Hello friends,
🙌Many thanks for reading The Quest, your weekly round-up of tips and insights to help you design and lead exceptional online sessions that your group members will love.❤️
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Let’s jump right in.
🤷Have you ever found yourself in a Zoom rut?
You find yourself relying on your same go-to features. A chat prompt here. A quick poll there. Maybe a couple of breakout rooms. It becomes a pattern that you rinse and repeat. Over and over again.
You are definitely not the only one.
It’s all too easy to get trapped in the routine of Zoom meetings. And it’s much harder to break free.
But here’s the catch.
This monotony comes at a cost. It can suck the life out of your sessions. People’s attention starts to drift. And eyes glaze over. And before you know it you are faced with the one thing that facilitators dread the most…
Awkward silence. 😩
You can get yourself out of the rut.
The good news is that Zoom is packed with lesser-known features that can help you vibe up your live sessions. They’ll banish boredom. And they’ll bring back the joy of leading online sessions.
What are those hidden features I hear you asking?
That’s our Quest for this week 🔎
🥗5 Fresh Ways to Vibe Up Your Zoom Room
Here are 5 hidden Zoom features that will get you out of the Zoom rut and bring the joy back into your live sessions.
Let’s look at them one by one👇
#1. Customize Waiting Room
Getting creative with your waiting room is a simple yet powerful way to transform boring waiting time into engagement – even before your session starts.
How? Log into Zoom. Go to Settings on the left. Scroll down to Waiting Room Options and Click on Customise Waiting Room.
You’ll have the option of adding a session title and text, your logo, and a video or image. I like to share a quote that gets people curious about the theme for your session like this👇
#2.🖊️Annotate
Annotate is one of those Zoom features that people can easily forget exists. Annotate allows your participants to draw, stamp, and write over a shared screen. I find that even before I finish giving instructions people are already drawing across the screen. You can use it to vote, make collaborative drawings, and do informal polling.
How? Check out this video on how to use annotate in Zoom.
#3. ⏲️ Timer
Ever wonder how facilitators get that timer to show up on the corner of their screen like this 👇
The easiest way is to install the free Zoom timer app. Once installed open your apps tab at the bottom of your Zoom screen. Choose the time and press start. Don’t forget to toggle “Show timer to all”.
#4. 📸 Group Photo
Group photos are an amazing way to create a shared memory of the session. The problem is that it’s pretty much impossible to get everyone looking at the camera at the same time. The Zoom photo app solves that problem. It takes an individual photo of each participant and puts them together into one group image. It also gives those participants who don’t want to be in the photo the option to opt out. The result? A much better-quality group photo.
How? Install the free Zoom Photo app. When the time comes open your app tab and take the photo from the app instead of taking a screenshot.
#5. Virtual Backgrounds
Changing virtual backgrounds is a great way to let people show off their personalities and inject some fun into your meeting. Virtual backgrounds also allow people privacy. You can change your virtual background from the video tab at the bottom of the Zoom screen. I recently discovered the Zoom Virtual Backgrounds App that gives you access to 3 million high-resolution images including cool art backgrounds like this👇
What are your favorite hidden Zoom features? Let me know by hitting reply to this email.
💌Thanks for reading The Quest
I always love hearing your feedback and suggestions. Just hit reply to share your thoughts and ideas.
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Creatively yours,
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