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Ranked # in Web Conferencing Software |
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BEST FOR:
RECOMMENDED FOR:
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 Description:GoToMeeting and GoToWebinar are two services that provide a cost-efficient way for companies to hold web conferences. GoToMeeting is best for smaller online gatherings and can be started on a moment's notice. GoToWebinar is designed for much larger groups and can handle up to1,000 people at a time. The latter also has advanced reporting features and the ability to poll participants. |
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Easy For Beginners But With Lots of Professional Features |
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April 17, 2012
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Submitted By: Gihan Perera Company Size: $0 - $1 Million in revenues |
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| I've been using GoToWebinar for about three years, and I run 10-12 webinars a month, so I get a lot of value from it. I like GoToWebinar because it’s easy to use for beginners, but also includes many advanced features for experienced presenters. I like these five features in particular (which some other webinar platforms don’t provide): 1. Screen sharing: I can show the audience anything on my screen, not just my PowerPoint slides. That means I can show them my Web browser, Excel spreadsheets, Word documents, PDF files, and more. 2. Audience microphones: Participants with microphones can speak out loud during Q&A sessions and discussion time. This is far more personal and engaging than just typing questions into a box. 3. Automatic e-mail reminders: GoToWebinar sends automatic reminders to participants a week, a day and an hour before the webinar. This will save you a lot of time, especially when you run a lot of webinars. 4. Webinar series: You can run a series of webinars for the same group. People subscribe once, and then you can run as many webinars as you like for them. This is perfect for marketing purposes. 5. Time zone calculation: When an attendee registers, they can see the time in their own time zone, and GoToWebinar sends its e-mail reminders using that time zone. This saves a lot of administration time for you and confusion for your attendees. The biggest obstacle to GoToWebinar is its price. You can join for a free 30-day trial, but after that the lowest plan is $100 a month. Many people balk at this price, and choose another webinar platform instead. However, because you can run as many webinars as you like in a month, if you’re serious about webinars, $100 is cheap for what you’re getting. Compare that with the cost of hiring even a small training venue a few times a month, and you’ll see that it’s a small price to pay. GoToWebinar has a tiered pricing structure, with the $100/month plan allowing you up to 100 participants. That should be plenty for a while, unless you know you have a very big database of people who are keen to attend your webinars. But for most of us, it takes time for your list to grow, so the lowest plan is more than enough. GoToWebinar also has a younger brother, GoToMeeting, which is a cut-down version of GoToWebinar. It’s much cheaper, but has a much smaller limit on the number of participants, and doesn’t have some of the webinar features you will use later (such as audience polls and registration pages). In any case, for your first webinar (and perhaps your first two), you’ll be able to use the 30-day free trial, so you might as well use all the features of GoToWebinar. One other drawback of GoToWebinar is that some of the features aren’t available on a Mac, because of limitations in the Mac operating system. For example, at the time of writing it isn’t possible to record your webinar on a Mac. But keep in mind that there are usually workarounds for these Mac limitations (for example, running the webinar on a PC, logging in on a separate PC just to do the recording, or asking a PC user to record the webinar for you). |
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A Quick And Easy Application |
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April 13, 2012
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Submitted By: Virginia Flores Company Size: $0 - $1 Million in revenues |
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| The setup process is quick and easy. The Java applet takes minutes to install. I have never had to call customer support and never needed training. The application is extremely stable and responsive, even with a large number of users. I use the application mainly for meetings, real-time collaboration of documents and in a pinch, desktop support. | |
GoToMeeting Is A GoToProduct |
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April 13, 2012
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Submitted By: Christina MacLeod Company Size: $50 Million - $150 Million in revenues |
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| The customer service has been extremely helpful and much more responsive than our old WebEx account. Setup is easy and all our clients are able to view and take control during meetings. I especially like the ability to load it on my iPhone and iPad for meetings on the go since this is 2012. | |
GoToWebinar: The Webinar Tool My TA Most Familiar With |
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April 12, 2012
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Submitted By: Christine Cobb Company Size: $0 - $1 Million in revenues |
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| The learning curve on actually putting on a webinar is pretty steep. It's not that it is hard, but there is not an easy step-by-step checklist. There are extensive tutorials but you have to search them out. Customer support is OK but not rockets, especially if you have audio problems on a webinar. Setting up a webinar (registration, waiting room graphic, emails, etc.) takes a lot of time but you can copy one webinar's settings to another as long as it is not too old. I use the recording on 99% of my webinars but it creates a huge file and sometimes there are glitches. I've tested a couple of other services but I keep coming back to GTW. I like that most of my target audience is familiar with how it works and the registration process. | |
GoToMeeting: Easy To Use |
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March 16, 2012
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Submitted By: John Krochune Company Size: $50 Million - $150 Million in revenues |
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| GoToMeeting may have its issues but every time I have used it, it has met my expectations. I have been able to present to a large number of people in many different locations and haven't had problems. | |
