Tuesday, January 8, 2013

Webinars - Better Mute The Background Noise Or Ditch The Teleconference

By Lance Winslow
Today, I was on a teleconference, yes, it was a real ass-flatener, almost an hour - but it did have a website interactive follow along motif, which was nice. In fact, I learned a lot about something I've been working on and had some thoughts of my own. Although questions were limited I did get a bang for my buck and later in the day followed up with the tele-master by email. Okay so, let me tell you of one of my pet peeves - nonsensical background noise which totally ruins the program.
Apparently, the tele-guru in this industry sector didn't have a "mute" feature or didn't know how to work it, or perhaps wanted to leave the line open for bizarre and disruptive questions, but for whatever reason it all but ruined his presentation. The teleseminar host did tell everyone several times at the beginning to make sure their phone was "muted" but I guess people don't understand how to do that, or didn't bother to care.
Word of advice to teleseminar folks:
Don't rely on the participants to do the muting, you must have a muting feature. Otherwise you will get background sounds such as; car noise, drive-through orders, dogs barking, the "eTrade Baby Trading" commercials on TV, or teenage kids asking for $10 to go to Starbucks.
One of the worst things is when people put their phones on hold and you get the music, or when they have an incoming call with some ridiculous ring, and sometimes some will press buttons to dump the call, but either way all that noise shines through - oh that's just wonderful I say.
In today's multi-tasking world, people are doing other things; blow drying their hair, shaving, driving, watching CNBC, creating a smoothie in the kitchen, picking up dog poop, or letting the maids in - none of that stuff belongs in your seminar, just as it doesn't belong in the theatre and we all know that folks just don't seem to get it when watching a movie, as we see lights glow as they text or watch viral videos while they are in a movie they actually paid to see.
Some might say this is human stupidity, for that I do not disagree, but still that doesn't mean your teleseminar should be disrupted by the ignorant, and if you let them, they will, and if so, who is the ignorant one in that case? Well, I hope you will please consider all this and think on it.
Lance Winslow has launched a new provocative series of eBooks on Future Concepts. Lance Winslow is a retired Founder of a Nationwide Franchise Chain, and now runs the Online Think Tank; http://www.worldthinktank.net

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