“From my experience, a successful webinar depends upon many things. One of the most important is the engagement of the speaker. Are they passionate and knowledgeable about the topic? Are they a relaxed speaker? Can they talk to the audience and not at them? And of course, the topic is very important. Are the expectations of the audience met by the presentation/presenter?

Other thoughts:

Actual program needs to cover the advertised topics
Provide real-world examples
Provide actionable suggestions, tools, and next steps
Know the audience. If multi-national, be prepared to offer country-specific resources for information.
Avoid self-promotion or sales pitches
Have handouts that list sources for additional information for easy reference
If appropriate, pull up actual websites that may be helpful or provide screen shots
Use polling questions to engage the audience
Use the annotation tools to provide additional visual stimulation

And most importantly, have some fun. It comes across well to the audience if you are not too serious.”

Every day I hear from Association Executives and business owners that they want to do {fill in the blank with choice of social media tool}. Usually it’s because they have found some connection with that particular tool or they know someone else who is doing it. What are lacking in most cases are a strategy, a plan, and measurable metrics to identify if your plan is working.

Well, this is part 2 with a few more tips: (see previous post for first 2 tips)

3. Create a blended solution – Create a goal, strategy and id your tactics
Not everyone learns best from whitepapers, or podcasts, or webinars and webcasts. Some like short snippits and sound-bites to keep them informed and others want a video clip as it may be more stimulating. There are a number of tools out there you can utilize create a blended solution for your community. And surely the right mix will help appeal to the right people interested in your content.
It may be easier to pick out the tools if you start thinking about your goals. What do you want to accomplish? Once you know that, you can figure out how you’re going to get there. That’s your strategy. And then of course what tactics you’re going to use along the way. This is a complex process and probably a good blog post in and of itself. But this is the start to identifying the tools best for your online community.

4. Speak to the people and for the people – no jargon – keep it personable
Remember, you’re probably not writing a whitepaper or a commercial. This is a community. It’s the neighborhood around your specialty. Talk to me like a person, not a commercial. Leave the big words out of it. Save the big words for professors, pharmaceutical companies and rich people!

5. Provide valuable content in a pyramid structure – start simple and lead to depth
Think about content like a resume. I think the best resumes are 1 page. I’ll bet Ronald Reagan had a good 2 page resume, but imagine his one page resume!?! Tease people into getting more information. Don’t go crazy with content. Keep it simple and short.

More to come….

The evenings were filled with other kinds of networking. The kind of networking I have not participated in since college. And this is when I began to acknowledge my age. Well after my bedtime, a young lass stepped up to me and with the music pounding in the background and she yells, “I’LL GIVE YOU $20 (Canadian, I assumed) IF YOU CAN TELL ME WHO SINGS THIS SONG!!!” I didn’t hear everything she said but heard enough to know the answer was “Justin Timberlake”.  Her jaw dropped and I heard her say, defeated, “Oh my God! (OMG) I thought you were, like, 40!”

Well, I am like 40. And I know who Justin Timberlake is. I like to think I’m hip.

And being nearly 40, I have worldly knowledge (extend a slow nod and a knowing wink if you’re over 40). For instance, I remember the Rubik’s Cube when it first came out in the late 70’s. I also remember getting 2 sides solid before giving up and going back to riding my Flying Turtle down the drive way.

(Flashforward) – Last week, among the people we met at the ASAE Food and Wine Classic in Toronto was Eric Limeback.  Eric solved the Rubik’s cube for us in about 11 seconds.

And if you search YouTube, you’ll see videos of Eric doing this blindfolded. Really???? Yes. So I Googled it… How can it be?.

Ok, so I fell asleep in the second paragraph but I dreamed about how similar the theory is to the way we run webinars. Everything is discombobulated to start. But based on the configuration and the state of things, we (and Eric) apply certain memorized algorithms to produce the end result. It’s a collection of procedures all glued together. Every event is managed and treated differently, just as every time Eric solves the Rubik’s cube he applies a different set of algorithms.

Funny how everything comes back to webinars for me…. Funny how I’m comparing my genius with Eric’s.

Just curious: Have you ever had success in solving the Rubik’s Cube? How old were you when it first came out? Do you know who Just Timberlake is?

Every day I hear from Association Executives and business owners that they want to do {fill in the blank with choice of social media tool}. Usually it’s because they have found some connection with that particular tool or they know someone else who is doing it. What are lacking in most cases are a strategy, a plan, and measurable metrics to identify if your plan is working. Not to mention, managing a community is a commitment. The last thing you want is to put all this energy into a site that isn’t engaging.

In this blog, we’ll be posting some tips that will help you think through some components of a successful engaging and profitable online community.

Tip 1. Commit for the Long Haul

You need to decide if you’re in this for the long haul. If you’re dabbling, there are ways you can do that without risking your organizations reputation. Recognize that although it’s not a full time job to sustain a community, it’s a good hobby, for sure. It’s not a good idea to kick it off ‘just a little bit’. Or to kick it off big and then fizzle out. It will affect your credibility with your constituents. You need to continually provide good content, but you don’t have to do it alone.

Tip 2. Braintrust and Community Contributions

Take advantage of the fact that people love to talk about things they know something about. End your posts with questions. Inspire participation with controversial topics. And one of the things you can do that will really help is to find some key players in your community and ask them for their commitment to contribute. You will find that the vast majority of your community will just read posts, but a small percentage will offer a lot of content on their own. Create a “braintrust” of your favorite community members to continually provide content. Hold them to certain standards to remain a part of your “braintrust”. Check back on the PKC Blog for more tips in the coming days!