7 tips to use Google Meet for business

Anybody with a Google account can create a Meet, so it isn’t exclusive to businesses. With that said, Google Meet for business has a lot of useful features to simplify your day, like:

• Meeting recordings: The Enterprise plan allows you to record your meetings and store them in Google Drive.
• Transcripts: Meet transcribes your recorded meetings and stores them in Google Drive.
  
• Screen share: All versions allow you to share your screen with attendees. You can even specify which window or tab you want to display.
• Encryption: No need to worry about Zoom-bombing. Every meeting is encrypted for security.
• 24/7 support: Google offers free support via email, chat or phone for every account—even the free version. They connect you with real people, too, which is a huge plus.
• Noise cancellation: The paid version includes noise cancellation technology, which is a game-changer for eliminating background noise like typing or talking.
• Google Workspace integration: Are you already a Google business? Great! Meet integrates with all of your other Google apps, like Calendar, Gmail, Chat and more.
• Mobile access: You don’t need to download a plugin to use Meet. It’s compatible with pretty much every device and browser. If you’re on the road and don’t have wifi, you can call into a Google video meeting with an easy dial-in code.
• Unlimited meetings: No matter what package you have, you can host an unlimited number of meetings with your Meet account. However, free accounts are limited to 60-minute meetings with no more than 3 attendees, so you may need to upgrade if you need to host bigger, longer meetings.

Google Meet Enterprise

You can get a lot of work done with the free version. But if you want access to everything Google has to offer, you’ll want to upgrade to its paid plans through Google Workspace.

When you buy Google Workspace, Meet comes as part of the package. You have two options for upgrading to a paid account:

• Individual: For $7.99/mo, you can host longer meetings and enjoy features like meeting recordings, noise cancellation, hand raising, breakout rooms and polls.
• Google Meet Enterprise: The exact pricing differs depending on your organization, but Enterprise plans usually cost around $25 per Workspace user. This option gives you dial-in access, Q&A options and attendance reports. Best of all, you can invite up to 250 attendees to your calls and host up to 100,000 viewers on a live stream.

7 ways to use Google Meet

If you’re running a growing business, we highly recommend subscribing to Google Meet Enterprise. It offers a ton of value for your business, as well as smart integrations that make Google a no-brainer for your biz.

Not sure how to use Google Meet for business? Try it for these 7 use cases:

1. Team meetings: Get out of email hell! Call a quick 15-minute standup meeting with your sales team every Monday. Ask everyone to provide status updates and what they’re working on for the week. You can use Google Calendar to set up recurring weekly meetings with a Meet attached for easier planning.
2. Sales demos: You can also schedule a conference call with folks outside of your organization. As long as your client has a Gmail account, they’ll be able to hop on for a demo. Use Meet to share your screen for a quick walk-through and share links with clients in the Chat bar.
3. All-company meetings: Need to meet with your 100+ employees at once? Host monthly all-company meetings to update your team on company performance, celebrate wins, and plan for the future. Meet allows you to mute all attendees and use a hand-raising feature for more organized Q&As.
4. 1:1 meetings: Remote work is tough. Instead of relying on casual watercooler chats, it’s important to intentionally schedule a time to check in with your team members. Ask employees to schedule time on your Calendar and Google will automatically create a Meet for the event.
5. Investor presentations: You don’t want any Google teleconference glitches when you’re pitching a team of potential investors. Fortunately, Meet will help you put your best foot forward. Customize your Meet layout to focus just on the presenter and their shared screen. Meet will also remove background noise, like if the Amazon delivery guy rings your doorbell, so you can make a great impression.
6. Webinars: You don’t need to buy a “webinar software” like GoToMeeting to do webinars. As a Google organization, you can host a webinar right in Meet. Ask attendees to register on your website as usual. Once you confirm their registration, send them a link to a conference call live stream. With Google Meet Enterprise, attendees can raise their hands and ask questions for a more engaging webinar experience.
7. Training: It’s possible to onboard new employees in a completely remote environment, but you’ll need to train them via a conference call instead of in-person. Share your screen, send resources in the chat, and record the training so employees can reference it later.

If you’re thinking, “But everyone is using Zoom!”, we get it. Zoom was the go-to video conferencing platform when COVID hit. But not all video conferencing tools are made equal. Here’s how the Google teleconference app stacks up against Zoom, Skype and Microsoft Teams.

Google Meet vs. Zoom

Zoom requires every attendee to download a plugin or app to attend a meeting. That’s a lot of hassle for your employees and clients. Plus, Zoom meetings aren’t very secure.

Google virtual meetings, on the other hand, work within your browser and don’t require any downloads. The platform is also encrypted, which means you don’t have to worry about “Zoom-bombing.”

So yes, a lot of people use Zoom and likely already have Zoom installed. But if you want a more secure, mobile-friendly option, Meet is a better choice.

Google Meet vs. Skype

Neither Skype nor Google requires you to download anything to access a meeting, which is great. Both Meet and Skype have free options so you can try them out before you upgrade. Skype’s free account comes with longer time limits (4 hours) than Meet’s free option (1 hour).

Since Skype is a Microsoft product, it can be a better option for Microsoft-based organizations. Google virtual meetings will be a simpler option, of course, if your business is already using Google Workspace.

Another issue is the user interface. Skype isn’t as intuitive to use, so if you need to get up and going quickly, Meet has a shorter learning curve.

Google Meet vs. Microsoft Teams

If you’re considering Microsoft Teams versus Google Meet, the real question is whether your organization should use Microsoft or Google teleconference tools.

Both Meet and Teams are holistic platforms for doing work. Unlike one-off meeting software like Zoom, you can build your entire organization’s workflow around Teams or Google Workspace (which includes Meet).

Microsoft Teams relies more on chat than video conferencing, though. Their video calls can feel a little clunky. Google has a chat feature, but the platform is designed specifically for high quality video.

Neither platform is necessarily better than the other; it comes down to whether you prefer chat over video or Google over Microsoft.

Trying to make remote work, well, work? It’s much easier to manage a distributed team with Meet, provided you follow a few best practices.

1) Personalize your experience

Google Meet comes with a lot of useful features out of the box, but the system allows for customization, too. Make some small tweaks to your team’s settings so Meet ticks all of the needed boxes:

• Change your background: You can blur your background or add a virtual background. This is great if your team works remotely and they want to look more professional. Simply click the Change Background button on the preview screen.
• Adjust your view: Want to see only the speaker? Or do you need to see a gallery of people for your weekly team meeting? Once you’re in a Google virtual meeting, click on the three dots in the corner of the screen to change the layout.
• Turn on captions: That’s right. Meet creates captions in real time. They aren’t always accurate, but they’re close enough. This is a great way to improve your team’s understanding and account for accessibility challenges, so give captions a try.

2) Record calls

Meeting recordings will save your bacon when you work in a remote organization. You can reference recordings after the fact to see what, exactly, you discussed with your team. Plus, if an employee is out of the office, they can watch the Google virtual meeting recording to catch up.

As long as you have everyone’s permission, feel free to record your calls. Store all of them in a specific folder just for recordings. Meet gives these meetings generic names with the conference ID, so you’ll want to rename them for easier reference.

3) Use Chat in and outside of Google virtual meetings

Google Meet has a chat function within the video conferencing app, but Google Workspace also includes Chat out of your Gmail account. Sometimes Gmail Chat is easier than setting up a call—plus, it means you don’t need to buy a Slack subscription, which is nice.

4) Manage noise

Nobody wants to hear your dog barking in the background. Keep your remote meetings productive by turning on Google’s noise-canceling features.

A little bit of etiquette goes a long way, too. Remind your team members to mute themselves if they aren’t speaking so you can cut down on unnecessary noise.

5) Intentionally schedule a time to gather

One of the biggest problems with remote work is that your team isn’t physically together. You can’t casually bump into each other in the hallway for impromptu work chats. If you want to catch up with each other, you need to make time for it.

Schedule weekly or daily check-ins with your team so you can answer questions, check up on everyone’s progress, and move projects along. But don’t get too crazy with your Google virtual meetings: video chat fatigue is a real thing, so only schedule short, useful meetings.

You’re free to try other video conferencing tools, but if you’re drawn to the efficiency of Google Workspace, it’s time to go all-in on Google Meet conference calls. It’s an affordable, intuitive platform that’s perfect for encouraging collaboration—no matter how far away your team is from each other.

You don’t need to get a separate solution for your customer data, either. Copper is the only Google-approved CRM that works right out of your Gmail account. It’s built specifically for Google Workplace so all of your systems will talk to each other. Curious how it works? Get a 14-day free trial of Copper CRM right now, no credit card required.