We asked a few experts for their advice on how to look your best on zoom, whether you are attending a meeting, leading a meeting, making a presentation or being interviewed by the media, you’ll want to look like a Hollywood star or a true professional on Zoom.
Alyssa Peek, a virtual presence coach, headshot photographer, and artist offers these top tips for a powerful presence to lead with impact:
Set up
■ Decide what room is best for your workspace. The room should be private (if possible).
■ Make sure your face is well lit. The light source, window or lamp, should be facing you, not behind you.
■ Place the camera at eye level. Use books or props to raise it.
■ Have a clean and organized background. Remove any distractions.
■ Good posture is key to looking confident on camera. Use a pillow for lumbar support to keep you upright or stand.
■ Dress appropriately from waist up for your meeting or interview.
Zoom Etiquette
■ Have a profile picture associated with your account.
■ When excusing yourself during a group meeting, select “stop video” and your profile photo will appear, so your presence is still felt. Select “start video” once you return to the meeting.
■ Don’t walk around with your laptop with video on. Do as above.
NOTE: you must also mute yourself when you stop video otherwise the sound will still be on.
■ Mute yourself unless speaking so outside noise doesn’t disturb others i.e., keyboard clacking, sirens, kids, dogs.
■ Refrain from eating on camera. Drinks are acceptable. If you must eat, do as above.
Bonus Tips:
1. Under the Video Settings tab, select “Touch up my appearance” for skin smoothing.
2. When using Zoom on your phone, your image will not appear on the /your screen, but your camera is still ON. *Be aware!
Monisha Kapur, a virtual personal stylist, style coach, speaker, author and founder of 344pm.com offers these tips on style:
Wardrobe and Style
Working from home alone can lead to a loss of efficiency, so to help stay productive avoid wearing loungewear and instead opt for comfortable workwear.
Studies have shown that what you wear to work, even when you work from home, has an effect on your productivity, mood, preparedness and confidence. While the setting is different, the work you do is the same, and it’s important to project a sense of professionalism, especially if you lead a team.
Here are some things consider when choosing your work from home outfit:
■ Dress to your personal style and brand to portray poise and leadership externally and confidence internally.
■ Be Comfortable- Comfort is key. Wear clothing that incorporates a stretch fabric, like spandex, it’s not only comfortable but helps creates a polished look.
■ Layer- Keep a few professional clothing items, like blazers, ties and accessories handy in your home office area. This way you can be Zoom call ready at a moment’s notice.
■ Dress for the day- Check your schedule for the day and dress accordingly.
Dress for a Zoom meeting – from home or a cafe
■ A work meeting- It’s important to project your authentic personal brand, even on a Zoom call. When working from home or a café you don’t have to dress in a suit and tie (unless you want to) but wearing professional yet comfortable clothing is the way to go. Think, elevated basics (i.e.- black pants, comfortable button downs, silk tees), fabrics with stretch and clothes that fit you well.
■ For women- Pair a work blouse in a fun print with Ponte fabric pants and a duster for layering. Or a chambray button down shirt, a neck scarf and a knit midi skirt. A solid color jumpsuit layered with an animal print button down shirt is another option.
■ For Men- Pair a button-down shirt in a multi-color check print, khaki pants and an unstructured blazer or V-neck sweater for layering. Or a clean polo shirt in a pop color with dark denim. Staying with the dark denim, you could wear that with a well-fitting cotton / spandex blend tee with and a button-down shirt for layering.
Makeup and Accessories
■ If you normally wear makeup and accessories when you work outside your office, then definitely continue when you work from home. This will help keep you in “work mode”
■ To be more comfortable you may want to choose lighter make up and easy to layer accessories like scarves or necklaces.
■ Be mindful of where your mic is and avoid necklaces that hit up against the mic, or scarves covering the mic.
■ Avoid clanky accessories like bracelets and earrings.
Color and print patterns
■ For everyday Zoom meetings it’s OK to wear a bright color or a non-distracting print. Wearing bright colors can help boost your mood so they’re perfect for working from home.
■ For video interviews, or job interviews stick with solid colors.
Pro Tip: Be aware of which colors work best for your skin tone to avoid looking washed out on camera.
Kathryn Janicek, a media and public speaking trainer who teaches executives who need to do interviews on TV stations worldwide through video conferencing offers these tips on making a good impression through video conferencing:
Background
The key to speaking on stage, in the media, in your videos, during live video conferencing and in job interviews is to keep the audience focused on your message and nothing else. Create a background that isn’t distracting.
Look at the wall or space behind you and make sure nothing behind you is distracting. Look for light switches, outlets, open doors, open windows, and anything else that could be distracting.
You want people to remember your content and message, and if there’s a very obvious picture or book behind you that grabs the viewers’ focus -- remove it. You don’t want anything in the background distract from your message, or worse, offend your audience.
Lighting
When you are selling your company, your brand, a product or service - you want to be seen in the best light. Literally and figuratively.
When you show up in a media interview or a meeting and you are poorly lit or there are lots of shadows on your face, the audience can subconsciously feel like you’re hiding something. That you can’t be trusted. Good lighting is your best friend.
The majority of your message is your physical content. This is why what you do, and your appearance is just as important, if not more, than what you say.
Lighting is vital to the way you appear on the screen. Make sure there are no windows behind you. The lighting needs to be in front of you. Natural light from a window is the best. If you don’t have a room that works for this, use soft lighting from a lamp and place it right in front of you without creating shadows from your monitor or phone. I’ve used
Position the camera at eye level
Before you jump on a call, make sure the audience will not be looking up your nose or at your ceiling. We’ve seen a lot of these kinds of calls and interviews!
Make sure you’re going to appear to your audience at the angle they’re used to seeing you from across a table. Adjust your computer so it’s at eye level by adding books or something else to raise the computer up a little.
Sit upright, in the front half of your chair, and look alert. Do not swivel. when you’re speaking.
Make eye contact with the camera
Just like in person, you want to make great eye contact with your audience. When you’re video conferencing, this can be tough. The software will show you speaking on your monitor, along with the person interviewing you - or all the people you’re talking to on the call. This can create a lot of distractions for you.
The key here is to make sure when you are talking, you look into the camera on your computer or phone. When you look directly into the camera, you will be appearing as if you’re looking right into the eyes of your audience. This takes practice to get it down and not let your eyes wander off and look at all the other people on the call.
Why is this so important? When you let your eyes move from person to person or somewhere else in your room, you may appear to be insincere, detached, uninterested, insecure and even shifty. Make time to practice good eye contact. You do not want to portray the message that you don’t care about the meeting or interview.
Be camera-ready
Working from home means you may not have to put a lot of focus on what you’re wearing on your lower half, but you need to make sure that from waist up, you’re all business.
Take the time before an on-camera meeting to do your hair, makeup and wear something that is not too distracting. For on-camera media interviews through video conferencing, my clients normally have their makeup and hair professionally done.
It may not be possible to have someone come to your house to get that done. There are many consultants who can talk you through this virtually right now.
If you don’t have a professional to help you, make sure you look well-rested, alert, your skin looks healthy and your best features are emphasized. Since you want your audience to lock-in with your eyes and trust you.
Make sure your eyes are not blocked by extra hair and eyeglass frames that don’t fit your face properly.
Both men and women can benefit from a little concealer under their eyes.
Make sure your hair isn’t distracting and falling into your face during your calls and try not to adjust your hair or touch your face while you’re on camera.
When it comes to wardrobe, it’s better to wear a solid color or something that’s not as distracting. If you have a bold or quirky personality and you love bright colors and patterns, it’s okay to be yourself, just make sure you don’t distract from the conversation.
Be heard! (and sometimes silent)
If you’re in a virtual meeting with a lot of other people, mute yourself when you’re not talking. You may have kids and/or pets at home right now and a spouse working from home.
This is the time to learn how to effectively mute yourself when you’re not talking so the speaker is heard clearly. Also, make sure you shut off your notifications on both your computer and phone. You don’t want to hear your computer or phone dinging throughout a call or interview. You also could be taking notes during the call, and you don’t want the sound of your fingers tapping away to distract the others.