Do you normally hear groans among your employees when it is time for the latest web meeting? Perhaps you’re using stale material, or maybe the technology you have in place isn’t up-to-date enough for participants to use or listen to. Even worse, perhaps facilitators are launching a web meeting and forget to enable screen sharing so participants are truly just listening to an audio presentation. Fire up the coffee pot; your participants are falling asleep.

Beware of the Bad Web Meeting

As funny as it may sound, avoiding the key features in a web meeting platform should be a major concern for webinar providers. Companies that offer robust solutions like WebEx and GoToMeeting actually run the risk of brand damage as customers aren’t using their webinar software to its full potential. So why is that?

Think about the last webinar you attended. If the icon on your screen was the WebEx icon, but the technology was iffy, the sound scratchy and the facilitator neglected to use any of the features or functions, what would your perception of WebEx be by the end of that web meeting? You can’t really do anything about the brand image these companies are creating through their customers – but it is an indication of what these companies are doing – or failing to do – in terms of training users.

Web Meetings Should Be Engaging

No one likes to have someone talking at them. In fact, the natural reaction to such a web meeting is to start to daydream and think about those things that are much more fun. Even if the individual truly cares about the subject matter, it is difficult to stay focused and listening for more than 15 or 20 minutes if someone is just droning on. Using proper web meeting etiquette and engaging the audience is essential for any online meeting environment.

The tools today – such as WebEx and GoToMeeting – enable your audience to truly engage in the session to get the most out of the material. Giving them the ability to do so not only gets them involved in the web meeting itself, it also ensures that they are more likely to do something with the information they receive. If you can’t achieve the second point, there really is no need for the web meeting in the first place.

Listen to Your Users When Selecting Web Meeting Solutions

Before you launch any further web meeting sessions, step back and ask yourself how you are measuring the effectiveness of these meetings. Are you gathering information from the audience or your employees? If you are simply trying to give information to your employees, why not just send an e-mail? Think about why you are using this platform in the first place and then measure its effectiveness. Gather information from your users and pay attention to their feedback in order to use web conferencing platforms to their fullest capacity.