With more Government guidelines coming in to restrict social gatherings and limit the amount people can go out, a growing movement of our customers are making the best of a difficult situation and taking their education and exercise classes online!
This creative and courageous move has seen our customers swap the dance studio for the home studio as they now stream or record their classes online. We’d like to use this blog to take you through the best websites and apps to use for this, as well as some general tips on how to make going online work for you.
Tip: Make sure you have either a Webcam or a Smartphone with a good camera to hand. You’ll need one of these to start streaming or pre-recording your classes.
Let’s start by looking at what is quickly becoming the most popular video sharing app out there; Instagram Live. We like Instagram Live as customers get a chance to comment in real time to interact with the class. To start with this, you’ll need an Instagram account as will your attendees so be aware if you think this might be challenging.
Tip: Make sure you set a start date and time that works for the majority of your customers. Just because your old class time worked, does not mean it will work now with the change in routine experienced by us all.
After you’ve shared your Instagram account with your class and seen that they now follow you, it’s time to go live! Click the Camera bottom at the top left on the home screen and then scroll to Live at the bottom. For full instructions please visit this page
The next online service you could use is Zoom. There are plenty of ways you can use it to go live; either by downloading and using their desktop programme and asking your customers to do the same or by using their App or by taking advantage of their Facebook integration and hosting a class on there.
Tip: Make sure you have a clean space to use at home with minimal background distractions. Try to keep children and pets away if possible!
We like Zoom because by using their desktop programmes you can hear from and talk to your customers which gets backs some of the interactivity you can lose by going online. We think Zoom would be great for education classes and perhaps for classes with lots of Facebook users. For full tips on getting online with Zoom, please visit this webpage.
The last online service we’re going to suggest to you is YouTube. Although you can go live on YouTube, we think this format is best served for recording your classes and then sharing these videos with your class after you’ve finished.
Tip: Picking the best streaming service for yourself is key but making sure it’s the right service for your customers is more important. If you have more Facebook users than Instagram users, then please consider Facebook Live instead!
The benefits of prerecording means you don’t have to worry about making mistakes or having any home distractions get in the way of the class. Giving your customers the chance to access the content at a time that suits them can also be a big positive, plus you can share your videos with the rest of the world too if you’d like! For full tips on getting started with YouTube, please visit here
We know the concept of taking your classes out of our schools and into your homes can be scary and you might have reservations that it can work for you. What we would say is that at times like these it’s so important to stay interacting and talking with people as much as we can.
It’s vital to try to establish some new routines, even if you find yourself at home all week long. We think your customers would love to hear from you, even if it’s not a class to start with and just a catch up.
If you have any further questions about taking your classes online and all that it brings, please don’t hesitate to contact us on marketing@schoolsplus.co.uk
We think you could really see some amazing benefits to this for everyone involved!
