I had a chance to speak with Mike Stelzner, author of Writing White Papers How to Capture Readers and Keep Them Engaged, about a recent webinar he hosted, the Social Media Success Summit. The live online event spanned over a month and brought the brightest minds in social media marketing together and they never even had to get up from their desks.

"Social media happens to be the hottest thing on the planet," Mike stated. His summit brought together some of the biggest names on Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter and demonstrated the benefits and uses of these social networks to grow the buzz about your small business.

The most unique part of this event? It was a virtual conference. "It's a great way for me to impart a lot of knowledge on a lot people." Mike is absolutely right, virtual conferences can reach a large or small group of people worldwide. Mike was kind enough to give some tips for the business or individual looking to get involved in webinars on a small scale, or even the larger scale.

Have a helper
When you have a presenter, they should be able to be focused on just that, presenting. Assign someone else to keep an eye out for incoming questions, to sort through them if you're prescreening, as well as someone to field any connection questions. 

Speak live in a way that will sound just as great on a recording.
Be mindful that this seminar will be available for people to listen to at a later time. Maybe they missed the first day of your seminar; maybe they missed the last day, or maybe they are just interested in writing down some of the smart things you said. Either way you want to make sure that everything is going to translate into a recorded format while you're doing the live conference.

Keep your audience engaged
"Something as simple as a poll question can really get people engaged." Ask your participants their opinions. 'Would you do this?' 'Is this something you would like to see more of?' Make your participants part of the conference and not just quiet observers to keep them excited about the topic and more likely to come back for the next event.  Encourage them to interact with you via Facebook and Twitter. This will help them stay engaged and will give you instant feedback.

Provide different options to encourage questions.
Instead of just offering your guests or clients the old fashioned voice submission for questions, allow them to submit their questions via email, chat, or text.  It's not always an easy thing to get people to open up. Have some questions ready yourself in the event that you might not get any questions submitted. "When it comes to taking questions that are live, you can run into some real technical challenges if you're not familiar with the platform. So I always believe in having a backup plan in place, and maybe even some back up questions."

These are just some of the tips that Mike was nice enough to offer, and I hope that you apply some of them to your next virtual event or conference call. If you'd like to find out more about Mike Stelzer, you can visit him on Twitter, @mike_stelzner.

Your business can benefit from teleseminars and webinars much more than merely holding your standard conference call meeting. Due to my lack of vocal confidence I resisted doing much of this kind of thing for a while, until I finally took the plunge. Now I regret holding off for as long as I did because my income and audience have vastly improved each time I have tried one of the many kinds of teleseminar or webinar I list below.

Check them out and see how they could fit into your business ...

1. List-Building Webinar

The first positive impact you can see from holding a webinar is email list opt-ins. This alone could be all the reason you need for putting one on. Even better, these are good leads - people who really want to hear from you. They are people who have taken an action and cleared their schedule for an hour. Much better prospects than someone who is only kinda-sorta interested in reading what you have to say.

2. Masterminds and Brainstorms

They say two heads are better than one, but what about 5 or 10 heads? 
I know many folks who have regular, formal masterminds and get a huge amount of value out of them. I on the other hand have a few people I get together with on an adhoc basis, but still find the experience indispensable.

3. Regular Call/Radio Show/Podcast

Sometimes all it takes is for your customers to get to know your voice in order for them to warm to you. This can be achieved by running a regular call, radio show or podcast. Put it on a specific and regular time slot so people can tune in each time, and that will grow familiarity, personal connection and trust.

4. One-off Buzz-Building Event

Rather than a regular time slot, what about a one-off? Events are a perfect way to build excitement, word of mouth, buzz and anticipation.  You can use the event for publicity, links, traffic, and to gain attention for a message, or product launch.

5. Authority Building Interview Series

Borrow credibility, expertise and authority from thought-leaders in your market. Interview personalities and get vital nuggets of wisdom to share with your prospects and customers.

6. Paid Membership Club

If you have access to lots of experts with great information to share, turn it into a revenue opportunity by charging for access and sharing the proceeds with your interviewees.

7. Online Audio Course

Put your own expertise into a curriculum and sell it as a course. You might think that this will eat into your product sales, consulting service or divert attention away from your core business, but in fact everyone I have spoken to who has done this has found the reverse, more people buy their consulting, products and find it a much easier sell because their prospects KNOW the company is the right one to help with their problem.

8. Q&A

Instead of answering the same questions over and over on email or one to one, put together a question and answers call. This will overcome sales objections, help customers with tricky challenges, and demonstrate your commitment to customer service.

9. Product Preview/Overview/Demonstration

Sometimes customers do not know what they do not know. Demonstrating a product can both educate in the use of the product and explain the benefits, but also serves as "proof" when the prospect can see the before and after with their own eyes. It does not have to be live or video, just a logical sequence of slides explained well can work just as effectively.

10. Digital Product

Finally, when you have all of these calls or webinars recorded, why not add a transcript and sell or giveaway the recording and booklet? 
You might use them as ethical bribes, or offer them for sale at a profit. This can be a quick and easy way to create information products so is well worth considering.

Summary

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Think beyond conference calls and look at all the other ways you can benefit from webinars and telephone seminars. Are there any ideas that I have missed? What has worked for you in the past? Are you thinking of giving any of these ideas a try? Please share your thoughts in the comments ...

Chris Garrett is an internet marketing consultant and business blogger living in the UK. You can find him at his own blog, http://chrisg.com and he also writes for http://promotions.co.uk/blog/

I've talked quite a bit before about web conference presentations, PowerPoint presentations, and even PowerPoint presentations for your web conferences.  We've looked at "Zen” presentations, using black slides, telling stories, and of course, the "Less is More” rule.

Well, I'd like to add to that illustrious list today with the help of a .pdf "ReThink!” PowerPoint presentation by Oliver Adria.  The link puts you at the beginning of his slideshow that demonstrates as it explains a newer, more interesting kind of presentation.  And following the eternal, Less is More, there are 76 .pdf pages, but they comprise at most 30 "slides.”

Adria breaks his presentation into three sections, Old Habits, One Message, and One Story.  For this post, we're going to concentrate on what he suggests to do with Old Habits… namely, dump them.

What does it mean to get rid of old PowerPoint habits?  It means abandoning rules like, 7 words for each line, 7 lines for each slide, and only display each slide for 40 seconds each.”  (Now, if you've been following this blog, you're allowed to feel smug that these rules haven't been your rules for a while.)

My favorite part is .pdf page 20 where it shows a PowerPoint slide template, then tells you to forget it.  I am not ashamed to admit that there was a time when I was a slave to that template.  So seeing a blank page as the suggested starting point felt good.  The trick now is what to do with that empty canvas.

One idea of course is to use Adria's theme which is to not have a theme.  His slides contain large fonts and small.  His words appear in the right corner, left, bottom, top, and basically anyplace but where they're expected.  Pictures are used, but only occasionally and sporadically, and I think this increases their impact.

Abandoning old habits is difficult, but at least with PowerPoint habits, starting with a blank slate is already exactly what you have to do.

Business communication is different from other types of communication.  It always needs to be clear and concise, and most of the time it needs to be fast.  But fast or slow, when you give a speech or presentation, or send an email or memo, remember that you’re giving them information, but you also want them to do something with it.

To help make sure your communication has the right focus, the Michael Hyatt blog has five questions to ask yourself while preparing to communicate.  They are:

• What do they need to know?
• Why do they need to know it?
• What do they need to do?
• Why do they need to do it?
• What can I do to help them remember?

Especially if you have a lot of information to convey, these questions can help keep the presentation focused and easily digestible by the participants.  They should also drill-down the scope of what is to be covered to just the parts that are pertinent or important to the actual audience.

The question that I believe is the most crucial is number four.  It’s tough—and frustrating—to be told to do something without knowing why or how the task fits into the big picture.  Telling people the why along with the what lets them be a part of the team. 

But my favorite part of number four is that if everyone knows the goals and greater purpose, then each can be on the lookout for problems, or even opportunities for improvement.  Instead of just one person trying to hold everything together, there’s a team working together towards the finish line.

What is the number one rule of PowerPoint presentations?  That’s right, “Less is more.”  So what’s the second rule of PowerPoint presentations, the one we most often forget?  It’s, “You are the center of the presentation, not your slides.”

I came across a great tip on the Decker Blog about the use of black slides in PowerPoint presentations.  Bert Decker rightly believes that a big problem with a lot of presentations is that the PowerPoint slides take over and become the point of the meeting, replacing the speaker.  And like many have said before, these presentations grow to have more and more slides with more and more bullet points, until eventually the speaker—and the meeting—can be replaced with an emailed attachment of that detailed PowerPoint.

Decker's solution?  Well, first use less slides of course, but his second solution is to insert the occasional all-black slide in there.  

Think about your last web conference.  What were you doing when the speaker had already talked about the bullet points showing, and was making a point before going on to the next slide?  For me, I was trying to listen while idly reading and re-reading the bullet points on the screen.  Yes, I missed part of what was being said.

So what if there was a black slide there?  With nothing to distract, I could have concentrated on the speaker much easier.  And if it’s a long time to the next slide, switch from PowerPoint to the speaker’s video feed.  A message will get across much more effectively if all we have to focus on is the speaker themselves.

Another great thing about a black screen is it’s also a definitive divider between ideas.  It shows that the previous section is over and now is the time to recap, to talk about what was covered.  And most important, a black slide tears attention and importance from the PowerPoint presentation to give it back to the speaker, the center of any presentation.

As more and more companies choose to do business utilizing conference calling, the question is often asked of us: How do I know exactly what kind of conferencing tools I'll need?

We feel that when you choose a conference call service, you should keep in mind future conferencing needs, even if you're sure now you'll never need anything that fancy later on. We always encourage folks to keep their options open.

Accuconference offers a wide range of conferencing tools, some of them you definitely need now and some you don't. However, adding the ability to share applications later is always an option, so no worries.

I just want to host a straightforward conference call.

A simple conference call among a smaller group (less than fifty) will require a conference line, invitations, and a date that works for everyone taking part in the meeting. Check it out.

What if I want to add a PowerPoint presentation?

Web conferencing allows you to share, review and revise documents or web pages, demo products or present a proposal—all in real-time, sharing the same screen space. Look here.

How about video? I really think it's important that people can see me as I speak.

Video conferencing will never replace the in-person meeting, but it will support your business meetings by providing you with unique ways to interact. The online collaborative tools can enhance a meeting in ways that can't be done in person. Find out more here.

Plus, Accuconference offers recording playback at your convenience, secure conference controls right from your computer desktop, and toll-free customer support for any questions you may have. A full list of our customer benefits is here.

Often people aren't sure about teleconferencing because they're nervous about learning how teleconferences work, not sure if everything will run smoothly at the right moment, and general nervousness about having to speak with a group via the telephone.

We can't help you with your nerves (talking on the phone in a teleconference will get easier over time, we promise), but we can promise a stress-free, easy to use experience when you choose our teleconferencing system. Our rates are reasonable and well-priced when compared with other conferencing services, and we offer outstanding customer service. And I mean outstanding. Our customer service specialists will and often do bend over backward to help our clients with any issue.

Still not sure about conferencing even after that amazing list of benefits?

If you have any questions or want more information on how Accuconference can help you with your teleconferencing needs, please let us know.

You've read the news, the websites - this blog - done the research, and run the numbers. The final conclusion shows that webinars really can help out your company, and save it time and money. All you have to do now is integrate webinars into your business.

For some, it can be as easy as distributing conference codes and numbers, and announcing, "This is how we are going to do things from now on." For many businesses, it won't be that easy. There could be resistance from your workers or management. People might not be motivated enough for change, or may not realize - or care about - the benefits.

When introducing innovation into a company, there are many pitfalls and potential derailments that you can come across. The blog, The Heart of Innovation, has 56 reasons why innovation fails. Hopefully, you won't run across any of them when integrating webinars into your business. Just to be sure, let's take a look at a few of the big ones.

If you cut off the head, the body will die. Likewise, if senior management isn't behind webinars, then most likely the employees will follow suit. They may give you the green light, but if they don't change like everyone else, your innovation will become a flash-in-the-pan idea.

Sometimes, easing into a change can be more detrimental than the one-time growing pains that accompany a full switch-over. For example, if given the chance to decide how to do things, most employees will stick with what they understand, or are comfortable with. If you want to use webinars to record all of your sales calls, but only half of your sales staff is on board, then there will be confusion when it's time to "review the tapes."

Finally, without proper training and orientation, you won't get the results you expected. People will get frustrated with what they perceive to be endless changes, parts of your business will be doing it one way -- completely different from how other parts are doing it -- and what could have been a time and money saver becomes a headache.

Webinars, like innovation, can be excellent for your company. With a little due-diligence and time invested at the beginning, you can avoid pitfalls that turn a good thing bad.

Posted by George Page, Communication Specialist

Presentations, conferences, and meetings almost always have handouts. These can be as simple as a one-page agenda, or as complex as a fifty-page workbook. Regardless, handouts help to guide your audience through your presentation, understand your message better, and give them something to take away from the meeting… literally.

It's easy to simply make copies of your notes and pass them around the room, but this really isn't the best. If your notes are sparse, the handout is pretty much useless. If your notes consist of your entire speech in bullet points, then what is the point of listening to you? Take a look at three good tips for handouts from The Power of Reflection.

First, encourage your participants to take notes by leaving large spaces for them. Make sure every page has a header, section titles, and page numbers. Refer to where you're at by saying the page number and titles. Though don't make the mistake of making your "master" copy be different from theirs. Finally, if you have more than one booklet or stapled stack of material, color-code each to make it easier for your participants to pick up the right one.

Handouts aren't limited to face-to-face conferences. You can distribute pretty much anything, even if you are hosting a webinar. Email your handouts to your participants to print out before the conference call. You could also setup a downloadable version and simply send the link. If you are hosting a web conference, most likely all of your participants are in front of their computers. Blast email handouts to participants during the conference, or have a link ready that you can put into the chat.

Even if it's a virtual meeting, you're not as constrained as you think. Don't forget to include handouts in your presentations and your participants will appreciate it. One more thing to think about: you can probably have donuts and coffee delivered most anywhere…. just a thought.

Posted by George Page, Communication Specialist

Jerry Seinfeld once joked about how the number one fear of the average American is public speaking and that death is number two. This means that the average American would rather be in the casket than doing the eulogy. Sure it's funny, but it's not too terribly far from the truth. Part of the reason for this is that when you're speaking in public, audiences are influenced by the way your body appears as much as the words you're saying. Different forms of communicating are received by the human brain, and there are numerous studies about which ones are the most important. One of the most famous of these is a study by Albert Mehrabian, a current professor at UCLA, who developed the 7%-38%-55% Rule. The percentages reflect what your brain reacts to and by how much; whether it be words (7%), tone of voice (38%), or body language (55%).

Taking away one of these aspects ups the ante on your brain's reaction to another. If you're on a teleconference, suddenly the words become that much more important. On a video conference, you're suddenly at the mercy of all these things -what you are saying, how are you saying it, and what you look like when you're saying it. Nerves can be read very easily while in front of a crowd and being able to move can sometimes hide these little shakes and quivers until you gain your footing and feel a little more confident. Most of the time on a video conference you're glued to one place so it's difficult to 'walk off' these nervous feelings and find ways to make those public speaking fears a little less apparent. What can be done to prepare for the inevitable webinar where you'll be the center of attention?

The most important thing to remember is that not all webinars include a type of video conferencing, but pretty much all include some sort of voice or speaking. So your first goal should be to make sure your voice is clear and concise. Sure, it's only 7% of the rule, but if participants can't see you, then what you're saying becomes so much more important. Improving the words becomes simply a product of research. In many ways, the business world is like college all over again, where you could probably skip a few nights in the library and be able to get yourself a passing grade, but no professor is going to nominate your presentation for an award. Now had you spent a few extra hours in the library, your presentation could have probably turned some heads. It's the same in the business world. You should treat every presentation like it's the audience's first time hearing the information. Give the basics, offer a place where they can get more information, and then dig into the meat of the topic. Not only does it make your audience feel a little more at home, it gives you a jumping off point where you feel more comfortable before getting into less familiar territory.

When it comes to a video conference, being aware of your body language and posture is important. On a video conference you're usually sitting down. Sit up straight and look directly into the camera. Since eye contact is most important for getting a connection with your audience and since they are not right in front of you, imagine that staring into the camera is the same as looking at your participants. Leaning forward when listening to another's comments or being asked a question not only indicates a readiness to act but also an interest in what the other person is saying. Tilting your head also expresses interest in the things that are being said and done around you. Nodding while another person is speaking indicates an understanding of what is being asked or said. Above all, you need to remember that people can see your face. So if you roll your eyes or make uncomfortable facial expressions, it will be apparent that you are questioning the information being presented.

In the end, being comfortable with the information you're giving will be the greatest influence over audience perception. When you know what you're talking about, the information will come easily and any nerves your may have will soon dissipate. Confidence is the key. Do your research, know your subject, know your audience, and things will be much easier.

PS: It's not just about what you look like, what you say and how you say it is also key to a good presentation. Having an attack plan is going to benefit yourself and your audience. Develop the presentation, design the slides, and display your incredible skills.

Previously, we talked about how to be an effective speaker when doing a presentation. Everyone has different learning and listening styles; and with webinars, it sometimes becomes difficult to make sure you're appealing to everyone's sensibilities. While some people are more audible learners, some are going to thrive and really understand when they can see the information in front of them.

When slide presentation software came along, it revolutionized the way that things were done – especially when it came to large rooms and conferences. Gone were the days of thick and boring handouts that never seemed to make it to all the attendees on time. Now there's a way to create slides that are going to be effective without overloading the audience with colors, pictures, videos, and animations.

1.) Slide Cohesiveness

The hardest thing about presentations is making sure that everything looks clean. You want each slide to set the general tone for the presentation. Keeping all the slides uniform is incredibly important. In order to help this process along you should always brainstorm your presentations as well. Select a color scheme that reflects the tone you wish to set with the conference, attach pictures to the slides that make sense, and never try to overload the attendees with too many graphics. If there's ever any question on how much is too much or not enough, always err on the side of caution and do a simple presentation. Be prepared to use your words if you start to lose audience interest.

2.) Color Schemes

Colors affect moods whether it be promoting unity, peace, love, harmony, or creating a passionate environment. Different colors invoke certain types of emotions and help to create a different atmosphere. For example, the color green is considered to soothe, have healing power, and is often worn by doctors. Red is the color most used to get attention. Using colors together and creating color schemes is a good tool to promote emotions that are going to make your presentation more enjoyable. This is especially helpful in sales presentations; by tuning into your audience you can better affect that outcome of your sales pitches and presentations.

3.) Establish Focus

Focus is one of the most important things about any good presentation. The focus of a presentation is the overall message or tone that you are trying to create. If you're trying to let all the attendees know that everything is going to be okay in this unstable financial environment, you should established that theme right away. The rest of your presentation should focus on explaining who, what, where, when, why, and how. Think of establishing focus as writing a thesis statement. The focus should be the central idea, and all the other ideas of the presentation should revolve around it.

4.) Animations should be used sparingly

Just because they look pretty good doesn't mean that every slide needs to fade or roll into another. Use animations at points in the slides that matter the most. If you're showing profit growth from one quarter to another, use an animation to move through your chart. By limiting the amount of animations on a slide, you can ensure their effect is noticed, and people are taking more interest in what you are saying.

5.) Expand your mind

Don't just use the standard everyday clip art that's available on most computers. A quick Google search can show you website after website offering copyright free pictures or pictures with small watermarks on them available for public use. Check with the US Copyright office to see if your organization qualifies for the benefits of public use policies. This mostly applies to schools and teachers - however, you can never be too sure. Better quality and more vibrant pictures make slides pop off the page, and make trying to find the hidden meaning a thing of the past.

Remember, the most important thing about any presentation is that it's targeted for your audience. The difference between a great presentation and a great presenter is that the great presenter will take the time to research his or her audience and get to know them before putting his information together. Your audience will take notice of your dedication and respond to it.