Media training 101 for small businesses

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Great news: you just scored a big press interview to promote your business. The story will expose your brand to the perfect new audience and drive meaningful traffic to your website. So…don't blow it. Yes, just as quickly as the excitement for the opportunity arrived, the realization that you now have to do an interview sets in. I get it—press interviews can absolutely be intimidating. The resulting coverage represents a significant opportunity to acquire new customers, drive sales, or raise awareness, and you want to be sure to represent your brand well and really compel the audience to check out your company. On top of that, you have to contend with adrenaline and nerves in the moment. You may be thinking, "So many other business owners are so polished and articulate in their interviews. How am I going to pull that off?" Deep breath. A successful interview is usually the result of good media training: preparation and practice in advance of an interview. I've tr...
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Add some of Zoom's best features to Google Meet

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Google Meet is Google's answer to Zoom, but it's missing a few features. Meet Enhancement Suite is a free Chrome extension that adds a few of these features to Google Meet: push-to-talk, a grid view, and the ability to leave your camera and microphone off when first joining a meeting.

Install the extension and you'll see a new icon. Click it to turn features on and off.

Meet Enhancement Suite

I'm a particularly big fan of the push-to-talk feature, which allows you to hold the left shift button to temporarily unmute your microphone. I use this feature in Zoom all the time, especially in large meetings where most people are muted. I don't like fussing with my mouse and clicking the unmute button every time I want to contribute—it's a lot easier to just press and hold a button.

Related: When should you mute yourself during a video call?

Another highlight is the ability to leave your microphone and camera off when joining a meeting. It's way too easy to join a 150-person meeting, not remember your microphone is on, then accidentally interrupt the CEO's presentation while attempting to open a particularly stubborn bag of salsa verde Doritos. Not that this situation has happened to me personally—it's just something I imagine would be embarrassing.

These features can't be turned on and off mid-meeting—you'll need to turn them on before you join. Otherwise, you'll need to refresh your browser and re-join.

If these features are enough to turn you from Zoom to Meet, consider automating Google Meet. Zapier can help you do things like automatically schedule a Meet meeting whenever someone fills out a form.

Download Meet Enhancement Suite (via Product Hunt)



from The Zapier Blog https://ift.tt/2z3Fytm

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