In line with the trend towards more people watching video, webinars are set to become the next biggest thing. Webinars (web conferences) are one of the best ways to reach a large audience without having to travel anywhere. What is great about them it that you can sit in the comfort of your own home or office and check out the latest news or training without having to waste hours traveling in traffic or by air.

The time spent in traveling to and from meetings would have to be one of the biggest productivity wasters for most people and businesses. The trouble is that most businesses think that they have to have meeting rooms specifically set up for a visual teleconference. This is no longer the case. Webinars eliminate the need for this. So not only can you save travel time you can also minimize the costs required in setting up expensive meeting rooms and maintaining the equipment.

The simple truth is that any person or organisation can set up a webinar and communicate news simultaneously to all staff even if they are located in several geographic locations. Imagine the cost savings a business could generate by using technology to hold a webinar instead of having their Chief Executive Officer travel to several office locations and factories to communicate the same information to employees. Imagine how much time he or she would save.

If you are a small business that operates from home the good news is that you don't have to hire meeting venues with teleconferencing facilities to do business with overseas contacts. You can do it all from the comfort of your own home by using third party services.

Information from a webinar can also be leveraged. That simple webinar can be recorded and a link to the webinar can be sent to anyone who missed the event. If the content is valuable or scarce, the information could also be recorded and sold as a product. The key is to become an early mover and start it before it becomes common place.

Webinars can be used to:

Sell products or services Launch products Demonstrate products or services Train staff Provide "how to" information Provide industry relevant information Conduct research Provide free or paid information Educate members of a community Create content for membership sites

There are hundreds of other topics that you can have a webinar on. All you need to do is work out what your audience might like and find useful.

Webinars also allow a level of interactivity with your audience that you may never have captured had you held a physical meeting. Often, people are too embarrassed to speak up or ask questions in front of a large crowd however with a webinar, you can raise your hand during the presentation and type your questions in for the presenter. Other participants need not know who asked the question.

Another thing that is great about webinars is that anyone can hold one. All they need is a laptop, internet connection and a subscription to a webinar service (like GoToWebinar).

The next steps are pretty straight forward:

- Invite your audience,
- Find out what things will interest them,
- Prepare your presentation
- Match your message to your audience
- Create a link for your audience to register
- Promote the webinar
- Practice your presentation
- Run the webinar
- Leverage that content
- Repeat

Carol Poole is a seasoned marketing professional with over 15 years of marketing and business management experience across a variety of industries in some of the world's leading companies.

Her expertise extends across brand management, marketing strategy, new product launches, market research, and project management. Along with her consumer marketing expertise, she is also involved in Internet Marketing and teaches Internet Marketing Strategies that help people to start and develop their own online business and become financially secure.