In todays' tough economic economy, businesses should look to using web conferencing technology to communicate with prospects and customers, train employees and customers and gather market research. The webinar has become the key tactic to accomplish these goals and it is very effective and cost efficient. With a webinar, everyone can be at their PC or laptop; at home, at the office, or on the road and you can have as many parties on the call as you want. Here are some tipe to making your webinars as successful as face to face meetings.

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First of all you should not be afraid of using web conferencing technology or think that it is too complicated to operate. The technology is actually very simple to use and it is virtually failsafe. Everyone on the web meeting logs into a common website, puts in their passcode and meeting ID and then they are placed into the conference. The audio part of the meeting can be over the Internet or you can use a conference bridge for top quality audio service. Basically, the visuals and documents are going over the web and the voice is either on the web or over the telephone network.

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The moderator of the meeting has more powers than the conferees in the webinar. The moderator can show PowerPoint slides, share documents, hold a poll and have chat with different conference participants. As a beginning moderator,holding your first meeting, it is recommended to start out with PowerPoint slide presentations. These are very easy to use and the audience can see the slides and listen to your presentation. Your PowerPoints can be easily uploaded from your PC to your web conferencing account and they also can be archieved there. As you become more proficient and confident in hosting meetings, then you can venture into sharing documents, polling and other features.

One key point is to make sure that you have the principal participants in your meeting. If you are making a sales presentation to a company, make sure that you have the key decision makers and influencers in your meeting. Confirm the details of the meeting with the key people and send out some reminders as the call date approaches. If you are looking to invite many people to an educational seminar, give considerable attention to your recuiting methods, whether it is email marketing, telemarketing or web marketing. Insure that each participant responds and confirms their participation. There is nothing worse than to hold a large seminar and only have a couple of conferees in the audience.

Another key point in hosting meetings is to make sure that your audience is awake and interested in your presentation. You should consider having your audience ask questions throughout the presentation or ask questions of your audience to keep them alert. The polling tool is also good to use to keep your audience alert. You can run a poll on the opinions of your group on any number of relevant topics and place the polls throughout the presentation. You can also have the conferees use the instant chat feature to shoot questions to you without disturbing the conference flow.

In the conclusion of your webinar, don't forget to have a closing strategy. If you are in a sales presentation, you should be offering closing suggestions throughout the meeting. If the prospect is non-committal, then have your strong close at the conclusion of the meeting. You should always have a next step after the meeting, whether it is a follow up phone call or visit. If your meeting is an educational seminar, have an evaluation form so the conferees can give you feedback on the meeting's effectiveness.

You should be using webinars now. Don't delay it any longer. They are quick and easy to use and they don't involve any travel or hassle. Start by signing up with a web conferencing service provider and get a demo of their service. Next, get yourself an account and start practicing. When you feel confident, hold your first meeting with friends, colleagues or family. Now, you are ready for your first true webinar. Good luck and happy conferencing.

Tips on Holding a Successful Webinar

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