Tuesday, June 28, 2016

Reasons you Need Webinars in your Content Strategy


Webinars became our business eight years ago. Our concept at the time remains the same today, to help others use webinar technology to improve engagement with their networks and avoid the mistakes almost always made by those not using expert assistance. As business professionals with a background in training, networking and community engagement we know how hard it is to engage with an increasingly time poor and geographically diverse marketplace.

We had used a wide range of online technologies ourselves, many free, most with significant limitations. In 2008 we started using webinars to deliver training related sessions related to social media for business and soon discovered the levels of engagement and feedback were unprecedented given the relatively small cost and time investment. Others started requesting our assistance and we evolved into a webinar facilitation business.

Like all start-ups should we created a business plan. We expected that our model would involve us providing the technology support and up skilling presenters on best practice methodology then they would move on to manage their own webinar systems. Eight years later we celebrate that the majority of our original clients are still with us. This proves two important points, first that webinars continue to be a valuable communication tool for them, especially when done regularly, and second, that our facilitation service is of value to them.

I do regular training presentations myself using the webinar platform. I can certainly testify that having someone else set up the branding, arranging the settings and polling, and ultimately being there in the background managing the technology while I focus solely on my presentation provides not just peace of mind, but security that the session will be seamless. Our facilitators will even offer a second voice to do introductions, introduce polling where applicable and assist with any technology related questions or issues that may arise.

One other thing that continues to surprise me is how many people still have not participated in a webinar, or considered it as part of their business communications or marketing programme. We are not in the business of convincing people of the value of webinars, however if you want to stand out from the crowd and be seen as the best at what you do we would love to talk to you.
Here’s someone else’s considerations on why you need webinars “6 reasons you need webinars in your content strategy”