Zoom Meetings: Learn the #1 Thing That Can Make Your Virtual Gatherings More Powerful & Productive

In the age of coronavirus, Zoom Meetings have become an essential way for groups to connect; but making these virtual gatherings powerful and productive is not so easy. Many people are still learning what it takes to be present without causing distractions. In other words, for groups larger than a half dozen, technical facilitation is required. In fact, having a dedicated technical support person to guide everyone in how to participate without detracting from the group’s energy can make a huge difference. Please watch the video below to learn more.

About Video Mojo
Video Mojo is a video blog and podcast hosted by award-winning media innovator, Jon Leland of ComBridges. It combines timeless marketing principles with a playful exploration of the “bleeding edge” of digital video & social media.

Resource Links from this episode:

I’d love to hear what works for you and if you find this program useful. If you’ve got questions, feedback or suggestions, please comment below, or let’s connect (and leave us a review on Apple Podcasts or wherever):

VIDEO TRANSCRIPT:

Zoom Meetings: Learn the #1 Thing That Can Make Your Virtual Gatherings More Powerful & Productive

Hi and welcome to Video Mojo.

My name is Jon Leland and Video Mojo is a combination of timeless marketing principles and a playful exploration of the bleeding edge of social media and digital video.

Today we’re talking about digital video and the number one thing that you can do to make your Zoom meetings more powerful and productive.

You know, as I’ve been talking about digital video literally for decades. One of the original concepts that came to me was something I call the media proverb which is,
“It’s always more complicated than you think it is.”

Just because everybody is doing Zoom meetings now doesn’t mean that we’re doing them right. In fact, we’re seeing so many issues that even Saturday Night Live chose to make fun of all the ways that people do Zoom meetings wrong.

In this world that we have now where connecting via video has become so much more important, I think it’s really valuable to be conscious about the way we create a container for communities and get-togethers. To be clear, I’m not talking about two or three or even four or five people having a social gathering on Zoom. I’m talking about meetings where there can be 30 to 50 people and more.

Brene Brown offered some emotionally intelligent ideas that she uses with her Zoom meetings of 30 people on her team in order to get people into a more conscious space and to allow for all the intensity of emotions that are going on these days.
https://www.inc.com/betsy-mikel/how-brene-brown-runs-emotionally-intelligent-zoom-meetings.html

What’s clear is that we’re moving into a new world. So these kinds of online meetings and virtual connections, particularly the bigger ones where you’re talking about dozens or even hundreds of people, become more and more important. We want to create the container in a safe way, we want to create it in a conscious way, and we don’t want all of these distractions.

So the thing that I think is missing actually harks back to all the conversations about digital video, just because one person can run a whole meeting doesn’t mean that they should. I’ve been facilitating webinars for a client and we have two people managing the technology backend, making sure that things run in a smooth and professional way. In smaller meetings, such as meetings I have recently attended with 30 to 50 people, just having one person dedicated to managing the technology and giving people guidance and support makes a huge difference. If you don’t have that then you will have all these rough edges and distractions. People don’t understand that they really have to take responsibility for their audio and mute and unmute appropriately. I think having a technological project manager is the number one thing that we should to have to in order to have foundation and support in your large scale Zoom meetings.​ And when we conduct Zoom meetings in a professional way then they become a more solid, more productive container, and as a result generates a more powerful community..

I really want to encourage anyone that’s doing anything more than just a casual or small meeting with less than a half a dozen people, make sure that you have someone holding the space technologically, giving people coaching, providing real-time tech support, so that everybody can be on the same page and understand kind of the technological etiquette of making sure you muted or unmute and knowing where those controls are.
Knowing how the chat works so that if you want to chat to the whole group, you chat to the whole group. If you want to chat to an individual, you do it that way. Little things like that make a difference and help us build a stronger community through more productive and powerful Zoom meetings.

Please let me know what else you want to know about Zoom, about digital video and online. I’m here to help and thank you again as always for your kind attention. I look forward to seeing you next time.

VIDEO AID IN THE TIME OF CORONAVIRUS – How Software Providers Are Helping Us Connect & Communicate

Coronavirus has truly changed everything. ​
​We are all in this together.

As online video software provider, Loom said, “Inaction Felt Wrong.” Or, as Chris Cuomo said recently on CNN, “sitting on the sidelines is not an option.”

​In this episode of Video Mojo, I shine a spotlight on three online software companies who are examples of companies who are doing what they can (based on their company’s culture and values), especially in support of educators who are teaching online, using video, for the first time.

About Video Mojo

​Video Mojo is a weekly video blog and podcast hosted by award-winning media innovator, Jon Leland. It combines timeless marketing principles with a playful exploration on the “bleeding edge” of digital video & social media.

Resource Links from this episode:

If you want to check out ConvertKit as an email marketing platform:
https://app.convertkit.com/referrals/l/cb9d89ab-194a-4937-b1c4-7027fd850bf2
(affiliate link) Please let me know if you have questions.

I’d love to hear what works for you and if you find this program useful. If you’ve got questions, feedback or suggestions, please comment below, or let’s connect (and leave us a review on Apple Podcasts or wherever):

VIDEO TRANSCRIPT:

VIDEO AID IN THE TIME OF CORONAVIRUS – How Software Providers Are Helping Us Connect & Communicate

Hi there and welcome to Video Mojo!

My name is Jon Leland and this is a video blog and podcast where we combine timeless marketing principles with the bleeding edge of video communications, social media, and digital marketing.
So we’re living in strange and interesting times. But it is an area where video can make a difference and help to connect us all, as I’ve been talking about week after week; human connections through video. This is an episode about how video software providers and an email software provider are really providing support for people to be able to take advantage of the fact that we’re staying at home and working at home. Many people are really cutting down on all kinds of travel and person-to-person interactions, so we want to make more of these human interactions. And when we make human interactions, it really becomes a matter of empathy, caring and wanting to make a difference. That’s why there’s this beautiful theme here between video connection and people making a difference in making offers.

Today, I want to shine the spotlight on three different software providers that are doing offers to help support people in this time of need.

Loom

The first one is Loom. I have actually become a fan of theirs even more since the video that I did in February where I talked about 4 video tools to help improve video fluency and connection. The folks at Loom have dramatically illustrated how this changed, because of the coronavirus and people working from home, is impacting the amount of video that we’re all using. They posted these charts both from China and from Italy showing how increased use there is where people are being most negatively impacted by the coronavirus.

The first thing that I want to say about Loom is I really love their culture and the fact that they felt in the presentation video on the page where they announced their response to the coronavirus they said “inaction felt wrong.” I really salute that spirit, and I feel the same way. I really think we need to be there more than ever for each other even though we can’t be there in person.

The other thing I want to say about Loom is that when I did a video in February about four tools I talked about Loom and I found that I have become even more of a fan of their platform since then. One key advantage is that when I record Loom videos they’re instantly available on the web. Some of the other platforms require you to upload the video within the application. For example, on Snagit, I have to wait for it to upload. It’s great the way it gets shared quickly, but with Loom it’s instantaneous.

In terms of the coronavirus, they’ve extended the terms of the already free version of Loom. It used to be that there was a limit of 25 videos when you had the free platform, it’s now unlimited through July 1st. And for everyone they’ve made the platform half cost. It was $10 a month for their pro platform, it’s now $5 a month. I recommend checking out Loom in any case because the free platform is quite powerful. And the most important part of their offer is for educators. Anyone in an educational institution a teacher, an administrator, or whatever they can get the Loom platform at the pro level for free forever. Not just the July 1st temporary offer.

Bomb Bomb

The second platform that I want to talk about in terms of a response to doing more video with the coronavirus is Bomb Bomb. They talked about rehumanizing your communications. I think if you’re a teacher and now need to teach online, part of that process is going to be the interactions that you might have done in office. Things that you will do now by email. Bomb Bomb is a very sophisticated application for doing video in email, particularly with Gmail. Normally it’s relatively expensive, starting around $30 a month per user. But for educators, it’s now free and they did not put a time limit on it. So if you think that you would benefit as a teacher delivering your communications as close to face-to-face that you can get. Really making eye contact with your students and doing that by email, this offer from Bomb Bomb is worth checking out.

Now I will put one caveat. I experimented with Bomb Bomb and in addition to the cost, there is a learning curve. It is an application. You could manage an entire class’s email list within the Bomb Bomb application and follow up with each student and have all of that readily available. So that’s something that I think educators might want to check out.

Convertkit

The third thing that I wanted to talk about is Convertkit. Convertkit is an email platform like MailChimp. Though, there are a lot of things that I like about it better. One of the things is their culture and that they specifically designed their platform and market to creators. What Nathan Barry, the CEO, has done is to create a “Creator Fund” and has funded it with $50,000. They’ve already gotten close to $150,000 as of a couple days ago and I’m sure it’s going to go beyond that. They are getting tons of applications but as we all know a lot of people are taking some very serious financial hits because of what’s going on with the coronavirus. So they’re creating a fund for creators who need help with their rent, health expenses, groceries, and those kinds of things.

People do really care. I really applaud these software companies that are doing something about the situation that we’re in. More and more I think we’re going to be learning to be video savvy and connecting via these kinds of video communications.

I look forward to your feedback. Thanks for any input that you can provide, for sharing, for subscribing, and all that good kind of support. I look forward
to seeing you next week!