Lisa M Cope

Many people have all types of fears when it comes to promoting themselves publicly, are you one of these people? This is especially true when it comes to creating any type of video based product. With the daily increase in popularity of Google+ Hangouts, are you going to allow your fears ruin new forms of exposure for your business?

One of the biggest fears when it comes to creating a video is putting your face ‘out there’. When you do this you have no-one to hide behind. Your face is on camera for all to see.

The next fear or challenge is often part of the creation process of the video itself. You may not be sure how to add your voice to the video or add a music track. Then there is the process of uploading the video to YouTube. This just seems so overwhelming that you put video creation on the back burner.

So how do you get around these fears? Well obviously the best way is to just get out there and do it!
Actually creating a video today has been made easier by Google+ Hangouts. Once you have run your Hangout it gets uploaded to YouTube automatically. All you have to do is add a description and make the link private or public.

Right there the actual creation process has been taken care of. Now you have to deal with the fear of putting your face on camera.

The great thing about using Hangouts on Air is that you can run your Hangout with no guests! This is perfect for the beginner to practice talking to a camera, sharing files from your screen and just getting comfortable with the process.

Why not set up Google+ Hangouts and then hit that Start a Hangout button and enter the room? Remember no-one is going to see you until you hit that start a broadcast button.

After entering the room you can view your control button and checkout some of the great fun features. Did you know that you can add funny hats to your guests?

Just going through the process allows you to become familiar with how a Hangout works. Then simply start your Hangout and start chatting as though you were chatting with your friends.

Even though the video will be uploaded to YouTube, you can simply delete it or make the URL private. This way no-one will see it until you are ready and it’s a great way to look back on how worried you were about running a Hangout.

Have you considered running webinars on a regular basis, but found the cost to be too intimidating? The cost is a huge issue when it comes to wanting to incorporate webinars into your business. On the upside though, many of these platforms do allow you to invite around 500 people and sometimes more to your event.
While this might be great for large companies and established marketers there is another solution for those just starting out. Welcome to Google+ Hangouts on Air.

Hangouts on Air allow you to hold live webinar type events that can be viewed by the public. On the actual live Hangout you can invite up to 9 guests. Each person is depicted in a small window on the lower half of the Hangout. The main speaker is always shown in the main area of the screen. As a new person begins talking the screen will flip to this person. That’s a really neat feature of Hangouts.

In order for people to attend they need to be connected via their own Google+ account. When your invitations are sent, anyone without an account will be directed to sign up for one.

Don’t let the number of invited guests stop you from using Hangouts on Air as your webinar solution. If you plan on running a live webinar simply invite others to view from their account or channel. Having guests is great if you want to add interaction to your webinar or hold a question and answer type of event.

There are many different ways to use Hangouts on Air for your business. Run small webinar events to demonstrate products or to provide your viewers with how to instructions on using your products.

After your Hangout session is uploaded to YouTube you can use this video for many different purposes. You can use your videos to promote your company, to use as a lead generation method or to add to your main website.

For the small business owner who wants to start offering webinars using Google+ Hangouts on Air is a great cost effective solution. It is intimate enough that you won’t feel nervous about hosting a webinar and your invited guests can help provide interaction and feedback.

If you have been sitting on the sidelines about using Google+ and Hangouts then stop wondering and start doing them. YouTube gets a ton of traffic each day and as a smart business owner you definitely want to tap into this.

One good thing about using Google+ Hangouts is that they don’t have any advertising banners attached to them. This allows your guests to directly focus on what you are saying during your Hangout.

What some smart companies have been doing is finding ways that they can still generate some form of advertising revenue from their Hangouts. Have you thought about connecting with sponsors?

Let’s look at an example of this. Say you run a beauty type of website you could run a Hangout that focuses on hair care or styling. Then during the Hangout you use certain brands of products. The manufacturer of this product would be your sponsor.

This could potentially work extremely well for established businesses who have conducted several Hangouts. If you can show your potential sponsor that you can attract a few hundred guests, they will be more willing to jump on board as a sponsor.

What large company wouldn’t jump at the chance of being a featured product in a 10 or 15 minute Hangout Commercial?

If you are just starting with Hangouts then use this idea as a goal which you would like to achieve. As soon as you can attract a good number of guests start offering sponsor time on your website.

The sponsor will also help you advertise your Hangout and bring you both more potential customers. Both parties are using the other to highlight a great media opportunity.

Another way to get advertising for your Hangout is by interviewing high profile people. This could be an athlete, a prominent business person in your community or niche. People love to ask celebrities live questions and if you can find someone to be a guest on your Hangout your views will dramatically increase.
This method has been done by several companies including the New York Times when they invited Olympic athletes to attend their Hangout. Guests were allowed to ask questions and the event attracted a ton of people all over the world.

Use this same scenario to announce a new product or service and publicize it as a Press Release event or conference. Promote this to your local newspapers and TV stations and invite reporters to come on air with you and ask questions.

There are many different ways that you can advertise with Hangouts. You can offer to be a sponsor or you can promote your Hangout as a publicity event.