At ReadyTalk, a growing portion of our business is what we call our Event Services. Our event services department is responsible for the scheduling, managing and execution of our customer’s webinars. We have seen this section of our business grow tremendously over the past year.

Webinars are web conferences that usually have a large number of participants and are used mainly for education or lead generation. For instance, we have one client in the medical industry that uses their webinars to educate medical staff on new drugs and techniques that may help them in their jobs. On the other hand, we have a technology client that conducts monthly webinars that are basically demonstrations of their service. For them, webinars are a demand generation vehicle. We also have several large nonprofits that use webinars as way to efficiently and inexpensively train new advocates and volunteers.

While it is an accepted fact, that web conferencing usage is skyrocketing (thanks in part to the economy), it is lesser known that webinars are also becoming a viable means for disseminating information to a large audience.

One of the reasons, we are seeing a huge spike in our event traffic is because of the way we have developed our product and service commitment. Unlike other large vendors, who have different products for on-demand web conferencing and webinars (meaning the user has to straddle two different products with different features to do their job), we offer one core product that allows you to select the features you need for either your on-demand conferences or your webinars. Our users certainly appreciate this consistency across use case scenarios. Further, our event staff is their to use free of charge unlike other vendors who charge by the hour for operator assistance, coaching and consulting, dry runs and practice sessions.

If you are currently doing webinars and have not experienced the ReadyTalk event staff, give us a shot and you will be happy to see we are committed to your success.

To tell you the truth, I’m getting pretty full of these podcasting “Ps.” Luckily, there are only a couple left, so I’ll finish them up so I can move on to something else like - oh, I don’t know - carrots?

Once you’ve started producing your podcasts, you’ll need to “Publish” them so they’re available for listening. Publishing consists of three main steps:

1. Host: Your podcasts need to be available for downloading via the Internet. You can either host them on your own website or use a podcast hosting service.
2. Feed: Set up an RSS feed so that everyone who subscribes to your feed will automatically receive new podcasts as you make them available. The easiest way to set up a feed is through a service provider.
3. Read: Your listeners will need a podcast reader (iTunes, for example) to subscribe to your feed and download the podcasts. They’ll also need a media player (RealPlayer or an iPod, for example) to listen to the podcasts.

Of course, publishing your podcasts doesn’t do any good unless your audience knows about them. “Promote” your podcasts by advertising them through your company’s website, blog, emails, department meetings, client meetings, direct mailers, etc. Explain what the podcasts are about and how your audience will benefit from them. Many potential listeners may be new to podcasting, so give them instructions for subscribing and listening to your podcasts.

To keep your audience listening, you need to continually “Perfect” your podcasts. The best way is to talk to your audience and get their feedback. First, you’ll need to find out who’s listening. Track downloads of your podcasts for statistics on traffic and subscriptions. Use the same communication channels for promoting your podcasts to solicit feedback on who’s listening. Once you know who’s listening, ask them what they like and don’t like about your podcasts and get their ideas for making them better. Encourage a conversation among your audience by setting up a blog or online forum to facilitate a dialog around your podcasts. You may get more out of it than just ideas for making your podcasts better.

In this series of blogs, I’ve covered 8 “Ps” in podcasting: the Popularity, Pros, and Possibilities of podcasting and ideas for Planning, Producing, Publishing, Promoting, and Perfecting your podcasts. The final “Point” (sorry, I couldn’t resist one last “P”) is that ReadyTalk provides a turnkey podcasting solution with everything you need to create and publish your podcasts. It’s easy to use and comes standard with every ReadyTalk account - the perfect solution for beginners.

So give podcasting a try. It’ll be good for you.

Technorati Tags: B2B, Customer Service, Human Resource, Marketing, Podcasting, Public Relations, Sales, Social Media

So far, my blogs on podcasting have served up 3 “Ps” talking about the “Popularity” of podcasting, the “Pros” of including podcasting in your communication strategy, and the “Possibilities” for podcasting topics. Now I’ll add some meat to those “Ps”, meaning I’ll try to give you some information on podcasting that you can actually use. In this blog, I’ll discuss how to “Plan” your podcasts (yes, I’m still dishing out “Ps”).

One of the most common problems that plagues podcasting is “podfading,” which occurs when the podcasts become less and less frequent or stop altogether. It’s estimated that a fifth of all podcasts end before the tenth episode. This may often be the result of poor planning. Upfront planning can save you lots of time, aggravation, and disappointment with your podcasts.

Here are some things to think about as you plan your podcasts:

• Don’t podcast just to podcast. Make sure that podcasting is the most appropriate communications medium for the information you’re trying to deliver.

• Know your audience. Know who you expect to listen to your podcasts and make sure you are providing them with content that is valuable and relevant to them.

• Pick the right length and frequency for your podcasts. This mostly depends on the content and audience. In general, shorter is better because people always have more important things to do. The priority of those other tasks goes up the longer your podcast.

• Be consistent. Developing a consistent theme, tone, format, length and frequency lets your listeners know what to expect from one podcast to the next. It also establishes a framework that makes it easier for you to create the podcasts.

Planning itself won’t necessarily make your podcasts perfect, but it may keep you from biting off more than you can chew, or creating podcasts that your audience will find unpalatable.

Technorati Tags: B2B, Customer Service, Human Resource, Marketing, Podcasting, Public Relations, Sales, Social Media

Unified Communications (UC) has been a buzz word floating around the telecommunications industry for some time now. However, very few people understand what UC is or what it can do for your business. As a web conferencing company, we are ultimately interested in tracking this trend because web conferencing is a form of communication. Cisco’s purchase of Jabber is a strong case for the emerging presence of UC.

So, what is Unified Communications? According to the International Engineering Consortium, unified communications is an industry term used to describe all forms of call and multimedia/cross-media message-management functions controlled by an individual user for both business and social purposes.

Great so what does that mean? To put it simply, unified communications integrates all the systems that a user might already be using and helps those systems work together in real time. For example, unified communications technology could allow a user to seamlessly collaborate with another person on a project, even if the two users are in separate locations. The user could quickly locate the necessary person by accessing an interactive directory, engage in a text messaging session, and then escalate the session to a voice call, or even a video call – all within minutes.

Another important part of UC is its ability to eliminate device and media dependencies as well as reduce latency. Latency is the delay between receiving information and acting upon that information. The idea is that by having a unified communications infrastructure linked (typically using web services) you can automate the process of setting up conference calls, web conferences or any other method of communication so that you can get hold of the necessary people more easily and quickly, and thereby make decisions faster.

What does this mean to a web conferencing company like ReadyTalk or to your company? In the next blog, I am going to talk about how at ReadyTalk we are doing our best to reduce latency and device and media dependency.

In my last entry, I addressed how the “green” affect can actually have an impact on the ‘red’ within your company, in regards to the bottom line. I also stated that by being a web and audio conferencing company, ReadyTalk is very engaged in being “green”.
The next logical question to follow up with might be, “How exactly does this green approach work?” Well, I’ve come across a few articles that address this topic and have summarized the important points below:

• More than 25% of the population in the US today sees themselves as “green consumer” in the market. That twenty-five percent represents a hefty amount of revenue that a company can potentially reign in if their practices truly align with green requirements and ideals. http://www.earthnowexpo.com
• Capturing a consumer that becomes an advocate for your company and brand can offer a huge return on your bottom line. The payoff for the relatively small investment in some ‘green’ corporate practices can substantially boost the kickback you receive from that investor in the long run. It will begin to breed loyalty among your current clientele. http://greenoptions.com/tag/customer-advocacy
• Even if the initial thought of ‘going green’ seems daunting or unaffordable, paying attention to what your competitors are doing doesn’t cost you a thing. If they are downsizing or reducing budgets, opportunities may emerge for you. Instead of dwelling on the deficiency, consider the prospective business that may arise – your competition is probably doing the same. http://greencollartech.com/going-green-improve-bottom-line.htm

In the green frenzy that’s taken over corporate American in the past 5 years, is the bottom line really just the bottom line? Not necessarily, but finding ways to save money, increase profitability, and maintain credibility or even boost your image as a socially responsible business is.

Where does one start? Continuing down this green path in the next few blog posts, I will be giving you a glimpse into what we are doing here at ReadyTalk as web conferencing company to be “green”. I will also provide some examples of what other companies are doing to commit to more environmentally sound practices & ultimately turning a profit in the process.