Cutting travel expenses, saving time and energy, as well as shrinking carbon footprint are very convincing arguments for choosing online collaboration. We’ve decided to prepare HOT discounts inspired by National Earth Day.

Thinking “green” pays off more than you think

Our commitment to help businesses be better corporate citizens of the world makes us proud and we would like to embrace the eco-friendly consciousness with all of you and make you aware of constant advantages that come with thinking “green” from business point of view.

As a ClickMeeting user, you’re doing your part by reducing your CO2 emission and making your company a more responsible steward of the earth’s resources.

You can save up to 50%. Simply buy an account or upgrade your free account.

The feature-rich ClickMeeting and ClickWebinar packages include everything you need for successful online meetings.

The special pricing lasts until the end of April so make sure you take advantage of it before it expires.

Inspired by this year’s National Earth Day, we decided to prepare a comparison between online meetings and business trips.

As we all know, travelling can be quite expensive and very time-consuming, let alone eco-unfriendly. We focused on 3 key factors that in our opinion should be well-thought-through when planning a meeting: Time, Cost, Eco-Impact.

The figures presented are based on a real example of a client meeting and current pricing with the most popular and cheapest transport providers and hotels. The research gave us interesting results.

We are curious what you will think of it.

Earth Day on the National Mall in Washington, DC will be the centerpiece of Earth Day in the United States. Thousands of environmentally-conscious people from all over the country will join together with civic leaders and celebrities for this special event to galvanize the environmental movement.

Participants on the National Mall will stand in solidarity with the millions of people rallying at Earth Day events around the globe, to Mobilize the Earth and build a sustainable future.

Join the movement

Today’s consumers expect companies of every size to be responsible global citizens.

As a ClickMeeting user, you’re doing your part by reducing your carbon footprint and making your company a more responsible steward of the earth’s resources.

Imagine the impact of a worldwide reduction in business travel!

✔With reduced air travel, fossil fuels would be conserved and airport traffic would be more manageable.

✔Less driving would lower pollution from carbon emissions and save wear and tear on vehicles (and people.)

✔Using electronic documents would reduce the use of paper and save oxygen-producing trees.

Our commitment 

ClickMeeting is committed to helping businesses be better corporate citizens of the world.

Join us in supporting this exceptional cause. You too can make a difference. Stay tuned for more details regarding Earth Day celebrations.

Without a shadow of a doubt, the most valuable assets within every organization are their employees. Careful selection of suitable personnel is the key, not only to the quality of job performance, but also to enormous cost savings in the long run. Today, online recruiting is the best way to reach a wide variety of potential candidates.

Recruiting online, including initiating first contact, is easy, via posting an ad on the company website or reaching out to candidates via social media.

Often, the goal is to set up a telephone interview.

Isn’t a telephone interview impersonal? And what about first impressions? Face-to-face contact?

Yes, telephone interviews can be impersonal. It doesn’t have to be like that anymore…

A fast-growing trend in recruitment 

Today, let’s focus on the second stage of an online recruitment process —  interviewing the candidate remotely.

If we recruit candidates from around the world, we encounter logistic issues.

In a situation there a potential employee is based halfway round the world and unable to meet us in person, telephone interviews and email contact are the usual tools for assessing their skills and competence.

Personally, I find these methods quite “impersonal,” as they are restrictive and can mislead the recruiter when making a final decision.

With the easy accessibility and a variety of features and online meeting tools, organizing an interview using ClickMeeting is an ideal solution.

It’s just a matter of getting used to the idea.

Check equipment and settings

Adjusting the equipment such as microphone and the camera are the first things to be done.

Correct microphone volume adjustment is an important factor that contributes to the quality of the meeting and has a major impact on how both sides come across. Screaming or whispering might be wrongly perceived as being too loud, too shy — you name it.

Your appearance counts

Both parties should remember that an online interview is the real deal, and the same rules apply as for an in-person interview. 

It is crucial that appearance be immaculate, that proper dress code is applied, and that body language is controlled during the meeting.

Make sure the background stays neutral or is branded with company logos.

I recently heard about a case in which an interviewer conducted meetings from his bedroom wearing his PJ’s. As easy and comfortable as it may sound, it certainly does not build a professional image and can be off-putting for a potential candidate too.

Practice, practice, practice

Allow yourself to take time for preparation. Practice your tone of voice. Work on articulation, select appropriate body language, and make sure your gestures are not over the top.

All of the above need to be done beforehand, so you don’t spend half your interview checking yourself out in the camera window, fixing your hair, or doing all sorts of different facial expressions, just because you are not happy with the way things look on the camera.

If it helps, try to think outside the box; for instance, I tend to imagine I am a host of my own TV show, which helps me in the presentation. It always works great.

Share your experiences

I am very curious about whether you have tried online interviewing. What works for you? What do you struggle with? I’d love to hear your feedback.

Best, Dom

Some time ago, I wrote about webinars and how to organize and promote them. Together with the ClickMeeting Team, we’ve decided to look at the webinars our Customers organize and see how they’ve been doing. We’ve even created a (really nice) infographic to show you the results.

Multi-purpose format

Webinars are really becoming popular – both as a marketing-and-sales tool and as an educational aid.

We’ve taken a closer look at how our Customers have been using them during the past six months.  And the results were very interesting – like the fact that there have been webinars with participants from 54 countries!

Preferences and best practices

We’ve seen what the most popular times and days of the week are and how long an average webinar lasts (65 minutes).

We’ve consolidated the results, together with a few useful tips on webinar presentations, and organized a neat infographic. Hope you like it, because we sure do! Feel free to share it around!

What’s your webinars strategy?

We’re curious – is any of the data included relevant to your webinar experience? What do your webinars look like? Tell us!

With ClickMeeting you’ve always been able to join an online meeting or webinar from anywhere. But you had to be in front of a computer. Well, now it’s enough if you have a tablet with you. With the ClickMeeting mobile apps you can really meet from anywhere – and regardless of the operating system!

Now this is big news (I probably say it every time) but we’ve just launched our mobile apps for iOS, Android and BlackBerry – best-suited for tablet devices (running online meetings on smartphones is not really practical, simply because a smartphone screen doesn’t provide enough space.) So now even if you’re on a train or at an airport and are running late for a webinar, you can tune in on your iPad, Galaxy Tab or BlackBerry PlayBook

What exactly can you do via your mobile app?

• Schedule meetings
• Invite participants
• Join a meeting as a participant or a presenter
• Stream audio and video
• Use the whiteboard and presentations
• Chat with other participants
• Share images and videos
• Create a new ClickMeeting account

The benefits of the app?

Today, these are pretty obvious.

But when the British pictured this in 1969:

the idea of taking part in a video conference on the go had not even crossed their minds. In the mobile world of today, you get even more mobility with ClickMeeting – being able to meet while commuting or traveling and even when your taxi is stuck in a traffic jam.

What can’t you do with the app?

Participants have all the same functionality. If you are a presenter, you’ll see some of the features are unavailable in the mobile app – like screen sharing, polls, web browser and recording. But I’m sure you’ll still find it really useful.

Where to get it?

Simply click one of the links below and download the app on your mobile device.

And after you’ve downloaded and tested the app, give us your feedback!

Okay, I admit we lacked this useful feature, and I know you thought so, too. Fortunately, this is no longer the case. Today we present the brand new Reminders feature for your meetings and webinars. Your attendees will never forget about your webinar again!

Registration is only half the battle

It’s a common problem – hundreds of people register for your webinar, but only a small part of them show up on the day of the event. For some people, something else will come up, getting in the way of attending the webinar, while a large number will simply forget about the event.

The best way to prevent people from forgetting is to send them a Reminder on the day of the webinar, shortly before it starts, e.g. two hours beforehand, (so those who have indeed forgotten still have time to find a quiet place to take part in the event or change their plans.)

Build anticipation for your meeting

You can now create Reminders easily in ClickMeeting and ClickWebinar.

In your meeting details you’ll see an additional entry called (surprise surprise!) “Reminders.” All you do is set the date and time of the Reminder. You can add up to three Reminders for a meeting (e.g. you can remind about it a week before, two days before, and two hours before the webinar).

Reminders will be sent automatically to all the attendees of the event. If Registration is enabled, only registered attendees will receive a reminder. If Manual Confirmation is enabled, only those who confirmed will receive the reminder.

And there’s more

In addition to the above, each participant can set a Reminder at a date specified by them on the page where they confirm their invitation to a webinar. This means they can choose to receive a reminder exactly when they want to, so they make sure they don’t forget to take part. Isn’t that smart?

Proven attendance booster

That’s more or less it. And even if this seems like a small feature, it’s a really powerful way to boost the attendance rate of your events.

So, next time you invite people to your meeting or webinar, set up some reminders. And don’t forget to let us know how it works for you!

Once again, we’ve received an award! For February 2012, ClickMeeting has been named as one of the 25 best SaaS (Software as a Service) providers.

The SaaS Directory just published its monthly ranking of the 25 most popular SaaS services. For the month of February, we made it to 17th place among other websites providing Software as a Service model. Among them you’ll find CRMs, project management software, shopping carts and much more. Click here for the full ranking.

We’re the only online meeting and webinar software that made it into the ranking this time. It’s worth mentioning that the ranking is based on the number of profile views in the directory that each provider receives.

Thank you for your interest in what we have to offer. We couldn’t be happier that we’re once again considered one of the TOP services out there.

And we promise to continue striving for more!

We’re halfway through CeBIT and we’re very impressed with what’s going on at the event. Here are a few impressions from the ClickMeeting Team, busy as ever in Hannover, Germany.

CeBIT started on Tuesday, but the Team arrived on Monday to set up the stand together with GetResponse, the other Implix flagship brand.

It took some time and effort of the Team and the booth was ready for the first visitors.

And they started coming on Tuesday morning, keeping our Team busy ever since. And we’re loving it!

CeBIT is a real treat for the digital marketet or, in fact, anyone interested in the latest technology and new media. There are a lot of companies showcasing their products, including giants such as Google.

This is what Agnieszka Wilinska, ClickMeeting Brand Manager, says about CeBIT:

Being at CeBIT feels like being in the worldwide capital of business. If you are thinking about the future of your business seriously you have to be here. CeBIT is the place where partnership and business opportunities meet all together.

And to us this seems a perfect recommendation.

CeBIT continues until Saturday, so if you’re there, do visit us – we’re at stand J38/1. Let’s meet and have a chat about online meetings and webinars for your business!

Don’t forget to visit our Facebook profile where you’ll find more photos from the event.

Hope to see you soon!

We’re going to Germany for five days all about technology. The legendary CeBit in Hannover is the digital industry’s biggest international event and it’s on next week. The ClickMeeting Team will be there at our very own tradeshow booth – and we invite you to stop by for a visit!

CeBIT 2012 takes place from 6 to 10 March, this time in Hannover, Germany – five days full of exhibitions, conferences, keynotes, corporate events and lounges. It’s the world’s largest trade show showcasing digital IT and telecommunications solutions for home and work environments.

The key target groups are users from manufacturing, wholesale/retail, skilled trades, banks, services sector, government agencies, science, and individual users who are passionate about technology.

Each day, the conference will have a different theme, based on the main theme, which is “an unforgettable tour of the digital world.” The daily themes are: All things Smart, Flying the Cloud, Connect your Lifestyle, and Social Business.

You’ll find us at booth J38/1 where we’ll have all the news about our products, online meetings and webinars – so we’re really looking forward to meeting you in person if you happen to be there!

You can find out more about the conference by clicking on the registration page.

See you at CeBIT!