My First Webinar - Any tips or advice

[Ryan Thompson]

Refresh Nation,

I wanted to stop by the forum and get some feedback and advice from anyone that has either hosted or been involved with setting up a Webinar (Hopefully with Go - To - Webinar Software).

I will be hosting my first Webinar on September 5th on "Writing ads for auto classified sites that work". This will cover some general strategies on getting more views with Killer Headlines and Great Descriptions. The content is not something that I am nervous about. Currently have 110 sign ups!

Go To Meeting is a tool I've used for years and am extremely comftorable. I have attended many webinars and have the general idea of what is involved. Heck, I even went out and bought Lewis Howes Ultimate Webinar Guide (Great Read).

What I love to hear is some feedback on the Go To Webinar Software along with:

• Recording Tips
• Should you use Polls?
• Q & A - Audio vs Chat Only vs No questions

Appreciate any feedback.

 

[ryan.leslie]

Hey Ryan,

This is an interesting post and one I'll be sure to follow to see what kind of feedback you get from dealers.

From the vendor side: I use GOTO a ton, most of that usage is a single user on the other end. It is a lot like dealership visits that I used to do in a previous life when I would ask for permission to "drive" the dealer's computer, they can virtually look over my shoulder and see the same thing I'm seeing. GOTO is a terrific tool for that if we have a set time to get together, although I find myself gravitating towards Join.me if it is an impromptu meeting. Join.me is almost instantaneous and FREE. I would think off site managers or ecomm folks over multiple stores might find it useful too.

I also host open trainings where I may have as many as 50 dealers from all over the states and Canada once a week. My advice would be to get some help fielding incoming questions via GOTO's question bar and have someone screen and consolidate them for you. You are likely to get really off-kilter if you are trying to present, flip screens, be interesting AND read and process all of the questions and answer them intelligently too if it isn't something you do weekly. Definitely don't open up a mic for a user to ask a question. That will have a good likelihood of going down a bunny trail that will only be interesting to the person asking the question. It will be your screener's job to keep the conversation on task.

One more thing, taking questions, using polls and trying to make it as interactive as possible is a great plan. There is nothing worse than a dry webinar. I'll make the conference season analogy: Some people will sit through a boring presentation or worse, a product pitch at a seminar just because they don't want to have everybody look at them when they get up and walk out, that is not so in a webinar. That exit button is really easy to click.

Good luck and I'm sure it'll be great.

 

[Jerry Thibeau]

Make sure everyone is muted unless you have panelist. If you have panelist I would suggest a demo one day before. Make sure audio is working for all. Some people connect and think they can use mic and speakers and they don't realize their mic is muted or not working properly. If they do use mic and speakers you can get echo feedback, best to have a headset.

Recording is tricky, make sure you use the right settings, I suggest these:



Make sure you store the recording where you easily find them. You may have to use a file converter tool to make them Youtube friendly. Until you become a power user on Youtube, you can only upload 15 minute files. So you'll need to use an editing tool to split the video if not a power user.

Best to have another person as an admin on the webinar with you so they can manage the questions that come in. It's very tough to be presenting while reading incoming questions.

Don't read from your slides, they are just there to remind you want you want to talk about.

Don't forget to turn on screen share, I've made this mistake before. Make sure you have enough seats, otherwise once you get to a certain number others won't be able to attend. I think the next level after 100 is 500. Cost a lot more. If you are at 110, don't expect all 110 to show, it never happens. You get 50 of that 100 to show and you'll be doing good. The others will watch the recording. Put the recording on your website to drive traffic there after the event.

That's all I can think of for now.

 

[Ryan Thompson]

Make sure everyone is muted unless you have panelist. If you have panelist I would suggest a demo one day before. Make sure audio is working for all. Some people connect and think they can use mic and speakers and they don't realize their mic is muted or not working properly. If they do use mic and speakers you can get echo feedback, best to have a headset.

Recording is tricky, make sure you use the right settings, I suggest these:

View attachment 1284

Make sure you store the recording where you easily find them. You may have to use a file converter tool to make them Youtube friendly. Until you become a power user on Youtube, you can only upload 15 minute files. So you'll need to use an editing tool to split the video if not a power user.

Best to have another person as an admin on the webinar with you so they can manage the questions that come in. It's very tough to be presenting while reading incoming questions.

Don't read from your slides, they are just there to remind you want you want to talk about.

Don't forget to turn on screen share, I've made this mistake before. Make sure you have enough seats, otherwise once you get to a certain number others won't be able to attend. I think the next level after 100 is 500. Cost a lot more. If you are at 110, don't expect all 110 to show, it never happens. You get 50 of that 100 to show and you'll be doing good. The others will watch the recording. Put the recording on your website to drive traffic there after the event.

That's all I can think of for now.

Jerry - That's some serious ammo. I've forgot to "share screen" on simple go to meetings. I have 2 co -workers as my "co -hosts". They will be creating the polls and fielding questions.

We had to up our subscription as we only had the 100 package. Don't think we could possibly exceed 500 (would be amazing if we could).

May upload the video to Viddler so we can use it in a blog post.

@Ryan - Thanks for the valuable tips!

 

[Ryan Thompson]

Thanks Dealer Refreshers for the helpful tips. Webinar went off without a hitch. I recorded the webinar no problem! @Jerry - WE should team up for one.