Zoom – Video conferencing
“Video communications empowering people to accomplish more”
What is Zoom?
Zoom is a cloud-based video conferencing service you can use to virtually meet with others – either by video or audio-only or both, all while conducting live chats – and it lets you record those sessions to view later.
Over half of Fortune 500 companies reportedly used Zoom in 2019 and during 2020 it hit even greater heights, racking up 227 per cent growth over the year.
Zoom is backed by solid technology and this product considers the end user every step of the way, for this reason Zoom is a market leader in videoconferencing. Zoom’s videoconferencing application is typically used by businesses, yet it has fast become a very easy way for people to connect while social distancing during the coronavirus pandemic. In this way – the brand is crossing age, and target market boundaries as it’s spread has delved into homes and lives of end users.
Why do you need Zoom for your business?
There are now several videoconferencing providers on the market – however simplicity and ease of use remains paramount. It is no mistake that the uptake of Zoom over the past 18 months has skyrocketed given the superiority of their product and user-friendly set up in a time when there has been a rapid transmission to online conferencing and video communications.
Zoom has seemingly replaced services like Google Hangouts and Microsoft’s Skype as most people’s go-to platform for video calls. It is now the world’s 2nd most downloaded mobile app, behind only TikTok.
Zoom’s main features:
- One-on-one meetings: Host unlimited one-on-one meetings.
- Group video conferences: Host up to 500 participants.
- Screen sharing: Meet one-on-one or with large groups and share your screen with them so they can see what you see.
- Recording: You can record your meetings or events too.
Zoom for business has these added benefits:
- It lets you brand Zoom meetings with vanity URLs and company branding.
- It offers transcripts of Zoom meetings recorded in the cloud, as well as dedicated customer support.
Zoom’s ease of app downloads, browser extensions and plug ins make it ideal for flexible work practices.
Zoom App:
The desktop app is available for Windows and macOS, while the mobile app is available for Android and iOS. The desktop app offers the best experience.
All the apps let you join a meeting without signing in, but also let you sign in using a Zoom account, Google, Facebook, or SSO. From there, you can start a meeting, join a meeting, share your screen in a Zoom Room by entering the meeting ID, start Zoom Meetings, mute/unmute your mic, start/stop the video, invite others to the meeting, change your screen name, do in-meeting chat, and start a cloud recording.
If you’re a desktop user, you can also start a local recording, create polls, broadcast your Facebook live on Facebook, and more.
Zoom Outlook plugin:
As well as the various other Zoom app downloads, it is also possible to use Zoom in other ways. For example, there’s a Zoom Outlook plugin that’s designed to work directly in your Microsoft Outlook client or as an Add-in for Outlook on the web. This Outlook plug drops a Zoom button right into the standard Outlook toolbar and lets you start or schedule a Zoom meeting with a simple click.
Zoom browser extensions:
Another tool for quickly starting or scheduling a Zoom meeting comes in the form of an extension for your favourite browser. There is a Zoom Chrome extension and Zoom Firefox add-on that let you schedule a Zoom meeting via Google Calendar. A simple click on the Zoom button and you can start a meeting or schedule one for later with all the information on the meeting being sent via Google Calendar to make it easy for participants to join.
Zoom in your browser:
If you don’t have access to any apps – or haven’t installed one – you can run Zoom in a browser. Even if you do have Zoom apps, you can run Zoom in a browser instead. When you click on a Zoom link on a desktop, it will open a quick browser tab that will then launch the app on your device.
You can bypass the app and run it directly in the browser instead if you prefer. You might try this if your app isn’t working, or if it’s out of date or if you’re having login problems.
Zoom will give your business more flexibility to communicate across multiple devices, and help your team connect with ease.
Let’s make a time to talk about how Zoom can be used within your business.