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April 21, 2009

What’s wrong with web meetings

“Please join this web meeting,” the invitation reads, and, at the appointed date and time, I do. But I’m disappointed when the facilitator runs the meeting as a glorified conference call, showing PowerPoint slides but providing no opportunity to participate.

And that, in a nutshell, is what’s wrong with web meetings. Although service provides (like Microsoft, WebEx, Citrix and Adobe) all offer nifty features, most users are unaware of all but the most basic web tools.

The result is a one-way experience that’s more even boring than the most static face-to-face meetings. It’s no wonder people zone out or multi-task.

What should you do differently? Practically everything. Here are five ways to start:

Focus on the purpose of your meeting. Maybe you’re trying to facilitate understanding among participants, or get people to work together to solve a problem. In any case, be sure that your agenda is designed to achieve your objectives, and that you’re using the best web tools to support your agenda.

Become familiar with the features offered by your web service. Your company is paying a lot of money to subscribe to the service, so free on-demand or scheduled training is usually part of the contract. Sign up for the training—in an hour, you can find out what features are offered and how to use them.

Try one new feature. The easiest tool, which is available on most services, is “Chat.” It allows participants to write a question or a comment, which is then posted for all to see. I use “Chat” to encourage participants to ask a question at any time, without interrupting the presentation. But you can use “Chat” in many different ways, including as a message thread.

Take a test drive. At a small team meeting, experiment with running the session completely differently, using all the options available. Instead of presenting, try the “Sharing” feature to show participants a sample document or web site. Create a poll and allow participants to vote. Play with the whiteboard feature. Hand over the controls to another participant and let him or her play.

Trust the force. Web meetings can be a great way to communicate and get work done, if you give them a chance. So leave behind your assumptions and see what’s possible.

Posted by Alison Davis at 01:05 PM

April 16, 2009

Video saves the newspaper star?

In the 1979 pop hit “Video Killed The Radio Star,” the Buggles sang about how television caused the death of radio. (“Pictures came and broke your heart . . .”)

These days, the talk in the media is about the potential death of newspapers. But is it possible that video could actually save newspapers? According to web consultants Brightcove, video streams from newspaper web sites increased dramatically last year, which represents good news for an industry struggling to keep afloat by finding ways of making more money online.

In a recent report using data from 187 newspaper partner websites, Brightcove says monthly uploads were up from 186 videos in 2007 to an average of 638 videos in 2008. Overall, total videos uploaded grew 1,500 percent in 2008.

The report also shows a 35 percent growth in video streams, and a 700 percent increase in player loads for 2008, which means that more papers are integrating video throughout their sites.

I bring this to your attention because I think we need to keep an eye on what’s happening in media and on web sites because it sets employee expectations about communication. So if employees are increasingly experiencing video as a way to get information on news (even newspaper) web sites, they’ll be looking for video on intranets as well.

And, in an era of increasingly reluctant readers, video is a more and more effective way to communicate.

As the Buggles sang, “We can’t rewind, we’ve gone too far.”

Posted by Alison Davis at 08:06 AM

April 09, 2009

What are your challenges?

Yesterday I facilitated an in-house workshop with 15 communicators from different parts of a multi-national company. As I often do, I started the session by asking, “What are your challenges?” I thought you’d be interested in how the participants responded:

“We’re setting up small-group luncheons with a senior executive and we thought employees would be thrilled to be invited. So we were surprised when nobody responded! How can we increase interest and participation?”

“Employees are exhausted from all the turmoil. They’re apathetic and suspicious and feel uncertain. How can we engage them?”

“Late last year, our intranet got a a lot of traffic, but lately employees are just not visiting the site. Maybe the problem is news fatigue, but in any case, how do we increase traffic?”

“Our internal clients want to include the kitchen sink in every communication. How can we advise them to pare it down?”

“How do we cut through the clutter to encourage employees to read our communication?”

“How can I make my stories more catchy and compelling?”

“We’d like to include content from all parts of the organization, but some people just don’t provide information. How can I encourage them to participate?”

“We hold town halls, and people attend, but no one asks questions. How can we get employees more engaged during a town hall?”

“We need to keep leaders up to date with key issues—and, just as importantly, to translate what those issues mean to their people. How do we do so?”

It was interesting how similar these challenges were—but that even within one company, there were some significant differences.

How do these challenges compare to the ones you’re facing?

Posted by Alison Davis at 01:05 PM