When should you NOT use interactivity in a webinar?
Is there ever a time not to use the interactivity tools provided by a web conferencing solution?
To be sure, in most cases you should push yourself to use more and more interactivity as your audience has less distance to travel to Distraction Avenue. I’m not saying it won’t feel artificial sometimes to ask a question, but your goal for that question, poll, or ‘hand up’ may well be to demonstrate that you will be interacting with the audience. This is a powerful message if you need them to engage – and you probably do if your goal is to educate and influence and outcome.
But the worst thing you can do is lose one precious moment working on something that doesn’t support your presentation goals…to communicate with the audience to effectively deliver them the knowledge or skills that accomplish an outcome. Creating a moment of interactivity with no purpose is a waste of the audience’s time… and a waste of yours. Don’t use a poll just to “be interactive.”
Don’t use interactivity tools without a reason.