Have a web camera and an Internet connection? Then you’re ready to start broadcasting your school. To get started you need a minimum amount of technology and a good general topic to be the theme of your online show / webcast / webinar.
Piece of cake, right? 😉
But why for free? As mentioned before, offering free information builds two very important things: trust and authority. A vocational school needs both to survive and be successful. Once of the keys to these is that you offer it ONLY to people who have already inquired to your school – they are “part of the inside crowd” that way. This is an exclusive event, more important and “cool” than automated email courses.
First, sign up with a service like ustream.tv and practice a few broadcasts for quality with your connection. Don’t publicize any of these, just get some friends or staff on computers off campus to view your channel and text the live chat features.
The live chat feature is quite nice because it allows anyone viewing to interact. Whomever is operating the computer and camera that is broadcasting the seminar can act as a seminar moderator, so that anyone who is watching online can write their questions in the chat, then you can relay them to the people giving the seminar. It’s not perfectly interactive, but it works pretty well.
Important aspects that can help:
- Make sure you have a good sized audience in the room. It will help keep the seminar moving. You want to open this up locally for people to attend in person, as well as online for people who live to far away to attend.
- Spend some resources on getting good “names” for the webcasts. Celebrity, credits, and authority will help with getting more viewers.
- Rent some lavaliere microphones so that the sound quality is good.
- Record the seminar so it can be archived for later viewing (most services include this feature).
