15+ Zoom Meeting Tips and Tricks

Looking for Zoom meeting tips and tricks?

Kipwise is a 100% remote team, and web conferencing is one of the tools we use almost every day to communicate with our global team.

Below are Zoom meeting tips and tricks for hosting more effective video calls and communicating more efficiently with your remote team.

Tips for scheduling and hosting Zoom meetings

1. Automatically schedule meetings (useful for sales / clients meetings)

If you need to schedule a lot of meetings, for example, with your prospects or clients, you can connect your meeting scheduling app (e.g. we are using Calendly) and Zoom so that when someone books a meeting on your scheduling app, a Zoom meeting will be automatically created and added to the event.

For example, some meeting scheduling apps offer integration with Zoom (see Calendly x Zoom Integration). Alternatively, you can use tools like Zapier to connect your meeting scheduling tools and calendar with Zoom (see more Zoom Integrations by Zapier)

2. Create recurring meetings with the same URL (useful for internal team meetings)

Instead of using your Personal Meeting ID (PMI) to host recurring meetings, it’s better to create different meeting URLs for different meetings because for Personal Meeting ID, once a participant has the link to your PMI, they can join your meeting at any time, no matter if they are invited, unless you lock your meeting or use the Waiting Room feature to let participants in individually.

But instead of needing to create a new link every time, you can set up recurring meetings so that participants can use the same URL to join the meeting each every time. This way, you can create different URLs for all team meetings, individual functional team check-ins, retrospective meetings etc.

With recurring meetings you configure the call settings once and they apply to every later meeting. The URL also stays the same each time, so you don’t have to send a new link to attendees every time (at Kipwise, we like to put the relevant meeting link in the description of the relevant Slack channel so teammates can access them easily).

The meeting ID of a recurring meeting expires 365 days after the meeting was last started, so a series you keep using stays valid.

We recommend letting a paid license host the recurring team meeting. Zoom limits almost all meetings scheduled and hosted by Basic (free) users to 40 minutes, even on a paid company account, and a meeting started without its host present keeps the actual host’s limit. A weekly one-hour meeting created by a free user therefore cuts off mid-discussion however many paid teammates join, while Pro and Business hosts get up to 30 hours.

3. Collect information from attendees prior to the meeting

If you are hosting webinars, it might be useful to collect information from attendees prior to the meeting. For example, you might want to ask for their names, email addresses (so you can send them follow-ups or the recording of the meeting afterwards), company and role, etc.

To do this, create a registration form for your meeting: check the “Registration: Required” checkbox when creating the meeting and add optional custom questions. Registration needs a Pro, Business, Education or Enterprise account, so it is not available on a free Basic account.

4. Let someone else schedule your meetings

If you are a busy person and would like to grant someone else, e.g. your assistant, the right to schedule Zoom calls for you, you can assign them Scheduling Privilege on Zoom.

They can then schedule meetings on your behalf and act as an alternative host for your meetings.

Tips for collaboration during Zoom meetings

1. Share your screen

During a Zoom meeting, you can share your screen with other attendees to better explain your concepts. You can choose to share your entire desktop, a specific window or a portion of your screen.

Note that the host can prevent participants from accessing screen sharing.

2. Whiteboards

Other than sharing your screen, there is also a “Whiteboard” option under the “Share Screen” tab, where you and your participants can collaborate to annotate on.

3. Collaborate on annotation

When you are sharing your screen or whiteboard, you can allow participants to collaborate on annotation. See how to enable annotation for meetings.

To annotate while someone is sharing their screen, select “View Option” from the top of the Zoom window, and then select “Annotate”. A toolbar will then appear and you can add text, drawings, arrows, etc.

4. React with emoji

When you are muted or in a big meeting, you can use meeting reactions to show your feedback using an emoji without interrupting the meeting.

For example, if the meeting organizer has enabled Nonverbal feedback, you can use the “Raise Hand” icon to signal that you have a question.

The reaction appears in your video panel and next to your name in the participants list so that others can see it. Emoji reactions disappear after 10 seconds, while Raise Hand stays until you or the host lowers it.

Zoom keyboard shortcuts

Zoom supports keyboard shortcuts for the actions you perform most often.

1. Quick invite

When you are in a meeting, type ⌘Cmd+I (PC: Alt+I) to open the Invite window where you can easily copy the meeting URL or full meeting Invitation to send it to anyone.

2. Mute audio

To help keep away background noises, it’s recommended that you mute your audio when you are not speaking.

During a meeting, press ⌘Cmd+Shift+A (PC: Alt+A) to mute or unmute your audio.

3. Mute everyone

Sometimes people might just forget to mute their audios. To help keep the communication clear, the host of a meeting has the option to mute everyone in the meeting at once. To do this, press ⌘Cmd+Ctrl+M (PC: Alt+M).

4. Turn on/off video

During a meeting, you can turn on or off your video quickly by pressing ⌘Cmd+Shift+V (PC: Alt+V).

Turn your video on when your connection is good. Seeing faces helps everyone feel more connected, and it is easier to avoid interrupting a teammate when you can see they have something to say (read more tips on how to run effective remote meetings).

5. Record the meeting

Recording the meeting is a useful feature if you want to keep a record for your meeting or share it with someone who couldn’t make it to the meeting.

During a meeting, press ⌘Cmd+Shift+R (PC: Alt+R) to start recording and ⌘Cmd+Shift+P (PC: Alt+P) to pause or resume recording.

On the free Basic plan, recordings are saved to your computer, so you have to upload the file to share it. Pro and Business include 10 GB of cloud recording per license.

6. Share screen

To quickly share your screen with other participants during a meeting, press ⌘Cmd+Shift+S (PC: Alt+S) to start sharing and ⌘Cmd+Shift+T (PC: Alt+T) to pause or resume screen sharing.

Useful Zoom integrations

Zoom integrates with many of the tools your team might already use. Some integrations we like at Kipwise include:

1. Zoom x Slack Integration

With the Zoom x Slack integration, you can easily start a Zoom meeting on Slack by typing /zoom.

After the meeting ends, you can see the duration and participant summary of the meeting and share the Zoom meeting recordings easily.

2. Zoom x Calendly Integration

We are using Calendly as the meeting scheduling tool at Kipwise. With the Zoom x Calendly Integration, when someone books a meeting on Calendly, a Zoom meeting will be automatically created and added to the event.

3. Zoom x Zapier Integrations

Zapier helps to connect Zoom with thousands of other tools that you might be using. For example, you can connect your Google Calendar with Zoom to add Zoom meeting links to Google Calendar events. See the list of Zoom Integrations by Zapier for more zaps that you can make to connect your workflows.

Tips to enhance security

The “Security” icon gives meeting hosts quick access to settings that improve security, including:

• Locking the meeting (to prevent anyone new from joining)
• Adding a waiting room (to hold participants until you admit or remove them)
• Whether to allow participants to share screen / use the chat function / rename themselves / annotate
• Remove participants quickly

For more on running meetings and improving communication for remote teams, see our related posts:

• 12 Tips on How to Run Effective Remote Meetings
• How to run effective remote brainstorming sessions
• 5 ways to improve communication for remote teams

And more remote work related tips and tricks.