Google Hangouts are an incredibly easy and customizable video conferencing tool – and that’s why the corporate world is rapidly adopting the technology. But for many advancement teams, Google Hangouts are unfamiliar, and haven’t penetrated when it comes to having video calls with staff, volunteers, or the alumni community at large.
That’s why yesterday, we hosted our webinar “Let’s Hangout! Uses of Google Hangouts in Advancement”.
Together, along with Sam Edelstein of the Syracuse University Alumni Office and Matt Herek of the Northwestern Alumni Association, we explored how educational institutions of all kinds can effectively use Google Hangouts for all their video conferencing needs.
We started with a discussion of trends in Internet-based communication and the challenges faced by advancement offices today. Next, we went through a step-by-step tutorial on how to use Google Hangouts, including all the technical details of setting up and a guide to the most useful apps within Hangouts, like Symphonical, Slideshare, and Google Effects, that help foster collaboration.
Afterwards, we showed off Hangouts on Air, a way to broadcast yourself to anyone in the world using Google Hangouts technology. Then, we spoke with Sam and Matt about their use of Hangouts, reviewed tons of internal and external examples of Google Hangouts in advancement, and talked about how to successfully promote your Hangouts to your constituents.
Thanks to everyone who watched and contributed using the Twitter hashtag #alumhangouts; we got a ton of great questions from the audience that we answered at the end of the presentation. We hope you join us live for our next webinar – until then, check out the recording and let us know what you thought!