Now that you know how to attend a Zoom meeting, it’s time to discuss everything that goes into hosting one. You first need to create a Zoom account, which involves going through the prompts, starting with entering your birthday and email address. Follow all the instructions on the screen to get your main account created. Once it’s set up, the next step has you set up some general options.
General Options
After signing into your Zoom account, you’re greeted with four different options on the home page. They include:
New Meeting: You have the option of starting a new meeting right in Zoom. This means that you are jumping into a meeting right then and there, as long as you know who you wish to speak to.
Join: If you already have a meeting to attend, you can click on the join button. Follow the screen prompts to join any meeting that you’ve been invited to.
Schedule: Need to schedule a meeting? This button not only lets you pick and date and time, but you can also invite people from there, or grab the meeting ID and send it to the people who you’d like to attend.
Share Screen: You need to have a Zoom meeting ID in order to share your screen in a meeting that has just begun or is in progress. This button goes through the prompts, making it easy to do just that.
Also, on the right-hand side of the screen, you’ll see a calendar option that displays the date and time of any meetings that you’ve already set up or have been invited to. This is a good way to keep an eye on your upcoming meetings and general schedule.
Hosting Meetings Versus Webinars
Zoom has two different platforms that you can choose from - meetings and webinars. Both do very specific things, so it’s important to know which one you want when you’re setting up your next Zoom event.
When you set up your Zoom account, you’ll be asked which type of event you plan on holding. To help you make the correct choice, here are the main differences between the two.
Meetings:
• More interactivity between the attendees
• Good for meetings with customers, holding company training sessions, or any other type of business meeting
• You have several options for your Zoom meeting account, including cost-free plans
• Participants and attendees have more functionality in meetings. They can chat amongst themselves, mute their audio, and more
• Attendees can share their screens in the meeting
Webinars:
• The only people interacting are the hosts and any panelists
• Best for meetings of 50 or more people with that intent of sharing information with the attendees or teaching them something
• You need to pay for the webinar option, and it can either be standalone or as an add-on to your existing account
• Hosts hold all the power in the webinar platform, having the ability to control their own audio and even mute the attendees, who are primarily there to listen
• Only the hosts and panelists can share their screens
Branding and Backgrounds
One of the most interesting things about Zoom is that it provides you with the ability to change your background, allowing you to choose one of the Zoom backgrounds or even upload one that includes your company’s branding. You aren’t limited to physical things in the room.
This is as easy as:
Step 1: Log into Zoom
Step 2: Click on Zoom Rooms and then select Room Management
Step 3: Click on Account Management
Step 4: Select the “Background Image for Zoom Rooms” option in your Account Profile
Step 5: Select your chosen background and click “open”
Your background image automatically becomes the default for that Zoom room