Stay Connected at Home During COVID-19 With These 4 Video Conference Tools

• Date: 30 March 2020
• reading time: 5 Minutes
• Blogger: Francisca Zimmermann
• E-mail: [email protected]

We live in a crazy time. Due to the coronavirus, most of us live in isolation for a little while. Alone at home, only going out when absolutely necessary.

Although this can be challenging for many, we are lucky to have one big supporter: The Internet! With all the amazing tools we know in 2020, it’s easy to keep productive and stay connected with friends, customers, and colleagues.

Social Media Gids' Online Team

Did you know that working from home is not new to us? Our team is divided all over the world, and we have been communicating online from the very beginning. Without any problems! We communicate regularly on Basecamp, share our documents on Google Drive and plan regular chats on WebinarJam.

We have gained a lot of experiences with online work, but know that this is not the case for everyone. Therefore, we have created a list of our favorite video conference tools. All of these tools are different. One of them lets you pre-record presentations to share with your fans and implement in your sales funnel, two are designed for online meetings with colleagues and clients, and one of them does it all.

1. WebinarJam

Let’s jump right into it, and start with our personal favorite. After testing a few different types of video conference software, WebinarJam turned out to be the most complete and high-quality tool to work wit. In our opinion, of course.

WebinarJam is primarily designed to host live webinars. This means that the possibilities and number of features are enormous. You can host a live webinar for (up to) 5000 people and use the many features the tool has to offer. Let’s take a look at a few:

• You can choose your own webinar layout.
• You can share your screen, a presentation, or a whiteboard.
• You can include pop-ups and call to actions in your webinar.
• You can easily record your presentation to share the recordings with your participants later.
• And this is only a shortlist of all the features.

Don’t be overwhelmed, though. The tool also works perfectly for small groups and simple video chats. We use WebinarJam for all our team meetings, which works perfectly. WebinarJam really does it all.

The tool is available for $499+/year.

2. Everwebinar

While WebinarJam focuses on live webinars and video calls, Everwebinar lets you pre-record your presentation, to automatically re-share them at a later stage. You can easily schedule a webinar, automatically have people sign up, and simulate a live presentation. All fully automated, without any action from your side. And the best thing? Participants won’t be able to tell if they are attending a live presentation or a pre-recorded one.

Of course, this tool won’t help you with your weekly team meeting. However, it is very useful for large companies who have to communicate a message regularly, with new people coming in every time. Also, pre-recorded webinars are ideal to be implemented in a sales funnel.

Everwebinar is available for $199+/year.

3. Google Hangouts

Are you looking for a simple live video conference tool, that has way fewer features but is a bit cheaper than WebinarJam and Everwebinar? Then Google Hangouts could probably be suitable for you.

Hangouts is part of Google’s G Suite package, which offers a list of features for only $5.40/month.

With Hangouts, you can easily host a high-quality video call with up to 25 people. And not only can you use video; the tool also allows participants to join without video or call in from a phone.

So, what is the main difference between WebinarJam and Google Hangouts? This is mainly the number of features. Google Hangouts aims at hosting (video) meetings. This is something WebinarJam can do too, but it’s not its main focus. Both WebinarJam and Everwebinar focus on hosting large webinars and allow businesses to make sales through the platforms. They fit well in a sales funnel and allow for extras like pop-ups, sign up forms, and call to actions. This is something Google Hangouts, unfortunately, won’t do.

Source: https://gsuite.google.com/intl/en_za/products/meet/

4. Zoom

Besides Hangouts, there are many more tools that allow for high-quality online meetings. Another one of our favorites is Zoom.

Zoom is in many ways similar to Google Hangouts. It allows for group meetings with up to 1000 participants and makes it easy to host quick work meetings or longer conference calls.

Compared to Google Hangouts, Zoom is more focused on video calls and offers fewer additional features. For instance, on Google Hangouts, participants can also call it from a phone. Also, they can message with each other while on a call. Both of these features are not available on Zoom.

Conclusion? If you need to choose between Hangouts and Zoom and you have less than 26 participants, we would advise going for Hangouts. Are you working with - or presenting to a larger group? Then Zoom is a good option.

Zoom is available for free, or (for more features) for up to $19,99/month.

Source: https://zoom.us/meetings

Need help?

Are you setting up your workspace at home, but are you unsure which tools to use? Or would you like to start using video presentations and webinars to connect with your leads and grow your customer base? We would love to help you make the most of your video conference tools. Contact us for a FREE strategy call so we can discuss what we can do for you.

Would you like to learn more about social media and marketing? Then our Social Media Gids Community might be worth checking out. Here we share many excellent resources and work together with an inspirational group of business owners, entrepreneurs, and marketers. Our FREE e-books and our Social Marketing class, for instance, are very popular among our community members.

Want to post a comment? Join the conversation in our community.

• Blogger: Francisca Zimmermann
• E-mail: [email protected]
• Social media manager & content creator at Social Media Gids
• Francisca Zimmermann is a social media expert with a background in research and a love for learning new things. She travels the world looking for beautiful places and interesting cultures, while she dives into the world of her clients to be able to write about them and their interests as a real 'insider'.
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