Web Conferencing Etiquette.

While etiquette may be struggling to regain its once prominent place in a society now inhabited by five generations and exploding morays, online manners are still in their infancy. Just understanding the new acronyms can be a challenge. You may know that LOL means lots of laughs or laugh out loud but what does QT or HOAS mean? (Answers at the end.)

While a lapse in social etiquette may only cause some confusion, a business on line etiquette snafu can cost money.

If you're one of the many companies taking advantage of the convenient web conferencing services on the web, you know they're good for business. They bring you and your customers together, save on travel costs and can even increase sales.

So, if you want to avoid any snarky situations that can cause a less than favorable opinion of you and your business, consider these five pointers.

• Stay in the moment- Most of us think we're born listeners just because our ears work. That's like saying you are a born pianist because your family had a piano in the house. - Linda Eve Diamond

It's no wonder listening is hard when we speak at 125 to 250 words per minute but think at 1000 to 3000 words per minute. And in a web or audio conference, we think we can multitask because no one sees us.

Refrain from taking calls, answering emails or speaking with someone else during a web conference. Remember, you're in a meeting.

Stay in the moment with all of the participants, all of the time. The simple fact you can't see everyone means you'll lose up to 55 percent of the total meaning (8 percent is the spoken word and 38 percent the tone). So, you have to remain alert.

Listen. The simple, quiet act of listening will make you uniquely valued in the world.  - Linda Eve Diamond 

• Ask specific questions- For example, refrain from asking, "Does anyone have a question?" You might say, "What are your thoughts on xxx?" or Please give me your comments about xxx.
• Engage your audience- As a speaker, it's tougher holding a remote audience. (It's hard enough when they're in front of you!). So, if you have visuals, intersperse relevant cartoons, quotes, pictures or videos with your presentation. Your audience will thank you for it.
• Sync audio and visual- You want to avoid being in a situation where you're discussing a new offering but the visual is showing your company mission statement.

 Make sure that any visuals match the topic being discussed.

• Reassure- While web conferences are becoming more commonplace, and you've sent invitations with all of the pertinent information, still do the following:
• State which meeting everyone is in
• Let the participants know how to connect
• Let them know how to reconnect
• Let them know the expected length of the session
• Review the objective of the meeting

If you can master these five web conferencing rules, you'll get the most from this cost effective and efficient feature.

 BTW (by the way), QT means (cutie) and HOAS means (hold on a second).

Web Conferencing Tips: The Fly Top Seven

Web conferencing is an effective tool for companies wishing to cut out distance as a factor in doing business successfully. To get the most out of web conferencing, follow this useful list of the seven top tips for web conferencing.

Practice

When you sign up for web conferencing, take a minute to host a meeting with a single colleague to become familiar with the interface. Take a minute to try out different features to be sure you can easily access them during your first important web conference.

Desktop Sharing

To eliminate distractions during a web conference, turn off any alerts that will pop up on your desktop during the meeting. This can include instant messaging, schedule notifications and other reminders. Turn off desktop wallpaper so that background is neutral and adjust resolution close to 1024x768. Have a folder ready with all the documents you plan to share during the web conference.

Get There Early

Show your professionalism and tact by arriving about 15 minutes before the meeting. Be ready and waiting to meet and greet as others arrive. Introduce new attendees as they log on. Start the meeting on time and keep the conversation within the established time frame.

Use an Agenda

Email an agenda to attendees before the meeting and refer to it during the meeting to keep the conversation directed at your intended objectives. Explain the roles of key presenters in the meeting as well.

Introduce the Interface

As you begin the meeting, take a moment to explain the interface to attendees, such as instant messaging and white boards. Be sure to show them how to join and exit audio and ask those not presenting to turn audio off until the question and answer session.

Keep it Lively

Interact with your audience by using open-ended questions like, “What are your thoughts on this?” or “What suggestions do you have for this problem?” Encourage attendees to share ideas and schedule a few minutes for discussion between major topics.

Recording Meetings

So that you can repurpose and reuse the event, record the meeting and save it for future use. Meetings can be used for employee training, marketing and webinars.

For more information, visit Fly Conferencing - your web conferencing and conference calling services provider.

Why to Use Web Conferencing and Webinars

Create Opportunity with Web Conferencing

Offering a free service is a great way to attract targeted leads to your business.  Webinars and free education classes can be formulated to target the audience you need to tell about your product. You can conduct such webinars and training sessions affordably by using web conferencing.

Demonstrate your Product

You may simply want to show customers how your product can improve their lives or solve a problem. You can demonstrate your product in a free webinar and direct them to your landing page after the presentation.

Pitch your Product

In business-to-business applications, webinars let you actively display the benefits of your product and answer questions in real time on a simple and easy to use platform. Leads will respond to your presentation and ask questions. This kind of client interaction provides valuable feedback and new ideas on how to market your product.

Generate Leads and Traffic

Such free webinars are also great traffic generators for blogs and other websites. By offering the free course in exchange for user emails, you begin to build a highly targeted email list with which you can build trust and later market your product.

Affordable Marketing Strategy

Webinars are much more affordable that PPC marketing in most cases. Rates are incredibly low and a simply fifteen minute presentation may be all you need to attract leads and traffic.

It is vital that your presentation be well thought out and be presented flawlessly. This is when you will want to be sure you use a service with 24/7 customer service available to help should any problems arise.

By combining your message with a webinar service with good customer support, you create a marketing tool for your business that attracts targeted leads, generates traffic and can ultimately lead to more sales.

Easy Web Conferencing FAQs

Web conferencing can be done with attendees located in the same building or anywhere in the world. They allow workers and business partners to gather online to discuss ideas and strategies, brainstorm solutions to problems and perform job applicant interviews from afar.

Benefits

Web conferencing makes it easier to schedule conferences on short notice. For instance, conference rooms are often booked when an unexpected situation arises. Workers are no longer forced to crowd into a single office. Instead, each member can join a web conference in a virtual meeting. This allows everyone to gain full access to the information presented, rather than peeking over the shoulder of another worker.

Tools

There are many tools used in web conferencing that make the meetings even more beneficial. For instance, attendees can share files and applications, use a virtual whiteboard, send instant messages and playback the meeting. These tools make tasks like training, brainstorming and interviewing easier to perform, with the ability to reference the material later.

Sharing

File and desktop sharing makes conferences easier in many ways. One of the most useful ways to use this feature is in training meetings. The moderator can demonstrate how to initiate a process or use a new software program and then hand control over to an attendee so he or she can try it out under supervision. This makes it easier to ask newbie questions and quickly learn new information.

Whiteboard

Whiteboards make it much easier to brainstorm. Because control of the desktop can be handed around the virtual conference room, each attendee can add to the whiteboard without disruption to others. Everyone in the virtual conference can see the board and contribute to it, allowing for more effective brainstorming.

Messaging

Instant messaging is another helpful feature of web conferences. In a traditional boardroom, great ideas become trapped in the mouths of attendees as they listen to the moderator. Even if they write the ideas down, they may never get a chance to express them. With instant messaging, an attendee can easily add useful ideas without disrupting the speaker.

Interviews

Interviewing is made better and cheaper by web conferencing as well. Video interviews save the cost of flying high-level executive recruits to the company for an interview. They also make it easy for other human resource decision makers to use play back and see the interview whenever time allows.

With these valuable web conferencing tools, web conferences are sure to become more common in your business. Even when a boardroom is available, web conferencing offers many features that make it preferable. You may even wish to present all your meetings this way because of the playback feature.

What is Web Conferencing: Basic FAQs

Web conferencing is a service involving a virtual online meeting between two or more participants.  It works by providing a way for attendees to view the same information on individual screens or workstations while discussing a topic. Participants may be within the same building or on the other side of the world. It is a software-based service that relies on private IP networks for communication.

Getting Started

Setting up a web conference is quick and simple. One person must moderate the meeting by gathering all necessary files and documents beforehand. These documents can be distributed electronically before the meeting or afterwards if the moderator chooses.

Inviting Attendees

The moderator will email participants with the scheduled date and time in an email invitation that may include instructions for registering with the conferencing service. Some services do not require registration. Instead, they offer an access code to be used at the time of the meeting. The email will also provide a URL link where attendees can join the meeting at the appropriate time. Invitees can accept or reject the invitation. Many email programs also allow the attendee to schedule the meeting automatically on his or her calendar.

Setting Up

It is a good idea for the moderator to check the web conferencing software approximately 15 minutes before the meeting to be sure it is functioning properly. When the meeting is up and running, the moderator will hear a buzz or bell when other participants enter the virtual conference room.
The moderator does not need to wait for everyone to arrive because the meeting can be played back at any time. The meeting can begin on time, making use of features that help attendees share and understand information. Various services like instant messaging, audio, video, virtual whiteboards and desktop sharing allow the moderator to direct the meeting the same way he or she would with a slide show and pointer. Virtual meetings are more flexible that traditional meetings, because the moderator has access to all applications on his computer, not just the information prepared in a slideshow.

Conclusion

At the end of the meeting, attendees simply log off. They can play back the meeting anytime they choose because the data is stored on the IP network. Anyone who missed the meeting can simply take a moment to view the recording and catch up to speed quickly on the information presented.

All these features make web conferencing a smart way to hold meetings, even when attendees work in the same building. Not only does it allow more features than a traditional conference, the playback option makes the meeting more useful to more businesspeople within the organization.  For a free $30.00 trial for web conferencing services visit FlyConferencing.com. 

Do I Need Web Conferencing?

Web conference is an excellent tool for client communications, both for sales and customer service. However, not all situations are ideal for web conferencing. There are many times when web conferences are ideal and occasional times when in person meetings or regular audio only conference calls are preferable.

Save Travel Expense

Web conference saves thousands in travel expenses including airline tickets, hotel stays and meals for your employees. They also save enormous amounts of time for your employees. Travel time alone results in wasted productivity that you are paying for in your employees’ regular salaries.

Revising Information

These conferences also work well to replace calls when you need to cover the same issues again. By providing recorded copies of web conferences to clients, they can simply watch the conference again, saving your time. It also allows the client to share the information easily with others in the client’s organization without the necessity of a second meeting for higher executives who were unable to or simply did not attend.

Frequent Meetings

Frequent, routine meetings that must be held on a weekly or monthly basis benefit from web conferencing as well. Employees who attend these meetings do not need to be relocated so that they can attend such sessions. Save your company the employee relocation expense by holding a web conference every week or month instead.

When Pressed for Time

When time is short, web conference is much better than a face-to-face meeting. In today’s fast-paced business environment, time can mean the difference between winning or losing a client over a competitor. Web meetings save time allowing you to accomplish the business at hand quickly and efficiently, giving you an advantage over the competition.

When In-Person is Better

While teleconference is a tool that saves businesses travel and relocation expenses on a regular basis, while facilitating quick and convenient communication, it is not the ideal tool for building new client relationships or for discussing delicate issues.
First impressions are vital to building trust and friendships with new clients. The web conference cannot replace in person meetings for such situations. Only after a strong rapport has been established should you begin using web conferences with your clients. Salespersons can miss vital physical cues from potential clients that would otherwise allow him to steer communications in a direction that leads to a closed sale. In addition, topics involving vital strategic business decisions, or sensitive employee issues should always be held face to face in a private location.

For more information on bundled web conferencing and conference calling services, visit FlyConferencing.com. 

Discount Audio and Web Conferencing: Key Words and Definitions

Anytime we talk about technology, many of us get scared, eyes glaze over or we attempt to use language that is at best "fuzzy" to us and likely others. 

Whether you are an assistant looking at conferencing options to present to your boss, a manager looking to pitch conferencing services to their board or staff, or anyone looking to communicate their communication needs to their IT staff; we wanted to attempt to demystify the audio and web conference calling lingo.  Here are a few common key phrases and definitions to understand.  We will try to have a few blog postings this week on additional keywords.

Moderator - The person facilitating the conference or event. The moderator can be the person leading or hosting the event, however it is usually most productive if the moderator is a person other than the primary speaker.

Conference Quickstart. Conference Quickstart allows a host to turn off Music on Hold so participants may start the conference prior to the host joining.

Host dial-out.  Instant connect allows a host to dial-out from the conference to bring in an expert, other participants, or initiate a meeting "on the fly".  InstantConnect may be launched using a DTMF command or fly View.

DTMF or Dual Tine Multi-Frequency signals - Also called touch-tone dialing. The tones that are heard when you press the buttons on a touch-tone telephone.

Web conferencing - A term that describes the industry forming around the creation of virtual events. This industry is a convergence of technology developed to provide cost-effective interactive communication channels for individuals and businesses. Webcast A presentation in which a live event is recorded and streamed over the Internet, or archived for viewing at a later time.

You can read about more definitions and keywords at www.flyconferencing.com/glossary.