Impression Forming on Video Calls
Rachel Cossar
10 replies
As the future of work stabilizes, video has become a central piece of a company's communication structure.
Do you think about making a strong first impression over video? And if so, how do you do this?
Replies
Max Osbon@max_osbon
Remembering to use my hands is a big one
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Virtual Sapiens
@max_osbon Interesting - can you share more about that ? What is it about using your hands that affects your impression on video?
Virtual Sapiens
@max_osbon Gasp. That's no good. Hands are a big part of how we build trust and emphasis from a nonverbal perspective.
We have evolved over the years to trust people who literally show us they have nothing to hide, vs. shoving their hands in their pockets, or on video, not using their hands at all.
From a delivery perspective, you will find using your hands is an effective way to help your audience understand more nuance in what you are saying, while retaining more as well.
Glad to hear you are using your hands!!
Just like in person, mimic what your best natural interaction you have had with somebody and think 'why did that go so well'?
Both sides were probably leaning in, interested in what the other was saying, listening and speaking at the appropriate times (emphasis on active listening). Using hands, being a real person, being well kept, having an appropriate / appealing 'backdrop' (i.e. no messy room, no scary wall with off-putting art unless it is a great conversation starter haha)
Eyeballs not moving around looking at other things on your screen and not changing windows (which is easy to tell because the amount of screen 'light' that is reflecting on your face will change) are two other big ones that help ensure all your focus is on the other party
Virtual Sapiens
@rachelonpointe Hi, cool product you have there! I’m just curious, will the AI nudge users based on one set of standard behaviors or there can be some sort of personalization? I can imagine some behaviors might be flagged as not ideal but they’re very important for neurodivergent people to self stimulate and calm themselves, such as avoiding eye contact or stimming.
Virtual Sapiens
@cottontology Hi! Great question. In our Beta version, our communication metrics are based off of baseline communication best practices for a presentation. This said however, we have different metrics depending on whether you are actively speaking, or actively listening.
In the future, we will have specific use cases developed that are more personalized. Additionally, we are considering having an option to 'dull down' certain nudges if they are not relevant to you in specific situations - but this would be available only at a certain tier subscription.