Tweet

Webinars vs Online Meetings

Guest post by: Gihan Perera

Article Overview: Webinars are definitely becoming more popular, not only for training and education, but also for marketing. If you haven't yet got into webinars, you really should. But one of the most difficult decisions is choosing a webinar provider, especially as there seems to be somebody new cropping up practically every week.

Webinars vs Online Meetings

Webinars are definitely becoming more popular, not only for training and education, but also for marketing. If you haven't yet got into webinars, you really should. But one of the most difficult decisions is choosing a webinar provider, especially as there seems to be somebody new cropping up practically every week! And occasionally you'll see a provider drop off the perch (as happened with the popular DimDim service, after it was bought by Salesforce.com).

I've seen and evaluated a whole bunch of webinar providers, and I can say that they really are all different. So you need to think carefully to choose the right one for your needs, and only take somebody else's advice if they truly understand your needs.

So I can't give you a recommendation here (Sorry)! But I can give you one piece of advice that will help you narrow down your search: think carefully about whether you want to run webinars or on-line meetings.

Webinars and on-line meetings have many things in common, and some people use the terms interchangeably. For example, they might both have multiple participants, control over microphones and screen sharing.

But there's one big difference, and it might (or might not) be important to you: if you're using webinar software, it not only manages the webinar itself, but also supports stuff that happens before and after the webinar.

For example, I use GoToWebinar. I use GoToWebinar, from Citrix, for my webinars. It delivers an excellent experience during the webinar itself, but so does pretty much any on-line meeting service. The difference is that GoToWebinar also helps me before and after the webinar:

• Before the webinar you can create a promotional page
• When people register, you can ask them to submit questions
• The software automatically sends reminders in the weeks and days leading up to the webinar
• Immediately after the webinar, you can ask participants to fill in a survey
• You can send automatic follow-up e-mails to those who attended
• You can send automatic follow-up e-mails to those who didn't attend

In brief, it automates a lot of the pre- and post- work for a webinar. You basically just set up each webinar once, and GoToWebinar takes care of all this other stuff for you.

Not everybody needs this, but it's extremely useful if you're running a lot of webinars (as I am). If you're planning to run webinars regularly, I think you will find this useful as well.

Most of these other services are for on-line meetings, so they don't offer those features. For many people, that doesn't matter, because they aren't running a lot of webinars, so they just want a convenient way to run the occasional on-line meeting. But if you're planning to do a lot of webinars, these additional features become very handy.

That's why I recommend GoToWebinar to most of my clients who are regularly running webinars. It really does suit their needs better than most on-line meeting software.

What about you? Well, I can't answer that for you, but I hope you take this important feature into account when making your choice.

Related Articles
  Self Storage Investing Webinars Can Hold Valuable Tips
  Choosing a Webinar Provider
  Webinars: How To Leave Your Customers Impressed By Them
  Webinars: The Greatest Untapped Secret On The Internet
  Halve Sales Costs
  There's More Than One Way to Make Money From Webinars
  Free Webinars: How To Use As a Marketing Tool
  Are Your Webinars Getting You New Business?
  Webinars Can Be a Valuable Franchise Industry Tool
  Internet Marketing – A Global Marketplace
  Improving the Attendance Rate for Your Webinars
  Adding the Human Touch to Your Webinars
  Should You Use Webinars, Teleseminars or Other On-Line Meeting Tools?
  The Power of MLM That Drives Most Professionals to Quit Their Day Jobs
  Are We Online Network Marketers Destined To Become Members Of The Lonely Hearts Club Band?
  3 Webinar How To Steps!
  Webinars - A Vital Tool For Your Business's Website
  GoToWebinar is Easy For Beginners But Has Lots of Professional Features as Well
  Webinars Give You a Competitive Edge in Marketing
  Making Meetings Matter

Article Tags: online meetings, webinars



Related Forum Posts
Partner with them - Welcome to the Group TMR, Some ideas of people you can partner with for the Custom Napkins: - Wedding Planners - Photographers - Annual General Meetings for Corporations - Pageants - Hotels - Elite Restaurants - Elite Spas
Internet Users Hbk http://www.internetscamsanonymous.com - Current site for sale of our handbook as a Clickbank product Welcome any and all feedback: Sale page Content Handbook Content Pricing Too Big Considering braking it to 2 volumes: Avoiding Scams Online and Doing Business Online and maybe ad 3rd volume related internet technology Kind of like selling preventive medicine!! Thank you in advance for your interest and comments
Re: What is your Business? - We are running a Online Marketing Firm and we have some good clients to which we are offering a complete Digital Marketing strategy like Search, Mobile Marketing, Branding and Design. I think in Online Marketing company online presence can be a wining factor for the success of the company.
Re: Kevin's Case Study #11 - A New Forum Category? - [quote:31qpen1j]This is just my opinion, but I consider the prospective categories, Online Marketing, Internet Marketing and Online Promotion, as being pretty much one and the same - just different words that different people use.[/quote:31qpen1j] I completely agree! Those are all just "internet marketing" as far as I am concerned. And I normally would have voted for internet marketing, however I chose social media marketing simply because there are more than enough IM forums out there already.
Kevin's Case Study #11 - A New Forum Category? - Hi Everyone, 2009 is a new year and I'd like to create a new forum category to jazz things up! In the past, there's been some interest voiced about adding a "Social Media Marketing", "Online Marketing", "Internet Marketing" or "Online Promotion" category. I'll implement [u:1g2tv6tf]ONE[/u:1g2tv6tf] of those new categories, but can someone first tell me what the difference would be between the existing "Marketing" section and one of those new options mentioned above? Thanks


Share this article with your friends. Fund someone's dream.

Leave a comment below or share on the left and you'll help support entrepreneurs in Africa through our partnership with Kiva. Over $50,000 raised and counting - Please keep sharing! Learn more.

Newsletter

Get advice & tips from famous business
owners, new articles by entrepreneur
experts, my latest website updates, &
special sneak peaks at what's to come!

Name:
Email:

Popular Articles

Attracting Passionate Employees

Understanding Influence

How To Master The Ins and Outs of Google+

Suggestions

Email us your ideas on how to make our
website more valuable! Thank you Sharon
from Toronto Salsa Lessons / Classes for
your suggestions to make the newsletter
look like the website and profile younger
entrepreneurs like Jennifer Lopez.