meeting

Assign a group leader or moderator for the meeting. The moderator is responsible for ensuring that all house rules are adhered to by all participants and that no third-party group is able to access the ongoing conference. Ideally, availing the support of an IT specialist will also be helpful in boosting the security of the participants.

No Social Media For Now

Avoid sharing online conferences on social media. Whether it is the entire video of the conference, a screenshot, or a segment of the video, sharing private or exclusive meetings breaches the confidentiality of the individuals involved in the meeting. It also runs the risk of disclosing sensitive material or information.

Virtual Meetings Require Stronger Online Protection

Equip your digital events and group discussions with the virtual meetings best practices listed in this blog to fortify and protect the participants’ information and stop trolls from barging in and creating chaos within the confines of your virtual call.

If you are looking for a reliable team with the capacity to deliver top-notch human moderation services and implements these best practices for online meetings for your digital conference, New Media Services might just be the company you are looking for! Aside from moderating virtual meetings, we also cover different types of user-generated content, including texts, videos, and images. We also scan forums, social media pages and groups, user profiles, and chats exchanged between users in a given communication platform or app.

New Media Services’ moderation system provides cost-effective services tailored to address your virtual meeting needs.

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