March 2004
20 Creative Ways to Use Online Web Conferencing for Your VA Practice
by Dennis Gerik, Voxwire Systems
Virtual Assistants, looking to better serve their clients, are beginning to turn to a new kind of creative solution: using Online Meetings and Web conferences to stay in contact with their clients.
A number of innovative companies have begun offering simple and affordable web-based meeting capabilities. One such company offering this technology is Voxwire. You can learn more about them by visiting their website at http://www.voxwire.com. Here you will find web conferencing technology that is both easy to use and very affordable.
At the click of their mouse button, Virtual Assistants can hold live interactive online meetings with crystal-clear person to person voice and instantly collaborate with their clients in ways that make them appear to be less remote and more like a regular on-site staff member.
In fact, you can host small one-on-one online meetings or large events with hundreds of people at the same time, and the voice quality is superior to a traditional telephone conference bridge.
Here are some creative uses of web conferencing using Voxwire MeetingRooms that Virtual Assistants might consider in their practice.
1. Web Seminar Series
Develop a web seminar series on topics of importance to your customers. Use the event series to demonstrate the value of your services. Host the events on a scheduled basis. Feature speakers who customers know will provide solid information and knowledge that hey can use in their every day work.
2. Web Event Premiere
Roll out the red carpet! You can host a web event premiere that serves much the same purpose as a premiere does for the movie industry. Here's how: Develop a special, "invite only," web conference for an important announcement, new product introduction or new campaign. Make it a newsworthy event by presenting on a topic that would be of interest to the participants. And then invite your most important media contacts, industry analysts and whoever else you want to influence. You'll be adding a personal touch and elevating the level of conversation with your attendees.
3. E-commerce and Sponsorships
Feature an expert or a well-known person who will attract an audience of targeted individuals for a web conference. Find a sponsor for the event whose product or service is relevant to the people attending the web conference. Feature the speaker for 30 minutes and then give the sponsor 10 minutes to talk on a topic of real interest to the attendee's. For attending the seminar, people receive a coupon for the sponsor's product or service that they can redeem at the e-commerce site or by downloading and bringing it to a store for redemption.
4. Online Trade Shows
Trade shows are getting pricey. It can cost a bundle to ship a booth, set up and pay for a few days at a hotel. Voxwire MeetingRooms can be used to create a virtual trade show, where different companies can participate in interactive sessions with people interested in learning more about the company's products and services
5. Online Book Tours
A book tour can get expensive, sending authors out on the circuit. But Voxwire MeetingRooms can save on some of those costs. Authors can participate in web conferences that are co-marketed with e-commerce companies, online communities and off-line entities that want to drive traffic to their stores. These are also good opportunities to cross-market different tittles and related products that appeal to the people attending the author's web event.
6. Public Relations
Are you a publicist? You can use Voxwire MeetingRooms effectively to reach large groups of people who attend to interview your PR clients. These web events can be conducted with the media, through film web sites, e-commerce sites, newspaper web sites, etc.
7. Press Interviews
Add a new level of interactivity to press interviews. Invite a reporter or editor to a web conference. Use the press interview to discuss issues but also show products, present information and provide data that will help the journalist better report their story.
8. Online Market Research
Voxwire MeetingRooms can be used as a way to do online focus groups. Invite people to a focus group where they view products and participate by asking questions through audio, chat or text-based questions. You can also use polls and online surveys, getting responses in a live, web-based environment.
9. Events
Often, people can not travel far distances to attend an event. For example, only people from the local geographic region can attend an event such as a software association meeting. With Voxwire MeetingRooms, people can attend the event without traveling far distances. All they need to do is log in from their desktop.
10. E-Commerce Customer Service
Give e-commerce customers some help when choosing products by offering assistance through a Voxwire MeetingRoom. Customers click on a link to request assistance. They are then invited to a session for learning more about your product, get a demo, etc. The Voxwire MeetingRoom can feature a live individual or be a prerecorded session.
11. Demonstrations
Web conferencing is a great way to demonstrate how products are used. You can invite people to a web conference and then do a guided demonstration of particular products.
12. Edit on the Fly!
Edit on the fly with people from different geographic regions. With web conferencing, everyone can view the same document simultaneously so edits can be made quickly without costly delays.
13. Check out the Web Site
You can show live, web pages to a group of people using web conferencing technology. This is helpful in many different ways. For example, it is an excellent way to review new web site designs or to see how information is being presented.
14. Review Contracts
You can easily review contracts and other documents with people who are all in different places.
15. Make the Most of Your Talent
Often, the most highly skilled employees are on the run, traveling from project to project. inevitably, there are times when those people have down time. One way to make use of the down time is through web conferencing. Those highly skilled employees can participate in a web conference with colleagues and clients in different locations. By better using the time, companies can grow but keep their labor costs in check.
16. Hiring A New Employee
Use web conferencing as a tool for interviewing people. Invite a prospective employee to a web conference. Upload their resume into the web conferencing environment and review it with them. Invite other people to participate who are part of the hiring process but are located in different geographic regions.
You are no longer limited to hiring from your local region. Voxwire MeetingRooms allow you to hire the best talent from anywhere in the world, and you can interact and collaborate with them at any time with the click of a button.
17. Training
Web conferencing is increasingly popular as a way to offer training. Some companies are moving the majority of their training online and charging people more than if they went to a physical location to take the class. Why more expensive? Convenience. It is simply more convenient for people to take the class from their desk.
18. Contact Us
You can use Voxwire MeetingRooms as a "contact us," feature. People can request an instant meeting to talk with you and learn more about what you do.
19. Investor Relations
Invite analysts, media and shareholders to a web conference for quarterly reviews, announcements and appointments to executive management or the board of directors.
20. Use Voxwire MeetingRooms As A New Revenue Stream
Offer a series of web seminars for your customers as a value-add to their customer service package. Package these seminars as a premium service where Customers get "how to," information, expert advice and featured speakers.
As you can see, how you use online meetings and web conferencing to improve your Virtual Assistant business success is only limited by your imagination!
Check it out today!!! Visit http://www.voxwire.com to experience this new technology for yourself.
About the Author
Dennis Gerik is COO of Voxwire Systems, Inc. (www.voxwire.com) Voxwire provides interactive web conferencing technology at low flat-rate pricing that features unbelievable voice quality that rivals the telephone. Its technology has received the highest ratings such as "Voxwire Web Conferencing…will certainly leave you impressed within the first minute you use it…Web site support, documentation, customer service are all first rate. Pricing is as good as it gets." (Posted in VoIPWatch, May 21, 2003)