Zoom’s Rapid Ascent
Mark Amtower
GovCon influencer and preeminent LinkedIn strategist offering the BEST in-depth LinkedIn training. I help consultants and contractors build SME positions in the federal market. Author, speaker, podcaster, consultant.
A few short years ago most of us had not heard of Zoom. Then the pandemic came along…
Just last week Zoom showed up in a big way in the Government Executive’s 2021 Leading Brands study. It was #3 in brand familiarity and #5 in favorability. This is somewhat astounding as it was not present in the 2020 study, and barely known by most three years ago.
I was a little surprised, more at how quickly it rose rather than about it making the list. I was also pleased.
I have been using Zoom for about three years now. I began as a user on the receiving end of invitations from some people I knew in California. It was an easy platform to adjust to, truly intuitive, and it was nice seeing a face (or faces) rather than speaking into the phone.
I started using it instead of phone calls for people I had already been in business with and for people I had just connected with on LinkedIn. If you are reading this you probably know how much I use LinkedIn, so you shouldn’t be at all surprised that I leverage Zoom with my LinkedIn activity to deepen current relationships and build new relationships.
We started using Zoom for our twice-weekly IDEATION meetings (a Government Marketing University community - https://gmarku.com/learn/ideation/ ) nearly two years ago.
When the pandemic and the work-from-home situation hit full force, Zoom, well, zoomed.
Zoom facts from the Zoom blog https://blog.zoom.us/4-things-you-should-know-about-zoom-for-government/:
- Founded in (drum roll) San Jose (yeah, big surprise there) in 2011 (what- how come I didn’t know about it then?)
- Zoom for Government FedRAMP approved in February, 2019, a full year prior to the Covid shutdown
- It’s more than just video chat: Zoom Video webinars, Zoom Rooms, Zoom Phone, are all FedRAMP authorized
- Zoom Government is only available for federal, state and local governments and approved contractors
Other Zoom facts:
- Extremely easy to use
- Stock price has risen 220% in the last year, currently over $370/share. It was trading as high as $589 a year ago. Irrational exuberance? I think not. In April 2019, the IPO was priced at $39/share
- Widely used in higher education
- Zoom integrates easily with many LMS platforms
- After early Zoom-bombing incidents, Zoom has and continues to develop enhanced security measures
- Zoom has its’ own app marketplace - https://marketplace.zoom.us/
There is much more, but you get the idea.
Speculation: in 2022, the Oxford English Dictionary adds Zoom (the meeting platform and proper noun) as a verb.
I am far from a Zoom power-user, but I truly enjoy using it for conversations, meetings and more.
Here’s an offer you can refuse if you want. Want to meet with me to discuss some aspect of GovCon? Pick a time here- https://calendly.com/markamtower and we’ll Zoom!
Bid Forensics Consultant, Capture/Proposal Manager, Volcanic Geologist, US Army (MI) Veteran
3 年Mark, I used other collaboration tools in large businesses years before Zoom came along. Zoom changed things because it was free for meetings of less than 40 minutes. It is easy to use. My wife even uses it for her bridge club meetings. It only took me 15 minutes to get her started and now she is on her own. I use Teams for technical meetings but I have used two or three other tools in the past year. Teams is the only tool that I have integrated into my proposal management application. I like having a tool that works inside of my application because I store email addresses with profiles in my application.
As the founder of CapturePlanning.com and PropLIBRARY, I show organizations how to capture contracts and win proposals
3 年How do you think they'll do competing against Microsoft Teams? Microsoft seems to be building and competing for the future. Personal preferences aside about UI aside, I'm interested in the nature of work in the future.
GovCon influencer and preeminent LinkedIn strategist offering the BEST in-depth LinkedIn training. I help consultants and contractors build SME positions in the federal market. Author, speaker, podcaster, consultant.
3 年#Zoom #GovExec #LeadingBrands