I hate to be late. When I’m attending a meeting in-person, I want to be the first person in the conference room, not the last. This same philosophy applies to web conferencing.

I sit on a lot of webinars that use competitive products, sometimes I’m doing competitive research and sometimes I sign up because of the topic (social media, word of mouth marketing, prospecting, lead generation, PR, etc.).

It’s guaranteed that I have a meeting right before, which usually gives me about 30 seconds to join the webinar on time. Guess what? That’s never enough time. By the time the software launches, I’m late to join the meeting. Plus, if it’s the first time using that web conferencing software, I likely have to download their application. This means I have to have an IT administrator install the software before I can join. If I’m lucky, I’ll only be 10 minutes late to the webinar.

For me, this is a big deal and is one of the reasons why I’m excited about the launch of Web Meeting 6, which is ReadyTalk’s new web meeting product that will launch later this spring. Web Meeting 6 doesn’t require participants to download any special software (not even Java). That’s right, no participant downloads required. Participants use a Flash-based player that makes joining a conference easy and FAST. More on Web Meeting 6 is available here.

I wanted to find out exactly what ‘fast’ meant, so today I did some time trials on joining a meeting. As a participant using Internet Explorer, Firefox and Chrome, I was able to join the meeting in 11 seconds. I could join via Firefox in just 9 seconds. Oh, and it only took two mouse clicks to join.

Want to try it out? Web Meeting 6 is currently available in an exclusive Preview environment. Current customers can access Preview at http://www.readytalk.com/preview using their current ReadyTalk access number and pass code and get started. Not a ReadyTalk customer? Contact sales@readytalk.com and they’ll set you up with a free 30-day trial account that also includes exclusive access to the Preview environment.

Please comment below on how quickly you’re able to join a meeting. Also, please share your thoughts on the new interface and features like enhanced polling. We love getting honest feedback.

In my last post I explored the slightly (or highly) unpleasant inconveniences of saving the environment. We can all envision ourselves as the heroic saviors of our mother nature by waking up at 4 AM to bike to work and later sorting through the trash to find items to compost/recycle, but it is actually executing all of these things that is the problem. Luckily, there is a way to go green that requires zero self-sacrifice, and will actually save you money.
Let’s think about this new “going green” concept again: saving the environments, and saving money and time with no inconveniences? Seems like a classic example of an oxymoron to me; especially if you are talking about going green as a business. In some cases, this statement would indeed be an oxymoron (I would like to reference the “no shower for 3 days” option at this time), but, thanks to today’s technology, going green can be your company taking a simple step that will not only save the environment, save money, time and effort. This step is called audio and web conferencing.
Think about this:

• Only one half of paper product get recycled, and plastic waste (which would include video tapes) takes doesn’t break down for hundreds of years in landfills. (source: http://www.nabshow.com/2009/eventInfo/pdfs/Going%20Green_Guidebook_lores.pdf)
• Cars and motor vehicles are the leading cause in ozone pollution. They account for 72% of nitrogen oxides and 52% of reactive hydrocarbons (principal components of smog). (Source: http://bicycleuniverse.info/cars/pollutionpaper.html)
• When you drive an average of 1,000 miles a month, you produce around 120 tons of carbon dioxide a year: each gallon of gas used by a car contributes about 19 pounds of CO2 into the atmosphere. (Source: http://www.green.sc/content,stats/)
• A New York Times article was released discussing the benefits of conferencing and the environment.
  o Last year, Building firm Carillion staff spent 34,144 hours talking to people through video, web and teleconferencing, avoiding the costs, time and stress of traveling.
  o Skanska UK, another construction firm, also recently trialed a video conferencing unit at a remote site in Cumbria and found that the money saved on traveling covered the £10,000 ($16388.0695) cost within six months. (Source: http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/related_reports/best_green_companies/article3945570.ece)

Audio and Web Conferencing has made going green an easier process then actually staying in the red zone and continuing to pollute the environment. Now that this sort of technology is available we can reflect on how much time and money we were actually spending to fly a sales representative across the country. In my next blog, I will talk about how ReadyTalk provides the ability to become the oxymoron we never thought possible: green and satisfied.

My podcasting “Ps” are pretty much frozen by now, but I’ll reheat them and serve up another helping.

The last “P” I talked about was “Planning.” Once you’ve done that, you’re ready for the next “P”: “Producing.” This is where the “Ps” really start to get good.

Producing podcasts consists of creating the content and recording it. Here are some best practices to keep in mind as you produce your podcasts:

• Content is king. Make sure the content is something your listeners will value. Also, get to the point and be succinct. The worst thing you can do is waste your audience’s time.
• Stick to the basics. The structure of your podcast should be the same as any other presentation, whitepaper, or effective communication: introduction, body, and a reinforcing conclusion.
• Don’t advertise or sell. Your audience can smell a sales pitch a mile away. What they want is information that enlightens or entertains them. Otherwise, they won’t listen.
• Be authentic. Polished, professional-sounding podcasts are difficult and expensive to produce. Luckily, it’s not necessary, if you’re producing something useful. It’s more important to be authentic.
• Have a clean delivery. Although you don’t have to sound like a professional, the quality of the performance is still important. Use performers with clear, articulate voices. Follow a script to keep the performance focused. Practice before recording, at least while you’re getting started.
• Make it easy to edit. You will make mistakes, probably a lot of them at first. So record your podcasts with editing in mind. Slow down and pause frequently as you record to create adequate cut points if you need them. Don’t try to edit individual words. If you make a mistake, re-record the entire sentence or more.
• Build a backlog. Try to produce several podcasts in your series before publishing your first one, and always have more than one ready to go. This will ensure regular releases, which helps build and retain your audience.

Producing your first podcasts may be a bit intimidating and take some time. But don’t worry, you’ll get good at it. And before long you’ll probably really like doing them. Just like you learned to like peas. Okay, well…better than that.

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

My peas that I planted this summer are really producing right now. That’s more than can be said for my contributions to the ReadyTalk blog lately, ever since I came up with the peas in a pod metaphor a few weeks ago to talk about podcasting. In that blog entry, I introduced the first “P” in podcasting – “Popularity” – and argued that both the popularity and potential for podcasting are growing. (Okay – that was 2 “Ps”, but who’s counting?)

Spurred into action by my garden, I’ll continue with the 2nd “P”, the “Pros” (advantages) of podcasting:

• Podcasting is new and interesting, which makes it fun. People get bored with the same ol’, same ol’ and are naturally attracted to new things. Just ask my 11-year-old son.
• Podcasting is inexpensive. In fact, it doesn’t cost anything to podcast, if you use ReadyTalk. Podcasting features come standard with every ReadyTalk account.
• Podcasts cut costs associated with other forms of communication, including postage, printing, paper, meeting expenses, and e-mail storage.
• Podcasts are a convenient, efficient form of communication. Because your audience listens to them when and where they want rather than when and where you want, they’re more likely to actually get your message. Even during a morning jog.
• Podcasts make information personal because you’re talking to your audience. This lets you add depth to your message that an e-mail or document can’t convey – the ones that actually get read.

Those are some of the pros of podcasting. Perhaps the biggest pro of all is that if you are a ReadyTalk customer, we do it all for you. As for the cons, there’s one biggie: If you record your podcasts yourself, you’ll have to get used to your own voice, which I think we can all agree sounds really weird (to you, not necessarily to anyone else). Don’t worry, though, you’ll get used to it.

Technorati Tags: B2B, Podcasting, Podcasts, Social Media

As you may know, we are deep in the process of selecting a marketing automation software. We have it narrowed down to two firms we are doing a trial with and will have probably made our decision within the month.

As this process is coming to a close, I am getting excited at the possibilities and looking ahead to the future. One of my main responsibilities here are the nurturing programs; as such I am constantly looking at content that can effectively move a prospect through the sales pipeline. It occurred to me that what made content effective was the relevance of the message and the timing. Thus, as I was creating a framework for my content, I decided to mirror the B2B buying cycle. I created the diagram below to illustrate the framework.(Click on the image to see a larger version.)

In order to create effective content, you need to do 5 things:

• Talk to your sales team and find out what content is most effective and what content is not used. Throw away the content that is never used.
• Put the remaining content into each of the categories listed in the diagram. Again, get sales input into this process.
• Outline a content plan based upon your missing areas. What categories are you lacking in? What categories do the sales people feel are most important?
• Remember to include all types of content in your creation plan: whitepapers, blog posts, article links,web seminar recordings, podcasts etc.
• Begin creating always keeping in mind where the piece fits into the B2B buying cycle.

I would love to hear some more ideas on how you created an effective content strategy plan.

Technorati Tags: B2B, web seminars , whitepapers, B2B content