Last year Combin team set itself a lofty goal — to become not only a trustworthy provider of a great piece of software, but also to stay transparent and open to our community as much as possible. We aimed ourselves for finding a fantastic way to demo the product, show off new features, offer tips, tricks, or best practices, and perhaps most powerfully: to introduce ourselves — our actual selves — to the audience. And we found the key — live webinars!
We found the whole process to be fun, interesting and rewarding — so we wanted to share some experience we learned along the way. Here’s the story of how we got off the ground!
At the beginning there was only one thing we were sure of — well-done webinars are like well-taught classes — they have a teacher who has passion for the subject matter, dares to be different and unique, kindles student’s interest, and leaves them wanting to come back.
That is why the first issue for us was to find that teacher, a webinar host, who knows the topic inside and out, and is comfortable talking on-camera.
We realized we needed someone from Combin to be a host. Fortunately, Ann, member of our marketing team, kindly offered to help and stood for office. By the way, we are really happy she did so because she did and is still doing a great job!
Webinar #1 — Combin: The Secret to Safe and Easy Instagram Promotion
It wasn’t a big challenge for us to pick a topic for our first online meeting. One more time we wanted to remind our users on how to grow Instagram following safely and effectively using Combin and speak about main Combin’s features in particular. Due to live streaming, attendees would be able not only listen, but see the app in action!
We decided to adhere to a straightforward introduction-presentation-Q&A session structure for the first webinar. Ann would introduce the webinar, introduce herself and then start her presentation. At the end, Ann would answer attendees’ questions.
Of course we were a little bit worried before our first going live. But in vain! Throughout the event there was warm and homely atmosphere. People joined us live from every corner of the world — Brazil, Spain, England, Switzerland, Austria, Russia, United States of America — and all of them seemed to be enjoying the content and encouraged Combin team for such a nice idea of webinars.
After the webinar Ann received such an inspiring feedback and so many ThankYou e-mails, that we made up our minds to go live with the same content again, as we thought that lots of users might have missed the webinar for some reason.
During that second webinar, Ann used a web-camera so that attendees could see the real person behind Combin brand. Of course, it contributed much to creating friendly, engaging atmosphere throughout all of event.
Webinar #2 — Combin: Q&A live session
After both of the previous webinars we held short Q&A sessions, where participants could ask any question about Combin, presentation itself or submit some new ideas and recommendations for implementing. Q&A’s seemed to be in such high demand that we came to decision to give our audience a full voice. We organized a separate Q&A session dedicated solely and exclusively to answering users’ questions about the app.
Apart from Ann, our customary webinar host, we invited one of Combin senior software development engineers — Ted — to participate in live meeting. Together they had a robust discussion, where everybody could chat, vocalize opinions, ask questions, share hacks and more.
The session lasted for almost an hour and was finished only when all the ideas and recommendations were heard and all of the problems and issues were solved. Ted admitted that such an experience of speaking to the audience live and hearing all the nice feedback you supplied us with inspires the developers much for greater job in future.
Webinar #3 — Combin: 8 Simple Steps to an Effective Hashtag Strategy
Next webinar took place in a fortnight’s time. The topic turned out to be so interesting that the registration rate for this event broke the record of all the previous ones!
Showing up to the webinar was a right thing to do for those who truly wanted to become a hashtag guru: drawing on a real-world example, Ann showed to the attendees how and where to look for right hashtags that work amazingly for each particular account. The audience as always was liveable and outgoing and during Q&A they shared some tips, strategies and even own Instagram accounts in the chat in order to keep in touch.
Webinar #4 — Tips, Tricks and Hacks for Faster Instagram Promotion with Combin
Further live workshop wasn’t long in coming and turned out to be the most comprehensive, strategy-packed and actionable free training Combin team has ever offered.
Only on this webinar Ann shared exact tips and best practices that were meant to make a way of every Combin user to Instagram success easier and more simple. The attendees got excited to learn all these useful things Ann was telling them about and were asking to give more and more. And we promise we will!
In regards to meeting our initial goals, we have some smash success that we are happy with. But that doesn’t mean we are going to stop working on improving our live workshops. We want to do our best for you, and achieving the best results takes a lot of time, planning and preparation.
By now we’ve hosted 5 live webinars and that’s just the beginning! If you for some reason failed to come to some of our live meetings mentioned in the article, you’re always welcome to watch the replay. All the recordings are available for watching on Combin official YouTube channel.
Link to Combin YouTube Channel — Subscribe Now!
Good webinars are a little like independent movies — they leave you feeling splendid, animated, and ready to take over the world. Combin team hopes that our webinars produce the same impression on you.