“Can you find me the easiest, best fast free webinar system I can use tomorrow? I’ve already got free conference call, but I’d like to do a quick screen share.”
This is the task I received from a client last week. In this post, I will share with you how I went about completing this task and why I chose to recommend a free instant screen sharing tool to my client.
Task Background:
The client is hosting a free call to promote her upcoming boot camp. She’s using FREE Conference Call but realized that she needs to do a screen share to demonstrate the high-value tips she’ll be sharing to the attendees. Although Free Conference Call has screen sharing options, the client has no idea how it works and has no time to check it out. The task then was to find out how it works and assess whether it’s something that is not technically challenging for the host and the attendees. The call is in 20 hours and the client needs the info right now.
Carrying out the task
Upon receiving the client’s call-in details via email, I tried to log-in to Free Conference Call. I was not successful. Every time I log-in using the dial-in number, access code, and subscriber pin, the web page cannot be loaded. I did this several times with the same result.
The other option was to sign in using the client’s email and password but I don’t have it . It was not in the master log-in document I share with the client and it would at least be a couple of hours before I can get a hold of this.
Because of the urgency and importance of this task, I decided not to waste any more time trying to log in to Free Conference Call and just look for free instant screen sharing tools online.
Review of 4 free instant sharing tools online
My initial idea was to recommend AnyMeeeting, a free, world class web conferencing tool. I know for a fact that it has a screen sharing option. The trouble with this is that the client would be sending another dial-in info to the attendees, which may create confusion. In the end, I decided against it and just looked at the four instant screen sharing tools below.
Screenleap – You don’t need to register to be able to do a screen share. You can just click the ”Share your screen now” button on the home page of the site and the screen sharing will start. A pop-up window will appear and this will allow you to pause or stop sharing and determine the area of your screen that you wan to share. If you go back to the original tab of Screenleap, you’ll get a link that you can share with others so they can join your screen share. All they need to do is go to that link and they will be able to see your screen. Or, they can also go to the Screenleap home page, join a screen, and type in the access code you’ll get.- Showscreen – With this tool, you don’t need to download anything to do screensharing. But you do have to register. When you’re ready to do a screen share, all you have to do is log in to your account, start screen sharing an and then invite people to watch it. To watch, they need to go to www.showscreen.com, click see a screen, and enter the five-digit access code that you will providing them.
Join.me – This screen sharing tool has both free and premium versions. The basic version is free and you need to download and install an executable file to use it. I don’t want this so I did not try it out. But reading the FAQs on the site, I found out that your participants can send files to you through join.me. I believe this is a cool feature.
Yuuguu -To use this, you need to sign up and install an executable file. Again, I do not like this option because this isn’t “instant” for me.
Out of these four options, I recommended Screenleap to my client. It’s something that you can use on the fly because you don’t need register to use it. The only roadblock you might encounter with this is the JAVA applet for your browser. But you don’t even need to download /or update it because Screenleap gives you the option to “run it this time.”
Another tool worth checking out is Quick Screen Share by Screencast-o-matic. I did not encounter this when I did this task but upon further research, this is something that I can also recommend. Check it out.
Client Feedback
The client used my recommendation. She even registered for Screenleap herself so she can customize the link she will share to her attendees.
How about you? Have you used any free instant screen sharing tools? Let me know in the comment section below. I would love to try them out.
Thank you very much for the above list of tools. In addition to above, one may even deploy on premise RHUB desktop screen sharing appliances in order to conduct webinars, web conferences, online meetings, online presentations etc.
this is very interesting
in many times i need a quick way to share screens
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Nica
Great advice here!! We are running a Webinar Nov 1st (Get your rear in gear) I forwarded your blog to my team and will integrate some of tips in our sessions. Thanks for sharing your knowledge!!
Bill Baylis recently posted..LinkedIn Endorsement Tips and Hints: The LinkedIn Push!
Nice article Nica. I am also using join.me at work and it is very easy and effective to use. I hope that you can also review our software – Time Doctor which is a time tracking software for virtual assistants.
Perfect timing, Daniel! I am actually shopping for an time-tracking tool!. I will give yours a try
Great post! These are such useful tools, thanks for sharing!
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Hi Meg! Glad that you liked it! I hope you get to use one of these tools sometime soon.
We use join.me and mikogo at work. So far so good, very useful and it’s really amazing how technology works these days! LOL. Skype screen share works for me too!
I missed leaving comments on your blog. And I missed you too, Nica. As usual, great tips coming from a great VA.
Susan Guinto recently posted..7 Things Every New Virtual Assistant Should Do
I missed you too, Susan! When are you writing your next post?!
soon! real soon!
Susan Guinto recently posted..7 Things Every New Virtual Assistant Should Do
Another informative post Nica! Wouldn’t have known about these tools have I not read your blog
Will definitely try screenleap.
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Let me know how it works out for you Janette!