Working remotely? …so are a lot of other professionals. Zoom continues to be one of the most popular applications for video conferencing or webinars. We’ve put this short post together as a guide to assist you in selecting the proper plan for your organization. Does it cost money to use Zoom? It’s actually free to use Zoom as a participant for a video conference or webinar, but Zoom does require you to register for a free account . When would you want to consider a paid Zoom account? If you want to be able to host a meeting or if you’re planning to present a webinar, you should consider a paid plan. If your webinar has other presenters, and one of them has a paid plan, you will be able to use their paid account for the webinar. When would a free plan be sufficient? The free plan should be workable if you only plan to do one to one meetings-just you and one other person. If you want to hold a video meeting with more than one person, you’re currently able to do that with some limitations including a 40-minute time limit. What are the different considerations when selecting a paid plan? What’s the maximum number of people that you anticipate participating at one time? For $14.99 per month, the Zoom Pro plan allows for up to 100 participants. Do you want to be able to record your meetings? This would allow participants to re-watch at a future date and allow you to share with other potentially interested attendees who were not available to participate. Do you want to do webinars? If you want host & schedule your own webinars, then you will definitely want a paid plan. What’s the difference between a Zoom meeting and Zoom webinar? A webinar is the equivalent of a live presentation that you would give with a single presenter or several. In a nutshell, the biggest difference between a meeting & a webinar is the amount of control that you have. Meetings are designed to be collaborative where everyone has the opportunity to be seen & heard (literally). With a webinar, only the panelists (aka designated speakers) have the opportunity to be seen & heard. Participants can still interact, but it’s primarily through Zoom’s “chat” feature. How much does it cost to add webinars to your Zoom account? I found the Zoom pricing page a little confusing regarding this. You have to scroll down quite a bit on their pricing page to see pricing for “Webinars & Events.” Essentially, if you want to offer webinars, it’s considered an “add on” feature starting at $40 per month for up to 100 attendees. This means if you did the “Pro” plan for $14.99 per month plus the webinar “add on” for $40 per month, you’re looking at a plan of $54.99 per month. If you anticipate more than 100 participants, the next step up allows up to 500 participants, but adds $140 per month. Can I downgrade? Yes, if you want to do a few webinars in a given month and then downgrade back to the “Pro” plan without the webinar add on, you’re able to do that. Can I save money and pay annually? If you want to save a bit on your monthly charges, you can pay annually, but if this is a new account for you, we always encourage you to be conservative about which features & how frequently you are actually using your paid Zoom account before you commit to an annual paid account. Why are we posting this information? Zoom’s pricing and features are listed in a relatively transparent way on their website, but it can be quite overwhelming to sift through all of the information presented and extract the most critical information needed before you select an account. We are here to help! Our team is now offering Zoom consulting. Our charges are based on the time needed. We are offering help in the following areas: recommending the appropriate plan schedule and facilitate a test webinar or Zoom meeting schedule the actual webinar and send out invitations via email act as an administrator for webinar or Zoom meeting as needed Please contact us to learn more. Please keep your eyes open for future Zoom posts where we’ll tackle issues like preparing for your first Zoom meeting and whether to ask participants to register in advance. If you’d like to request specific topics, please include in the comments section below. Like what you’re reading? Have you signed up for our weekly enews yet or are you following our blog’s rss feed ? The post Which Zoom Plan is Right for My Organization? appeared first on The Direct Mail Man .![]()
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