Tweet your webinar

If you're offering free webinars, you may find getting people to sign up is the biggest challenge.  I recently shared some free services for promoting your webinar, but it's important to also share your events with your followers and network.  Sharing your webinar is easy using the Dimdim registration widget.

Every scheduled event in Dimdim automatically has a registration widget created.  You can use the sharing buttons at the top of the widget to let everyone know about it through Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and other services.  Click the button at the top of your widget for the service you want.

For example if you click Twitter, it will automatically take you to the Twitter web site with a tweet ready to go.

You'll probably want to customize the message to say a little more about your event, but the link will take people directly to your widget to sign up.  If you're posting to Twitter, using keywords and hashtags your attendees might be searching for will give you better exposure.  Twitter offers some hashtag advice including:

• only use hashtags on tweets relevant to the topic
• don't over-tag a single tweet

So it's easy enough to tweet your registration link -- it's up to you what you do with it.

If you have any great approaches you use for getting more attendees to register for your webinars, let me know in the comments below, via Twitter, or on our Facebook page.

Thanks!

-k
Kevin Micalizzi, Community Manager
Dimdim Web Conferencing
e: kevin@dimdim.com
twitter: @dimdim
facebook: dimdim.com/facebook

Promoting your free webinar

Last week, over on WebinarWire, Eugenia Cosinchi shared some thoughts on How to Promote Your Webinar or Webcast on a Budget.

Her suggestions include:

1. Publish your webinar on your blog or website
2. Optimize your webinar page for search engines (SEO)
3. Send a press release
4. Send a newsletter
5. Use social media to promote it
6. Publish it on website that promote webinars
7. Create partnerships
8. Notify your contacts
9. Publish a video teaser on YouTube
10. Start a contest
11. Paid advertising
    

In the comments, Rachel Levy of WebinarListings.com added a suggestion (similar to Eugenia's #6) that people add their webinars to listing services.  I agree, this can be a great way to reach new participants. 

Here are some webinar listing services:

• WebinarListings.com
• WebinarHero.com
• WebinarBase.com

If you're trying to keep costs down (as in free), #5 "Use Social Media to Promote it" has the potential to give you the best return for your time.  If you have good connections on Twitter and Facebook, they can be a good way to get the message out.  Using keywords potential attendees would be searching for in your tweets, messages, posts, will increase your chances of being found. 

If you're new on Twitter (or aren't on Twitter) or if you don't have many Facebook friends/fans, LinkedIn can be a great resource for you.  Targeting the communities that may have an interest in your topic area, will help you expose your event to many more people who may be receptive.

If you're offering an ongoing series of free webinars, you may want to setup a LinkedIn Group and/or Facebook Page.  This gives you another platform for promoting, and can give your attendees a place for follow-up discussions after your event.

How do you promote your free webinars?

Thanks,

-k
Kevin Micalizzi, Community Manager
Dimdim Web Conferencing
e: kevin@dimdim.com
twitter: @dimdim
facebook: dimdim.com/facebook

Are your presentation slides hurting your webinar?

 You host a webinar.  Attendance is great.  Your speaker is excellent.  Maybe chat interaction is great.  But you still feel something didn't quite click...maybe it's your slide deck?

I've noticed recently the old PowerPoint 6x6x6 (or 7x7x7) rules still in use...No more than six bullets per slide, no more than six words per line, etc.  Even if you follow those rules, you're still creating a presentation destined to put all but your most avid followers to sleep (or at least encourage them to multitask during your webinar.) 

I'm a huge fan of using images with little or no text.  If you're talking to the slides there's no need to repeat the text there.  Find some good photos to make it more engaging. (I typically find my best images by doing a search for creative commons images on Flickr.)

There's plenty of great advice out there.  Brain Rules for Presenters on SlideShare is one example of excellent, pratical advice:

 

-k
Kevin Micalizzi, Community Manager
Dimdim Web Conferencing
e: kevin@dimdim.com
twitter: @dimdim
facebook: dimdim.com/facebook

My morning meeting was free, my car repairs weren't

I spent this past weekend helping our team (led by Leslie Poston) to host the first PodCamp NH.  It was a fantastic two-day experience held at the beautiful New Hampton School.  Ted Pennings (@thesleepyvegan) even won a Dimdim Webinar account.  Sadly, my excitement diminished a little on the way home when my car's service engine light came on.

My challenge was the auto repair shop opens at 7:30 am Monday and I have a meeting at 8:00 am.  So  I left early to bring the car to the shop.  Instead of then finding a ride to run me to the office (which is about 45 min away), I sat down in the shop's waiting area, started my computer and joined the meeting.

For our morning meetings we use a Dimdim telephone conference bridge with the Dimdim meeting for sharing slides and video.  I dialed in with my mobile phone and used the auto repair shop's free internet access to join the Dimdim meeting.

I found a relatively quiet area and kept my finger on my phone's mute button to keep background noise to a minimum. When it was time for me to present, the meeting host gave me control of the meeting and I went through our portion of the meeting.  Controlling the slides while we alternated who spoke to each topic.

I'm used to collaborating with remote teams, but I always try to be conscious that others may not be as comfortable with it.  Just before my turn to present I repositioned my laptop so the built-in camera would show only me with the wall behind me.  Others were moving around in the waiting area and I wanted to prevent them from being seen in my video stream and possibly becoming a distraction.

The meeting went well, but as it ended I learned about the repairs needed for my car.  Unfortunately that's one thing my free web conferencing can't help me with. 

-k
Kevin Micalizzi, Community Manager
Dimdim Web Conferencing
e: kevin@dimdim.com
twitter: @dimdim

Experience the Dimdim Live Webinar! Register at:
http://www.dimdim.com/aboutus/events.html

Dimdim Recording Demystified

One the best kept secrets of Dimdim is that recording is available for free for all users, without anything installed on your computer (we do all the magic in our Synchrolive Cloud) and send you a URL to your recording and an embed code.  Often people ask us how to get the best video recording possible with Dimdim.  Here are the secret ingredients:

1. Get Dimdim Pro or Dimdim Webinar.  These products include a mode where you can resize the video up to 4 times larger.  Once you do, the Dimdim video looks like this to your attendees:

 

2. Now if you are not sharing any other resource, just click the record button and we'll record a much higher resolution video file.  After about 5 seconds of the following video you will be able to easily see the difference between normal and hirez video recording:

Finally, here is a Dimdim Knowledgebase article on all the different Dimdim recording modes.  Enjoy!

Using free HR webinars to reach new customers

I recently had a chance to speak with Erik Bartz, Marketing Manager at Pivotal HR Solutions.  To better reach potential customers, Erik started a program offering free webinars.   Like many companies they use Dimdim to provide sales demos, but Erik wanted to do more to develop better relationships with their prospective customers.

Once a month they host a webinar on relevant HR topics.  (They even offer a full list of topics with descriptions on their site.) While some companies we work with use this type of webinar to move into new markets, for Erik it's about better reaching customers in the Toronto area. 

Many companies are looking to move their events online like Erik has done, so I asked how he manages the sessions and what he recommends.  For each of their webinars, Erik acts as host and moderator.  He uploads the presentations, manages the microphones for the consultants presenting, and monitors the public (text) chat.  He even puts a placeholder slide at the front of the slide deck for the attendees that join the meeting before the presentation begins and to remind himself to hit the 'Record' button.

Each consultant presents on their topic for about 15-20 minutes before they take questions from attendees.  Erik’s found that having another person control the slides and use the laser pointer to highlight key items frees up their consultants to focus on the topic.

When someone registers for these sessions, they get a confirmation email, then starting 3 days before the event they get daily reminders, with the final reminder going 1 hour before event.  Erik has found this helps to promote good attendance. 

When Erik was looking for a platform to help him make this happen, he started with Dimdim Free.  Once he was comfortable Dimdim suited their needs, he purchased a Dimdim Pro account primarily for the ability to add their own logo to the meeting room.  He also set up a redirect to a satisfaction survey when attendees exit the webinar.

Attendance to their webinars continues to grow.  If you're in the Toronto area and are looking for HR solutions, check out their HR Resource Centre.

Thanks,

-k
Kevin Micalizzi, Dimdim Community Manager
e: kevin@dimdim.com / Twitter: @dimdim

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