Around the world companies of all sizes are realizing the benefits of directly communicating with staff and customers via webcasting, some more successfully than others!

So how do you quantify the success and value of a webcast? For each company it will be different but here are our key markers.

Viewer numbers: Total number of viewers that tuned in, did it meet expectation?

Viewer relevance: More important than numbers did the target audience tune in.

Reach: Geographical locations of viewers, 5 viewers in 5 different continents saves a great deal time and money on travel.

Viewer duration: How long the viewer watched the stream – so the right people watched but crucially were they engaged enough to watch the whole webcast?

The answer lies in what your company wants to achieve from a webcast, deciding this beforehand is crucial to the planning, promoting and format of the event.

We love a list and here’s our top 5 points to consider.

1. Content is king. Keep the viewer in mind, dull presentations can send most of us mere mortals to sleep in seconds, if you don’t engage the viewer then they will switch off.

Put yourself in their position and ask why this audience would be interested, and what can we do to make the whole experience more interactive/relevant?

2. You are putting your company name, brand and credibility out there for all to see and scrutinize so make it as professional as possible.Use at least two cameras (one wide the other close), light the set well, and use a professional sound technician (bad sound, equals no story and no audience)

3. Rehearse and then rehearse again, make sure you have a clear introduction and call to arms ending.

4. Engagement: Keeping your virtual audience engaged is crucial, it’s hard to walk out in the middle of the CEO’s key note session, easy to walk away from a screen. Include interactive features. Allow the viewer a voice with Q & A sessions, chartrooms, voting and polls.

5. Promotion: Viewing figures will be low if people don’t know about your webcast.

Create a targeted awareness campaign around your desired audience before your live stream and put it into action with enough lead time.

Keep people updated as to when the webcast is going live and remember that it is always advisable to stream at multiple bit rates so viewers can watch on any device anywhere.

If you’d like to discuss your latest event, webcasting or project please call Adrian at EventStreaming.TV 01223 855669 or email hello@eventstreaming.tv

www.eventstreaming.tv