Creative Ways to Use Zoom
2020 has been the year of Zoom to say the very least as its customer base went from 10 million to over 200 million, making it arguably the most popular virtual collaboration tool in the workplace after good old email. Wall Street has taken notice as well, as its share price has doubled since January, propelled by both work-from-home and casual popularity.
I have been a Zoom customer for more than a year and thought I’d share some of the best ways to utilize Zoom along with a favorite tool that compliment it quite well.
Remote Control
For starters Zoom has an excellent remote control feature that enables one to operate and manage his colleagues screen, from wherever the two may be. Whether it be prototyping, uploading new information to a google doc, or giving over credit card credentials it can all be done through Zoom’s remote control functionality. This truly helps enable remote collaboration out of the office and allow the toughest projects to be completed with this new type of joint effort. For product teams this is very useful pertaining to testing out new features and if your giving product demos to clients at can be very helpful as well.
Call Recording
Another crucial feature that Zoom supports is the ability to record meetings with audio, video along with all screens and relevant information shared throughout the call. This has become extremely popular for online learning, as professors and teachers are able to transition to online classes with as little friction as possible, by encouraging students to rewind and watch the lecture again and again. Lastly Zoom also lets the admin mute everyone else in the conversation so presentations can be done seamlessly without constant interruptions. This is also very beneficial for online learning and webinars as the “mute all” button gives every instructor the power to control the class.
Workflow Integration
Video and audio calls are crucial for remote collaboration, and pairing it with a project management tool allows you to convert conversations into action. Nifty’s Zoom integration is the best of both worlds as Zoom calls can be initiated on a one-on-one or team basis from within the management platform on a secure connection without having to manually generate and distribute call links to team members. Melding workflow collaboration with Zoom communications propels team productivity while ensuring nothing slips through the cracks.
Calendar Integration
Having an organized work calendar is essential for productivity and collaboration especially when working remotely. Zoom’s Calendly integration makes this a breeze and saves each party a great deal of time, when scheduling meetings. In the days of old one needed to manually add the Zoom link into each calendar meeting, which often lead to forgetting to send the link and laboring with additional emails minutes before the scheduled meeting time. The Calendly integration auto-generates a Zoom meeting link when someone books a call with you eliminating any delays or additional tasks that slow down the ease we all crave.
Final Thoughts
Zoom is an excellent product: it’s stable, reliable and has more bells and whistles than all the other video chat tools such as Hangouts or Webex. And don’t sweat the whole Zoombombing thing, as Zoom has already begun rolling out more security features and measures to ensure your calls are safe with them.
Just as any tool, knowing the ins-and-outs of Zoom, as well as having a sense of how it fits in your team’s toolbox, is the secret to empowering collaboration across any distance!