More secrets of GoToWebinar

A while back I posted The secrets to a great Webinar, in which I covered some of the things you can do to prepare for your webinar to make it more successful.  Today I’m going to show you a couple of built in GoToWebinar features and how to get the most out of them.

Auto redirect Registrants to a URL of your choice.

The process of scheduling a GoToWebinar is pretty straight forward, so I’m going to skip right through to the last option.  This feature allows you to automatically redirect someone that registers for your webinar, to another URL.  The most obvious use of this feature is to direct the registrant to your product page or blog etc, whatever it is you plan to promote.  Some less obvious uses (but potentially more beneficial), are;

• Automatically redirect registrants to a web page containing any special instructions, information they should be aware of prior to the webinar.
• Redirect to your YouTube page (or similar), containing a video greeting letting them know you appreciate their interest and giving a quick highlight of what the stand to gain from actually attending.
• Redirect to a page containing or linking to any relevant pre-reading/watching,  relevant information that will help them understand your webianr content better.
• If you know you are going to have an international audience, provide a page with instructions in multiple languages.

Ultimately you’re only limited by your imagination.

Email Notifications

Once you have scheduled your GoToWebinar you have the ability to edit and make changes as well as personalize the Emails registrants will receive.

• Log into your account, go to My Webinars and select the newly scheduled webinar. 

• In the drop down box opposite Change Session Settings: select Email Notifications

On this page you have the option to Personalize the Confirmation, Reminder, Follow Up and even the Email sent to Registrants that failed to attend.  This gives you 4 more opportunities to  reinforce your message and provide information to your audience.

Of course as the old saying goes “Less is more”, so don’t go overboard as the result may be the opposite of what you desired.

Playing Video through GoToMeeting® with HDFaces™

Update 4/8/13: With the addition of HDFaces to GoToWebinar 100 plans and GoToTraining, you can now use this method to play videos in your webinars and trainings. 

This excellent guide to streaming video via GoToMeeting with HD Faces comes courtesy of one of our great trainers @ChrisHCitrix  Thanks Chris!

Requirements:

- GoToMeeting account

- ManyCam software (free download: http://download.manycam.com/)

- Video files (supported formats vary by OS)

Once you have downloaded and installed the ManyCam software on your computer, open ManyCam. The first thing we want to do to ensure that the entire video is played back properly is to click on the Effects tab, and then the Text over video option in the left-side menu. Now uncheck the option Show ManyCam.com Logo.

Now, select the Sources tab, and select Movies from the left-side menu and then Open new file(s) under the Recent Files section.

Choose Open file(s) from the drop-down, and then select your video file.

Once you have selected your file, it will automatically start playing – you can stop the video, and disable looping using the controls under the video preview.

Now, open GoToMeeting (use the MeetNow feature for testing) and expand the Webcam section of the GoToMeeting control panel, clicking the Webcams button, and then selecting Preferences.

Ensure that ManyCam Virtual Webcam is selected in the drop-down menu. You will be able to switch your input method directly through ManyCam, to make for easy switching between your webcam and a video file. Once you have made / verified this change, click OK to close the Preferences window. If your video has sound, please follow the steps below: Back in the ManyCam window, you will want to un-mute the video (if there is sound in the video).

Adjust the volume as needed. If your computer has a Stereo Mixer Device built into your sound card, you should be able to play the video and have the audio captured by GoToMeeting. If you do not have this (most common PCs do NOT have a Stereo Mixer), you will have a few options to get the audio from your PC into the audio conference portion of your GoToMeeting session. – If using the GoToMeeting Integrated Audio service (recommended, in Mic & Speakers/VoIP mode, using a standard analog microphone), you can use a 3.5mm stereo patch cable (available at most stores, along with a dual-device adapter) to create a shunt between your headphone and microphone jacks on your PC. One thing to note: this will also play any system sounds from your PC into the meeting session too, so you may want to close Outlook, Instant Messengers, etc.

If using a 3rd party conference bridge (such as HiDef Conferencing™ from Citrix Online), you can use a 2-way telephone patch device, such as the TMP-636S from DynaMetric.

New version of GoToMeeting, GoToWebinar, GoToTraining for everyone.

If you’re a GoToMeeting, GoToWebinar or GoToTraining customer you should have received an Email letting you know about a mandatory update that is being deployed to all customers.  The reason for making the update mandatory is to ensure a consistent experience for all users and to allow for some exciting improvements that are in the pipeline.

Once your account is set to receive the update the process itself is painless and automatic,  the new software will download and install when you Host or Attend your next meeting, webinar or training.

What You Should Know about the Upgraded Version

• Mac users will now have dual monitor support.
• If you are using our integrated audio service (phone or VoIP), the call will now end immediately when the organizer ends the meeting, webinar or training. Participants will be disconnected with a message that the organizer has ended the call. This will help those using Integrated Toll-Free audio to have better control over their audio costs.
• The upgrade will not affect any of your scheduled online meetings, webinars or trainings. Your meeting IDs, access codes and URLs will remain the same.
• Attendees on an iPad® will be required to download a new version of the GoToMeeting App for iPad in the App Store, to attend your meetings after May 3, 2011.
• Some users with software firewalls will need to give permission to the GoToMeeting program to operate. For more information, visit: http://www.citrixonline.com/s/firewalls

If you still have questions here are the FAQs