A big question for many people new to preparing webinars is how to write the script that accompanies the video and visual effects. There are several approaches on how to write the dialogue for your presentation.
One school of thought feels that you should script everything, then memorize it and present it just as written. Many others feel that it is best to know your material well and rely on prompt phrases from your presentation slides or cue cards. There are, of course, many combinations of the two approaches that can be used.
The problem, for many people, with memorizing a script is that it can come across as very flat and uninteresting when it is presented. No one wants to listen to someone speak in a monotone from a script for thirty minutes! You are not a professional actor so there is no real need to be memorizing your lines. You do, however, need to have a good idea of what you are going to say and ensure that it is line with the visual part of your webinar.
Know your material! This is the key point to successful presentations. If you are comfortable with the material that you are presenting then you do not need a script to follow. If you are using a slideshow such as PowerPoint, you can use the bullet points on your slides as cue cards. Don't put too many bullet points on one slide; three to four is usually enough. Because you know your material you should be able to talk for several minutes from each bullet point. If you are using graphics that do not include bullet points, hand written or typed cue cards can work as well. Decide how long that you want your presentation to be and how long you can speak to each prompt. Then you will know how many slides with bullet points, or cue cards, that you need in order to organize the audio portion of your webinar.
It is important that your webinar follows a logical sequence and that the time allotted to each segment is adequate for the material that you want to cover. You will need to practice! That is the only way that you can be sure that the full presentation will run the length of time that you have allotted for it. Rehearse the complete webinar a few times until you are confident that you can cover the information that you want in the time that you have allotted.
As we've discussed, there are different ways to approach writing the script for your webinar.
You can fully script every word and memorize it. This does not work well for many people as it can come across as uninteresting and boring. For many people the best way to go about scripting their presentation is to use bullet points on a slideshow or cue cards. Each bullet point or cue card is a prompt to remind you of what to say at that point. If you know your material well you should be able to speak for several minutes from each prompt. Rehearse your webinar. Go over it as many times as you need to feel comfortable with your presentation.
Then go and give your audience the best webinar they have ever seen!
Learn how to prepare your webinar at: www.webinarcrusher.com
