These FAQs will try to answer some of your questions about webinars and online meetings. If you have a question that hasn’t been answered below, please feel free to get in touch.
Question: What is a webinar?
Answer: The simple answer is that a webinar is a web-based seminar. Webinars are useful in a variety of ways such as for large presentations, tutorials and large conference-like meetings. Webinars are interactive, and allow for audience participation in the form of webchats, polls and the ability to ask questions, for example.
Question: Who should choose a webinar?
Answer: Unlike regular online meetings, that can accommodate usually up to 30 participants, webinars are used to reach larger audiences, usually with hundreds of attendees. So they are the perfect tool for professors who teach online, for example. Or they can be a great tool for an online sales presentation or even a trade event. With conference budgets being cut both by organizers and attendees, choosing webinars instead of traditional face-to-face seminars lets organizations save on location, airfare and accommodation, just to name a few.
Question: How do webinar tools differ from online meeting ones?
Answer: The tool you will choose for your webinar is usually the same as your online meeting one. However, you will need to sign up for a webinar-specific package with your online meeting provider. This means that you will not only have the right to invite a much higher number of participants, but you will get additional webinar-specific features, which could include customized branding, special webinar invitation and registration facilities and even follow-up emails after the event. Before committing to a tool, you should ask the provider for a free trial, so you can see which tool will best suit your needs.
Question: What are the essential features that every webinar tool should have?
Answer: The most essential feature of all, is the ability to listen to the webinar through VoIP, which means that all you need to participate is an Internet connection. Another essential feature is screen sharing, so participants can see your presentation without needing to download it before the webinar. These two features are offered by all webinar tools. Additionally, it’s useful to have the ability to change between presenters, so they don’t all have to be in the same room (and using the same computer) during the webinar, which can be cumbersome. You will be able to better determine which additional features are essential to you when you know the purpose and the desired results of your webinar.
Question: Do I need to record every webinar I host?
Answer: Recording a webinar is very useful, since you will be able to upload the recording into your company’s website and make it available to those who could not attend it. You can also use recordings in any marketing campaign that your company is preparing. While there is no law that says that you must record every webinar, attendees will appreciate being able to revisit some points that were discussed and you can also use the recording of your webinar as a tool to help you improve further webinars.
Question: When would I choose an online meeting instead of a webinar?
Answer: An online meeting is ideal for smaller groups, usually with 30 participants or less. Due to their smaller size, online meetings are also better if you want to hold a discussion instead of a presentation about a given subject, since hundreds of participants could make any discussion messy. If this is the case and you want to involve a large number of people, consider doing two or three online meetings, each with different participants for maximum result.
Question: What kinds of businesses use online meetings and webinars?
Answer: Both online meetings and webinars are useful for businesses of all sizes. Since more people are now requesting telecommuting and flexible working arrangements, they are especially useful for connecting a dispersed workforce. The main benefit of online meetings and webinars is that they remove the costs associated with arranging and attending traditional face-to-face meetings. Participants don’t have to travel anywhere and can attend their meeting/ webinar from the comfort of their desk or home. Venues don’t need to be booked, catering doesn’t need to be provided and attendees don’t have to find accommodation, for example. Small businesses with clients all over the country can introduce online meetings as a cost-cutting measure, perhaps even meeting with their clients more in return.
Question: What if I want to use an online meeting tool, but don’t think I will have enough meetings to justify the fee?
Answer: There are many online meeting tools that have a free version, such as DimDim, for example. The only catch is that free versions of online meeting software are usually much less feature-rich than the paid-for versions. However, if you don’t meet online often, you can adapt your online meeting to the features that are available to make the most of your free software.