How To Host A Virtual Event

Hello friends.

It's Jen Kilbourne Obermeier. Welcome back to our live video series!

I might've just started talking a little sooner than I should have, but at any rate, welcome.

Thank you for joining in.

I am going to jump right into it today, because I had a question come in, and I know that there are a lot of people who might be looking for this same solution.

That is exactly what I'm here for.

Let me read the question, and as people are signing on, please say hello. Leave a comment.

I can't see who you are if you're there until you say hi, so just put something in the chat box and say hello.

I hope you are all doing well today: Here's the question of the day.

She said, I'm wondering if you can... blah blah blah. (I'm trying to sum up the question.)

She said, "I want to offer free web-based support right now for a specific audience during the crisis."

She said, "I'm interested in learning about your experience. I want to provide the highest quality service that I can on short notice and avoid pitfalls."

Really good.

She said, "I'm looking for tools to reach as many people as possible that is able to be recorded live and shared across multiple media sources."

She said, "The population I'm trying to reach is very poor and alone, so I'd appreciate the lowest cost options. These events could have zero attendees or thousands. Thank you very much."

Okay, perfect.

I have two different solutions for this to talk to you about today, that again are going to address this question in the quickest way and most efficient and lowest cost way.

And there are two different scenarios to go about this.

The first one is, and this is true for anybody who's tuning in that is potentially trying to do, hey, Veronica, glad that you're there.

1.) Anybody who's potentially trying to reach their existing audience, maybe if you guys have been following along, you've been hearing me bring up my parents and family as examples.

Maybe like my dad.

You are trying to reach your existing audience where you would have been doing a live public event, and you want to put something out there or have a way to continue to talk to them, continue to not just be sending an email saying hope you're doing great, get on video and talk.

It can be super effective.

If you guys are thinking about something that literally just needs to be you delivering the content, and you do not need to have any of your audience interact with you like in real time.

Now, let me caveat about that.

When I say real time, I mean do they also need to be on the video with you?

If they do not need to be on the video with you, what I am doing right now, a live video on a Facebook page, is the absolute cheapest way and quickest way to reach a large number of people.

There is no limit to the number of people who can come watch your live video on your page.

Other pros to that approach are that it's extremely shareable.

If you say for example, you are getting on and you're talking about your topic, you deliver your content, maybe there are zero live attendees (per the question that I got) and then later a whole bunch of people watch the replay.

If that would solve your problem, then Facebook page is the way to go.

Ways to set that up: you can do that from an existing Facebook business page.

You could do it from your personal Facebook page.

It doesn't have to be a business page, particularly if this is something that you're genuinely just trying to do for free.

If there is, again, if this is something you're thinking about where later on you may potentially want to direct them back to a book that you've written.

I know I've got some authors in my audience, hey there.

A book that you've written or some other type of paid product or solution.

You are likely to want to go ahead and just do that live video from your Facebook business page.

And then the other benefit to that, is as people share it, people can like and follow your page and you can continue to do more videos.

That can be a way to just put your heart out there, however you want to serve right now.

I mean, specific to the question that I got, that would be the easiest technical solution.

Probably too for people who are not used to, if they're truly poor, hard and suffering right now, maybe they don't have any other internet access than just their phone, and they're used to getting on Facebook but like, that's it.

They may not have access to sit down at a computer and log on to like a private Zoom meeting or something like that.

Hi Laura. Yes, no problem. Thank you for joining in!

I am still talking about Facebook Live.

Yes, Facebook Live is my first of two solutions that I want to talk about, and I'm still talking about the pros and cons.

Again, the pros being that is probably the easiest thing for non technically savvy people to do because they are used to, if they have a mobile phone they can do it, they can get on to Facebook.

They're used to doing that, and again it's very shareable so that it can continue to get more views later after the fact.

Now, when I was talking about the interactive piece of it, people can definitely interact with you while you're doing Facebook Live.

Just like I read your question, Laura.

And if you want people to be able to ask specific questions, or you want to even take Q&A in advance, and you're just the one talking and then you're reading the comments as you go, that could be a solution.

The cons to that would be that this would be not anonymous.

It would not be anonymous for the people who are watching, if they are wanting to ask questions about sensitive topics or share sensitive stories, that would be something to consider.

Facebook Live would be your cheapest way for sure.

And your easiest technical way, but you don't easily have the ability to have somebody come on and do a face to face chat.

2.) Let me talk about the second solution.

Now, this can still be free for your viewers.

It just would not be free for you.

That might be okay, because if you sign up for a Zoom account, the free accounts do you have a limit on them.

Meaning that, if it's just a one on one conversation, it can be free for you.

But as soon as you need to have more than two people in the conference, and to be able to have the conference last longer than 40 minutes, and when I say the conference, I just mean the conference call.

It's a conference call solution.

If it's going to be longer than 40 minutes then you're going to need to upgrade to just their first paid plan.

Now, if you are only going to do this once, it's probably not going to be a huge cost to you because I think it's like $15 per month for Zoom.

You can sign up for a month and then cancel.

And so let's talk about the pros and cons of Zoom.

Pros would be, if you were wanting to have people interact with you face to face and feel like they were getting real time support with you, they could essentially get in line like in your virtual meeting.

In Zoom, there's a raise your hand button so you can call on people, or you can have people submit questions in advance.

If you're promoting this to an existing group in advance, you can have them submit questions and then call on them to come on to the video if they are there live.

That would be another option.

And I've seen this done really well in group coaching types of scenarios.

It would work very well, of course too if it was free.

All those people can sign on.

You can have the option to mute everybody so people aren't just getting on and talking.

That you're really controlling the flow of the conversation and saying maybe like, okay, I'm going to do 10 minutes here, 10 minutes there, and 10 minutes with this person.

That might be another way to go about it.

Free for them. Low cost for you.

Let's talk about the cons though.

The cons are, that the person needs to...

And again, it's not the hardest thing in the world, but if they're not tech savvy, it might just be this extra step that feels new and different.

And as we know sometimes that's a challenge.

Zoom has an app, and you can be running the meeting from your computer and your participants can join on the app on their phone.

They would need to download the app on their phone, visit the link for the Zoom meeting, and then you guys would all be there together.

And like I said, if they're watching mostly you on the video, they'll be able to see, there's chat and there's comments, if they want to participate that way.

Or again, if they've submitted a question or want to submit a question as you go, and then you call on them, they can turn on their video on their phone or they could talk to you even without turning on their video, if that's important to them.

Either the one that they can't do it, don't know how to do it, or that they don't want to be visible on video.

They can be semi anonymous that way.

With Facebook Live, you don't have anonymity at all.

With Zoom, you have much more control over, do I want to show up and not have my name, show my name, and not have my video on but still be able to talk, in a coaching conversation or some type of support conversation in that way.

Other pros about this, even though you're not live broadcasting it to the world, you can Zoom automatically.

I believe the default is that Zoom will automatically record any meeting that you have.

If you do a video and I mean it's great content.

You guys go for an hour, an hour and a half, you're giving and sharing and just doing, I said in the question that I received, just doing free support.

The video is automatically saved either on your computer or in your Zoom account in the cloud, and you can download it and use it in other ways.

You could either up upload that, you can make it a private YouTube video.

You could upload it to your Google drive and share it only with specific people.

A private YouTube video, you can send out a link and anybody who has the link can see it, but then that's not just searchable or visible on YouTube.

If that's something you want to have be semi-private, you do have that option.

Pros and cons with that.

If you want it to be super shareable and have people actively share it with every single person they know, do it on Facebook.

You could even upload your Zoom replay to Facebook and then ask people to share it that way too if you would like that.

Because then that way the people who participated in your chat or were talking to you one-on-one in that call are not necessarily identified, but you do have the video on Facebook so that you can share it with lots of people.

And then, let's say you want to do it again next week or next month, you have a way to advertise and market it, obviously it's free.

But you're trying to share it and get that out to as many people as possible.

I'm just running these two scenarios, let me know what questions you have.

Because I think that there's a lot of different ways to go about this, and it could be something that you have even more private.

If you want it to be more private and be very invitation only and you're not sending the video out to the world.

But according to the question that I got, it was how can I put it on as many platforms as possible?

You do a Facebook Live video, you can download that and re upload it to YouTube.

You can upload your Zoom call to YouTube.

You have those options as well, and you can take that content, email it out to people if you have an email list, so on and so forth.

Ask people that you know if you don't have an existing audience for this, but this is something you want to be sharing in a way that you want to support others right now going through crisis.

Take the video that you already did with a small group of people and ask people that you do know to please share it for free with their audience, and their email list, and say if they're interested in coming to the next one that you do, here's a time and a place and a link to do that.

You can just like...

Okay. I see a couple of questions coming in. Thank you.

A few days ago I did a separate video chat about creating a Content Snowball.

This is a similar scenario, except what we're talking about is not ever using it to sell your services or sell a product.

We're just talking about, I want as many people on a Zoom meeting or a conference call so that I can just give support and I want to build awareness that I'm doing that.

You can ask people to share it on their Facebook pages.

That's going to be really a good way to go, so you get more or as much visibility for it as possible.

Okay. Melissa said she's running her first Zoom seminar today.

That's amazing, Melissa.

She said she's nervous about having a closeup on my head for the duration of the talk.

Oh, so here's a little trick in Zoom.

You can't control how other people see...

Each participant can control their experience of the layout.

Melissa, if you've ever been on a Zoom meeting, and the speaker like their video takes up the entire screen the whole time, there's a little button that you can toggle in the top right of your Zoom tab or your Zoom screen, and you can go back and forth between gallery view and speaker view.

If you don't want to stare at yourself the whole time that you're talking, which I totally get it.

Go to gallery view, because then you see everybody's squares, like the Brady Bunch.

You see everybody who's on, you can see them all at the same time.

You can feel like you're seeing people's faces versus only looking at your own face.

Now, the other people on there too, you might want to share that trick with them so you can say, "Hey, if you want to see the whole group at once rather than just the speaker or just my face, click the gallery view instead of speaker view."

Then they just know that they have that option.

But don't be nervous, Melissa.

I'm sure that whatever it is you're going to be talking about today is something that they surely need to hear right now.

Please update me on how that goes.

Laura said, "Is it obvious how to download the Facebook Live video?" Laura, that is a really great question.

Typically, yes it is very obvious, but lately I have been having trouble downloading Facebook Live.

And I don't know if that is a Facebook glitch that had already been happening before this, or if there is something going on right now where maybe it's specific to my browser or whatever.

But here's what I'm going to do.

There's a work around for it that somebody...

I learned about last night, and I'm going to follow up and post that on my page or in the comments to this video afterwards, and tag you back in there, tag you so that I make sure you see it.

Thank you for asking that.

It is supposed to be very easy, yes.

After you finish a live video, it lives on your page, and then you should have a drop down in the top or when you open up the video and you start to watch it again, you can just press pause so you're not watching yourself talk, and go to the description of your video.

There should be a little drop down arrow that gives you some options, and one of them says download videos.

It hasn't been working for me for the past few days, but again, that might've just been like a temporary, Facebook is  drunk and is not performing right or something.

Yes, Laura, I'll follow that up.

That was a super quick topic but I feel like a very important one.

I have a lot of ministers and pastors in my family, and my mom started doing her church services on Facebook Live as of last Sunday.

I know that people that are looking for, I said, the easiest and quickest solution, Facebook is where people are already used to.

In most cases they're used to getting on there.

They understand how to get to a Facebook page.

They understand probably what Facebook Live is.

Zoom, the benefit of Zoom is it might feel a little bit more personal, and it might give you the opportunity to have them come on the call and have a one on one chat, and talk to you and everybody else gets to participate in that.

But it is a little more of an ask.

You got to think about, I think, the people that you most want to reach with this.

Yes.

Laura says thanks. Absolutely.

What else is happening with you guys?

I am continuing to do the live videos throughout the weekend.

If you have a specific topic that you're ready for me to hurry up and get to, please let me know.

Because just like this topic was requested today, I want to make sure that I am helping people move forward as fast as possible.

I'm not staying in any particular order, we're just going!

Melissa said, "For seniors, Zoom lets people call in by phone."

Yes, absolutely. Zoom, you don't have to do the video, which is great.

They can just dial in on their regular phone, don't have to be a cell phone.

If you have an older person in your life right now who is not connecting with family because of something simple for us, but challenging for them.

And they don't have their children nearby to help them, please reach out and just say, "Hey, if this is something that I can help walk you through it. It really only takes a few minutes."

If you are somebody who's familiar with Zoom, record a screen share video of yourself just saying, here's how to click the link on your email.

Here's how to log in.

Here's what you're going to see.

Make sure you can hear us.

Make sure you can see us.

Record yourself in a quick tutorial and send that to your audience in advance.

I think that makes them feel even more secure about, how do I do this?

How do I connect?

I was even talking to my sister yesterday about having all, there's six grand kids, there's three sisters, we each have two kids.

We have six grand kids.

And we're like, hey, why don't we get them all on Zoom with the parents and have a call, have a play date.

And we laughed about it.

And we did say that we had heard about people having family reunions on Zoom right now.

It's such a cute and smart idea because then at least you can see everybody all at once.

I will say the one downside if you're going to use Zoom for a fun purpose, is that it's hard.

Like when I say fun, it could be a family reunion, it can be a virtual happy hour with your girls night out, people that you haven't seen in a couple of weeks.

And I do think it's critical that we continue to have those social outlets.

The only problem with it is, if you have everybody off of mute at the same time, the more people you have, the more it's going to just feel like madness and chaos.

Really my recommendation is to use Zoom when it's something that you can have people go in order, or at least have one person who's leading the call and then unmuting one or two people at a time.

Because the more everybody's talking over each other, the audio will cut out and you won't even be able to hear.

It's one of those "good ideas in theory."

It's not as usable in the real world.

But I'm very eager to hear if I'm wrong or if there is another, even another type of app or program where people are gathering in more of unofficial fun, just chit chat type of way.

I feel like for small groups that works well, and then the bigger the family reunion, probably the more of a chaos it is.

Laura says she appreciates me being so responsive.

This is great. This is absolutely the easiest and quickest way for me to respond to questions right now, and this is my giving back what I can right now.

You are more than welcome, and please keep bringing more questions.

Susan said, "I just set up a Zoom account today."

She said, "I had a Realtor ask me if I'd like to do a session with her next week and she would post it on her business Facebook page."

Susan, that is so awesome.

It's especially awesome because she doesn't mind you putting your virtual organizing example out there, or organizing or whatever it is that you guys are going to work on.

That's incredible.

It's really sweet that she's willing to leverage it and share it that way with her people.

That's really cool.

Melissa said, "It's a great idea to support people who are not able to tap into the online community opportunities."

And I could not agree more.

And so, the fact that people who can get on Facebook Live or get on Zoom and just share, it definitely has become a new way to be a resource.

And then, I mean, I really want you guys to think if you're listening to this, and do you currently do a service business, or some other type of offer of ways that you typically work with people and you're like, I can't do a Zoom meeting.

Well, I was just out walking in my neighborhood last night, and my neighbor who teaches piano lessons, she and I stopped and talked from across the street for a few minutes and she said, "I'm not even tech-savvy but in the past week I have figured out how to do piano lessons with the kids," that she teaches - on Zoom!

And so I was thinking to myself, if someone like her can figure this out, and still have an effective lesson and teaching, and be able to see her students playing and you have the audio obviously, and you have the ability to give feedback and coach them.

If she can do that, whatever it is you guys are thinking of, I promise you can deliver it through a virtual format.

Because often what people need is, we said, just the feeling of having the community that they all logged in at the same time, the ability to vent a little bit, ask questions, get support either as a group or one-on-one, and just even the accountability of saying like, hey, we're going to get together at this specific time, on this specific day.

I really want to see you there.

And it just lets them know that they're wanted and that they're needed.

And then once they say they're going to show up, that like, hey, I'm really excited about us getting together.

And you can even have people unofficially RSVP.

Are you going to come to the Zoom meeting?

Like, great.

Are you going to come to my Facebook Live?

Awesome.

I'm going to look for you there.

I just think that those little tiny things are essential pieces of what is giving us a sense of normalcy right now, if that makes sense.

All right ladies, I'm so glad that you are all here, and I will continue to follow up with questions or comments after the show.

Just kidding. This is not a show.

This is just my live video podcast and we're going to keep going until further notice!

Thanks again for being here and you'll send me a message if you have something you want to talk about, especially over the weekend.

Bye!