This document provides guidance on developing effective content for webinars. It discusses what a webinar is and why they are useful presentation tools. Key recommendations for producing a successful webinar include planning ahead, using the right technology, creating compelling content, and interacting with audiences. The document also covers choosing presentation tools like Google Hangouts, executing the webinar, and analyzing feedback. Overall, the document emphasizes the importance of preparation, engaging content and audience participation for effective online presentations.

1. Content
Development
for Webinars

2. What is a Webinar?
+ A webinar is an event conducted online
that makes use of audio, video, and
interactive elements to communicate
with a large number of people.

3. Why a Webinar?
+ Webinars represent more than just a solution for
saving some time and effort in gathering your team
together for a meeting or for getting your product
some attention.
+ You can use webinars to more effectively target
your audience (whether inside or outside your
company) and reinforce your message with a host
of tools, including recordings and interactive
elements.

4. Producing a successful
Webinar

5. Plan ahead!
 Prep time — how much time will it take to get all of your
resources together?
 Participants — who will present (and support behind the
scenes) during your webinar?
 Resources — where are you going to get your information,
and how long will it take to get everything together?
 Schedule — find out when your webinar will reach the
most people and do the most good.

6. Use the right technology
+ You want to impress with your webinar
+ Use professional tools to create your presentation
+ It may even mean looking for some outside help, but that’s
what the professionals are for, isn’t it?

7. Create compelling content
+ The best webinars feature content that clearly and expertly
communicates your message and provides a defined goal
+ Each webinar participant should leave with a clear
message that you’ve communicated with your well-
designed content.

8. Interact with your audience
+ Webinar participants gain more when they’re allowed to
ask questions and actively participate with the webinar
materials.
+ You can allow a typed chat, or you could provide
participants with audio and video connections to directly
interact with the proceedings (at well-defined intervals in
the presentation, of course).
+ You can also create interactive training materials that allow
participants to answer questions and receive results on
their training efforts.

9. Interact with your audience
+ Webinar participants gain more when they’re allowed to ask questions
and actively participate with the webinar materials.

10. The point is that you don’t want the
audience to remain passive during the
webinar — you want to get them out of their
chairs (not literally, but you know what I
mean) and allow them to take part in the
webinar.

11. Interact with your audience
+ Ask for feedback (and actually take it seriously)
Plan on opening multiple avenues for feedback:
✓ E-mail
✓ Forums
✓ SMS and mobile messaging
✓ Direct audio or visual conversation
✓ Social media
No matter how you get the message, be sure to listen to what your
audience is telling you.

12. What shouldn’t go in a webinar
+ Time wasters
+ Boring materials
+ Materials not meant for your audience

13. Producing a successful
Webinar

14. Why Webinars work
+ Direct contact with your audience
+ Access your audience across time and
space
+ Make use of some great tools

15. Analyze your audience
+ You’re gathering together a sizable amount of people (albeit virtually)
and using their time and attention to accomplish . . . what?

16. Choose the best tools
+ Remember, depending on where you’re located and how many people
are involved, you need to at least consider the following:
 Delivering your presenters’ audio and video
 Delivering the materials those presenters will use
 Delivering any interactive quizzes or tests
 Retrieving the results of those quizzes or tests
 Making sure that your entire presentation doesn’t collapse when more
than three people in your office log in

17. Getting social and spreading the
word
+ Social media can help you identify those interested in your webinar
through networks of friends and professionals.
+ Post your event on LinkedIn and on your Facebook page.
+ Add to registration confirmation e-mails an option for attendees to post
about attending your webinar on Twitter and their own Facebook
pages.
+ Set up a Twitter hashtag to focus the conversation.
+ Once you’ve moved past the promotion stage, social media can be
used to reinforce what you’ve presented.
+ One can also provide a channel for webinar participants to continue
their conversation with you and others about what they’ve learned.

18. CONTENT

19. Keep it compelling…
+ No matter how you choose to present your webinar, remember that
the information should always mean something — and perhaps even
compel your audience to do something.

20. Write the book – or at least the
handouts…
+ You can use PDFs or text documents to present summary notes or an
overview of your presentation
+ Put the presentation up for repeated downloads if necessary

21. Our next speaker is…
+ Having more than one presenter involved in your webinar allows you
to tap into a broader range of experience.
+ It also means that you free your audience from having to listen to one
person for a long period of time.
+ Consider having one person act as the host for the entire webinar,
then have that host pass the presentation off to other speakers for
each major section of the webinar.

22. Multimedia
+ Animations and other computer-generated media may be a little bit
more resource-intensive than straight audio or video, but they can be
worth the time and effort to put together.
+ You can use multimedia to dive deeply into a complex product and
show individual parts in action
+ You can use animation to make abstract concepts more concrete and
easy to understand as well.
+ Ensure that your animations and transitions run smoothly, and you’ll
add a whole new element to your webinars.
+ Make sure your presenter is comfortable with public speaking.

23. Executing your
Webinar

24. + Practice makes perfect – rehearse
+ Have everybody there
+ Have a script and stick to it
+ Test drive your webinar
+ Have a back-up plan
+ Engage your audience

25. Google+ Hangouts

26. Notes
+ You need a Google+ Account
+ Create one for the purpose of your Webinar
+ No limits to attendees
+ No annoying ads

27. Step 1: Create a Hangout on Air
+ Do this from your Google+ page
+ Select Hangouts
+ Create an event
+ Invite via e-mail

28. Step 2: Customize your Webinar
with trailers and apps
+ Activate two very important apps: Q@A and Showcase
+ Q&A allows you to accept questions posted by the audience and
marks them as answered once done
+ Showcase allows you to send articles, websites, products and other
online content to your audience

29. Step 3: Invite your audience to
your Webinar

30. Step 4: Broadcast your Webinar
+ Ideally you’d have a slideshow presentation to show your audience as
you speak
+ Screenshare button
+ Start broadcast button

31. Step 5: Edit or download your
recording on YouTube
Congratulations! You have successfully
managed to do your Webinar!

32. Cheat Sheet
+ Send out invitations 2 weeks in advance otherwise attendees will
forget if you send it too far in advance.
+ Use a simple form for registration otherwise people will not bother to
sign up. Have a welcoming and user-friendly landing page for
registrants.
+ Send reminder e-mails one week before and another on the day of the
presentation – sending it on the day of the event may increase
attendance by 20%.
+ Schedule your webinar in the late morning, that way participants won’t
have issues with commuting during rush hour or have to watch it over
their lunch hour.
+ Have your webinar midweek – studies show that webinars on
Tuesdays get the most attendees.

33. Sources:
Webinars for Dummies
tuts+
Webinars for Dummies Cheet Sheet
How to use Google Hangouts
(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DPZb3D05
00I)

34. Thank you
Carmen Nel (University of the Free State)
Talk presented on 10 March 2017 for HELIG
Free State Members