From business meetings to online classes, Zoom has become the top choice of users. You have likely heard about it in recent weeks during the COVID-19 outbreak which has forced countries around the world to shut down. Every business and household is relying on the speed of their Internet plans to connect, collaborate, and continue operating.

Are you about to use It for the first time and need guidance? Then, we have got you covered.

Introducing Zoom

It’s a video communication platform originally designed for remote workers. It has become a key resource in many households worldwide during the quarantine period. In the week of March, 340,000+ users downloaded this software.

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Zoom is both a video and an audio tool. It has a handful of features helping businesses and students in these unpredictable times. Check out some of its prominent features:

• HD audio and video calls
• One on one and team instant messaging
• Recording and transcription of meetings
• Screen sharing
• Webinars with up to 100 participants

How to Get Started With Zoom

To start using Zoom, follow these steps:

Choose Your Plan

Zoom has 4 different pricing tiers:

Zoom Free

It’s ideal for those who work solo but have to collaborate with a few people in the same location. The free version lets you hold unlimited meetings. However, group meetings can only be held for 40 minutes.

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Zoom Pro

This tier is perfect for small teams with at least one member working remotely. It costs $14.99 per month per meeting host. You can create personal meeting IDs, and record them in the cloud. The caps for group meetings is 24 hours.

Zoom Business

This tier is best suited for small to medium-sized businesses having multiple teams and the need to schedule regular meetings. The plan costs $19.99 per meeting per host. Dedicated customer support, Zoom meetings with company branding and vanity URLs, etc. are some of the features you would get.

Zoom Enterprise

If you are a business with more than 1000 employees, this tier is for you. It offers unlimited storage for recordings of the meetings, webinar discounts, dedicated customer success manager, zoom room, etc. The plan costs $19.99 per month per meeting host.

Download the Zoom Software

After selecting your plan, sign up and download the software on your PC. If your company is signing up for a pro, business or enterprise plan, they will invite you to sign up for Zoom as one of the hosts of the company.

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Sync It to Your Calendar

To schedule a zoom meeting, you would have to sync zoom to your calendar. Once you have signed in, go to:

• Settings >> meetings >> synced calendars
• Toggle sync zoom meetings from calendars
• Choose the calendars you want to sync with

Schedule a Meeting

It’s easy to schedule a meeting using the Zoom calendar client. You can also do it through the zoom app. Here is how it’s done:

• Click on a new meeting
• Edit the details of the meeting (select the date, meeting password, etc.)

After following the above steps, you will be in the zoom meeting. You can adjust the settings by turning the video or microphone settings on/off, recording the meeting, sharing the screen, etc.

Making the Meeting Private

After creating the meeting, it’s important to make it private for preventing uninvited guests from joining it. One must secure the WiFi network with a password to prevent unauthorized users from stealing the bandwidth, right? Similarly, each Zoom meeting needs a password too.

When scheduling the meeting, set a password by clicking the password section and checking the box next to require a meeting password. Type in the password and share it with your participants. They can join the meeting by entering this password.

You can add more privacy by admitting the attendees one by one or at once. Likewise, the host can also restrict who can share their screen during the meeting.

Tips to Make Your Zoom Meetings Better

Hosting your first zoom meeting is overwhelming. To get everything right and make your first meeting a success, follow these tips:

Always Mute the Microphone

This would ensure you enter the meeting quietly without bringing a sudden noise to the video conference. The audio setting is directly accessible from the Zoom call. Simply unclick the mute microphone and you are done.

Keep the Video Off

Unless it’s a video meeting, when you enter the call, make sure the video is turned off. In this way, no embarrassing moment on the camera will be captured. The video setting is accessible from the Zoom call. Go to the video settings and check the turn off my video when joining a meeting.

Consider Your Environment

The surrounding you are having the meeting in says a lot about you. Therefore, fix it. First of all, check the lights. Most of the light must come from the front instead of behind you.

Remove the pile of dirty clothes from the scene. Have a clean and simple background. You can also use virtual backgrounds provided by Zoom to disguise your cluttered environment.

Most of all, find a quiet space to hold the meeting. You don’t want the participants to be hearing the sound of cable TV being played in the other room.

It has a rich marketplace of app integration. Popular options include Office 365, Gmail, OneDrive, Dropbox, Slack, HubSpot, Google Drive, and more. This software has everything to make your team meetings smooth.

Good luck hosting your first meeting with it!