The Webinar Blog

Q&A From Australia/New Zealand

I’m looking through the questions that came in during my Asia-Pacific webinar with Citrix Online covering how to engage prospects with web conferencing. Here are a few that didn’t make it into our on-air Q&A period.

Q: How do you limit the number of questions you respond to? Is it OK to suggest that you will cover them on a fact sheet?

Q: Should we answer all questions? Or should we encourage them to email them instead?

A: As with so many things, best practices are situationally dependent here. In a large public event, there can be a huge number of questions, and the audience tends to feed off them so there is always “just one more.” I believe that in something like a marketing presentation, it is more important to respect your audience’s time and to keep your session limited to the duration you announced. That’s why I’m answering some questions on my blog… It would have taken too much time to answer them all on the air. There is a competing line of thought that advises telling people they have the option to stay on the line or drop off, but I find that this frustrates some people who have conflicts and can’t stay. They worry that they are missing important and interesting information that other people get. Plus, it weakens your closing call to action, which should be a strong and powerful end to your session. It is definitely okay to tell your audience that you are keeping note of all questions and will answer them in a post-event channel. That could be a fact sheet distributed as a document, it could be an online FAQ, or it could even be a blog posting!

 

Q: Ken, do you think that a webinar is an appropriate forum for demoing software features?

A: Yes I do. But you need to be aware of some demo techniques and considerations that apply specifically to the online world. That’s a subject for a longer dedicated blog post (or a webinar on the subject).

 

Q: What microphone do you use?

A: I’m surprised by how often I get this question!

I was using a Logitech USB headset for direct audio connection into the GoToWebinar conference. Those aren't too expensive in America, but I have no idea of the market in Australia/NZ. Mine is in the $40-$50 USD range.

When I use a telephone connection for conferencing, I use a higher quality and higher priced product. I have had good luck with Plantronics equipment - especially their Supra and Encore series. Here I'll pay in the $100-$150 USD range.

 

That’s a good start. I’ll address some additional questions tomorrow.

 

Technorati Tags: Citrix Online,Citrix,webinar,web seminar,web conference,web conferencing,webcasting,webcast

Shorten That Webcast!

My online search filters caught an article today written by Erick Schonfeld on TechCrunch. The subject matter was development of competing search technology advances. Not important for purposes of my discussion.

What caught my eye were two phrases:

“But to be honest, not too many people were paying attention because A) who wants to sit through a two-hour Webcast…”

“Nobody really paid attention to the two hour snorecast…”

Ouch. And absolutely correct. This is a case of “information by the pound.” More content must be better, right? Not exactly. Look at Twitter. Each nugget of information can be no more than 140 characters. And we all know how that’s caught on. Look at YouTube. No video can be longer than 10 minutes. And we all know how that’s caught on. Look at CNN Headline News. Etcetera, etcetera, etcetera.

Challenge yourself to find ways to deliver your information more succinctly. You are facing ever-declining attention spans. Deal with it.

 

Technorati Tags: Erick Schonfeld,webcasting,webcast,webinar,web seminar,web conference,web conferencing,attention span

Promoting Webinars With Twitter

In my seminar on Webinar Production and Management, Paul asked: “How helpful are Twitter and LinkedIn to your webinar promotions?” I’m almost afraid to answer this, as my view runs counter to the public zeitgeist and is likely to inflame passions among the true believers. But faint heart ne’er won fair maiden, so here goes…

I hate Twitter. There, I said it. I have a Twitter account, but don’t bother following me, because you won’t get any content. I find Twitter to have an unacceptable “signal to noise ratio.” For every tweet (or Facebook status message) that gives me something valuable, I have to wade through 100 messages filled with time-wasting inanity. I honestly don’t care if you are feeling hungry, are waiting for the work day to end, or have a hard chair at the conference. I don’t care whether you think the speaker looks uncomfortable. I don’t trust the encoded short URL you are publicizing without adequate explanation of what it is and why I should visit it. And sorry, but in most cases I don’t care about your opinion on the subject being discussed, because I don’t know you and have no way to gauge your reliability and subject knowledge. Either I agree with you or I disagree with you. Either way, I haven’t gained much.

I find Twitter to be the present-day equivalent of a fictional anecdote from “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy” by Douglas Adams. The only way the Belcerebon race could deal with the curse of telepathy that was imposed upon them was to talk endlessly about utter trivia. And thus it is with Facebook walls and personal tweets.

I know… I know… There are conversations out there that run counter to my cynical and dismissive rant. Every once in a while you hit an entire thread that has serious business value. Yes, and every once in a while I hear a country song that I like. But that doesn’t mean I keep my radio tuned to the country station. Too much garbage to sift through for the occasional treat.

Is it possible for social networking to help you promote an event? Certainly. The following conditions are necessary:

1. You need a pre-existing large network of people who follow your postings. It’s no good trying to start using networking as a new activity to promote an event if you aren’t already deeply tied into a sizable network.
2. You need an incredibly compelling value proposition and description of your event that can fit in 140 characters, including a link-through URL. It has to be easily understandable and relatable so others can forward it and not mess up your messaging in the process.
3. You need to make your contacts feel that there is value in spreading the word.
4. The forwarding chain has to keep spreading, so people you wouldn’t ordinarily touch find out about it.

In effect, you are relying on the same process that makes chain letters work. But instead of having all the space you want to tell your story in an email (which can be forwarded verbatim), you have a few characters and people rephrasing your message.

I’ll bet there is anecdotal evidence for people having success with this. There are a lot of webinars and a lot of people on social networking sites. Simple statistics says that some of them must have hit pay dirt. But do I want to rely on it for my promotional efforts as a matter of course? Not really.

Okay, I’d better get my armor on and wait for the flames to start!

 

Technorati Tags: Twitter,Facebook,social networking,marketing,promotion,webinar,web seminar,web meeting,web event,online event,webcasting,webcast,web conference,web conferencing

Webinar For Marketers In Asia-Pacific

Are you a loyal reader in Australia, New Zealand, Japan, Singapore, Thailand, China, the Philippines, or that general half of the world? Are you tired of reading about all the webinars I give during US business hours and wish you could sit in on one at a time that was convenient for you? It’s your lucky day!

On Wednesday, April 29, I’ll be giving a webinar just for you. Citrix Australia has asked me to deliver my presentation on “Using Webinars to Engage Prospects.” I’ll be presenting at 10 at night my time so you can watch and interact live with me during your normal business hours. Here are a few local time zone conversions:

• Bangkok: 9am (09:00)
• Singapore, Hong Kong, Perth, Beijing, Manila: 10am (10:00)
• Seoul, Tokyo: 11am (11:00)
• Darwin, Adelaide: 11:30am (11:30)
• Sydney, Melbourne, Canberra: Noon (12:00)
• Auckland: 2pm (14:00)
• Honolulu: 4pm (16:00)

To register, go to: http://learn.gotomeeting.com/forms/29April09-APAC-ANZ-G2MC-WBR-S?ID=701000000005CGG

This web seminar covers tips and tricks to make your marketing and lead generation webinars more effective at grabbing your audience, holding their attention, and making them receptive to your message. It should benefit both large enterprise businesses and small-to-medium sized companies.

We had great feedback on this webinar when I gave it in the United States, so I hope you’ll have a chance to participate from your home country. It’s completely free, so register today and I’ll see you online.

Technorati Tags: webinar,web seminar,web meeting,web event,online event,online meeting,webcasting,webcast,web conference,web conferencing,marketing,lead generation,Citrix,Citrix Online

More Q&A About Webinar Production

I’m continuing my answers to questions we missed in yesterday’s presentation on Webinar Production and Management. Away we go!

Scott asked: Was this seminar scheduled at noon Central because there are fewer people in that time zone? How early or late should you schedule seminars in the US?

Answer: Yes, people living in the Mountain and Central time zones get a raw deal. But they are in great shape compared to the people in Alaska and Hawaii! Pacific and Eastern times always get the most attention for companies trying to reach a general nation-wide business audience. The cold, harsh laws of demographics tell you that those two time zones account for the highest concentration of businesses. Please don’t take this the wrong way. I’m not remotely suggesting that businesses in Chicago, Dallas, or Kansas City are any less valuable or important on an individual basis. Just that there are fewer of them than businesses in New York and Los Angeles. My general rule of thumb for public business webinars is that they shouldn’t start before 9am or after 4pm. Holding a one-hour event at 4pm is a little tricky, as some people take public transportation and bolt out the door at or before 5pm to catch their train. But I have seen a few companies offering national webinars at 1pm Pacific, which lets them get the middle of the country when they’re not at lunch. It even lets people in Hawaii join in the fun! You might want to give it a try.

 

Colleen asked: Some people turn off images in Outlook. Shouldn’t your basic info be in text?

Answer: I asked one of the biggest email companies this question. The answer from three different specialists was that statistically speaking, the number of people who turn off images is insignificant for a mass mailing. Yes, some do. But the power of a well designed graphic message is so strong that you shouldn’t cheat yourself by catering to the simplest technical level. Instead, make sure you do two things. First, always include a text line in a tiny font right at the top of your email, before the header graphic. “If you have problems seeing this email, please click here for a web version.” Second, don’t compose your entire email out of graphic images. Use text for the key information and use graphics around the text to spice it up. That lets text-only users see the idea of the message so they can choose to click through to the web version if interested.

 

Edward asked: Why no text animation?

Answer: Because it makes me seasick. I really hate text animation. Like any good absolute rule, there are exceptions, and I have violated my own principle on occasion. But usually it ends up frustrating your audience. If you start using artistic effects like flying in text from off-screen, it distracts and detracts from the power of the message you are trying to convey. If you do text reveals (either a bullet point at a time or things like typewriter effect to show the letters appearing sequentially), your fast readers are frustrated in being forced to wait for your pacing. There are very few times you can’t make just as good an emphasis and audience focus by drawing a box around a piece of text or using an arrow pointer with your web conferencing tool’s annotation feature.

 

Technorati Tags: webinar,web seminar,web meeting,web event,online meeting,online event,webcasting,webcast,web conference,web conferencing

Questions About Webinar Production

I gave a web seminar today with Adobe covering guidelines for webinar production and management. We had several hundred attendees, ranging from beginners to experienced webinar administrators. It’s very hard to structure content that appeals to that wide a range of backgrounds and expectations. I received some great comments in the audience feedback forms with suggestions for future web seminars, and I’ll be using those to help me structure topic ideas.

There was no way to answer all the questions typed in during the session, so I’ll try here to address some of the ones we missed.

Tom asked: What are ways to get through technical difficulties during the presentation? Reschedule if severe? How do you recover?

Answer: Of course you never want to have to cancel a session in mid-stream. The way to avoid that is to do as much contingency planning and setup as possible. As a moderator and as a presenter I use two computers and two phone lines. I also keep a hardcopy of my slides handy and make sure that I have a confederate who is ready to take over and advance my slides for me if I lose connection. But if you do enough webinars, someday you’ll hit a situation you can’t work around. A fire alarm in your building that forces evacuation… A city-wide blackout… Or the web conferencing vendor’s servers going down in the middle of your event. Then you are going to have to reschedule. That’s not a pleasant situation. When you communicate with your attendees, remember to take their side and their viewpoint. Don’t waste time trying to shift blame away from yourself or give a long and involved technical explanation of why you couldn’t continue. Instead acknowledge that you respect their time and their willingness to take time out of their schedules. Let them know you realize that attending another session is an inconvenience and one you would rather have avoided. But the technical problems were insurmountable and unforeseeable, and you beg their understanding. Then when you get back to the group makeup session, briefly acknowledge the past problem, thank them for attending again, and get into your content. Never mention the problem again. It’s important to leave them with the positive impressions of your great content and knowledge rather than your repeated apologies for things not running correctly.

 

Audrey and Sarah both asked: How do you pick a meeting time that works for the maximum number of time zones?

Answer: There are practical limitations here, and you simply may not be able to cover all your target time zones with a single session. You can’t beat the laws of geo-spatial demarcation! You’ll either have to schedule multiple live sessions, or figure out how to accommodate the maximum number of geographies and attendees in one live session while letting the other areas watch a recording. My favorite tool for picking multi-region times is http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/meeting.html. This site lets you enter a date and up to four geographical locations. It shows you a cross-reference table of corresponding times and even color codes typical work hours. You can very quickly and easily scan across the rows to find the best compromise for all regions. The software even figures out which geographies are observing daylight savings time on the given date.

 

Nadine asked: Any suggestions to kill bouncy sound in a tiled room with no carpet (and the company budget doesn't extend to carpeting another room)?

Answer: There are a few tricks you can try, but acoustical engineering is notoriously difficult to predict. You’ll have to rely on some trial and error. First, try wheeling in as many fabric-covered office chairs as you can. Line them against the walls. This will help absorb some reflections. If you have a big conference table, try covering it with paperback books to reduce its hard reflections. Finally, if you have cubicles with detachable panels, try dragging in a cubicle wall and putting it up directly in front of you so your sound hits it and gets partially absorbed. Good luck!

 

I'll continue with more Q&A in another post. Keep reading!

 

Technorati Tags: webinar,web seminar,web meeting,web event,webinar production,web conference,web conferencing,webcasting,webcast

Top Ten Web Conferencing Vendors

The Web Conferencing Council has posted a white paper listing their ranked picks for the top ten web conferencing products in 2009. Visit their web site and click the link at the top of the left-hand column under WCC Whitepapers.

They are good about describing their testing, criteria, and objectivity concerns in the paper. This certainly doesn’t have any whiff of sponsored marketing hype or vendor-supported fake white paper creation.

The results seem to indicate that the most important applications for the council were controlled participant list group meetings, rather than scheduled public webinars. Although they mention requests and requirements for scheduling, the top products are not appropriate for this use.

The number one winner is VIA3 from Viack. Honestly, I have never used that product so I won’t support or refute their decision. But I read through the VIA3 technical information posted on its web site and found that it is a Windows-only application and that they caution users to be tolerant of potentially very long download and install times on first usage. The Support FAQ has the following entry:

When trying to log into VIA3, my computer seems to be stuck.

• We request that you simply give the software time to complete the installation. We have seen the initial download and installation take five to seven minutes on slower computers or on computers running Microsoft Vista. If the installation does not complete after ten minutes please call Client Services.

That kind of load requirement along with the restriction on operating systems makes VIA3 something that would be inappropriate for my primary uses in public webinars. But it might fit the bill as an internal collaboration standard for a company that has standardized on Windows-only and can afford the one-time installation overhead on employee computers.

In a similar vein, the Council’s number two pick is Citrix GoToMeeting. The fact that they selected GoToMeeting rather than GoToWebinar indicates that the additional features of preregistration, reporting, and other public webinar functionality did not have much weight in this evaluation.

The paper is an interesting read, and recommended as background material to help with your vendor selection process. Especially if you are looking for conferencing software supporting secure, small group collaborative sessions.

 

Technorati Tags: Web Conferencing Council,web conference,web conferencing,web seminar,web meeting,webcasting,webcast,webinar,online meeting,Viack,VIA3

The Free Webinar Debate Resurfaces

Sue Pelletier on her Face2Face blog discusses “When Is A Free Webinar Not Worth The Price?”  This is her riff on a post by Scott Oser on Acronym asking “Are Free Events Ever Really Free?”

There are several different topics of interest in the posts. The first and most prominent is a commonly shared pet peeve about seeing webinars promoted for their educational and informational content, only for attendees to find out that the majority of the session time is spent promoting and pitching the sponsoring vendor’s products or services. Don’t do this. Let me repeat: DON’T DO THIS!  It only serves to annoy people and makes them less trustful of communications from your company in the future. If you want to tell people about your products and services, let them know up front. You’ll get an audience ready for and receptive to your message. Self-selection is a wonderful thing.

The second point is something I have raised in the past. People are becoming more and more conditioned to expect Internet-delivered information to be available for free. (Blame Wikipedia!) Many vendors are hosting real, valuable educational webinars for free. It offers them a way to gain prominence in their space, collect mailing list names (I refuse to call them “leads”), show thought leadership, and start an initial dialog with a target audience.

Does this mean that it’s impossible to charge for webinars? Certainly not. It just means you should realize you face extra challenges. You have to work to overcome pre-existing prejudices and expectations. People have been stung with thinly disguised sales pitches. They are wary of shelling out money only to find that they are paying to be marketed to. People are used to free webinars and other information resources on the web. You need to clearly articulate what makes your program worth an attendance fee.

The third issue Scott and Sue raise is whether webinars cannibalize fee-based association meetings, conferences, or courses. Obviously there is some overlap and cross-influence, but I don’t believe it’s a major issue. There is a place for serious content provided by experts, specifically targeted at an affiliate group with niche interests. Value justifies cost… If the value of your exclusive content surpasses the cost to the attendees, they will pay for it. But if you are charging them to get content they could just as easily get from other free sources, watch out. You don’t have a lock on your members and they have options for information accessibility that were unheard of just a few years ago. You are competing on a bigger playing field and you’ll need to step up your game to bring in the revenue.

 

Technorati Tags: Sue Pelletier,Face2Face,Scott Oser,webinar,web seminar,web event,web meeting,webcasting,webcast,web conference,web conferencing

I Mean, Speech Is Like, You Know, Important

My uncle Bob, for reasons known only to himself, embarked on an audio editing project of no earthly use to anyone. As he describes it:

Each time I listen to National Public Radio, I notice extensive blocks of air time cluttered with what I call “non-nutritive filler” – meaningless mutterings such as “you know” or “to be perfectly honest with you.”  I decided to record 30 consecutive minutes of NPR completely at random, edit so that only the filler is left, and give a listen. I assure you that none of the attached sound clips was taken out of sequence or looped in any way.

Here’s the resulting two-minute audio clip for your edification. Stick with it past 60 seconds if you can… It gets positively poetic.

In addition to thinking that this would make a swell alternative music piece if set to the proper instrumental accompaniment, I think it is useful as a reminder for public speakers. As much as you would like people to concentrate purely on your content and message, they can’t help but notice your delivery style. In fact, they notice the things you don’t… The filler sounds your brain has learned to filter out of its own audio recognition and processing.

I sometimes “clean up” recordings of live webinars for my clients. I chew through the digital recording in increments of as little as four-tenths of a second, cutting out all those things you heard in the NPR clip. I also like to take out breath sounds and replace them with background noise of the same length (A trick taught to me by an old-school audio engineer back in the days when they would do it with a razor blade, audio tape, and a splicing machine). I then balance the audio levels, remove hiss and background noise, and resynchronize the audio with the video content. When I’m done, the result is -– entirely unremarkable. A typical presenter upon listening to the recording says: “Yes, you captured it just fine. Sounds just like the live event. Thank goodness you didn’t have to do much.” Except they don’t notice that the edited recording is ten minutes shorter than the original.

If you can’t afford the time and effort needed to make your recordings sound more professional, maybe you should start at the source. Work on cleaning up your own speaking technique. It takes time, dedication, and serious practice to break the vocalization habits of a lifetime. But if you truly care, you can do it. If you are interested, I can help.

Technorati Tags: presenter training,speaker training,vocal skills,vocal training,presentation skills,webinar,webcasting,web seminar

Writing A Strong Press Release

This is a bit off topic from mainstream webinar tips, but I figure it comes into play as a part of marketing and promoting your events. I have written many press releases in my time as a corporate marketer and in support of client webinars.  I read hundreds more as I scan the wires for webinar-related news. And most could benefit from some rethought.

In the good old days of mainstream media, public relations professionals wrote press releases as a way to engage press coverage. There was a well-established structure to a release. Start strong with the main news item of course. Explain background value and all jargon so that someone unfamiliar with your area could pick up the story and do something with it. Always include a quote that could be used as a personal hook in a reporter’s story. Finish with a PR or marketing contact that a reporter could follow up with for an interview.

Those days are long gone… At least as far as your webinar promotion goes. Reporters hardly exist. Editors and beat writers are not scanning the wires hoping for a good story about an upcoming webinar. Your press release needs to accomplish two things: Get placement on search engines and encourage registration from your target audience members.

That means you can and should restructure the traditional format. The main news item is still important and you have to lead with that. Your headline should either state the subject of the upcoming webinar or the value to be gained. This is more important than parroting the webinar title you came up with. It should look something like one of these statements:

ABC Company Announces Free Webinar On Stateful Imaging Renobulation

or

ABC Company Invites Imaging Specialists To Learn Secrets Of Stateful Renobulation

The next item is the subhead that most wire services let you use. That should have all the factual details someone needs to register. They may never read anything below the subhead. So stack it with info like this:

Free webinar will be held on Friday, April 10 at 1:30 Eastern time. Registration available at www.abc.com/webinar

Everything else – the entire body of your release – is just there as support and influencing arguments. Speak directly to your potential registrants. Let them know the value they will receive by attending. [Caution: The big wire services like MarketWire and BusinessWire still pretend that these aren’t just paid marketing pieces and won’t let you write directly to the reader with the word “you”. So you have to soften your sentences with “participants can” or “audience members will". This is a vain attempt to hold on to the idea of press releases as objective news items.]

In most cases, the classic quote from a company spokesperson is superfluous and detracts from your message. I hate to be the one to break the news to you, but nobody… NOBODY… cares that your CEO is “thrilled,” “delighted,” “happy,” or “excited” about the news. They will make their own emotional decision about its value. The best way to use a quote is if you are promoting the expertise of your presenter and you have her quoted as offering a value proposition, like this:

Noted industry expert H. Thrombin Churkel said, “I will be giving participants valuable tips that can save their companies thousands of dollars in imaging-related expenditures. This is a chance to learn best practices that have taken me years to collect.”

Don’t be afraid to get specific. If you are targeting a technical audience in a niche subject area, tell them what you’ll cover in terms they are familiar with. Just watch out for abbreviations and acronyms. Even if you are sure everyone must know what it means, spell it out on first usage:

Participants will learn how to implement renobulation in a Java Runtime Environment (JRE).

Finally, get your registration link into the body copy at least once, and preferably twice. I like putting it in the opening and closing paragraphs.

Follow these tips, and your press releases will work harder for you as you promote your web seminar (or most anything else).

 

Technorati Tags: webinar,web seminar,web event,online event,webcasting,webcast,marketing,press release,PR