Have you ever thought about how accessible your online content is? How inclusive is your brand? If your organization regularly publishes videos or hosts webinars and other types of online presentations, are you truly helping out your audience with the best user experience? One way to succinctly address all of these questions is to include closed captions in your video content and virtual events.

From webinars and webcasts to on-demand video and eLearning modules, these types of UX elements are playing an increasingly important role in today's world. That’s one reason why we’re happy to announce that BeaconLive provides full support for ADA compliance for both live and on-demand transcription and closed captioning. (So if you’re looking for a partner who offers these services, don’t hesitate to ask!)

In a nutshell, closed captions are short lines of text that sync up with a video’s audio track. They transcribe the audio to text in “caption frames” on top of or underneath the video, including not only the words of speakers but also the speakers’ names, sound effects and other elements that may not be related to speech at all. Additionally, while open captions are always on screen and cannot be turned off by the user, closed captions can be enabled or disabled in a viewer’s video or device settings.

Below, we shed light on five ways closed captions will make your content better. Particularly if your goal is to educate your audience, you won’t want to miss this post…

Did you know that 75 percent of executives watch work-related videos on business websites at least once per week? Or that 81 percent of online and mobile audiences watch more live video every year? OR that the video streaming market is predicted to be worth over $70 billion by 2021? 

It's true... live event streaming is no longer a new, innovative technique for connecting with your audience. It has come to be expected. (Think about how many people are now so accustomed to watching live video via Facebook and Instagram!) Video is trending in just about every arena—from marketing and sales to training and conferencing—and if your organization or brand hasn't started leveraging live broadcasts, you're missing out on some important engagement opportunities. Not to mention you're likely falling behind your competitors or leaving your employees or association members wondering why you aren't keeping up with digital best practices.

Webcasts offer a viable solution.

There's no question webinars have become an essential ingredient in today's business world. You've probably been hearing a lot about webinar marketing and communications for some time now, and surely you've attended a number of webinars yourself. Perhaps you've even thought about delivering your own webinar – but you hesitate, fearing the worst: a failed event and a wasted budget.

However, that's not the case for most webinars when you do them right! According to the Content Marketing Institute, webinar platforms remain in the top 5 technologies B2B organizations use to manage their content marketing efforts. Moreover, webinars and other virtual events also stand among the top 5 channels for distributing content to a targeted audience. This tried-and-true tactic isn't going away any time soon, so it's best that you brush up on your webinar use cases, and get a handle on how you can make the most of them for your business.

Of course, the topic and purpose of a webinar are the main reasons anyone attends in the first place. But the type of event you're launching also plays a big role. People don't want to attend every event out there; they only want to participate in the types of webinars that satisfy their educational needs – and everything else is a waste of time. Read our list below to identify the 10 types of webinars everyone is doing today!

 

Education at all levels is experiencing change on a grand scale. Emerging technologies are giving a facelift to the ways teachers approach developing their students. New studies and techniques are disrupting long-established learning best practices. Tools powered by Artificial Intelligence are generating a shift in how educational associations service their eLearning customers. Learner-centricity is more important than ever before, and creating a compelling and impactful educational experience requires a well-thought-out strategy and the right content – with respect to both substance and format.

But in the fast-paced professional world, Continuing Education, training, and employee development programs are at the mercy of dwindling hours in a day. Yet time set aside for formal training programs that occur on an annual or semi-annual basis is not enough for learners to keep pace with industry standards. So how do learners achieve their educational goals while working in an environment that is already very demanding of their time?

The answer is microlearning. And this post sets out to explain exactly what microlearning is – and why it’s becoming a powerful force in the eLearning field.

Did you know that the number one reason for association members to skip out on membership renewal is a lack of engagement with their organization? According to Marketing General’s comprehensive Membership Marketing and Benchmarking Report, other major factors contributing to opting out include being unable to justify membership costs, failure to realize any significant ROI, and simply forgetting to renew altogether.

Now, what do these reasons all have in common? They boil down to value – or a lack thereof.

If your association isn’t consistently delivering value to its members, what’s to stop them from up and leaving when their membership is approaching expiration?

The key to retention is member engagement. But what does “engagement” really mean? Rather than defining this term by the sheer amount of activities in which a member participates, it’s more about cultivating relationships. As renowned association marketer and ASAE presenter Erik Schonher says, “engagement is the emotional fabric that drives an association’s success.”