Making sure you can be heard clearly when presenting online is essential. You must make sure that people can hear you properly because, quite frankly, if people are struggling to hear you they’re going to switch off really fast. An extremely worthwhile investment, possibly the most important investment you can make in terms of your kit while we’re all presenting online, is a microphone.

Most laptops and computers have a microphone built in and they’re not bad, but they’re not great. I’ve seen a lot of people recently using air buds and sticking one in one ear and using that as a microphone. I don’t think it sounds great and I don’t think it looks great either. I think it’s worth investing a little bit in an external mic. I have a microphone on a boom that’s attached to my desk and I also invested in a lapel mic, which I can just clip onto my shirt and plug into my laptop.

Another top tip is to think about the connecter – the port that you have in the side of your laptop. Make sure to buy mics with the right connectors so you don’t have to start plugging in adaptors and extra cables as they can really degrade the quality of the audio.

So if you do one thing to improve the quality of your presentations in terms of the technology, my advice would be get yourself a microphone so we can hear you properly, because your audience need to be able to hear you properly to be able to buy into whatever you’re saying and to engage fully with your presentation.