10 effective ways to use screen sharing at work

Screen sharing, also known as desktop sharing, has become a powerful tool for businesses big and small. As the number of remote teams continues to grow and companies go global – the ability to share your screen, app or file in real-time from across the room or across time zones has opened up a whole new world of possibilities while changing the way everyone is doing business.

In fact, a recent study found that adoption rates for conferencing technologies like screen sharing are booming, with audio conferencing in the lead (50%) and screen sharing a close second (45%), making it almost as essential as conferencing itself. While it plays a critical role in today’s business environment, the good news is it’s a relatively simple tool that often comes pre-packaged into your video conferencing software.

Chances are, you’ve already used some of the most popular features of screen sharing. Whether you’re sharing a PowerPoint presentation or pitching a new idea to a potential client or customer, screen sharing delivers deeper comprehension and better collaboration across the board.

From internal communication to employee training and every task in between, let’s take a look at ten screen sharing uses that can make you more productive at work:

1. Online meetings

Being able to share your screen makes everything a lot easier when you’re trying to collaborate with a remote team on a document or project. It puts everyone on the same page, literally and figuratively, instead of requiring attendees to download large files and then wonder if they’re keeping pace. Screen sharing puts you in the driver’s seat and maintains a focused meeting, making it more efficient and more effective.

2. Presentations

Screen sharing makes online presentations easier for you and your participants. As the saying goes: a picture is worth a thousand words. By screen sharing during your presentation, you can better connect and engage with clients, colleagues or customers, bringing a better depth of understanding than words alone could ever do. This practice applies whether you’re pitching a new product, presenting to an internal team or trying to reel in a potential investor.

3. Employee training

Sometimes the best way to show new employees the ropes, or to train-up existing employees, is to show not tell. With screen sharing, you can conduct training all at once, no matter where the employees are, instead of having to train multiple groups separately at various training sessions. It’s not only efficient, saving valuable travel time and dollars, it also ensures that everyone receives the identical training. Best of all, you can record your training session – capturing audio, video and screen-sharing activity – for employees unable to attend. It also creates a valuable training tool you can share across your organization for people to view again and again.

4. Brainstorming

Sometimes online meetings need to be more than just a check-in; you need to hold a brainstorming session to come up with new ideas. But how do you do that online? Some collaboration software allows you to create a virtual whiteboard to collectively scribble ideas on, make notes on a shared document, and so on. It’s truly is a free-form, digital canvas where people and ideas can come together to create something amazing. A virtual whiteboard enables teams to collaborate in real-time, no matter where they are.

5. IT assistance

When something’s not working correctly, it can be troublesome to explain to IT support staff what’s going on without showing them. Gone are the days of capturing screenshots and sending via email or messengers. With screen sharing, you can show them exactly what’s happening. You can even allow the IT staff to access your computer remotely by sharing control, allowing them to move around freely and make any modifications needed to resolve the problem. When the problem is solved, you can stop sharing and take control once again.

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6. Sales pitches

Most companies (66%) report using web conferencing with clients and prospects during the sales pitch process. Why? Because it improves efficiency and the quality of interactions.
Aside from conducting sales meetings, using screen sharing for online product demonstrations is also wildly popular, becoming the go-to method for creating a compelling sales experience. It’s no wonder high-achieving sales organizations are twice as likely as under-performers (21% vs. 11%) to use their web conferencing platforms to create a more engaging experience for potential prospects and customers.

7. Webinars

With desktop and screen-sharing capabilities, it’s a lot easier to conduct educational seminars for potential customers or internal teams. Similar to the benefits of employee training, using a show-me-don’t-tell-me approach boosts participant engagement. Furthermore, it encourages real-time, in-depth discussions and enhances the experience with high-quality video and audio recordings that can be distributed and reshared with all employees.

8. Customer support

As with IT assistance, sometimes the best way to troubleshoot an issue is to have both the business and the client looking at the same thing at the same time. Anyone who’s had to call a company’s customer support line knows how frustrating it can be. Screen sharing is much more likely to lead to better interaction than a phone call alone, which 32% of customers say is the most frustrating channel on which to interact with a company.

9. New employee interviews

If you’re interviewing a new potential candidate for a role at your organization, screen sharing can a great way to get the most out of an interview conducted via video conference. For instance, screen sharing can be a way for an interviewee to demonstrate their level of skill using a particular software program, or perhaps to show off their coding or presenting abilities, or walk you through their portfolio.

In addition, the interviewer can more efficiently share the types of projects the new hire might be working on, or walk them through a typical process at the company. It’s a very efficient way to determine if a particular candidate is a good match for the job.

10. Project updates

Quick check-ins with remote teams are faster and more efficient with screen sharing. Now you can quickly demonstrate the status of a project schedule, for example, by sharing it with colleagues while getting real-time feedback on timelines, dependencies resources and more.

Along these same lines, a long-term project can have a lot of phases and a lot of stakeholders. It can be the perfect avenue for something like a daily scrum, huddle, morning roll call, or any quick meeting that requires updates and feedback along the way. Now all team members are ready to get more done together.

No matter how you choose to use it, screen sharing is an efficient, simple and powerful tool. It enables you to bring people together and improve the way you communicate while creating a better solution for today’s business environment.

The Microsoft 365 team is focused on sharing resources to help you start, run, and grow your business.

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