Tips for Looking Your Best While Video Conferencing

Experts in telecommuting have already figured out how to stay connected to the office from home, but even these professionals may struggle to look presentable and stay focused. Many feel that video conferencing and using a webcam to capture your every move at home is stressful. As video conferencing takes over as the go-to-meeting option in response to many of us working from home, we take a look at how you can look your best while video conferencing.

1.) Pick A Plain Background
If you can, choose a blank, neutral wall without any patterns for your backdrop. Light gray, light blues, off-white, and beige are perfect color choices. Color theory studies often point out that orange, yellow, and red, although vibrant and bold, can also be off-putting in a scenario that is more calm.

2.) Make Sure We Can Hear You
Avoid any room that doesn’t have soundproofing when you’re on a phone call or video conferencing meeting. Tile and hardwood floors don’t absorb enough sound to limit echos. You should opt for a room with carpet and window treatments so that your team can hear what you’re sharing loud and clear.

3.) Make Sure Your Camera’s At Eye Level
Adjust yourself and your webcam lens so that your eyes meet it. Experts recommend sitting three feet away from your screen so that other video conferencing participants can see you without you being too close. Having the camera at eye level directs the attention to where it matters and leaves you looking professional and presentable.

4.) Stretch Before A Meeting
Practice physical anchoring exercises such as grounding, breathing, and stretching before a meeting to reset and refresh your mind and body. Stretching and exercising is great for everyone, and especially useful to those who have a long list of video conferencing meetings on their calendar.

5.) Mute Your Audio When You Are Not Speaking
Mute your audio before hopping on a video or audio call with a large number of people. This will limit excess feedback, distracting noises, and disruptions. You can mute and unmute as the conversation goes on, but you should let whoever organized the meeting start things off and keep the meeting on task and organized.

6.) Turn Off Your Camera
Apps such as Google Meet and Zoom can be used as wonderful tools to connect with your team, stay on the same page with projects, and brainstorm creatively from all over the world. But their default settings can also be distracting, choose to turn your webcam off on occasion to eliminate distractions. If there is a lot taking place on the screen behind you, chances are those on the call are being distracted by what is behind you and not paying attention to what you are saying. Turning off your web camera is a good option for the at-home office workers who occasionally take calls in their cars or organize meetings with a lot of people running around the house.

As technology and our current situation continue to change the way we work, we must continue to have discussions on how to adapt and change along with it. Having to finally remove the tape from your laptop’s webcam for fear of the spying FBI guy can seem daunting. Still, we’re lucky that we exist alongside the invention of the slide-able computer camera cover. It will be interesting to see what other new ideas emerge from so many people adjusting to the new norm of working from home.