In my last blog post, we discussed the necessary steps to properly plan out your webinar.  Here are 5 more tips to help you create a successful webinar experience.

1.      Sound Natural

You want to keep your viewer’s attention; get rid of the monotone voice! Try standing up, using inflection by practicing and practicing again. Highlight or bold words in your script (tip #1) to remind yourself to use inflection at key stages during the recording process. Try smiling;  I know this sounds odd but it really works.

2.      Start with the Right Apps

You must have quality applications in your toolbox to record, edit and product your webinar. I recommend using Camtasia for video recording and editing and Audacity  for audio recording and editing. To share versions of your Webinar with clients and others take a look at screen sharing software such as Dropbox, Amazon S3 or Screencast.

3.      Pause Early & Often During Recording

Pause, early and often when recording both the audio and video portion of your webinar. This will give you time to re-focus if you lose your concentration. Remember inflection and correct errors as you go. The pause key in your recording software will become your best friend!

4.      Use Custom Settings

Use the custom setting features in your application. This will allow you to create parameters for your webinar that you can use over and over again for future projects.

5.      Repurpose Your Webinar

Once you’ve created an awesome webinar, let it to work for you! You can create CD’s, DVD’s and MP3 podcasts. You can post these on your website as freeware or market them to visitors to your site.

I love getting feedback. Tell me about your webinar experiences! Here on my blog, you’ll get commentluv. That’s a plug in that allows you to leave a link back to your own site when you leave a comment.

Until next time,

Robin

Focusing on a Solid Virtual Event Plan

I’m a firm believer in having a thorough plan before starting something and I know this is critical to business success. Before making any decision that will impact your business, you need to develop a solid project plan. This also holds true when planning to host a virtual event. There are some simple yet key aspects of a good project plan that will ensure you reach your business goals.

First of all, why are you going to host a virtual event? Do you want to communicate a change in procedure or train your employees on a new process? Are you launching a new product, or trying to reduce costs by switching to an online conference this year? Once you have defined your business goal and the expected outcome, you are on your way! You’ll need to clearly identify your target audience ensuring your event is tailored to them. What does success look like? By starting here, you’ll improve your ability to reach the desired business outcome.

Next what’s the best way to communicate your message? Teleseminar or Webinar? What format should you use? The event format should mirror the results you expect to achieve.  A good project plan will help you choose the most effective way to get your message across.

Choosing the appropriate platform and software to host your event can easily be determined once you’ve completed the 2 steps above. The project plan you develop will ensure you have chosen the most effective technology that’s within your budget. A bit of advice; you should always include a dry run or rehearsal into your plan, who wants to run into technical issues when you’re delivering an important message live to your employees or clients? Avoid surprises! Also, do you know how to use software and platform that you’ve selected to run your venue? Ensure that someone can provide the required demonstration and teach you to run the software with confidence. Or better yet, get yourself a good VA Moderator that can run the event for you. That way you focus on delivering your message, and the event details can be taken care of by someone else. You always need a contingency plan and point of contact during an event in case something goes wrong and attendees aren’t able to connect to the session.

There are many pre-event details that need to be taken care of long before you get to the live event. Developing a solid project plan will ensure you don’t miss any critical steps. When things are written down and assigned to someone they are going to get done! You’ll need to have a way for attendees to register for your event  Invitations have to be sent out,  with ongoing reminders to ensure good attendance during the event. These reminders and invitations can be posted on your blog or included in a press release if you’re including this step as you promote your event.

Your project plan should also include designating who will be responsible for recording the event; it’s important to capture the audio/video from the event. This is important to upload to your website afterwards for replay by those that weren’t able to attend the live event. As well, you may not want to field questions or monitor chat during the event and a good moderator can do this for you.

Another key step that is often overlooked is to gather feedback after your event. You want to find ways to continuously improve and it’s easy to do a quick on line survey immediately following the call so participants can give you their relevant feedback.

Virtual events can really be an important component to running your business. Why not take your success to the next level and work with your virtual event specialist and develop a solid project plan.

What kinds of things do you do to put an effective plan in place? I’d love to get your feedback and here on my blog you’ll get commentluv.  That’s a plug in that allows you to leave a link back to your own site when you post a reply.  I look forward to hearing from you!

Until next time,

Robin

Virtual Event Strategies

Now that you’re looking to host a virtual event, where do you begin? Well, there are many things a VA can help with to successfully launch you into the world of virtual events. Just like any key meeting or face to face event you plan for your business, it’s important to develop an effective virtual event strategy that will ensure your business goals are met. Working with a VA to develop a comprehensive project plan based on your business goals will help determine the right venue for your event. During the event, a VA can assist with the venue, whether it is a teleseminar, webinar or live streaming event.  After the event, a VA can help you re-purpose the content of your events to bring additional traffic to your website.

Although there are many tasks a VA can perform to ensure your virtual event is successful, I’ve listed below some of the key tasks a VA can assist you with  before, during and after your event.

Pre-Event

• Work with you to develop a solid virtual event strategy and project plan, tied to your business goals. This will ensure you choose the right venue for your event.
• Create Web pages and auto-responder emails to promote your event
• Organize the content you plan to deliver (e.g. PowerPoint presentation)
• Show you how to use the virtual event platform that you have chosen for your event
• Work with you on a Rehearsal/Dry Run ahead of time; It’s far better to get any technical issues out of the way before going live!

During the Event

• Act as event moderator to introduce yourself and your guests
• Be available to address technical issues that may arise during the event
• Monitor chat
• Record the audio and video
• Feed you questions from the audience if this is an option you make available

Post Event

• Conduct a survey and/or gather feedback from event participants
• Edit audio/video file for re-purposing (to bring additional traffic to your website)
• Post recordings on your blog or website

Remember, in these tough economic times you need to look for innovative ways and alternatives to hosting offline events and conferences. Virtual events and meetings will see a large increase in use in 2010. Why not be at the leading edge of this new way of doing business? It can only help to improve your bottom line. You’ll be growing your business in a new and exciting way.

Please feel free to leave comments here on the blog.  I love getting your feedback!

Until next time,

Robin

A virtual event is a must for business owners in 2010! But where do you begin? There is so much information available today regarding what platform or tool should you use to hold your virtual event so let me try to simplify it for you. It’s easier that you think. Just remember, regardless of the type of message you want to communicate, a virtual event is the way to go.

1)    Conference Calls and Teleseminars

Conference calls and teleseminars have been in existence for eons, and are a simple way to communicate an audio message. Two teleseminar tools that I find very user friendly are Free Conference Calling and InstantTeleseminar. With both tools you get access to a conference bridge, and recording capability. The bridge details are simply shared with your intended audience, and bingo, at the prescribed date and time you connect with your colleagues and away you go. You can communicate your message, training session, business goals, and services in a timely, efficient manner. Best yet, after the fact, the audio recording can be posted on your website for visitors to your site to access at a time convenient to them.

2)    Webinars

There are some cool tools you can use to conduct a virtual event in webinar format. Two that I like that are easy to use are GotoWebinar and Glance. Glance is a simple and easy to use platform that allows you to share your desktop, or view someone else’s, during a webinar. You’ll still need an audio or conference call bridge to talk to the event participants but they’ll be able to hear your message and see your desktop presentation at the same time. Once again, you can record the audio portion of the call, and re-purpose the event afterwards by using editing software to combine the audio and video files and post this information on your website.

Using GotoWebinar you can reach a larger audience, up to 1000 participants. You’ll have access to live chat, and participants can listen to the session via telephone or webcast.

3)    Videos

Why not produce a professional looking video to promote your business. Wouldn’t it be great to post a video on your website that draw significant attention to your business. It’s easy to do and there are some fantastic tools available to help you. You can produce a live event or pre-recorded event that get’s your message out. It can be as quick and simple as using Skype; all you need is a webcam either plugged into your built into your computer. If you want something more inclusive you can connect via Ustream software which allows you not only to stream video but also poll your audience with pre-determined questions, zoom in our out during the video event , and add a welcome screen in advance of the start of your video. There are great editing tools that a VA can help you with to create inexpensive, professional looking videos.

Have you tried any of these formats? I’d love to get your feedback on how they have helped your business save money! Here on my blog you’ll get commentluv. That’s a plug-in for bloggers. Leave a comment and you can provide a link back to your own blog!But you don’t have to be a blogger to leave a comment, I’d like to hear from everyone!

Until next time,

Robin