Webinars: Sometimes In Your Pajamas

I love hosting webinars…especially for teachers.

Teachers make wonderful students. And I get to show & tell how they can use online learning solutions to be the best higher ed teachers they can be. How cool is that.

Webinars (or webys as I affectionately call them) are an excellent tool to sell your products and services without leaving your office (or home in my case). I have worked with thousands of teachers from around the country and have picked up a couple tips along the weby way.

Do: Imagine yourself at all times presenting in front of the attendees – smile and laugh.

Do: Introduce yourself and lay down the ground rules for the presentation. For example, do you want the attendees to use the chat feature for their questions or interject as you are going along?

Do: Open meeting at least 15 minutes prior to start time and test out all systems.

Do: Send out a reminder prior to start time.

Do: If you have a large number of attendees, make sure you remind them to put their phone on mute and to not put you on hold (with music) to take another call.

Do: Check in at the beginning of the webinar to catch attendee’s lag-time and to adjust how fast you move along.

Do: Stick to your time and stay on track. You can always have attendees stay after if they want more in-depth coverage or need reinforcement of covered topics.

Do: Close all programs on your computer, turn off your e-mail alerts in outlook, make sure your desk-top is tidy, and clean up your favorites.

Do: Greet people individually as they join in. I introduce everyone on the conference line to encourage peer instruction and interaction if the group is 5 or under. A welcome slide let’s attendees know they are in the right place and what to expect.

Do: Ask if it is ok with the attendees to record the session and offer a link to the recording after the session

Do: If possible, send a follow-up e-mail with the webinar information and Q/A follow-up.

Do: Offer the opportunity for attendees to ask their questions via the chat feature. When repeating the question to the group, don’t announce who asked the question. I have found this will generate more questions and interaction.

Do: Get to know your attendees if possible and create a “relationship” before the start. Know their names, where they are from. Think of your group sitting at a round table sipping lattes.

Do: Know your audience.

Do: Have a colleague sit in on a practice run before starting a new webinar topic/demo/etc.

Do: Have cough drops, water or hot tea close by.

Do: Always type in appropriate words even when in a demo. Avoid using your keyboard like this: jkfd;ajfkldajk;fldj. You never know what you might spell.

Last Webinar Do: Be comfortable – sometimes you may even find yourself in your pajamas.

*I use the Cisco WebEx Web Conferencing tool as it is provided to me by my client.  However, there are many webinar/web conferencing tools available.  For example, check out Go To Meeting.