Working from home has its advantages, but when your 9 to 5 starts blending in with your 24/7, it’s time to get creative! The BDX team has been breaking up the monotony of being stuck inside with one of Zoom’s lesser known features that allows you to change your background to a virtual background. We’re not condoning working from the comfort of your bed, but with this little trick you might be able to get away with it! Follow these easy steps below to jazz up your home office space—at least while you are in a meeting. Have fun!
Step One: Find A Green Screen
Getting the best results creating your virtual background will require a green screen, a.ka. a green poster board in our case. We’ve chosen to use a green poster board because posters are cheap, easy to pin up on the wall and Michael’s happens to have curbside service in Austin while we are on lock down. Just in case you are wondering, yes, crafts are absolutely essential at all times! You can also use a green sheet, paint an Amazon box green or use an actual green screen.
Pro Tip: Make sure you aren’t wearing green for your meeting!
Step Two: Get Creative With Your Background
Nothing beats the personal touch of knowing a little bit about who you are meeting with and a good ol’ Facebook stalking can offer some clues on the type of background that might resonate with who you are meeting with. Do they have a favorite team? Did they recently go on vacation or love a new movie that’s out? While we don’t recommend getting creepy like trying to strategically place yourself in their family photo, it’s okay to give acknowledgement to their interests. The other strategy is to just have some fun or use images from your model home as your background. Here are a few virtual backgrounds that we tested out.
Here are a few recommendations that Zoom gives to get the best results:
• Use a 16:9 aspect ratio for your image and a minimum resolution of 1280×720
• You can find royalty-free images on sites like Pexels, Unsplash or Pixabay
Step Three: Setup Your Virtual Background
Setting up the virtual background is pretty easy. You can find the full instructions from Zoom here or follow our summary. First you need to log into zoom from the web portal. If you are an administrator click My Meeting Settings and if you are user click Meeting Settings. You should see an option to enable virtual backgrounds. If it isn’t already enabled, toggle it on. You will need to log out and log back in for the changes to take effect.
Once you have signed into the desktop application again, click on your profile photo and open your setting to select virtual background. You will need to check that you have a green screen and then you will be given the option to choose from stock backgrounds or upload your own design.
That’s all there is to it! I hope this adds a little fun and a few smiles to your meetings in the coming weeks. We’d love to see some of your backgrounds, so take a screenshot and send them in at info@thebdx.com or tag us on social media. Stay safe everyone and Happy Zooming!
BDX is an expert in digital marketing and technology solutions for the home building industry. Need help with your marketing? Get in touch by filling out the form below. We are here for you!
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