People do video chat all of the time on Skype, FaceTime, and Google+ Hangouts for many different reasons. We are assuming that you know how to run a Google+ Hangout in general and are wanting help with something more than calling mom and dad at home or long lost high school friends. Instead, we have some tips on how to pull off a successful hangout for your business, professional networking, or running your own podcast.
- If you want to share your hangout on your blog, use the latest feature that is now available to everyone, On Air. You have to state that you are going to record it as you setup the hangout, not later and then before people join the hangout, they will be asked if they are okay with being recorded. When finished, go to your YouTube page and copy/paste the HTML embedded code onto a blog post.
- Use the Google+ Hangout’s lower-thirds to market Twitter accounts of hangout people or their websites and when they talk, they will have their name displayed like any great interviews and a perfect marketing pitch. If you do share the hangout, offer to post links to all of the social media/websites promoted in the lower third below the video post so that people simply need to click a link to work.
- Make sure everyone is on the same page. Explain the rules before you begin recording.
- People will share resources in the discussion and quote facts. Do not take the time during the post to look up stuff. Either have it prepared or, and I prefer this method, just have a link dump in a blog post and share all the links after the hangout is all done.
- Get good lighting and audio equipment. Do not rely on a single light bulb in the room to be enough nor the microphone built into your laptop. Also, make sure your environment is conducive to a hangout. Make sure it is quiet and distraction free.
- While it is funny to use the hangout kit that Google+ provides you with their entertaining AR clip arts that give you a halo or eye patch and sound effects to goof on each other, save it for a more informal time. In fact, avoid the Google+ Hangout Kit during all On Air hangouts.
- The key to a good hangout is good content. Every thing has to be enticing.
- This is a different medium than writing up a blog post. Your hangout needs to be quick, entertaining, and informative. This means that you do no talk over each other, but also do not allow for any dead time.
- Have fun. If you are not having fun, then why do it?
- Maybe the greatest part of this idea is the ability to engage with your audience. Use your Google+ page to allow people watching you live to comment or ask questions. Then check in every few minutes during the chat while someone else is talking and see if there is any great things to address.
david bartosik says
why the incredible fascination with Google +? am I missing something? 🙂
seventy8Productions says
It is a social network you need to be investing in if you have the ability to!