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USA TODAY

Mike McDougall has a rule for associates attending company video meetings: turn the camera on, and let him see your face.
If the camera isn’t turned on, “it’s a question of curiosity to why not,” says McDougall, who runs a marketing firm based in Rochester, New York. “Are you hiding something?”
Employees who consistently don’t turn the camera on get a phone call from McDougall, who encourages video participation.
“There’s something about eye contact,” he says. “It really helps.”

As more of us work at home and take video meetings, remembering to turn on the video camera to participate is just one of many etiquette rules people need to embrace.
“If it’s a meeting of 10 of us, it’s just expected that we’ll be on video and emoting,” says Alexis Nelson, the social media director for BarkBox, an online dog food firm, which has 500 employees. “If it’s a companywide meeting, almost everyone has their camera off.”
Here are some other etiquette rules you should think about.
Audio/Mute
It would be considered rude to amplify the sound of you typing, have your phone ring in the background, or let kids screaming off-camera seep into the company meeting. There’s a simple fix: the video meeting apps all have a “mute audio” button. Click mute when others are speaking. When it’s your turn to speak, unmute.

Ditch distractions
The bookshelves behind you with too many visible titles that take away from the focus on you. The odd trinkets dangling from your desk. These are no-nos. McDougall recommends a plain wall, so “people can look at you and not what’s in the background”.
Lighting
Would you hide in a dark corner during an in-person meeting in a conference room and sit so that no one could see you? That’s essentially what some people are doing with poor lighting in video calls. McDougall recommends at a minimum some front-facing table lamps to illuminate the screen, and reminds employees and clients not to be backlit, as the camera will turn you into a silhouette.

Look straight into the camera
It’s tempting to want to look at the eyes of the person you’re speaking to, but when you do that on a video screen, you’re actually looking down from the camera. The trick when you’re speaking is to look at the webcam, which serves as the real eyes you want to look at. To keep his focus on the webcam, author Larry Becker (Great on Camera) tapes a small sticky note next to the webcam to remind him to look there, and not below.
Dress for success
Would you wear worn-out sweats to an office meeting? How about a tube top? Probably not. Well, that’s just what Nelson did one day when her air conditioning broke at home, trying to stay cool. Once she saw herself on camera, however, she quickly donned a jacket. “I learned my lesson the hard way on this,” she says. “Even if it means you’re a little toasty during the meeting, cover up.”
Get your tasks done before the meeting
The boss doesn’t want to see you responding to e-mails or texting during the meeting. So get it done before the meeting starts. “That way, it gives you one less thing to worry about,” Nelson says.

Don’t eat… on camera
No one wants to see you crunching a potato chip in the middle of a meeting. Think about it. Have you ever seen TV anchors like Savannah Guthrie or Norah O’Donnell chewing while on-air? If you’re hungry, and really need to eat, “I go off-camera to sneak in some bites,” Nelson says.
Don’t look at yourself
Finally, if you’re uncomfortable with seeing yourself on camera during the meeting, but need to be present, do what Beverly Nevalga does.
“I change the view settings so I don’t see myself talking,” says Nevalga, who operates the Chicago-based BeSocialAndContent.com social media agency. “The visual cognitive load makes us self-conscious and notice less visual cues about others in the video meeting.”


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There are many etiquette rules people need to embrace as more of us work at home and take video meetings
Ditch distracting backgrounds, avoid being backlit and don’t look at people’s eyes on-screen are among many ways you can up your video meeting game



There are many etiquette rules people need to embrace as more of us work at home and take meetings on apps like Zoom or Google Hangouts. Here are some tips to get you at the top of your video conferencing game.


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