Welcome to 2010.  Now we’re seeing job descriptions asking for skills with remote presentations, demonstrations, and webinars in general.

As we quip at 1080 Group, “Microsoft will teach you how to use Word, but they won’t teach you how to be a writer.”  This webinar isn’t about technology (though that’s an important component!), it’s about mastering business-critical communication skills – making presentations – in the unique environment of webinars.

Join me on 3/23 at 11am Pacific.

Join us?

Why?

The research we’re conducting will be turned into a practical set of best practices…and you’ll have a chance get a pre-release copy of the report.  It should only take you a few minutes to complete.

On behalf of 1080 Group and our co-sponsor, QLM, thanks in advance.

You can find the survey here:  http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/MSTVDYX

Join this webinar for practical, actionable ideas for how to standout from the crowd.

April 1, 4pm Eastern

https://student.gototraining.com/75z1h/register/101507237576989440

“Do you feel synchronous sessions are always more effective?”

Sian, it depends on how you define effective.  This isn’t to be obtuse, let me explain.

No one would argue that the MOST effective thing we could do as trainers for our trainees would be to have in-person one-on-one sessions with each trainee, right?  So why don’t we?  Money, money, time, distance, and money.

Inevitably we make some type of trade-off.  If it was ONLY about money, we’d write papers and create recordings and share them 24X7 on a web site somewhere.  While radically scalable (reach), our ability to personalize, dialogue, intuit the question-behind-the-question, use object lessons, etc., all go away.

I look at webinars as a unique and irreplaceable third option.  Their live, but we also have reach. And unlike having a conference call with an emailed handout our deck, at least two BIG advantages happen in a webinar where you have synchronous control over the visual experience.  One is a issue of timing… you don’t expose content to trainees until you’re ready (and they’re not reading ahead), and the second is an issue of flexibility.  There’s a lot of value in being flexible with a class – to dive more deeply somewhere, to go backward somewhere, to grab a website or resource that you hadn’t originally planned to show because a question came up, or whatever.

So, generally I do think that synchronous is more effective because you can respond on the fly.  For example, I often use a poll to gauge the experience level of my audience (and in the last six months I’ve had “people attending their first webinar” be as low as 2% and has high as 55%).  I don’t rewrite my presentation, but I might explain things differently based on where the audience is at.

Best of luck, and do give me a holler if you’ve got another question!

Webinars are projects where you don’t have the option to change the deadline, and the result is something that gets done, but not very well.  The consequence is an audience that doesn’t get engaged (at best) or changes the channel.

Join me for How to Plan and Produce Engaging Webinars on Thursday, March 18 to save yourself some headaches and stand out from the competition.

Hmmm… as you’ve heard me say before, “It depends.”

And I think the question is “What is your market’s tolerance for email?”

The good thing about a webinar reminder email is that nearly everyone realizes that it’s event-based.  In other words, it’s not going to come in ad infinitum.

Here are three things to do:

Ask
It’s pretty simple to add a query to a registration page or end-of-event survey.  Questions that have low intrusiveness (e.g., how many reminders do you like, when do you want them, what’s you’re preferred day/time for webinars) have a good chance of getting honest, useful feedback.

Test and observe
Does your webinar solution have an opt-out feature?  Ironically, many don’t (and DUH, they registered for the event, but nothing surprises me these days).  But many do, and you might test and observe.  If you increase the frequency of reminders does your ‘unsub rate’ go up too much?  Obviously you’ll have to make a judgement of what ‘too much’ is, and that should be relative to improvements (if any) in attendance rates.

Determine the value of a live attendee
If you can’t test/observe, I’d probably make a guess at how valuable it is for your organization to have registrants actually show up.

The reality is that for some organizations they don’t care.  They’ll give lip service to wanting people to attend, but the way they act is that if they get a name and contact info for follow up, they’ve done their job.

If it’s important to have registrants become attendees, I’d err on the side of more (versus fewer) reminders.  Here’s why:

1.  They’ve already opted in
2.  As mentioned, it’s a finite project.
3.  If you do too much, people will let you know.
4.  We get more email than ever.  Even the most interested folks in your webinar find that their good intentions slip down to the bottom of their email pile.  Frequency improves your chance of cutting through the noise.

Rule #1:  know your audience.  Rule #2:  Don’t assume an email cut will through the noise.  They’ve opted in.  Have integrity, but don’t be shy.

As always, I’d encourage you to check out any vendor directly, but here are a few things I liked:

No downloads
This isn’t critical for everybody, but given that Macs have had resurgent market share, Windows users are mixed in their usage of operating systems, the erosion of dominance in the browser wars, and the increasing number of organizations that secure their desktops, Flash has become the most-common denominator in terms of reaching people.

Low bandwidth requirements
If you want/need to use video, onlinemeetingrooms.com is with the pack of vendors who note that video doesn’t have to be hoggish to be useful.  Why is this important?  If video is important to you, know that live video for synchronous communication is a radically different thing than the nice clean experience you have with YouTube.  On demand video can “buffer” so your experience is good, whereas when you want it to be live, a choppy or latent experience is annoying at best, denigrating and distracting at worst.  And you can’t control a critical part of the end-user’s experience…their own internet connectivity and computing environment.  Onlinemeetingrooms.com gives the host the chance to control the quality of video streams to allow more control over the experience.

Most of the bases covered
Before you think I’m saying onlinemeetingrooms.com is incomplete, let me assure you I’d probably not hand out a perfect score in this category to anyone.  Why?  There’s no such thing as the perfect software solution – there’s only what is best for YOU.  Most users expect to have chat, whiteboards, polls, etc., and onlinemeetingrooms.com has you covered.

Think about how you buy a vehicle… you assume many features, right?  It’s how it works for you that is important.  As the market evolves, many times it’s not that a feature exists in a web conferencing solution, it’s a question of preference, usability, and style.

There are many reasons to choose a provider, and I’d argue many have nothing to do with technology.  Sure, it has to get the job done, but for many it may be more that they value a reasonable price, or a vendor with commitment to technological excellence, or a European locale, or… you get the idea.  For many, onlinemeetingrooms.com just might be a vendor to investigate.

Attend this interactive Webinar and learn how to:

• Get your trainees engaged and participating
• Use Webinar tools to deliver unique and creative exercises
• Measure the effectiveness of your training sessions

I just finished watching the playback of one of your Citrix
presentations, and I had to email you tell you how much I enjoy them.
You are professional, personable, and exceedingly knowledgeable, and the
hour flies by whenever I watch one of your webinars!

I do also have a question. I design and develop eLearning. I’ve done
many of the behind the scenes tasks of online courses, but I haven’t yet
taught online. I’d like to get some experience, and I thought
volunteering to present on a webinar would be a good way to start. Do
you know how I could offer my services to companies in this way? Any
advice appreciated.

Thanks!
Karen

Karen, let me tackle this by starting at, well, the start.

Get clear on your purpose.
Even if it changes down the road, I’d get clear on your longer-term purpose.  Do you want to get a job, develop a speaking career, be an independent trainer, or…?  Again, it can (and will!) evolve, but in a short few sentences you’ll want to be able to answer “what problem do I solve for whom?”  Can you help them develop eLearning on a budget?  Or improve how their human resources department brings on new employees?  Or…?  You get the idea.

One thing I can say as an entrepreneur who’s started multiple companies, there are days when even the best job in the world is harder than hell.  Answer, “If I succeed wildly, is this going to take me in the direction I want to go?”

Back up the ‘why’ with the ‘how.’
Second, with the first thought in mind, how are you going to answer them when they say, “Okay, we’re interested…tell us how this will work?”  I know not everybody’s into sports analogies, but in some pro sports they coach rookies to “act like they’ve been there” when they score, have a good game, etc.  Remember that even if you’re volunteering your time, you’ll cost them their time, coordination, and risk to their credibility for bringing you in.  You’ve still got to present value, even if there’s not a dollar figure attached.

Start with a free public webinar or series.
You can get trials of many conferencing solutions that will give you a chance to get your feet wet for free during the trial.  Depending on how you promote it and how many attendees you’re going to have, a service like Dimdim where you can host up to 20 people at no charge might do the trick for you on an ongoing basis.  Here are some reasons:

One, you need to develop content.  Good content takes time, and great content takes a LOT of time (but you already know that).

Two, you make your mistakes in front of people who can’t ask for their money back, not the people who might hire you.  And unless you’re spending a lot of money on promo or have a boatload of Twitter followers, you won’t have a large crowd to learn in front of.

Three, the feedback will be invaluable.  Make it a point to ask questions before, during, and after that you know will give you what you need as a self-learner.

Four, get some testimonials for your website, your data sheet about yourself, or other promotional activity you may have.  Next to a direct referral, these are gold.

Figure out what your audience is willing to pay for.
Finally, get some honest feedback about what people (ideally speaking for your target market) found valuable.  YOU might think something’s cool, but if you’re going to sell it to someone else, it needs to create value for them and their audience.  And here’s the key… even if your intent is to continue offering what you’ve got on a volunteer basis, there are two reasons:

One, if someone really would pay for you content, they’ll be even more likely to show up if it’s free.

Two, sooner or later the volunteer gig has to end unless you’re independently wealthy or otherwise don’t need money.

Good luck!  Let me know how it goes for you!