Today, curating video content is key to reach your potential target audience globally and engage them seamlessly. Video content holds an upper hand over other channels and offers enormous benefits. Right from imparting knowledge to the attendees virtually, video content boosts engagements as well.
Today, webinars and webcasts are utilized by many organizations around the world. With the change in dynamics in 2020, the demand for webinars and webcasts have upscaled. The sudden surge in the demand for webinars and webcasts has been noted in 2020. As the percentage of organizing webinars has skyrocketed several webinar providers and webcast service providers came into existence. The internet is piled up with various players that offer interactive and engaging services. The competition between the webinar providers has been on. Who wins the battle is yet to be witnessed. Selecting the best webinar services depends upon your business needs and requirements.
Whether you are planning to host a webinar or do a webcast, considering several factors is a must to decide. What do you want to communicate? What is the number of attendees attending an event? Who are your potential attendees? And so on. To get the optimal result you need to know what webinars and webcasts are? and when to use it. In this post, we have talked about what webinars and webcasts are, the difference it holds and where they are most effective. This article will be of much help if you are confused between the two. It will help you give an insight into what holds better opportunities and serve your purpose. Time to get started!
What is a Webinar?
A webinar is defined as a replication of a live physical seminar that takes place over the internet. As the name suggests a webinar is an online seminar hosted on a webinar software or platform. It allows attendees to gather over the web irrespective of geographical location instead of gathering at an on-site location. The webinar software enables attendees to have free-flowing conversations with hosts, presenters, speakers, and other attendees via live audio/video/text chats. The software or platform that offers the best webinar services enables the organizer to organize Q&A sessions, games, contests, etc. amid sessions. It helps in boosting engagement thus making your webinar successful. Apart from it, webinars offer other enormous opportunities such as the ability to share your screen, write on the whiteboard virtually, organize polls and surveys, Q&A, and so on. Additionally, webinars can be recorded to access later, shared online, and downloaded.
When you should opt for a webinar?
If you want to meet with your audience virtually and communicate in real-time, hosting a webinar is the right choice.
Webinars are best suited for training new hires, colleagues, online lectures, educating attendees about a particular subject or topic, product demonstrations, and so on. Running a webinar enables the organizer to share the screen with virtual attendees. A screen-share along with the explanations of the subject make your topic more impactful. However, it helps in delivering immersive experiences.
Webinars enable attendees to utilize Q&A tools and live chat capabilities to ask questions throughout the presentation. Attendees can have free-flowing interactions with the presenter and other attendees via live chat tools. Whereas the presenter or host answers the most valuable questions quickly during the webinar.
What is a webcast?
As the name suggests webcast is a web-based broadcast over the internet. Webcasts are closely similar to a TV broadcast that can be live or pre-recorded but takes place over the web. It is a one-way flow of communication that reaches a large segment of attendees at the same time. Unlike webinars, webcasts do not enable attendees to interact in real-time. The host simply webcast the presentation to a large segment of attendees virtually. An endless number of viewers can access the webcast online via any device but can not communicate with the host or presenter.
Selecting a webcast service provider that offers comprehensive webcast services is a must. The service provider must offer a capacity to hold endless viewers to ensure success and make your message tap many. Webcasts are even useful in live streaming of live physical events that enable virtual attendees to access the event remotely. However, it resulted in increasing the reach of traditional in-person events.
When you should opt for a webcast?
If you want to reach a large segment of the audience without requiring them to interact, a webcast is the best solution. When the goal of the broadcast is to reach endless people without requiring them to comment and ask questions, the webcast works well.
Webcasts are best suited for corporate or organization announcements, conferences that are recorded for attendees to access later, panels, etc. Many organizations leveraged webcasts for town hall meetings. Apart from it, webcasts are utilized during music festivals to make it accessible to a larger segment. Many exclusive and expensive in-person events that can not be accessed by all, are webcasted. It enables a wider audience to enjoy the event remotely via any device.
Webcasts vs webinars, which one you should use?
Webcasts and webinars both offer opportunities to organizers to reach millions and enable you to broadcast your event live. The major difference lies between the flow of interaction and engagements. Webcasts offer a one-way flow of communications whereas webinars offer a two-way flow of communication seamlessly.
If you want to host an online event that requires you to have free-flowing interactions with your audiences and have feedback, hosting a webinar is the right choice.
However, if you just want to reach a large segment of the audience online without requiring them to participate in an event, a webcast works well for you. Webcasting your event reaches an ample number of audiences across the globe. Therefore, it enhances brand visibility and increases the reach of the event.
Both webinars and webcasts offer enormous opportunities, select the best one which suits your requirements.
Read Also: 6 Brands Connecting With Their Audience Via Hybrid & Virtual Events