Webinars and Meeting Platforms - Make the right choice

With the digital meeting landscape growing and expanding, it’s important to know which digital meeting tool is the best for your business. Meetings are more than about being present they are about interactions, intelligent ways of communicating, sharing, storing, engaging and delivering results. Choosing the right tool makes the difference and delivers effective solutions for your needs. It can be daunting to discern and to make the right choice.

The popular and most challenging ask is to understand the difference between a meeting platform and a webinar platform.

At Virtrio, we have decoded them to help you leverage the best.

 What is a meeting platform?

Zoom/MS-Teams are  group calling and online meeting apps. They help small to medium groups of people to speak to each other in real-time. It gives a feel like all are in the same room. Using Zoom/MS-Teams feels like making a conference call, only this time it's not a phone.

The purpose of the meeting could be a status update, team or problem-solving meeting. All attendees are in the same room, sharing ideas and brainstorming, and everyone needs to speak. A presenter can interact with anyone in the room and even interrupt the person speaking midstream. A webmeeting is the same way.

When to use the meeting platform?

·        For meetings where everyone needs to talk, like a conference call

·        When there are less than 25 participants

What is a webinar?

A webinar tool allows a host (you) to present to a larger audience. On a webinar platform, your audience can see you, but you can't see them unless you make someone a presenter. It's telling that the name "webinar" is a play on the word "seminar". Webinar tools even include a registration page to help you follow up with your audience after the event. Unlike an online meeting tool, a webinar tool gives you control of your online presentation and audience. For example, you control commenting, screen sharing, and even chatter. This is particularly handy in situations where you don't know the participants.

A webinar software allows you to deliver presentations online. You can run the presentation live, have it pre-recorded and re-broadcast, or make it available on demand. It works just like presentation slides, only better. You can add video and audio clips,images, web pages, forms, transcripts, documents, links, and social media feeds into a single interactive user interface.

When to use webinar?

·        You need absolute control over proceedings - your message, your audience

·        You have one or a few presenters talking to many attendees

·        You need moderated Q&A interactivity, but you don't need the audience to be able to speak/present

·        Delivering presentations to more than 25 participants, or hundreds, even thousands of participants.​

‍FACTORS TO CONSIDER WHEN EVALUATING WEBINAR SOFTWAREPLATFORMS

·        The Goal of the Webinar - What are the goals of your webinar?

Are you looking to build a community that meets, learns, and grows together? Then webinar software that supports broadcasting and enables networking is your best bet. Similarly, if you're planning to host webinar sessions with a panel of speakers, go for a platform that allows multiple speaker sessions. Make sure it comes with a live webcam feed and screen sharing for speakers. Before picking a tool, make sure your goals align with the features.

·        Quality

For your webinar to be effective and memorable, it must be engaging. Broadcast-style webinars are no longer in vogue and serve no value in retaining the attendees' attention. For this reason, you need to pay particular attention to a webinar platform's engagement features. Engagement refers to the attendees' ability to ask questions, chat with presenters, participate in polls, and interact with other attendees. Webinar 360 supports interactive and immersive sessions through chat, live Q&As,group chat, and other niche features.

·        Engagement

You choose the webinar platform to make it easy to set up, share, record, and Livestream your webinar. Ensure attendees can access information quickly as they watch or listen to your webinar. It's easy for the audience to become frustrated if it's difficult to access and share information through the tool. The success of your webinar hinges on how smoothly the webinar software platform performs. You can view webinar360 from any modern browser, and it does not require any downloads or plugins to work.

·      Security

A webinar's goal is to establish yourself as an authority in your area of expertise. For this reason, you need to appear and act professionally.  Ensure you meet the required security and privacy requirements and implement user data security. Some popular online meeting tools have often come under fire for security lapses, such as data leaks. Webinar 360 is a highly secure platform that you can use to build your brand.

 Usability

Come up with a prospective audience range to help determine which webinar software platforms would work best for your organization. Also, pay attention to your company's growth prospects. If you're looking to have your audience grow in the future, you need a webinar platform that allows you to scaleup. Best practice dictates that you go for the most extensive attendee plan in your budget. Webinar 360 is a cloud-based (AWS) tool that allows you to invite as many people as you'd like to your webinar.

  Few highlights of our Webinar 360

Easily communicate with audiences of all sizes. YOUR brand,YOUR data, it's a managed services or DIY

 ·        Deliver dynamic and interactive content live, simulive or on-demand

Webinar 360 provides companies with an easy-to-use and cost-effective solution to deliver engaging audio and video webinar presentations to a global audience. With live, pre-recorded live, and on-demand streaming options, you have the power to control when and how your content is delivered.

·        Easily build, brand and publish webinars and multimedia assets

The interactive interface enhances the viewer's experience by giving you the flexibility to customise the look and feel of your webcast design. Interactive tools such as live chat, Q&A and polling are just a few of the features that keep your audience engaged.

·        Understand your content performance with dynamic real-time reports

Reporting is more than just who showed up - it genuinely understands your viewers' intent. Engagement reporting allows you to understand your webinar audience better. Real-time reporting and analytics dashboards give you the data you need to maximize the effectiveness of your programs.

Taking the plunge into digital meetings may seem daunting from the start. However, if you do your research and know what features are most important for your business, you can easily find which tool is best for you. There is something out there that fits perfectly with every budget and need; it’s just a matter of finding it. Ultimately, the choice is yours. So make sure to choose the right digital meeting tools and tools to ensure success in whatever venture you pursue!

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