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Webinars - the Good, Bad, and the Interesting

Guest post by: Maria Carlton

Article Overview: Have you tried using webinars yet? Whether you are on the delivery or the receiving end of this option for learning, this is an amazing way to save money, time, travel, and still learn great material. Did you know that online learning is overtaking classroom style learning for many institutions around the world? Maybe there's something more to it than you first thought.

Webinars - the Good, Bad, and the Interesting

I've been playing with webinars a lot lately, and reading about them in Gihan Perera's new book 'Webinar Smarts', and finally I feltl ready to dive in, boots and all, and become a 'real' webinar presenter. I have hosted about 25 now and really enjoyed them, but find the biggest frustration in people not really understanding how easy they can be to sign up and learn from. This got me thinking... are we all overloaded with options and it's easy to just hide and hope the fads will go away?

When I talked with a colleague about this, he suggested that Facebook, Twitter and Linked in are all just that, fads. And maybe he's right - but that's a whole other article topic... as for webinars, I can't see any reason why these don't continue to grow as a wonderful alternative to live seminars on a regular basis for busy people.

The Good - Upsides

When I am listening to/viewing a webinar I can be at home or in my office, tidying my desk or filing a few items of mail in between taking notes, and I don't need to arrange child care. There's no parking, getting dressed up, and I can check the websites sometimes referred to on the session immediately if I want to. I also like being able to interact with the live discussions and ask questions of the presenter in the same way I would if I were there.

The Bad - Downsides

There are no others in the room to nudge or interact with, or laugh with. I can get distracted by incoming emails or a phone call (if I let myself), and it's kind of odd sitting there in my office talking to the computer screen. As a presenter it's also quite lonely and quite just delivering an hour's worth of information in dead silence - apart from the occasional Q&A's from attendees.

And the Ugly?

Well when you have big unexpected technology issues, and things fall off or a recording has to be redone, that's pretty stressful, but then again, those things can still happen in a big room with dozens or hundreds of expectant people staring at you.

Webinars are time-saving, and easy to deliver value on to clients - and it certainly is a great way of saving saying the same things over and over to people who ask for tips or advice - I can create a webinar, record it and enable prospective clients to review it easily. I really like that feature. The recordings are also easy to do and upload.

S0 - are webinars another fad? I hope not - I'm really enjoying them.

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Article Tags: gihan perera, maria carlton, social media marketing, webinars
Referred by: http://www.ianberry.au.com



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