Attracting and Retaining Talent

Businesses must be able to allow greater flexibility in communications and work environments to attract and retain the talent of tomorrow. They know that much of their success depends on their ability to attract and retain employees with the right skills, knowledge and attitude.

Finding experts who know how to work efficiently and maintain a positive attitude is no easy task. Add to that the culture of the upcoming workforce, steeped in instant messaging technology, social media, and other Web technologies, businesses cannot afford to be without audio and Web conferencing.

The talent of tomorrow is quickly becoming the talent of today. Tech-savvy young workers are almost upon us. This generation sees no reason that work be fixed by location. Travel time to an office is simply an obstacle to how much one can accomplish in a day.

Just as businesses seek to find efficient solutions that save costs and reduce negative environmental impact, workers will expect the same in their lives. The will want flexible work solutions that allow them to maximize their work time, maximize their personal time, reduce their out of pocket costs and be environmentally friendly. Audio and web conferencing tools accomplish these goals for both the business and the worker.

From the employer’s perspective, audio and web conferencing technology saves money on benefits and other employee maintenance costs, allowing them to hire more independent contractors. Workers save money on gasoline and vehicle maintenance. In fact, many telecommuting workers can do without a vehicle altogether.

Audio and Web conferencing is more efficient for businesses because it shortens sales cycles, decreases project completion time and increases communication, allowing more efficient workflows throughout the business. The technology is more efficient for workers because they are instantly connected to anyone they with whom they need to conference without wasted travel time.

Finally, audio and Web conferencing is an ecological choice for everyone. By reducing travel emissions, everyone benefits. Businesses gain the added benefit of improved public relations while employees enjoy a clearer conscience.

When to Use Audio Conferencing

Think about the last three conferences you attended. How far did you have to travel for those? How much did it cost your organization? If it was in your office at your desktop computer, you are already on the right track. If you had to travel miles to get to the presentation, there is room for improvement.

In today’s business environment, audio and Web conferencing just makes good sense. There is little excuse for spending hundreds of dollars for travel when that money could go towards growing the business. That said, there are still some decisions to make about how you will communicate with coworkers and clients in remote locations.

With all the communication options out there, it may be hard to decide what type of communication is best for a given business situation. You may have some documents to share that are self-explanatory. To share them, you only need to send out an email with an attachment. But what if recipients are likely to have questions? What is the best way to handle it? Should you choose an audio conference or a Web conference?

This can be a matter of preference or convenience. If you want to go over a document in detail, a Web conference may be best so that all parties are looking at the same part of the document at the same time. However, if you just want to provide a question and answer period, an audio conference makes more sense. This is because audio conferencing is cheaper than Web conferencing and therefore should be utilized whenever possible.

Audio conferencing is also perfect for quick team meetings. When team members are scattered geographically, weekly team meetings help keep members unified, connected and focused. Each member can discuss accomplishments and goals in a virtual meeting, ensuring everyone stays on the same track to a shared goal.

Even more Benefits from Audio and Web Conferencing

We all know that Internet-based conferencing tools reduce travel costs, increase business efficiency and help the environment. But the benefits do not end there. Audio and Web conferencing tools do even more by reducing real estate and facility costs, resolving customer issues more quickly and cheaply and lower telephony infrastructure and administration costs.

Reduced Real Estate and Facility Costs

Some executives experience a jaw-dropping amazement when they learn the tremendous savings audio and Web conferencing can bring, allowing employees to work from home or from less expensive locations. Conferencing tools let teleworkers join meetings and collaborate on projects from remote locations. By moving operations to locations with lower rents or buying facilities with lower taxes, companies can significantly reduce facility costs.

Quicker Customer Resolutions

Call centers have developed a chain of escalation procedures to handle customer inquiries quickly. In the past, this meant putting a customer on hold, and transferring a call to someone else, forcing the customer to explain the problem yet again. But with audio conferencing, supervisors can be brought in on the call. When the representative explains to the supervisor the problem with the customer listening, the customer knows the problem is understood. This collaborative approach makes the customer feel cared about and respected. This approach is quicker as well, allowing direct communications that side-step misunderstandings and solve problems swiftly.

Lower Telephony Infrastructure and Administration Costs

In the past, businesses spent enormous resources developing conferencing bridges for their businesses, adding on the cost of the hardware, electricians and maintenance of the system. As these systems age, businesses no longer need to replace them. Audio and web conferencing allows businesses to install and maintain a simpler, less expensive telephone system because conferencing bridges can be eliminated. With the high-speed Internet connection the business already uses, all of the companies conferencing needs can be met with Internet-based audio and Web conferencing.

Quick Start Web Conferencing

When you have settled on your web conferencing provider, take a minute to look at the provider’s free tutorial to familiarize yourself with all of the provider’s features. Some providers will even call you to walk you through your first conference and be sure you understand the system.

Ease of Use

In the tutorial, you will see just how easy web conferencing can be. The internet has accelerated the development of communications to the point where the speed will amaze you. These fast communications allow programs to run over the internet instead of on your PC, making communicating even easier. Nothing to download. Nothing to update.

Customer Service

You will also learn about the customer service your provider offers. 24/7 help gives you the confidence to go ahead with your first web conference because you know there is always someone there to help. Even very computer savvy individuals sometimes have difficulty learning a new system, so having someone available is important.

Flexibility

Finally, you will learn how flexible and simple web conferencing is with reservationless conferences. You can meet with anyone, anywhere, anytime for as long as you wish. You can place calls to others and route them into the web conference whenever you need to, making it easy to call in someone for a quick question in the middle of a meeting.

Your tutorial will show you everything you need to know and get you up and on your first web conference in just a few short minutes.

Web Conferencing Benefits Many Business Models

Virtual companies began showing up around 2005 and they continue to become popular business models due to low operating costs. When organizations can minimize the cost of doing business, they gain a market advantage. These businesses are also faster to adopt change and respond to market forces because they are not tied down to a set business model. All operations are done “in the cloud” as they use web-based applications and communications like web conferencing to accomplish their business goals.

Telecommuting, on the other hand, is a little different. Workers at virtual companies work remotely, but they are not really telecommuters because there is no central location that the business calls home. Telecommuting workers are typically a segment of a traditional brick-and-mortar business, performing those roles that can easily be accomplished remotely or for jobs that are difficult to accomplish from a desk in the office. Web conferencing makes it easy for these workers to keep managers up to date on their accomplishments and progress.

Then of course, there is the traditional business, working from a central, strategically placed location. These are generally larger businesses, usually established more than five years ago, when web conferencing first began to take off. The advantages of a brick-and-mortar business depends on the industry. When trust is an important factor, it is helpful to have a physical location where customers can find you. These businesses use web conferencing less frequently and often pay more for their communications, relying heavily on traditional mail marketing and a local sales force.

Whichever your business model, technology is making non-traditional business formations possible. Businesses are no longer tied to a building or to a set business model. As business school graduates go out into the workforce, many are embracing technology and finding their own path to success. Instead of looking at the traditional tools of business, they are scanning the landscape for what works now.

Preparing Your Marketing Webinar

Webinars generate highly qualified leads and can be used to educate or up sell current customers. You can arrange webinars easily and affordably with your web conferencing provider. Here is how you can prepare your marketing webinar to ensure it works for you.

The first step is to define your objectives. Are you looking to generate new leads, solidify client relationships, up sell or educate? Each of these objectives requires a different strategy in your presentation and in the promotion of your webinar event.

Attend your email campaigns carefully. Test different subject lines. Be sure the message is personalized with a “from” field indicating an actual person in your company and a use greeting that addresses the recipient personally. Try out long and short copy and see what works best.

If you are seeking new leads, focus on educational content for those considering the purchase of a similar product. Webinars that explain benefits and features as they relate to any popular topic are highly effective. If you are working with existing leads, “how-to” webinars work well for increasing awareness of other related products or peripherals.

Next, plan your content and timeline. You should begin marketing for your webinar as soon as you start planning the content. Expect a lead-time of three to six months in preparing for your webinar. Spend that time making your presentation clear, engaging and useful. See if you can acquire a high-profile speaker for the event. During the preparation period, use PPC campaigns, email, article marketing and social media to promote the event.

You can maximize webinar attendance by timing the event properly. Tuesday and Thursday mornings are ideal, since many are at their PCs checking email at those times. Even a well-timed webinar may only get a turnout with half the registered users. Be sure you send a reminder before the webinar and follow up with those who missed the webinar, giving them a chance to view a recording. Also, do not forget to thank those who did show and make them a special offer on your product.

Virtual Companies and Audio Conferencing

Running a virtual company is not for the faint of heart. It requires intense dedication, drive and organization. Owners have employees all over the country performing various tasks. The structure is the antithesis of an office setting, with no bosses, no work stations and no walls.

 Virtual companies let go of the security traditional offices provide. They trade the feeling of security for the advantage of low operating costs. Virtual companies pay no rent or real estate taxes. All workers are on a contract basis so there is no cost of benefits or costs for complying with employment laws. These companies gain the advantage in competition since they can provide services more cheaply than traditional brick-and-mortar businesses. If you go virtual, follow these tips to help you stay organized and keep your company on track.

Use Web Conferencing

Be sure to employ web conferencing for your communications, rather than depending on telephone calls and emails. This affordable solution allows you to share desktops, applications and documents while discussing them in real time with your employees, no matter where they are located. This makes for easy sharing of ideas and clearer communication because you can easily show employees what it is you want from them.

Ditch the Paper

Virtual companies can also get rid of the paperwork. With web conferencing, you can share documents with your existing clients simply and easily. For marketing, virtual companies find that marketing with web conferencing is much cheaper than traditional snail mail marketing. By sending targeted emails, virtual marketers also increase response rates over postal campaigns.

 Hire and Reward Talented Staff

 The contractors you hire can make or break your virtual company. Be sure the people you work with are technically savvy, not just in their own field of expertise. Those with a broad-based knowledge of computers will do well for you.  Outfit you employees with the newest and best technology and use the money you save in overhead to provide employee bonuses that keep the most talented people with you.

Demand for Web Conferencing Increasing

In the current business environment, less is more. Organizations want uncomplicated tools to accomplish core business tasks. Web conferencing fits the bill for communications as businesses expand to locations all over the globe. A simple, cost effective solution allows companies to reorganize operations to maximize cost savings placing offices where property is more affordable.

Location not as Important

No longer must businesses rely on strategically located offices to maximize access to resources. Travel budgets are dwindling and not because of shrinking profits. Travel is simply becoming unnecessary as businesses adopt web conferencing on a greater scale. Some reports predict the demand to grow by nearly 50% in the coming year as more businesses realize the value and simplicity of web conferencing as a communications solution.

Encouraging Collaboration

Easy to use web conferencing tools capture the core of what human collaboration is about. They allow organizations to focus on the communication and collaboration, not the technology that makes it happen. Web conferencing is a simple point and click solution that is becoming a standard feature in daily business operations.

Revolutionizing Business Operations

Because web conferencing has become more affordable and easier to use than ever before, it is changing the fundamental ways in which companies operate. Without the restriction of locality, businesses can accomplish more in less time and at an exceptionally affordable cost.

Now organizations can share workflows, processes and data both internally and externally with third-party vendors or partners. The ease of collaboration is fueling growth, ingenuity and innovation. As the need for this affordable and uncomplicated solution grows, web conferencing will become as standard as the PC and the telephone in business operations.

Webinar or Web Conference for Employee Training?

Web conferencing provides an interactive meeting via the web between multiple attendees. These attendees can be in the same building at different desktops, or anywhere across the globe. Web conferencing provides features that make it easy for attendees to interact, share data and even share desktops.

During a web conference, attendees will share information, make plans and suggestion, put forth arguments, brainstorm solutions and finally reach a decision. Web conferences have a motive and a purpose of accomplishment for those attending.

Web seminars, or webinars, are very similar to web conferences but they have less interaction between attendees and often have more attendees than a web conference. A web conferencing provider can host web conferences and webinars affordably and effectively. Both are excellent tools for training within your organization.

Which platform you choose will depend primarily upon the level of expertise of the class attendees. When training new employees, web conferencing is more effective because it allows for more feedback and questions from the audience. Desktop sharing makes it easy to show new employees how to accomplish specific tasks in real time and it gives them an opportunity to try it out themselves with an instructor standing by in real time.

Webinars are better for more seasoned employees who can attend the webinar or watch it later when they have time. This type of webinar often covers subtle changes in workflows or other topics with which the employee is already familiar.

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.

The Top 5 Web Conferencing Mistakes

It may be hard to believe, but some businesses out there still have not tried web conferencing. If you are using web conferencing for the first time, here are some helpful tips to help you avoid common mistakes.

Know the User Interface

For the sake of your professional image, you should run a practice meeting to understand the user interface. While simple to use, it is best to know where to access the features and functions so that you do not delay meetings while you search for the controls. A quick five-minute meeting with a colleague should be enough to have you up to speed.

Guide Participants

Do not assume the participants know how to use the interface. Meeting attendees will appreciate you taking the time to review the interface with them before beginning the meeting. Take five minutes at the opening of the meeting to go over features and functions and answer any questions participants may have.

Recording

Do not forget to use the recording feature for your meeting. Recording is a great way to keep things on track and repurpose the meeting when you are done. Let attendees know you are recording and you will realize a polite, professional and well-maintained meeting that can be used for training or marketing purposes later. Be sure you know how to record the meeting before you begin.

Joining Audio

Show attendees how to mute their audio and how to turn it back on. Do not assume they know how to turn it on and off. By going over the controls at the beginning of the meeting, you minimize problems with background noise from lines that have not been muted. Ask attendees who are not presenting to mute their audio, but ask them to turn it back on for a question and answer session. Be sure they know how to use the feature before the meeting begins so all runs smoothly.

Avoid Desktop Distractions

Do not leave unnecessary applications open on your desktop. Be sure you close them before your presentation. Notifications, pop-ups and other distractions can interrupt your presentation or otherwise distract attendees from your message. Close extraneous program and keep documents you wish to share in a single folder on your desktop so they are easy to access.

Web Conferencing: The Secret Weapon of Marketers

A successful web marketer uses all the available web technologies at his or her disposal to communicate about a product, service or company. By using Power Point presentations with your web conferences, you supercharge your marketing efforts.

A smart PowerPoint Presentation presents an engaging communication tool for your web conference attendees. Web conferencing used with PowerPoint simply works. This web conferencing method will always deliver increased sales and leads when added to a promotional campaign.

PowerPoint has some amazing capabilities. It creates stunning visual imagery through various design templates and tools that add value to the audio of your web conference. These visuals engage audiences, making your message more readily absorbed and understood.

You can make slide shows or complex presentations with text, 3-D graphics, sound effects and animations. This livens the discussion and gives your presentation that "wow" factor needed to drive your point home.

It is easy to incorporate your brand messaging into PowerPoint presentations with graphics tools and templates. Presentations are highly customizable, making it a simple matter to present dynamic and exciting content that fits in with your overall marketing campaign.

If you are looking to convince buyers with facts and figures, PowerPoint graphs, charts and other reports make data presentation easy. You can add in slides with critical points from your data to reinforce the message as well.

Nearly everyone has heard of PowerPoint. This valuable tool makes your web conferences stand out as professional and well prepared. Sales professionals know that compelling PowerPoint presentations that include informative and useful content generate more leads and sales to an existing marketing campaign. They know that preparing a presentation and setting up a web conference is a vital part of their marketing success.