The best thing about live meetings is that they’re just that… live. Nothing substitutes for an opportunity to get some face-time with your clients and prospects and really dig into issues. But there’s a whole class of issues that just beg for a more efficient, inexpensive way of doing business. And those issues are dealth with perfectly by webinars.
“Webinar” is short-hand for “web seminar” or “web based seminar.” The basic idea is simply conference calling combined with a shared web experience a la Powerpoint.
Probably the easiest way to describe a webinar is to just describe one. I’ll use the example of a training session delivered as a legal marketing service by a law firm to clients and friends of the firm.
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Before the event the presenter develops his presentation in PowerPoint.
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The marketing director sends invitations to the appropriate clients and prospects. The invitations include the date and time of the event, indicate it will be a webinar, but don’t provide specific connection details; these will be given only to those who respond positively.
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Two days before the event, connection information is sent to those who have indicated that they will attend ; 4 details are provided:
- a
toll-free phone number for the audio portion of the program
- a numerical pass code for the audio portion of the program
- a website address for the web/video portion of the program
- a password for the web/video portion of the program -
At some point before the event, the presenter uploads his PowerPoint presentation to the service provider that is hosting the web/video portion of the program.
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The day of the event, the presenter dials into the toll-free number as the “host” of the event. This is often done by simply entering a “host” pass code. He then logs onto the website address for the web/video portion of the event, enters his host password, and starts the event.The attendees for the event call in and log in and enter their “user” passwords.
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The attendees can now hear the presenter on their phones via the conference call link, and can see his PowerPoint slide presentation on their screens. He has control over the presentation and can move forward and back as appropriate.
That’s it. Nobody leaves their desks. In fact, since attendees lines are usually muted, you can take calls, get coffee and respond to email while on the webinar if you need to.
Major benefits:
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Inexpensive – Compared to real meetings. You can get good webinar hosting for as little as 20-25 cents per minute.
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More efficient – Going over documents on the phone involves lots of saying, “What page are we on now?” If you’re all looking at the same thing, it goes much faster. Fast = good for lawyers.
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More options – You’d never try to get clients to attend a one-hour training seminar from out-of-state. But a webinar? No problem. What about training your employees on the new HMO your firm just signed up for? Do it on a webinar. What about training the first-year associates on how to use the document tracking system? Let them do it at their desk.
I use webinars for training seminars and for client meetings where I’m sharing visuals, but there are other options and features available, too:
Application sharing – This is a two-way experience for the participants. Instead of just watching you plow your way through a PowerPoint, all or some of the participants can work on a document with you.
Participant polling – Simply put, you put a polling question in your presentation. In many applications the attendees can see real-time results as soon as they enter their response.
Video streaming – Share real-time vids with participants.
Operator assisted conferencing – Have a host who announces and introduces you, and operator who takes your attendees names and information (rather than having them punch in their codes), etc. The operator can also lock and unlock individual phones to take questions from attendees and then email them to the presenter, or even speak them to the presenter in “whisper mode” so that the audience doesn’t hear.
Web tours – If you want to show clients or employees a bunch of content scattered all over the web, don’t send them a list of site names, take them on a tour during a webinar.
Record & Playback – This is especially nice training sessions. Record both the audio and video portions of your webinar and let people play the files at a future date. Some services allow users to play the webinar back over an Internet connection some require folks to order a CD-ROM.
The is powerful because of its ubiquity. Everyone has access. Webinars provide many helpful, compelling ways to interact with clients, prospects, employees and colleagues. Competition among vendors has driven prices way down, the technology has come a long way in the last few years, and it’s really very easy to use.
Host a webinar soon and show your constituents that you’re not just surfing the web, but a master of the Internet seas.
Stumble it!