Franklin Covey Co. Releases New eBook: The
Webinar Manifesto: Never Design, Deliver, or Sell Lousy Webinars Again!
– Authors Offer 7 Principles for Creating Best-in-Class Webinars
Franklin
Covey Offers Free Download of The Webinar Manifesto on October 22-23,
2012
In The Webinar Manifesto,
which premiered at #3 in all Internet books on Amazon.com’s list, the authors
declare war on bad webinars, mundane talking head PowerPoint presentations,
working in silos and doing things the way they have always been done in webinar
creation. They invite readers to join their revolution by applying their 7
Webinar Manifesto Principles for creating best-in-class
webinars.
Guillaume Privat, Director, Adobe
Connect, said, “Whether you are running webinars for sales, marketing, or
e-learning, your ability to create rich and engaging experiences for your
audience directly impacts the ROI of your event. The Webinar Manifesto
provides a set of principles and tools that will help you transform flat
and boring webinars into rich and engaging experiences.”
“The Webinar Manifesto
is for anyone who uses webinars to present, teach, inform or engage employees,
customers or vendors. It’s especially written with HR professionals, trainers,
instructional designers, marketers, and sales people in mind,” said Murdoch.
“It’s for those who want to transform their webinar design and delivery. We’ve
all tolerated boring and wasteful webinars for many years. Of course, we’ve
made some real advances. But we still have a long way to go.”
Muller said, “Webinars can’t
continue to evolve incrementally. We want to help readers of The Webinar
Manifesto to speed up the evolutionary process, whether it’s in the
virtual classroom, on a webcast, or in an online conference. We offer proven
principles and tools to help readers captivate audiences with webinars which
are beautifully designed, push the limits of technology, are eloquently
delivered and create the best experiences possible for their audience.”
In The Webinar Manifesto,
the authors outline 7 Webinar Manifesto Principles for creating
best-in-class webinars focused on next-generation design and delivery:
Principle 1 – Connect or Die: Survive the constant evolution of
webinar platforms, influx of new studies and information, and best practices by
tapping into the online network of relevant thought leaders and communities.
Principle 2 – Don’t Default: Be aware of everything your
platform will do, attempt and assimilate new ideas, discard those that are
irrelevant, and keep a manual with best practices for engaging your learners.
Principle 3 – Shut Down the Ugly: Shut down the creation of
webinars which are ugly or boring to encourage engagement and behavioral
change. Keep four key touch points in mind:
- Marketing Communication – To market your webinar, use
the right communication channel to invite the right audience with
creatively designed invitations that feature simple messages and beautiful
graphics.
- Presentations – Keep visuals simple, refrain
from regurgitation, use creative approaches on slides, and cater to the
culture and generations to whom you are presenting.
- Handouts – Handouts should be beautifully
designed, have a purpose, be relevant, and properly messaged.
- Webinar Experience – Break up content into chunks
with segments to engage and keep learners focused.
Principle 4 – Captivate or
Alienate: To
captivate a virtual audience, apply the following guidelines:
- Verbal Accountability – Give participants opportunities
to contribute.
- Visual Accountability – Provide a visual content
roadmap, use storytelling, and vivid images instead of text.
- Kinesthetic Accountability – Use platform tools to involve
participants, provide downloadable materials, opportunities to engage,
breaks to work offline, and utilize accountability measures.
Principle 5 – Humanize the Screen: Create a face-to-face virtual
experience by mastering four humanizing skills:
- Skill One – Look at Me: Create a persona that is human
and engaging.
- Skill Two – Talk to Me: Converse naturally, as if
talking to a friend face-to-face.
- Skill Three – Listen to Me: Listen and speak variably to
encourage dialogue and discourse.
- Skill Four – Let Me Think: Allow time for participants to
think, process and reply.
Principle 6 – Crack the Feedback
Code:
Don’t just rely on visible feedback, such as forms and Q&A. Learn and
decipher four invisible feedback codes:
- Invisible Code #1: Poor Attendance – To
encourage maximum attendance, use the right invitations, sent to the right
audience, with the right value proposition at the right time and at the
right price.
- Invisible Code #2: Dropoff – Avoid dropoff
rates by applying Principles 1-5 in the book. Once attendees are logged
in, it’s too late to design a better experience.
- Invisible Code #3: Silence – Silence may
occur because of technical issues, prior experiences with talking heads,
feeling too uncomfortable to contribute, the presenter lectures, there is
no opportunity given to comment.
- Invisible Code #4: Poor Feedback or No Feedback
Scores – Feedback from attendees should be gathered before they log
off, with follow up via e-mail, phone or questionnaire. Clarify with
attendees why there is a lack of feedback submitted (e.g. confusing, complicated,
takes too long or confusing and too time-consuming.)
Principle 7 – Cage the Monsters: Content, technology and delivery
are the three biggest monsters that can destroy a webinar:
- Content Monster: Content overload (too much
content in one webinar), content block (subject matter expert doesn’t keep
to time deadlines), and content stink (boring).
- Technology Monster: Disruptions because of
technology issues.
- Delivery Monster: An unprepared or unskilled
presenter.
“Webinars are the fastest-growing
form of corporate learning event, yet they are often too boring, too long, and
invite multi- or even triple-tasking. The Webinar Manifesto is an
important and brave look at redesigning and refocusing our online connected
learning time,” said Elliott Masie, Chair, The Learning CONSORTIUM.
The Webinar Manifesto authors, Murdoch and Muller, also
co-authored The Learning Explosion: 9 Rules
to Ignite Your Virtual Classrooms, published by Franklin Covey,
which serves as a resource and guide for training professionals charged with
the task of introducing virtual learning into their corporate environment,
specifically through the use of virtual classrooms.
The authors are available for
consulting, as well as speeches and keynotes on any number of topics related to
online learning and training and are listed on the Franklin Covey Speakers
Bureau at www.franklincoveyspeakersbureau.com.
About Franklin Covey
Franklin Covey
Co.
(NYSE: FC) is a global company specializing in performance improvement. We help
organizations achieve results that require a change in human behavior. Our
expertise is in seven areas: leadership, execution, productivity, trust, sales
performance, customer loyalty and education. Franklin Covey clients have
included 90 percent of the Fortune 100, more than 75 percent of the Fortune
500, thousands of small- and mid-sized businesses, as well as numerous
government entities and educational institutions. Franklin Covey has more than
40 direct and licensee offices providing professional services in over 140
countries. For more information, visit www.franklincovey.com.
