Your growing engagement on Arena is easier when you build communities. Without communities, your marketing and content are more likely to fall flat. You can generate leads and maintain high engagement. Without your community, your users and customers may drift to social media platforms. Read on and learn how to break free from social media and build your own community with Arena.
Escape The Social Media Walled Garden With Arena
When you have a large and thriving community of users, subscribers, or customers, staying organized can get more complicated, especially when you implement marketing segmentation. For example, you probably want to offer a different community experience to your paying customers vs. potential customers. Creating multiple communities in your Arena account is one of the best ways to support your segmentation objectives.
There’s another reason to set up your social community with Arena. You need detailed customer data to fuel your marketing segmentation. You lose insights if your users leave your website to interact with each other on social media. Traditional social media platforms are also full of distractions – like notifications and ads. As a result, your audience may lose interest in your content. When you lose engagement, gaining conversions, sales, and advertising revenue become far more challenging.
Can You Make The World A Better Place With Arena?
Beyond supporting your marketing efforts, there are other reasons why establishing your community with Arena is worthwhile. A growing body of research shows that traditional social media platforms are harmful to users. For example, the Guardian reported that Instagram was harmful to mental health. Similar criticisms have pointed at other popular services like TikTok and Facebook. Fortunately, there are ways to connect online while minimizing these harmful effects.
The solution starts with building your online community. Your community is likely to be much smaller than TikTok, Instagram, or Facebook, and that is a critical advantage. Maintaining standards becomes very difficult and expensive when an online platform has hundreds of millions of users. On the other hand, cultivating a digital community with a few hundred or thousands of participants who share common goals is a different matter entirely. For example, you can use Arena to engage your top 500 customers in an exclusive community. That means setting community standards and fostering positive engagement is far easier. When your organization becomes known for offering a positive, well-managed community, it will become far easier to grow an engaged audience.
Unified Communities vs. Separate Communities: Which Is Right For You?
Your first decision is to decide what kind of community experience you want to offer through Arena. You have two options: Separate vs. Unified. Let’s take a look at how these different options work.
Unified Communities
Using unified communities is a good choice if your organization focuses on a single target market or segment. In addition, unified communities are well suited to smaller organizations. If you have a single person tasked with engaging your community, focus on unified communities.
Separate Communities
In contrast, separate communities are a better fit for larger companies. For example, a publisher or media company might have multiple segments of subscribers – people interested in sports, those interested in business news, and those concerned with politics. When you have multiple segments with little in common, there’s value in creating separate communities.
Now that you know the difference between these ways of using communities, it’s time to set up your community in Arena.
Creating Communities Step By Step
The following over-the-shoulder guide explains exactly how to create your community in Arena.
1) Open your Arena Account
Adding more communities to your Arena account is simple.
Log into your account and click on your logo in the top left corner of the page.
When the menu appears, click the “Sites & Organizations Settings” button.
Click the Add New Button
2) Add New Organization
Your next step is to create a new organization. For example, let’s say you will run a virtual conference later this year. You might want to create a new organization to keep that event organized.
If you have been following along from Step 1, you will see the “Sites and Organizations” screen (shown below). Click the purple “New Organization” button on the right-hand side of the page.
3) Add A Site
Within your organization in Arena, you can set up multiple sites. To explain why this is valuable, let’s continue with the example of running a conference. Let’s say you have a company conference, and several people will attend the event, such as VIP customers, the sales team, and partners. Each of these groups has its own needs, so creating a separate site for each group can be valuable.
Of course, you can also simply create a single site if that is a better fit for you. Adding additional sites to your account may require additional fees. Reach out to your Arena rep if you have any questions.
To create a new site, fill in the required information:
Website Name
URL
Organization
Subscription Plan
Connect Social Media Site (optional but recommended)
4) Customize Your New Site
By default, your new site will have placeholder information. We recommend updating your site with a custom profile photo to inspire trust in your audience. You can use your logo or the photo of a well-known person in your organization if you prefer.
Updating your site’s profile photo is simple:
Click on “Site Settings”
Click on the circle above “Website Name”
Choose the photo you want to use and then click Update.
See the following screenshot:
At this point, your community and site are set up. In other words, your blank canvas is in position. It’s now time to plan your engagement strategy. For example, you might decide to plan a virtual conference. In that case, see our guide to grow engagement with virtual communities.
How To End Your Dependence on Social Media
Imagine if you could create your version of Facebook or Instagram but focused on your community’s needs. That’s possible with Arena. Learn more about how you can create a social community for your users.
Live blog monetization is a new, reliable way to add a revenue stream to your news website. Pay attention if increasing advertising revenue is a priority for your business model. We’ll show why and how live blogging is powerful.
Who Is Live Blogging For?
The first live blogs were run by major news organizations like newspapers and TV networks. Today, blog owners, video content creators, and others can use a live blog. This monetization feature on your website makes growing fan engagement much easier.
Live blogging has an advantage over relying on third-party platforms like Facebook Live, Instagram Live, or YouTube. When you publish original content on your website with a live blog, your audience will have a compelling reason to keep coming back. When your audience spends time on your website instead of your Facebook page, you’ll see several benefits.
Live Blog Monetization: Why Use Arena?
There are multiple ways to add a live blog to your digital publishing platform. With all your choices, there are several good reasons to use Arena.
Simple, Fast Installation
Do you have a breaking news style opportunity right now? You can install Arena Live Blog and be up and running in minutes. Arena is fast and easy to use, so you can start generating advertising revenue quickly.
Google AdSense Integration
Google AdSense is one of the most popular methods to generate advertising revenue. Arena has a built-in integration so that you can earn more AdSense revenue from your live blog. If you rely on AdSense today, Arena Live Blog will help you earn even more from Google.
Conversion Cards Expands Revenue Beyond Ads
Earning revenue from ads is powerful. What if your business model includes more than ads? For example, media brands often want to get more paid subscribers. Other companies are interested in lead generation and driving purchases.
We know companies want advertising revenue, leads, and sales. That’s why we build Conversion Cards. Adding a Conversion Card to your live blog makes it easy to generate leads, get more subscribers, and sell more products. You can pick and choose when to use Conversion Cards on your publishing platform.
Attract More Organic Traffic From Search Engines
Unlike a conventional blog post, a live blog makes it easy to create and post new updates. Some of the most successful live blogs are updated every 5-10 minutes where there is breaking news or exciting developments. Those frequent updates send a positive signal to search engines like Google that your website has up-to-date content. You are likely to get more traffic if you are posting quality content that helps people. As your traffic grows, you’ll get more advertising revenue and opportunities to grow your conversions.
Advertising Revenue Vs. Other Revenue Streams
Adding an additional revenue stream is important because it is simple and easy. Your website displays the ad, and you get paid. In contrast, selling digital products, managing affiliate programs, or shipping physical products is much more difficult. Without live blog monetization, your live stream content might excite people, but what if your audience isn’t in the mood to buy? When you have advertising in place, the online event will still bring in revenue.
No rule says you have to choose between advertising revenue and selling products. Many media brands sell physical products, and subscriptions and generate advertising revenue. For example, the New York Times and the BBC.
Running A Live Blog On Your Website Vs. Relying On Social Media
Adding a live blog to your website adds tremendous value to your business. While installing Arena only takes a matter of minutes, there is a learning curve if you are used to social media platforms like Instagram Stories, Facebook Shops, and Facebook Gaming. It’s natural for business owners, publishers and marketers to use their business profiles on social platforms especially when you have a large following.
Relying on a third-party platform exclusively to grow your audience engagement has significant challenges. For example, when you run an event on a social media website you will not get the same depth of information for your customer data platform. That lack of data means it is much more difficult to build a relationship with your audience, follow up or get conversions.
When you have live blog monetization in place, you have more options. For example, your live blog can augment a virtual event with a video streaming platform. This means you could run a virtual conference with a live stream video presentation. However, search engines (and people!) don’t always like to use video exclusively. By augmenting your virtual events with a live blog, you can pull in more organic traffic.
Three Ways To Boost Live Blog Monetization This Month
Once you have your live blog installed and configured, how exactly do you use it to drive more advertising revenue? Start with these five ideas to grow your advertising revenue in the next 30 days.
1) Celebrate Company News With A Live Blog
Company news – especially product releases – is prime material for a live blog. Just think about the excitement that comes with Google and Apple’s annual conferences. While new products are great to highlight, that is not your only option. Other types of company news such as an expansion to a new country or new integrations can also work well for a live blog.
2) Augment A Virtual Event or Conference With A Live Blog
Look through your events and marketing calendar for the next few weeks. Is your company offering any digital events, virtual conferences or other experiences for your audience? If the answer is yes, add a live blog to drive engagement up further.
Imagine you are running a one-day virtual event for your customers. Some attendees might attend the morning sessions while others may only show up for the keynote. By adding a live blog to the experience, you can provide key quotes, summaries and commentary on each part of the virtual event. That means your audience can learn and engage with the event content if they prefer to read over viewing video. After the event ends, the live blog will continue to help you attract organic search traffic to your website.
By the way, your live blog can help to increase live event engagement if you offer access replays to your audience. The excitement of seeing a live blog updated continuously during an event wouldn’t be available when viewing a recording. If there are other incentives to attend live (e.g. a promo code), you may be able to lift live engagement further.
3) Offer “Piggy Back” Live Blog Coverage
What if your company has no company news or virtual events coming up in the next month or so? In that case, there are still opportunities to run a compelling live blog but it does require a bit more creativity.
Take a few minutes to brainstorm with your team about what your audience is currently interested in, excited by or worried about. For example, a live blog experience in August or September might connect to the “back to school” season or the start of the football season. If there are breaking news stories that excite your audience, consider running a live blog about those events on your website.
This approach isn’t limited to consumer audiences either. Let’s say your goal is to connect with investors interested in up-to-the-minute coverage. In that case, look for economic announcements like the monthly jobs report released by the US Bureau of Labor Statistics. Every month, there is significant coverage of this announcement. Your organization might decide to offer a short live blog session when the jobs report comes out. Help investors explore the implications such as which industries are growing and which parts of the country are struggling. If this live blog is a hit with your audience, you could transform it into an ongoing series and build a highly engaged audience.
Unlike the first two ways of using a live blog, providing commentary and coverage of an event may not be suitable for every company. It’s a natural fit for media companies, especially those with a specialized focus (e.g. banking news or tech news). It can also work with other types of companies. Keep in mind that it may be more difficult to get conversions or sales. When you have a live blog about company news like new product announcements, customers will have their credit cards to buy to some degree. In contrast, a person looking for general news coverage might not be in a spending mindset so generating direct revenue might be more difficult.
Live Blog Monetization: Where To Go From Here?
Live blog monetization is one of the best ways to engage your audience, grow advertising revenue and build your brand. Unlike running an event on a social media platform, you have the opportunity to collect rich customer data. That’s critically important as we move into the cookieless future. Learn more about live blog here.
Every year, there’s a lot of excitement for the SaaStr Annual event. Instead of highlighting the fantastic guest speakers and presentations, you will see in San Francisco on September 13-15; this guide is different.
Business Conferences: The Most Fun You Have At Work?
Let’s get real for a second… When your company sends you to the SaaStr Annual 2022 event, it probably feels like an all-expense paid trip—getting paid to drink, party, and socialize during company time. Sounds fantastic, right?
Having fun at industry events is why these events are so popular. Whether you’re hitting the party scene, dance floor, or grabbing coffee, mingling at a conference is an excellent way to meet people. But, here’s the awkward truth…
If you come back from the SaaStr Annual 2022 and tell your team that you partied the whole time, this might happen to you:
So, how do you solve this problem? You want to enjoy the conference while hitting your goals. Following these tips will help you leave San Francisco with a smile on your face rather than a hangover.
Unorthodox Ways To Get More Out Of SaaStr Annual 2022
The orthodox way to win at SaaStr Annual 2022 is to send a small army of employees and pull out all the stops to entertain people. What about the rest of us? We’ve got to get creative to make the most of the event.
1) The 50% Unofficial Track Rule
When you look at the SaaStr Annual event schedule, it can feel overwhelming. There are more than 160 events to consider. Attempting to attend even a fraction of the available events can drain your battery faster than watching Netflix on your smartphone.
Enter the 50% unofficial track rule. If you’ve been around the conference scene for a while, you’ve probably heard of the “hallway track.” In essence, the hallway track refers to the chats, surprise encounters, and other developments that hit you when you are in the hallways, corridors, and elevators at an event.
Traditionally, the hallway track is where some of the best conversations happen. To get more of these opportunities, intentionally limit your event attendance. For example, attending a pre-lunch and a pre-dinner event each day means you have a ready-made opening to invite interesting people to drinks or dinner.
When possible, leave a gap of 30-60 minutes between events. This is essential for introverts who can find events tiring. Break time between events is your opportunity to act on what you have learned and the people you have met. See the following strategy in this guide.
2) Stand Out With Great Memes and Emojis
Many people take meticulous notes at business conferences and share their thoughts on social media. That’s a handy way to earn attention at the conference. If you’re the kind of person who loves getting an A+ and learning, go for the intensive note-taking approach.
For the rest of us? We’re going to take a different approach. Channel your inner Seinfeld and look for fun observations to make could be as simple as tweeting a few great one-liners to social media with some g.
To help you develop ideas for these posts, use the following brainstorming prompts:
Interesting Numbers and Statistics.
Did a session reveal surprising data points? If the data is based on original research, it is worth sharing. This also applies to forecasts and predictions if they are credible.
Less Well-Known SaaS Tools.
Keep an eye out for new and upcoming SaaS tools. Imagine if you were the first person to tell your friends about Zapier or Notion. You might find out about the next must-have app at SaaStr Annual 2022.
Meeting new people is one of the biggest benefits of attending a conference. Giving a social media shot out to a few interesting people is an excellent way to add value. As a bonus, giving a speaker a shout-out (especially if you say specifically why you think people should follow them) makes it easier to connect with them afterward.
Disagree With The Speaker.
SaaStr speakers and panelists have significant expertise, yet nobody is infallible. If you hear something that doesn’t make sense, quote it and respectfully disagree. A well-thought-out disagreement can attract attention from others at the event.
Post About Conference Breaking News
Some companies wait to make big announcements about growing their team, funding rounds, and other developments for their conference appearance. Look out for these announcements and share them fast. If you’re quick, you might even beat TechCrunch to be the first person to share something exciting.
Before diving into this strategy, keep your humor balanced and avoid negativity. People work hard to produce events like SaaStr Annual 2022, and we don’t want to insult them.
3) Host An Active Event With Your Team
Hosting a mini-event like a dinner with your top customer is a classic way to make the most of an event. However, scheduling a dinner event with people right now could be challenging. All the people you want to meet might be booked up.
The solution? Go off script and organize an active event. It could be as simple as organizing a run or walking across the Golden Gate bridge – it’s an SF icon that many people haven’t seen before. Or you might go for something more elaborate like a “coffee crawl” – meet up with people at 7 am or 8 am and see how many local coffee shops like the Equator Coffees at Round House Cafe, the Goody Cafe, or Caffe Trieste you can visit in 60-90 minutes.
Here are some additional ways to organize a mini-event for your team, partners, and customers. Becoming the host of an event, even a small event with just a dozen people makes it easier to create deeper relationships with the people you meet at SaaStr.
If you’re going to SaaStr, you’re probably excited about the future of technology. Yet, our future is also shaped by the past. When you’re in San Francisco, take the chance to learn about the city’s history. For example, you might visit Alcatraz Island, Fort Point National Historic Site, or even the USS Pampanito. Take an hour out of your day to see the city’s history.
Go For A Walk or Run In A Park
San Francisco has many great parks like Golden Gate Park and outdoor areas like the Twin Peaks. If you don’t like a walk, rent bicycles or e-bikes.
The fundamental concept is to network with people and keep moving around. Most of us spend too much time sitting, so getting active is a way to stand out.
4) Learn From The SaaStr Sponsors
Without sponsors, SaaStr tickets would likely become even more expensive! So, take some time out of your day to talk to the sponsors. Naturally, they will have questions for you and wonder if you are a potential customer.
When you meet with sponsors, come prepared with a few questions to start the conversation. Here are a few examples to get you started.
Is this your first time at SaaStr Annual?
What results are you seeing so far from the event?
I’m hosting a lunch event tomorrow. Would you like to come?
What are your most popular integrations?
Don’t hesitate to sign up for a demo if the sponsor’s offering sounds useful. Implementing a new technology you discover through SaaStr might give you a significant advantage.
5) Seek Out Integration Partners
Many people attend business conferences to hunt for customers. It’s a wise strategy. It’s worth pursuing. If your product has an API or supports integrations, look for integration partners at SaaStr.
For a few reasons, looking for integrations at SaaStr is better than looking at a company’s website. When you have a conversation with a potential integration partner, you can ask them about their partner program. Imagine you set up a partnership with Salesloft, Calendly, and Chargebee. That partnership can bring new users to you.
With a smaller company, setting up an integration might involve a few conversations. With a larger company, the process might have more steps, like filling in an application. However, you can speed up the process by working with the person you met at the event.
6) Use The Google Sheets Strategy To Double Your SaaStr Impact
Showing up at SaaStr and hoping good things happen is what conference amateurs do. True conference pros only go to an event if they have a plan. Fortunately, you can put together your Google Sheet for SaaStr success in less than 30 minutes.
Create a Google Sheet with the following information:
Name: list the person’s name
Company: put the company name here
Email Address: put the person’s email address here
Social Media Handle: no email address? Putting their social media handle here is a good alternative.
Context: Write a quick sentence about the person and how you met them. This could be simple like “Met in the coffee line on day 1 of the event”
Next Step: Write a note about what you will do next to build a relationship with the person you met. Most of the time, the next step will be to look them up on LinkedIn or, even better, set up a 15-20 minute phone call.
To make life easier, we created a Google Sheet file for you. Just click on File -> Make a Copy to make a copy of the spreadsheet.
Sure, you could put this information into your CRM or another format. Putting it into a Google Sheet to make it easier to focus. For the best results, combine this strategy with the 50% strategy outlined above. Don’t make the mistake of relying on your memory. You are going to meet a lot of people at the event. Write down the names of people you meet so that.
SaaStr Annual 2022: What Will You Achieve?
The SaaStr event is just a few days away. Pick one or two strategies from this post to get even better results from the event. Putting in even an hour or two of effort using these methods will easily double your results!
There are several virtual conference platforms you can use to host your online event. The best conference platforms let organizers host live stream events, accommodate large audiences, market their events, collect insightful data, broadcast on multiple platforms and devices, and encourage attendee engagement.
To select a virtual event platform for your online conferences and virtual meetings, use the insights provided in this guide to make an informed decision. While our focus is on the best virtual conference platforms for large events, these tools can often be used to run a smaller online meetings as well.
This guide reveals the top 10 virtual conference platforms, including features and pricing information for each so you can make a good decision as the event organizer.
Top 10 Virtual Conference Platforms
We have selected some of the best virtual conference platforms, according to user rankings on Capterra. Please note that these rankings change over time as more users review the apps and other solutions.
1. Grip (Capterra Average Rating: 5 stars out of 5)
Grip offers virtual conference tools suitable for virtual and hybrid event experiences. As the event host, you can stream your online experience to other major streaming solutions like Zoom, YouTube, and Twitch. The software enhances networking, a key part of the attendee experience, through its AI-powered event matchmaking tool. Organizers can add a live stream to Grip’s main stage, and it automatically shows content on the users’ feeds.
The platform’s Event Matchmaking tool creates a networking experience through speed networking, roundtables, instant video calls, multi-person meetings, and hosted buyer meetings. This matchmaking capability makes this platform stand out compared to other virtual meeting platforms.
In addition to major streaming solutions, Grip also integrates with Arena to enhance audience engagement. Arena Live Chat is a live chat tool that improves engagement through instant messaging, Q&As, polls, surveys, group chat, and more.
Arena Live Blog is another effective tool for digital agencies and companies looking to share quick updates as their conference unfolds. To capitalize on data collected from customers, companies also use Arena Personas plugged into their Customer Data Platform (CDP) to build customer profiles and better understand their preferences and interests.
2. Demio (Capterra Average Rating: 4.7 stars out of 5)
Demio is one of our top virtual conference platforms because of its simple event registration capabilities, engagement benefits, and analytics tools.
Demio offers real-time HD streaming, simulated events, and pre-recorded presentations. Organizers can add their own logo and branding, and attendees can join virtual conferences with just one click.
Notable, the Demio platform integrates with over 50 third-party software apps like HubSpot, Drip, ConvertKit, and MailChimp. Organizers can view attendees, collect contact details, manage their registration, and export contacts to a CSV file.
Demio offers a 14-day free trial, so you can evaluate if it is right for your needs. The company offers three paid plans: Starter ($34 per month with 50 attendees), growth ($69 per month with 150 attendees), and premium (request quote for pricing and support for more than 500 attendees).
3. Livestorm (Capterra Average Rating: 4.7 stars out of 5)
Livestorm is a browser-based platform that offers powerful live streaming features, where events can be hosted on desktop and mobile devices. The webinar software can be used for pre-recorded online events, live events, or on-demand events.
Organizers can track engagement, answer questions, add polls, chat with attendees, send emails, and use these insights to improve the experience for attendees.
Companies can promote their events through branded registration pages, built-in social sharing, company pages, automated emails, and more. Livestorm has solid features to enable an engaging interactive experience like Q&As for event guests, call-to-actions, live answer notifications, live attendees lists, and screen sharing.
Like several of the other online community platforms profiled here, Livestorm offers several plans. To take the platform for a test drive and see how it performs with interactive webinars, try the free plan which has a maximum event duration of 20 minutes. To accommodate more event participants, top-tier support, and other features, sign up for the Pro, Business, or Enterprise plan.
4. Communique Conferencing (Capterra Average Rating: 4.7 stars out of 5)
Communique Conferencing has effective solutions for audio conferencing, web conferencing, and virtual community events. Its webcasting software lets organizers broadcast video and audio to over 30,000 attendees. This large virtual venue capacity means the platform pairs well with even the largest events.
Its virtual conferencing platform creates an online environment that includes features for networking, keynote presentations, booths, exhibit halls, and conferences. It also has a custom solution for hosting virtual career fairs and hybrid events. To find out more about the platform’s pricing, contact the company.
5. Zoom (Capterra Average Rating: 4.6 stars out of 5)
Zoom offers several different products for video webinars, meetings, phone systems, events, chat, and more. Zoom Meetings can host up to 1,000 participants with audience chats, and Zoom’s webinar platform can broadcast to 50,000 attendees. Virtual conference hosts can stream HD video, cancel background noise, and add virtual backgrounds with Zoom’s software.
Zoom’s key features include the capability to create their own post-conference landing page and set up reminder emails. To encourage audience participation, Zoom also offers Q&A sessions and attendee networking via breakout rooms.
Zoom’s Webinars starts at $690 per year (up to 500 attendees) and Zoom Webinar is priced at $890 per year (up to 500 attendees). At higher price points, the virtual event platform can serve over 10,000 live attendees.
6. Cisco Webex (Capterra Average Rating: 4.6 stars out of 5)
Cisco Webex is a virtual event platform that supports up to 10,000 attendees. To keep your attendees engaged, the platform offers breakout rooms (i.e. a virtual networking lounge), polls, chats, and Q&As.
The platform’s webinars come with post-event reporting, moderator controls, custom presentation options, and personalized registration pages. Cisco Webex offers several different pricing plans depending on each organizer’s needs.
The free basic plan is limited to 50-minute meetings and 100 attendees. The Business plan is $25 per month with support for 200 attendees. The enterprise plan provides support for up to 1000 attendees (contact sales for pricing).
7. Airmeet (Capterra Average Rating: 4.5 stars out of 5)
Airmeet is a platform that lets organizers host up to 100,000 participants for a hybrid or physical event. Organizers can connect attendees through mobile devices, live stream events on Facebook and YouTube, and use integrations to exchange event data.
With this hosting platform, organizers can add real-time polling, collect event insights, sell tickets with different tiers, and easily register attendees with registration forms.
The virtual event software has several plans, including social webinars and events. Both plans include interactive features such as the ability to gather audience questions.
Its plans include Social Webinars for results-driven webinars and Events for large-scale conferences. AirMeet has three plans: free, standard and pro. The free plan is limited to 100 attendees per event, while the standard plan (starts at $2400 per year) supports more users. To access all of the platform’s robust features (e.g. virtual booths, email marketing support, and networking features), see the pro plan which starts at $7500 per year.
8. GoToWebinar (Capterra Average Rating: 4.5 stars out of 5)
GoToWebinar is another virtual events platform that checks all the boxes of a top virtual events software. The video conferencing platform comes with powerful integrations, helpful analytics, engagement features, and flexible webinar modes. GoToWebinar comes with advanced security features and can quickly process credit card payments through Stripe.
GoToWebinar’s Webcast solution can host 3,000 to 100,000 attendees and its webinars can be pre-recorded which makes it a great pick for virtual community events. Content can be delivered through pre-recorded webinars, webcasting, and interactive live recording.
The platform has four plans: lite, standard, pro and enterprise. The lite plan starts at $49 per organizer per month and includes support for up to 250 participants. GoToWebinars also offers automated emails in each plan to support your email marketing campaigns
Its four pricing plans categorized by number of participants range from $49 per organizer per month to $399 per organizer per month.
9. Eventzilla (Capterra Average Rating: 4.4 stars out of 5)
Eventzilla is an all-in-one virtual conference software that also offers event registration for hybrid, virtual, and in-person events.
Event organizers can use this platform to build event agendas, run marketing campaigns, create mobile-friendly pages, and manage multiple events simultaneously.
Users can try Eventzilla for free. The Basic plan starts at $1.50 per event attendee up to a maximum of 100 attendees. For additional users, see the company’s higher-tier plans.
10. ClickMeeting (Capterra Average Rating: 4.2 stars out of 5)
ClickMeeting is a virtual conference platform for hosting product demos, online business meetings, online training courses, and huge online events. Its huge virtual events product lets users host up to 10,000 attendees. Users can stream events live on YouTube or Facebook and add call-to-action buttons to generate conversions. The ability to connect to a wider audience on social media platforms when video streaming makes ClickMeeting appealing.
Some of ClickMeeting’s powerful features include paid webinars, live webinars, on-demand webinars, screen sharing, and webinar recording (i.e., support for event recording). The product comes with a 30-day free trial and three paid subscription plans.
ClickMeeting if one of the most affordable virtual conference platforms, with plans starting at $25 per month and pricing changing based on the number of attendees, integrations and other features.
How to Choose the Right Virtual Conference Platform
Assess Your Needs
Begin by identifying the specific needs of your event. Consider factors like the expected number of attendees, the type of interactions you want to facilitate (e.g., breakout rooms, Q&A sessions, networking features), and the level of technical support required. Understanding your goals will help you prioritize which features are essential for your virtual meeting platform.
Compare Features and Pricing
Once you have a clear understanding of your needs, compare the features and pricing of different platforms. Look for tools that offer the functionalities you need, such as live streaming, real-time chat, and analytics. Ensure the pricing aligns with your budget, and consider whether the platform offers scalable options to accommodate future growth.
Read User Reviews
User reviews can provide valuable insights into the reliability and user-friendliness of a platform. Look for reviews on trusted sites like Capterra and G2, paying attention to both positive and negative feedback. Reviews can reveal common issues and highlight features that users find particularly beneficial, helping you make an informed decision.
Conclusion
Whether you’re hosting a webinar, conference, or virtual training, consider using one of the top virtual conference platforms mentioned. One of the reasons that Grip is a fantastic option is because it integrates Arena Live Chat in its live event platform. To find out which product is best for you, sign up for a free trial and take each Arena product for a test drive yourself.
A common theme among many of these tools is the importance of attendee engagement. With software tools provided by Arena, you can enhance user engagement, collect customer data, and build relationships with your audience during video conferences.
To select a virtual event platform for your online conferences and virtual meetings, use this guide fully updated in 2022. While our focus is on larger virtual meetings, these platforms can often be used to run a smaller online meetings as well.
This guide reveals the top 10 virtual conference platforms, including features and pricing information for each so you can make a good decision as the event organizer.
Best Virtual Conference Platforms
Our rankings are informed by the Capterra average star rating provided to each platform as of August 2022. These rankings change over time as more users review the app.
1. Grip (Capterra Average Rating: 5 stars out of 5)
Grip offers virtual conference software suitable for virtual and hybrid event experiences. As the event host, you can stream your online experience to other major streaming solutions like Zoom, YouTube, and Twitch. The software enhances networking, a key part of the attendee experience, through its AI-powered event matchmaking tool. Organizers can add a live stream to Grip’s main stage, and it automatically shows content on the users’ feeds.
The platform’s Event Matchmaking tool creates a networking experience through speed networking, roundtables, instant video calls, multi-person meetings, and hosted buyer meetings. This matchmaking capability makes this platform stand out compared to other virtual meeting platforms.
In addition to major streaming solutions, Grip also integrates with Arena to enhance audience engagement. Arena Live Chat is a live chat tool that improves engagement through instant messaging, Q&As, polls, surveys, group chat, and more.
Arena Live Blog is another effective tool for digital agencies and companies looking to share quick updates as their conference unfolds. To capitalize on data collected from customers, companies also use Arena Personas plugged to their Customer Data Platform (CDP) to build customer profiles and better understand their preferences and interests.
2. Demio (Capterra Average Rating: 4.7 stars out of 5)
Demio is one of our top virtual conference platforms because of its simple event registration capabilities, engagement benefits, and analytics tools.
Demio offers real-time HD streaming, simulated events, and pre-recorded presentations. Organizers can add their own logo and branding, and attendees can join virtual conferences with just one click.
Notable, the Demio platform integrates with over 50 third-party software apps like HubSpot, Drip, ConvertKit, and MailChimp. Organizers can view attendees, collect contact details, manage their registration, and export contacts to a CSV file.
Demio offers a 14-day free trial, so you can evaluate if it is right for your needs. The company offers three paid plans: Starter ($34 per month with 50 attendees), growth ($69 per month with 150 attendees), and premium (request quote for pricing and support for more than 500 attendees).
3. Livestorm (Capterra Average Rating: 4.7 stars out of 5)
Livestorm is a browser-based platform that offers powerful live streaming features. Events can be hosted on desktop and mobile devices. The webinar software can be used for pre-recorded online events, live events, or on-demand events.
Organizers can track engagement, answer questions, add polls, chat with attendees, send emails, and use these insights to improve the experience for attendees.
Companies can promote their events through branded registration pages, built-in social sharing, company pages, automated emails, and more. Livestorm has solid features to enable an engaging interactive experience like Q&As for event guests, call-to-actions, live answer notifications, live attendees lists, and screen sharing.
Like several of the other video conferencing tools profiled here, Livestorm offers several plans. To take the platform for a test drive and see how it performs with interactive webinars, try the free plan which has a maximum event duration of 20 minutes. To accommodate more event participants, top-tier support, and other features, sign up for the Pro, Business, or Enterprise plan.
4. Communique Conferencing (Capterra Average Rating: 4.7 stars out of 5)
Communique Conferencing has effective solutions for audio conferencing, web conferencing, and virtual events. Its webcasting software lets organizers broadcast video and audio to over 30,000 attendees. This large virtual venue capacity means the platform pairs well with even the largest events.
Its virtual conferencing platform creates an online environment that includes features for networking, keynote presentations, booths, exhibit halls, and conferences. It also has a custom solution for hosting virtual career fairs and hybrid events. To find out more about the platform’s pricing, contact the company.
5. Zoom (Capterra Average Rating: 4.6 stars out of 5)
Zoom offers several different products for video webinars, meetings, phone systems, events, chat, and more. Zoom Meetings can host up to 1,000 participants with audience chats, and Zoom’s webinar platform can broadcast to 50,000 attendees. Virtual conference hosts can stream HD video, cancel background noise, and add virtual backgrounds with Zoom’s software.
Zoom’s key features include the capability to create their own post-conference landing page and set up reminder emails. To encourage audience participation, Zoom also offers Q&A sessions and attendee networking via breakout rooms.
Zoom’s Webinars starts at $690 per year (up to 500 attendees) and Zoom Webinar is priced at $890 per year (up to 500 attendees). At higher price points, the virtual event platform can serve over 10,000 live attendees.
6. Cisco Webex (Capterra Average Rating: 4.6 stars out of 5)
Cisco Webex is a virtual event platform that supports up to 10,000 attendees. To keep your attendees engaged, the platform offers breakout rooms (i.e. a virtual networking lounge), polls, chats, and Q&As.
The platform’s webinars come with post-event reporting, moderator controls, custom presentation options, and personalized registration pages. Cisco Webex offers several different pricing plans depending on each organizer’s needs.
The free basic plan is limited to 50-minute meetings and 100 attendees. The Business plan is $25 per month with support for 200 attendees. The enterprise plan provides support for up to 1000 attendees (contact sales for pricing).
7. Airmeet (Capterra Average Rating: 4.5 stars out of 5)
Airmeet is a platform that lets organizers host up to 100,000 participants for a hybrid or physical event. Organizers can connect attendees through mobile devices, live stream events on Facebook and YouTube, and use integrations to exchange event data.
With this hosting platform, organizers can add real-time polling, collect event insights, sell tickets with different tiers, and easily register attendees with registration forms.
The virtual meeting software platform has several plans, including social webinars and events. Both plans include interactive features such as the ability to gather audience questions.
Its plans include Social Webinars for results-driven webinars and Events for large-scale conferences. AirMeet has three plans: free, standard and pro. The free plan is limited to 100 attendees per event, while the standard plan (starts at $2400 per ear) supports more users. To access all of the platform’s robust features (e.g. virtual booths, email marketing support, and networking features), see the pro plan which starts at $7500 per year.
8. GoToWebinar (Capterra Average Rating: 4.5 stars out of 5)
GoToWebinar is another virtual events platform that checks all the boxes of a top virtual events software. The video conferencing platform comes with powerful integrations, helpful analytics, engagement features, and flexible webinar modes. GoToWebinar comes with advanced security features and can quickly process credit card payments through Stripe.
GoToWebinar’s Webcast solution can host 3,000 to 100,000 attendees and its webinars can be pre-recorded which makes it a great pick for digital events. Content can be delivered through pre-recorded webinars, webcasting, and interactive live recording.
The platform has four plans: lite, standard, pro and enterprise. The lite plan starts at $49 per organizer per month and includes support for up to 250 participants. GoToWebinars also offers automated emails in each plan to support your email marketing campaigns
Its four pricing plans categorized by number of participants range from $49 per organizer per month to $399 per organizer per month.
9. Eventzilla (Capterra Average Rating: 4.4 stars out of 5)
Eventzilla is an all-in-one virtual conference software that also offers event registration for hybrid, virtual, and in-person events.
Event organizers can use this platform to build event agendas, run marketing campaigns, create mobile-friendly pages, and manage multiple events simultaneously.
Users can try Eventzilla for free. The Basic plan starts at $1.50 per event attendee up to a maximum of 100 attendees. For additional users, see the company’s higher-tier plans.
10. ClickMeeting (Capterra Average Rating: 4.2 stars out of 5)
ClickMeeting is a virtual conference platform for hosting product demos, online business meetings, online training courses, and huge online events. Its huge virtual events product lets users host up to 10,000 attendees. Users can stream events live on YouTube or Facebook and add call-to-action buttons to generate conversions. The ability to connect to a wider audience on social media platforms when video streaming makes ClickMeeting appealing.
Some of ClickMeeting’s powerful features include paid webinars, live webinars, on-demand webinars, screen sharing, and webinar recording (i.e., support for event recording). The product comes with a 30-day free trial and three paid subscription plans.
ClickMeeting plans start at $25 per month and pricing changes based on the number of attendees, integrations and other features.
Conclusion
Whether you’re hosting a webinar, conference, or virtual training, consider using one of the top virtual conference platforms mentioned. One of the reasons that Grip is a fantastic option is because it integrates Arena Live Chat in its live event platform. To find out which product is best for you, sign up for a free trial and take each Arena product for a test drive yourself.
A common theme among many of these tools is the importance of attendee engagement. With software tools provided by Arena, you can enhance user engagement, collect customer data, and build relationships with your audience during video conferences.
A social stream is a powerful way to leverage public posts to grow your audience and engagement. With a social media stream, you’ll regularly have new content to share and ease the burden on your editorial team to hit publish constantly.
How exactly does a social network stream or social media wall help you? Stay tuned because we’re going to cover that next.
What Is A Social Stream?
To explain the value of a social media stream, look at a breaking news example. Imagine your organization is covering a championship event or election. Every few seconds or minutes, new developments happen. It may be challenging for staff to cover these developments.
What if you could easily pull in a relevant Facebook post, a tweet, or other social content to enrich your coverage? Your staff would find it much easier to cover all of the angles of the event thanks to social content curated from a wide range of social media accounts.
Who knows, you might even find some social media influencers to feature in upcoming marketing campaigns and virtual events!
Social Stream Coverage: How Does It Work In Practice?
Also known as a social media wall, this content technique highlights the amazing content created by your community. Including this community content in your website acts as social proof. Other people can see that your content and organization are attracting interest, and that makes it more appealing to participate in. When the rest of the visitors see that other people are excited about your brand, it makes your website and content more appealing.
Let’s say you are running a professional conference for your members like the Ontario Association of Veterinary Technicians (OAVT). The Association created a social feed on its website pulling in social media content using the hashtag #OAVT2022
This approach encourages event participants to use the event hashtag when they post. A social stream is effective because it encourages your audience to share their insights and promote your event. Furthermore, this type of social media stream can also help you improve your event content further in the future. You’ll better understand the themes and topics that interest your audience.
How Does A Social Stream Work?
The easiest way to explain a social stream is to look at a simple example. Through your market research, you know that your audience loves to use Twitter. That’s good news because most Twitter content is public and easy to search.
Setting up your social stream involves searching for relevant social media posts to find user-generated content relevant to your purpose. Usually, the search process focuses on looking for keywords that use a few specific keywords, like a hashtag. All of these updates are then reposted on your social media stream. To avoid upsetting your audience, make sure that you use a platform with a content moderation feature. Without this feature, you might accidentally end up featuring profanity on your website! Such inappropriate content may distract your audience from converting at best or hurt your reputation at worst.
Take a sneak-peak on how Arena’s Social Stream feature works in the video.
Using a social stream is an excellent way to augment your live blog and provide coverage for a breaking news event. Your social wall gathers content from multiple social accounts on several social networks through keyword searches and other means. That means your team can focus on interacting with your audience and bringing your content strategy to life.
Four Social Stream Benefits For Publishers And Brands
There are several reasons why curating relevant content from a social media feed supports your organization’s goals.
1) Give Your Website A Social Experience
Most of the top websites online today include a social dimension. Without a social component, it will be more difficult for your website. The good news is that you don’t have to build a social media network to gain these benefits. Instead, you can add a social media element by setting up social content aggregation (i.e., a social media wall) on your website.
When your audience sees that their thoughts and opinions are featured on your website, they’re more likely to return. Potential customers are more likely to trust your brand when they see others positively discussing your content.
2) Automate Content Curation
Tracking down relevant content for content curation can be a painfully time-consuming process. Social streams play a powerful role by automatically identifying and sharing social media content. There’s no coding required – you just set up relevant hashtags and keywords and watch the content flow into your website.
Once the content curation process is set up, it just takes periodic monitoring to ensure you are curating content relevant to your goals.
3) Increase Website Traffic and Engagement
Regularly posting new content to your website signals to people and search engines that your business is active in the digital world. Regularly posting high-quality digital content is table stakes to compete online.
However, there are limits to how much your content team can produce. That’s one way where adding a social stream to your website helps. By regularly posting new content every few seconds or minutes, your website is always sharing something new. That sends powerful signals to search engines that they should keep paying attention to your website. Ultimately, your SEO campaigns will benefit and yield more traffic as a result.
When your social stream features positive interactions relating to your brand, it is far easier to trust your brand. As a result, website visitors are more likely to agree to join your email list and hear more about your offers.
4) Improved virtual event and hybrid event performance
Organizing a successful virtual event takes significant planning and effort. Getting more positive attendee reviews, leads and audience loyalty make it easier for your audience to interact with your brand. Including a social stream on your website helps event performance because your audience can easily find what other people are saying about the event.
Is A Social Stream The Right Move For You?
While a thriving social stream can yield amazing performance, some prerequisites exist to make it work. Without these building blocks in place, connecting to the Facebook feed or seeking to optimize your social stream settings are unlikely to yield results. Discuss these four questions to decide if you are ready to launch a social stream.
How many social media followers do you have?
Generating buzz on social media is tough when you have few followers. A general rule of thumb is that a social stream produces better results when you have at least one thousand followers. If your organization has few followers, refocus your strategy to grow your social following.
With very few followers, it will be difficult to stream with ease because there are simply not enough people interacting with your content.
What level of engagement do you have with your followers?
Review your social media feed and look over the last few weeks. How often do your followers meaningfully engage with your content? That is a good signal if you see a steady increase in comments, content sharing, and other interactions. If engagement is low, find out why. Your content may not be connecting with your followers. In that case, running a social stream may not produce many results.
What’s in it for your social followers to talk about you?
Regularly answering the question “what’s in it for me?” is one of the most critical questions in marketing. People in your audience have countless other opportunities to discover information and community online – why should they pay attention to you? There are various ways to solve this question, like offering exclusive virtual events or classic incentives like discount codes for attending your event.
Are you giving your followers a good reason to interact at a point in time?
Social media walls are often run for a short period ranging from a few hours to a few days. Therefore, giving your followers a compelling reason to interact with you intensively while you run the social media wall is crucial.
Organizing virtual events are one of the best ways to spark high levels of engagement. Planning an exciting virtual event or hybrid event is easier when you start with proven ideas. For additional inspiration, check out our post 8 Online Event Ideas for News and Media Publishers.
How To Choose The Best Social Stream Tool
Selecting the best social stream platform for your website is easier when you know the right features and capabilities to look for.
Simple Set-Up Process
Adding a social stream to your website should not take hours or days. At a minimum, the tool you provide should provide step-by-step setup instructions. These step-by-step setup guides may take the form of videos, screenshots, and other formats.
Track Record of Performance Improvements
Social media features and platforms are constantly evolving. For example, Instagram is changing in 2022 to better compete against TikTok. The social stream tool you select should be regularly updated to add support for new platforms, API changes, and other changes.
In addition to keeping up with changes, ask about new fantastic features in the pipeline that may make the app even more valuable to you.
Customer Support
What if your social stream freezes or malfunctions during a significant event? In that case, you need access to technical support resources like a specialized social stream support team. In addition, find out how the support team works (e.g., email only, phone support, hours of support) so that you can plan appropriately.
Key Social Stream Product Features
With those points covered, there are specific advanced features to look for in a social stream tool. Arena currently offers all of these capabilities so that you can save time and grow your audience faster.
Auto-posting: Enable automatic posting on your website and have your live blogs run automatically with user-generated content. This means you don’t have to approve each new update manually.
Real-time stream and results: Allow content to flow to your stream and track results from social media in real-time.
Content personalization: You have the choice to repost social content “as is” or add your commentary, analysis, and perspective. Periodically commenting on curated content is a smart way to add value to your audience.
Hashtag and Keyword Support: Track hashtags or keywords on social media and have a unified social stream about specific topics or events.
Integrations: Create social streams for networks such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, Reddit, and personalized RSS feed types.
Social Stream Templates: Create and save social stream templates that can be reused multiple times.
Publishing Calendar Support: Your social stream tool should fit your schedule needs. Want to schedule content ahead of time for the holidays or weekends? With Arena, you can add specific content to your library for later publishing. This is a smart way to save up content for holiday periods so that your editorial team can take a break.
Embed content to your website: Embed a social wall with stream results directly into your website, constantly feeding your fresh audience content. Embedding a social stream widget on your website gives your audience another reason to stay on your website, which means more chances for conversions.
Branded Design: Design your stream according to your brand’s style guide to give your audience a consistent experience. Alternatively, you can use the default settings.
Use Content Moderation: Some social media content is unsuitable for your brand’s values and goals. Using filters and widgets, you can filter out profanity and other unsuitable content based on your chosen criteria.
To lift engagement even further, use Arena Live Chat to encourage your audience to share their thoughts and questions directly on your website.
How To See A Social Stream In Action
Watching how other organizations use social media walls and social streams is a great starting point. However, there’s nothing like seeing this technology come to life in your organization.
Virtual events and hybrid events have boomed in popularity recently. More companies are using a chat platform for live events to make their events more interactive. Your event team can see and answer questions and encourage connections with a chat service.
If you’re new to offering a chat experience in your virtual events, use our tips to grow audience engagement, increase your attendee count and offer a memorable attendee experience.
Nine Reasons Why Companies Are Adding Live Chat To Virtual Events
Here are a few ways adding a chat tool can help your live events strategy. Live chat is influential in lifting sales, marketing, and growing your online audiences. Let’s start by looking at how virtual events powered by live chat grows top-line revenue.
How To Get More Sales With Virtual Events and Live Chat
The sales team can benefit from live chat in several ways. For the best results, invite a few people from sales to each chat experience you run. If they cannot attend live, offer to provide the chat transcript for their review after the event.
1) Get Warm Leads
A warm lead is someone who already knows, likes, and trusts your brand to some degree. From a sales perspective, converting warm leads into customers is usually easier and faster.
Let’s say that you have 100 chat users in your virtual event chat. Following up with all event attendees is worthwhile, but the follow-up process should be tailored. Review questions and comments chat users post in the chat module. A person who asks about product pricing, shipping, or features is likely to be a high-quality warm lead. Such a lead merits immediate follow-up.
Use the attendee report as a resource for the rest of your chat participants. For example, you may have ten warm leads and 90 other chat users. The sales team will immediately respond to the warm leads. Engage the rest of your chat users using your marketing engagement platform. Check to see if your chat options include the functionality to export a transcript and attendee report so that you can quickly identify the right people to interact with.
2) Deepen Product Knowledge
The ability to answer product questions in a detailed and persuasive manner is crucial for sales. Paying attention to the questions and comments that business professionals and other attendees ask in your chat session has training value. Attending streaming events alongside customers is a powerful way to keep your sales team informed about the latest features and product developments.
After each virtual event, compile a list of the most common questions. Share these questions with the sales team. It may help better interact with prospects during sales calls and meetings.
3) Improve Sales Win Rates With Market Understanding
Understanding your customers’ needs, problems, and concerns is vital to sales success. When a salesperson attends a virtual event, they have a chance to see their customers in action. In particular, sales reps can deepen their understanding of the market by looking for the following:
Questions, especially those questions asked more than once, can help the salesperson improve their prospecting. Knowing the questions prospects tend to ask means you can develop better pitches. Customer feedback can also improve sales presentation slide decks and similar resources.
Reviewing chat messages for problems that people mention is helpful. For example, your prospects may not know that your company offers advanced analytics. If you see users complaining about working with data, paying attention to problems can help.
These benefits for the sales team are significant for newer salespeople who may not know your product and market deeply.
What A Chat Platform For Live Events Improves Marketing Results
A chat platform can help you reach your key marketing metrics faster and more efficiently. As you become more familiar and skilled with running virtual events, these marketing benefits will compound over time.
4) Boost Engagement
What if your users attended a company conference and could not interact with anybody? That would be a painfully dull event, and those attendees would be less likely to register for future virtual events you offer.
Several factors matter in creating a compelling virtual event like offering a high quality of video, exciting content, and a sense of community connection. Adding live chat to your virtual events transforms your virtual event from a boring lecture to a community experience.
While attendee questions to your company are highly valuable, it is smart to encourage community connections as well. For example, you might organize breakout sessions where current customers can share their experiences with each other and prospects.
5) Increase Time Spent On Your Content
According to SEMrush, the average worldwide bounce rate for all websites is 30%. However, several industries have a bounce rate of over 40% including news & media, real estate, and groceries. When users leave your website quickly, it’s tough to build a connection.
Offering a virtual event with chat apps gives you the power to cut your bounce rate down. When a person signs up for a virtual event, they are usually planning to attend for an extended period of time. As a result, bounce rates fall. By maintaining low bounce rates and engagement, you have an excellent opportunity to grow organic search traffic.
Further, highly engaged prospects are more likely to give you useful feedback about your concern. That qualitative feedback is a useful supplement to your customer data platform. Over time, you will be better able to predict the types of content that reliably connect with customers.
By increasing time on site through virtual events and live chat, you have more opportunities to present calls to action for your users. That means more leads for your sales team to engage after the event.
6) Earn Google’s Trust (and Traffic)
In digital marketing, the term “E-A-T” has recently gained popularity. The EAT acronym means “Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness.” Becoming a trusted authority in your industry takes deliberate effort over time. It includes publishing useful articles, videos and other resources on your website.
In addition, you can earn credibility through virtual events and by offering a chat window. For example, you can harness the power of content curation. Imagine you are running a tax accounting firm. Earning the attention and trust of accounting clients is challenging. That’s where organizing live events with a chat service helps.
Global accounting firm Deloitte offered a virtual conference in May 2022 with live presenters and engagement tools. While the Deloitte event was aimed at accounting professionals seeking continuing education, similar events on tax (e.g. tax planning strategies) could be offered to clients. The Deloitte virtual event included two partners serving in co-host roles. Having more than one event host is wise, especially when your virtual events span several days.
An accounting firm that offers tax planning virtual events from December to March can earn trust. The firm can invite speakers to discuss changes to tax laws and regulations that may help their clients save money or avoid audits. Furthermore, you can record the virtual event and then use the transcript to create additional expertise-boosting content assets.
Pursuing E-A-T with live events and live chat also matters for media companies and publishers. Your staff editors, experts, and contributors will draw in the core audience. But why stop there? Increase credibility further by adding more diverse voices to your coverage. For example, you could invite a few well-regarded social media influencers to serve as remote presenters and chat with participants. Those influencers will lend your event more credibility and further grow your audience.
7) Make Your Virtual Events More Compelling With A Social Event
Recent research from Harvard University found that 36% of all Americans experience loneliness. Your virtual events play a role in addressing the loneliness and isolation epidemic. Your virtual event will help people connect with others who share their interests and passions by offering live chat.
To further encourage social connections and networking, offer a mix of experiences in your virtual event. It is especially important to provide breakout sessions and small group experiences. These smaller group gatherings make it easier for your audience to connect with each other.
Growing Your Audience With Chat-Powered Virtual Events
Online publishers and media companies are increasingly turning to online events as a strategy to grow their audience. Adding live chat makes publisher virtual events more effective in several ways.
8) Increase Subscriber Retention
In publishing, it is traditional to put significant effort into acquiring paying subscribers. Retaining subscribers is a different story. Your subscribers have many different demands on their attention. One-quarter of American households pay for at least three streaming services today.
Offering virtual events supported by live chat as a subscriber-only benefit is a powerful way to keep your subscribers engaged.
9) Develop Strategic Alliances With Virtual Events
Alliances with influencers, experts, and authors can all play a role in helping you to grow your audience. As you plan your event series, set a goal to include special guests interesting to your audience.
The Wall St Journal has a conference series called WSJ Live that includes online events for different executive audiences like CIO Exchange and the CMO Network Member Breakout. You may not have the Wall St Journal’s resources, but this strategy can be adapted. For example, a lifestyle publication might offer virtual events with up-and-coming chefs to spotlight the most exciting restaurants.
What To Look For In Your Live Chat Tool
You’ve seen many ways a live chat app can lift marketing, sales, and audience growth results. Now, you might be wondering – which chat tool is right for you? Arena Live Chat is a great choice, of course. If you’re curious to compare and contrast Arena to other platforms, there are a few key features to keep in mind.
To successfully use live chat for live events, make sure your app includes the following:
When you offer virtual events to your event attendees, participating in live chat should be seamless. That’s why it is essential to have a chat widget appear on your website. There’s nothing for your attendees to install.
During event chat sessions, emotions may run high. Often, that’s a great sign of highly engaged attendees. However, there is also a risk of inappropriate content and chats. Providing detailed instructions to your event moderators is one way to reduce inappropriate behavior. In larger events, chat event moderation is easier when you have a chat tool that automatically filters profanity.
Think of your virtual event as a traditional conference. Some people will be happy to raise their hand and ask a question in public – like posting a question in a public chat. Other people prefer to raise questions and comments privately. Your audience chat experience should include both a public chat room and the capability to send private chat messages back and forth.
It’s crucial to select a live chat platform that works for you today and your future events.
Today, you might run virtual events for a few dozen attendees. Attendance will increase as your audience grows and more people become interested in your online events. Check to see if your live chat tool can accommodate larger audiences.
Planning a successful virtual event takes time and effort. Your event technology should not add to the burden. Make sure you select a live chat tool that is simple and easy to install and configure. Likewise, your event team should be able to set up events in minutes without resorting to complicated instructions.
Want to see how Arena Live Chat performs? Contact us today to request a demo and you can see how our platform enhances virtual events.
Ready To Try Live Chat For Free?
Now that you know how Live Chat tools can enhance events, your next step is to try a Live Chat Tool. Arena’s group Live Chat tool is simple and allows you to create and embed a chat to your site in minutes. You can see how easy it is to set up in the video below.
Do you want more live stream engagement from your target audience? It’s getting more complex. The competition for viewer engagement is significant.
For example, in a 2020 study, the top three distractions for US employees working from home include social media, smartphones, and binge-watching content. These distractions make it difficult to maintain high levels of live stream engagement.
Whether you are focused on a product launch or other types of virtual events, video streaming technology can help. When you have the right content ideas, delivering engaging content gets much easier. Use these live streaming tips and examples below to create your rough plan to lift streaming engagement over time.
What Is A Live Stream?
A live stream is an online video broadcast where an individual or group of people appear on video to engage with their audience. As a rule of thumb, the live stream experience often includes screen sharing and individuals appearing on camera.
Typically, there are two ways that companies use a live stream to earn revenue. Some companies earn revenue by selling advertising space or sponsorships, especially in entertainment. Most live stream companies use it as part of their content strategy to attract prospects and fill their sales funnel.
Why Now Is The Time To Add Video Streaming To Your Marketing Strategy
Streaming sessions have fast become one of the best ways to attract prospects to your sales funnel. By 2027, the live stream market is projected to grow to $250 billion. The most successful early adopters of livestream video have been in the entertainment niche. Millions of people watch gamers play their favorite video games on Twitch, YouTube, and Facebook.
The stream experience is not limited to gamers, though. Live stream sessions are increasingly being used to sell products (i.e., live shopping), promote products, and supercharge influencer marketing campaigns.
The growth of Live Stream Video Sessions is Booming, as Shown in the Following Statistics:
Investing in live streaming now means you have the opportunity to win in the marketplace as an early adopter.
This finding reveals that live streaming video experiences can become a profit center! Take note of media and entertainment brands looking for ways to grow their subscriber base!
There’s a reason why so many YouTubers and other online content creators encourage their viewers to like and comment on their videos. These techniques are proven to grow their audience.
That doesn’t mean you have to improvise every moment of the session. By all means, script out your content ideas so that you have a rough plan to follow.
Live stream content must be part of your marketing strategy if your target audience includes younger consumers.
This pattern is especially common in industries like apparel, fashion, and beauty, where a video demonstration adds value. It can be difficult to imagine if a piece of clothing or makeup is right for you. Seeing a popular influencer try out these products can make a big difference in conversions.
To grow engagement in your online events, live streaming deserves a place in your strategy. The good news is that you probably already have plenty of content ideas if your company has already published successful social media posts, blog posts, and other forms of content.
Four Companies Winning With Live Streaming
If you’re excited about the potential of adding live stream engagement to your company, your might be wondering: who else is succeeding with live streaming? Several businesses have are successfully using the power of live video to sell products, generate leads and grow their audiences.
The following examples show different types of online events where live streaming played a role
Bloomingdale’s Uses Livestreaming To Sell Products
The major US retailer invited Sandra Choi, creative director at Jimmy Choo, to present a 45-minute live stream session in 2021. To encourage immediate sales, the retailer offered a free personalized product for buying. All told, the company has run dozens of live streaming events to engage customers.
SAP Connects With B2B Customers With LinkedIn Live
SAP, a multi-billion dollar technology company based in Germany, has successfully used live video to grow its audience. The tech business has run its online show – SAP BTP Better Together: Customer Conversations – for over a year. Season 1 of the live stream show featured interviews with customers like Ferrara, the Gates Corporation, Evernex and others.
Eaton Answers Customer Questions Live
Eaton, a multi-national power management company, is successfully using LinkedIn Live to create live content. The business has created an “Ask the Experts” video series on various topics like career growth and diversity and inclusion. Eaton’s success shows that you don’t need to have celebrities or influences to make your live stream events interesting. Your employees have amazing expertise that is just waiting to be unlocked!
Outside of fashion and retail, live streaming experiences take different forms. For example, many B2B companies use webinars and other online events to connect with their prospects.
There is one challenge associated with focusing more resources on live stream events. Unlike prerecorded videos and webinars, live stream events require more effort. At a minimum, it is helpful to have at least two people – the presenter and the support person – involved in every live stream. Putting in the effort to create an excellent streaming experience, you will find it easier to maintain audience engagement.
Live Stream Engagement: 11 Ways To Get More Viewers
Now you’ve seen how companies are achieving wins with live streaming, it’s time to build your live streaming session. These tips can be used to enhance an existing live stream program or help you launch your first live stream session successfully.
Set Your Marketing Goal For The Livestream
Planning and executing a successful live stream video experience will take time and resources. Before you commit to those resources, choose a key metric and goal to evaluate the success of your event. For example, you might track the number of orders for the promoted product or the number of leads generated.
Start With What Works With Your Audience
Coming up with amazing content ideas is tough! To save time, review your analytics software to see which content has resonated with your audience in the past. A customer data platform makes it easier to attribute purchases and lead generation to specific content posts. If you don’t have a CDP in place, use other metrics like pageviews, shares, and engagement time to measure what’s working.
Seek Out Product Demonstration Opportunities
As you plan your live stream experience, plan a few ways to show your product. For software, a demo with real data can work well. Even colleges and universities can use demonstrations – use a smartphone and show people around your campus. These product demonstrations can form the core of the live stream in a live shopping event. Or you can add a product demo to the end of a different event.
Invite A Popular Influencer To Join You
There’s a reason why well-known authors and actors are often asked to give keynote talks at conferences – it helps to draw in the crowds. Apply the same principle to your streaming events by inviting an influencer to join you. When you strike the deal with the influencer, invite them to help you promote the event.
Marketing The Live Stream Event Is Critical
Once you’ve chosen a live stream platform, it’s time to promote your event. You can do this by posting on your social media platforms, running paid ads, and sending email sequences to your list.
Give your audience to register for the event by clicking a link and entering email information. Once someone is registered, send them automatic email reminders to be more likely to attend.
By asking your audience to register, you get a clearer idea of how many viewers to expect. It also helps to include an event hashtag on social media. This can increase follower engagement and generate more excitement for your live stream.
Select Your Live Stream Platform
There are two ways you can run a video streaming session: use an existing social platform or set up a branded platform that you control.
Social platforms like YouTube, Facebook, and Twitch make it easy to start a live broadcast. If your brand already has a significant presence on one of those platforms, it makes sense to stream there. However, there is a downside to relying on a third party. Your audience may become easily distracted by notifications, messages, and other interactions.
To minimize interruptions and distractions, set up your own platform using a tool like Restream lets you broadcast on more than 30 social media platforms simultaneously.
A professional platform also comes with features that help you monetize your live stream, increase audience engagement, and run post-broadcast analytics. If you don’t go with Restream, consider other industry-leading platforms like Vimeo, Dacast or Brightcove.
Vimeo OTT offers a seamless integration with Arena Live Chat. This way you can provide your audience with better engagement experiences during your live events.
Commit To A Livestreaming Schedule
Your live stream performance may have limited results when you first get started. That’s why a one-off approach to running a live stream is less likely to succeed. Instead, successful streaming strategies tend to commit to an ongoing schedule of streaming. Running a multi-year streaming show like Twitch’s Critical Role is one approach. Alternatively, consider setting up a three or part-event series tied to a specific theme like the holiday shopping season.
Use Incentives, Urgency And Deadlines To Lift Engagement
Urgency is a time-tested principle in sales and marketing. It also applies to growing your live stream engagement. Remember Bloomingdale’s live streaming example from above? The company offered incentives to encourage people to show up at the event and place an order during the event. There are multiple ways to implement this strategy: discounts, limited edition products or offering early access.
Get Inspiration From Other Live Streams
When you focus too much on your live stream engagement metrics, staying creative and fresh gets more difficult. Certainly, measurement matters (we’ll cover it in the next tip). However, engagement also requires ideas and inspiration!
That’s why we’re giving you the performance to spend an afternoon hanging out on live streaming platforms. Ideally, look for streaming shows and episodes that are appealing to a similar audience. If you don’t find any streams like that, look at how entertainment-oriented streamers keep their viewer count high throughout their videos. For example, look at how often live stream content creators interact with their audience via the live chat during their stream. In addition, look at how streamers presented sponsored content and messages to their audience.
Making time to study those who have mastered the art of live stream engagement is one of the best ways to shorten your learning curve.
Level Up Your Audio and Video Equipment
Upgrading the quality of your gear is a smart way to make your live stream come through loud and clear. Tools like the Shure MV88+ Video Kit connect directly to your smartphone for enhanced audio and video quality. It comes with a microphone, tripod, and headphones. You can also stand out with a multi-camera setup by purchasing software like OBS Studio, Wirecast, or VidBlasterX.
Measure And Optimize Your Live Stream
The final way to improve your engagement and conversion numbers over time is to measure each streaming event. Start with the easy to measure metrics like viewer count, activity levels in your live chat and traffic on your website. If your live stream event includes coupons or other trackable calls to action, measure those factors as well. With each live stream you run, taking 15-30 minutes to analyze what worked and what didn’t will gradually lift your engagement numbers over time.
The One App That Lifts Live Stream Engagement Every Time
Your live stream events should be a two-way street. You present and your audience raises questions and gives you feedback. That’s why adding Live Chat to your website is so important. Arena Live Chat only takes a few minutes to install and set up.
Adding a WordPress live blog plugin to your website is one of the best ways to lift audience engagement and conversions. This step-by-step guide will discover precisely how to install the Arena Live Blog WordPress plugin. You’ll also discover why using a live blogging platform benefits your business.
Use the table of contents below to jump straight to the WordPress live blog plugin setup steps if you’re ready for that. Not sure if a live blog makes sense for your organization? Jump ahead to section 2 of this definitive guide.
How To Install Live Blog Plugin To Your WordPress Website
The Arena Live Blog WordPress plugin is simple and easy to install.
With Arena’s plugin, you can create Live Blog sessions for live events, event coverage for news, and more. That’s not all – it can also be used for sports coverage, covering court proceedings, and engaging conference attendees.
With our blogging plugin, your Live Blog can be fully automated or moderated by an editor or community manager. Besides, you can mix content generated by your content team with user-generated content from social media.
Arena’s Live Blog platform and plugin provide critical features such as:
Real-time Live Blogging functionality
Social Media monitoring
Social Media integration (i.e., Twitter, Facebook, Youtube, Instagram)
Posting user-generated content curated from social media
Automatic or moderated sports play-by-play
Configuration options to make the plugin fully brandable
Sports calendar integration
Real-time audience analytics
Cross-posting to social media
Optimization for mobile
Unlimited editors to manage your live events
Live Chat integration to encourage ongoing discussion about your event
7 Steps to Live Blogging with WordPress
Getting started with live blogging is fundamentally similar to posting a regular post in WordPress.
It takes just a few steps to get started with a Live Blog on WordPress and offer your audience updated content in real-time. With Arena’s Live Blog, you can quickly start a live blog, including the ability to embed photos, videos, and other media types in your posts.
Step 1: Install The Arena Plugin On Your WordPress Website
To get started, simply access the “Plugin” section within WordPress and click “Add New.” Then, all you have to do is search for Arena.im in the list of featured plugins and click “Install Now.”
Step 2: Setting up your account
The next step is to set up your company’s account with the Arena plugin. To do that, go to the “Settings” section and click “Arena.” That’s where you will find accounts, organizations, and site preferences. You must select the account you will use to live Blog, choose your site, and click.
The plugin will then grant you access to Arena’s tool so it can automate Live Blog posts. Depending on your WordPress configurations, you may need to activate the Live Blog function in your posts.
Set up your preferences for the new event – Title and Description (keep SEO requirements in mind here because an optimized Title and Description can help you to rank better on Google) – Choose an Event Category: For example, News, Film and TV, Shows, or Finance. – Choose Real-Time Options: To maximize real-time blog updates, ensure you enable real-time updates.
Step 4: Add A Social Stream To Your Live Blog
Want to add social media content to your Live Blog? Use this step!
From the Arena plugin dashboard in WordPress, you can click “Add Stream” to search for accounts and keywords from social media and add content to your Live Blog curation. For instance, you could choose to display tweets or videos from a news channel or influencer account. All you have to do is insert the link to the channel or account.
You can also set up the event status (live, upcoming, or done), add elements like tags, and enable comments or a chat room in the Live Blog post.
Remember that it is best to ask permission before repurposing social media content in your event, especially with influencers.
Step 5: Customize the Live Blog Appearance And Advanced Options
Use the Arena Live Blog customization features to provide a seamless experience for your audience. When the look and feel of the Live Blog match your brand, users are more likely to engage because the Live Blog will be consistent with the rest of your website.
Arena Live Blog on WordPress offers the following customization options:
Color
Position in the blog post (we recommend placing the Live Blog close to the top of your WordPress blog to maximize engagement)
Language
Enable sound alerts so that users get an audio notification when a new update is made
Add polls (polls allow you to pose questions and get feedback quickly. It’s one of the best and easiest ways to engage your audience).
Step 6: Publish Your Live Blog
Now it’s time to publish your Live Blog in your post.
To integrate your WordPress editor to the settings you did with the Arena plugin, click “Add Interactive content by Arena” in the editor interface.
You can click to add a new Live Blog or select an existing one. All you have to do next is click “add” to the Live Blogs you want to publish and simply click “Publish” on the WordPress page.
Step 7: Share The Link To Your Live Blog With Your Team
Get the link to your Live Blog, follow these steps:
Go to the Arena dashboard
Find the HTML code for the LiveBlog
Copy the HTML code to the Live Blog
Paste it into the HTML box in the WordPress editor.
This link will be seen only by you and other team members with access to your company’s WordPress credentials. The link will open in a new window on the editor page where you can write and publish updates.
You’re practically done! You can click “preview” to visualize how it will look and “update” to apply changes.
Video: See The Entire Process Of Creating a Live Blog In WordPress
In the video below, you can better understand the entire process of creating a Live Blog.
Now that you know how to set up a WordPress live blog plugin for your website, you must set up your Arena account. Create your own Arena Live Blog – it’s free to try! And check out this list of more WordPress plugins for live events.
3 Reasons You Need A Live Blogging Platform To Win
Real-time coverage was a luxury offered by the world’s largest media brands. That’s changing today for a few reasons.
1) People Expect Real-Time Coverage
Twitter and other social media platforms have conditioned millions of consumers to expect fast responses. News organizations offering breaking news style coverage of important events like elections, sports, and beyond find it easier to win attention online.
2) Growing Competition For Audience Attention
More and more consumers expect real-time coverage of news and fast responses to questions. Your audiences expect speed because they are used to one-click ordering and finding exciting content in seconds.
Attracting and engaging your audience may become very difficult without a blogging platform that makes it easy to create and share relevant content.
3) Increased Customer Service Expectations
Brands and publishers are expected to post updates to keep their audiences engaged. Publishers and media brands focused on current events, and coverage of sports events need new ways to connect with audiences.
What is a Live Blog?
A live blog, also known as “live updates,” is a content platform that makes it easy to create and publish content. Journalists were among the first to use live blogs to cover breaking news stories in politics like elections. Today, the benefits of live blogging go far beyond the news media.
A live blog is unique because it’s designed for rapid updates as events unfold. As you find out more details, your team can update a live-blogged blog entry regularly. As a result, your reader will keep coming back over and over again because your website offers new and exciting information.
While written blog posts are the most common format in live blogging, they are not the only option.
Live blog posts can also include:
Photos
Videos
Social media posts
With a Live Blog installed on your website, you can create a curated experience for your audience as breaking news, current events, and other developments unfold.
Who Uses Live Blogs?
Initially, media organizations and journalists used live blogging the most. If you have ever seen “live updates” on a news website like CNN or FOX, you’ve seen live blogging in action. It’s especially common for current affairs situations with intense interest, like conferences, elections, and sports.
How Live Blogging Enhances Your Content Strategy
Adding Live Blogging to your toolkit is a powerful way to reach your publishing and marketing goals. Many organizations use Live Goal to reach new readers, increase audience engagement, or automate content production workflow. Live blogs optimize editorial work while offering the final audience a seamless content consumption experience.
Grow your audience
A study conducted by the University of London found that readers increasingly prefer live blogs to static content, discovering that live blogs can get up to 300% more views and 233% more visitors than conventional online articles on the same subject.
Just imagine if your website doubled its views and visitors. You’d grow revenue, conversions, and leads immediately.
Increase audience engagement time on your channels
Building a relationship with your audience takes time. If visitors leave after a few seconds, connecting with them is tough. A live blog can be transformational because this technology encourages readers to interact more with your content.
Also, a live blog empowers your team to keep users on your web page, rather than leaving your website to share their views on social media. Your organic traffic will likely grow when search engines see users spending more time actively engaged on your website.
Diversify your content beyond traditional formats
When Content Walls and Content Hubs have become trendy, Live Blogs help brands stay competitive by diversifying the myriad of content they display on their official channels. Liveblogging is a great way to enrich static content and incorporate short-form content pieces – increasingly valued by audiences – into traditional formats.
Bringing new revenue opportunities
Live Blogs can foster new revenue streams for your company once they boost engagement and content syndication from a monetization standpoint.
How? A live blog gives your audience a reason to stay on your website longer and keep hitting refresh. More time on your website means more pageviews and opportunities to generate revenue through advertising or selling your products and services.
Becoming an authority in your market
From a branding perspective, Live Blogs allow companies to position themselves as authorities in content curation, which is valuable for brands that deal with massive audiences and those that target niche audiences.
Liveblogging in your content strategy makes your brand more credible and relevant to your audience.
Learning about your audience
Integrating live blog tools into your analytics enables you to get better data for social listening. Live Blog represents a new way to observe your customers’ navigation behavior and how they respond to your content. Ultimately, you can get valuable insights that will lead to a better understanding of your target audience and needs.
Try Arena Live Blog Today
Want to give Arena’s Live Blog tool a try? You can access our trial version in this link or install our plugin directly on WordPress. Publishers use our tool across 120 countries, including Fox Sports, Microsoft, and Turner.
A blended learning experience mixes IRL and digital education. And, with good technology tools, like Live Chat and Live Blog, a virtual learning environment can do much more.
This new way of delivering education was meant to solve problems like affordability, increased flexibility, health and safety measures, and more. The reality is quite different and some educators are struggling to make blended learning effective.
To understand what’s working and what needs to be improved, it’s essential to return to cover the basics. The first step is understanding the blending learning concept, where it came from, and how it works. Once we understand the current form of blended learning, we can look at solving the top barriers and where technology can play a role.
What Is The Blended Learning Model?
Blended learning, also known as hybrid learning, combines digital instruction with in-person learning. For example, students might start their learning path by completing online courses which deliver learning at scale. Afterward, students can seek out personalized learning with a teacher or tutor.
The precise mix of online learning methods and in-person learning will vary. If the nature of face to face instruction learning is highly applied, then meeting in a physical space regularly adds value. In other cases, an online space with recorded lessons may be a great choice.
It’s also important to highlight that a type of blended learning model may involve more than one digital platform. Teachers and students might gather together in an online community during the school day. This community experience can help to develop collaboration skills.
Blended Learning Example: Classroom Plus Khan Academy
Now, what if a teacher recommends additional practice in specific skills? One-on-one face time with a tutor or teacher is one approach to take. There are other choices as well. For example, the Khan Academy has developed a robust digital platform with an extensive library of recorded lessons.
A motivated student could study the Khan Academy math curriculum over the summer and receive instantaneous feedback on their performance. Best of all, the Khan Academy approach to training involves short lecture videos and quizzes. A student can rewatch and practice the material as often as they like.
Alternatively, schools and teachers may decide to create a complete blended learning model. For instance, a teacher may be interested in teaching creative thinking skills. Teaching these skills requires effective feedback and personalized education. A digital classroom with a virtual whiteboard might work well at the post-secondary level of education. However, younger students might struggle to make self-directed blended learning work.
In summary, blended learning usually includes a mixture of virtual and traditional learning courses. This may involve video conference technology, lecture recording technologies, online quizzes, a lab rotation, and other learning experiences to get students engaged.
The 4 Key Blended Learning Challenges
Educational research by Ruth Boelens, Bram De Wever, and Michiel Voet has highlighted four significant challenges to adopting a blended learning method.
1) How to incorporate flexibility
Delivering flexible learning in the traditional classroom is quite tricky. A significant amount of class time can be spent simply getting organized. Blended learning has the potential to enhance student learning by using digital technology to meet different learning preferences. In addition, a blended learning strategy means students can have more control over time. That’s vital because students and teachers may have peak energy at different times.
2) Supporting interaction
A blended learning program must consider the social impact of learning. For some students, a formal education program will fail. The opportunity to enjoy classroom discussion is not a frill: it is indispensable in online education. Unfortunately, some learning management systems emphasize online lessons and homework assignments at the expense of interaction.
3) Facilitating the students’ learning process
Students have different learning styles. Some like the flexibility of online learning, which includes the option to pause, rewind and go over the material multiple times. Other students need individual tutoring to make progress. Still, other students thrive with project-based learning. When designing online learning experiences, it is crucial to avoid one size fits all thinking. Instead, providing a variety of learning resources is vital.
4) Encouraging a suitable climate for learning
A blended learning approach also needs to consider the emotional state of students. If students are anxious or afraid, they will struggle to focus on the academic program. Students and teachers need to collaborate to foster a safe space for learning. That includes providing differentiated instruction when needed. In addition, it is also essential to be realistic about what educational technology can and cannot achieve. Teachers still need to use their judgment to reach out to students to offer support and listen to student concerns.
Equipping Your Virtual Classroom With The Right Technology
The right technology makes a big difference in providing responsive instruction, project-based blended learning, and other learning goals. On a daily basis, look for ways to use the following technologies. No single technology will serve as the backbone of student learning — instead, all of these tools.
Real-Time Engagement
Social interaction is a key component of what makes education engaging. Adding real-time engagement tools like Arena Live Chat and Live Blog have a key role to play. For more insight on how to use these engagement tools in education, see the tips in the next section of this post.
Many e-learning platforms include discussion features including instructor-led sessions. In a hybrid education program, including a discussion forum is smart. For example, students can post questions about homework assignments and projects and the teacher can answer them. Reading these question-and-answer discussions helps everybody in the course to learn.
Video Conference Platform
Your method of teaching should include a video conferencing tool. It is especially important for language skills and other education with a social element. That said, learning sessions should not exclusively rely on video. Some students may not feel comfortable using video conferencing for long periods of time.
Support For Self-Paced Learning
A common challenge in education is the varying levels of interest and motivation for students. Some students are passionate about certain education courses and want to move them quickly. Other students need more instructor time to learn the material. Your educational technology should support these individualized learning needs.
Integration With Offline Lessons
When your students come into the classroom environment, there should be a seamless connection to their virtual learning activities. Expertise in technology helps to achieve this result. It will likely take some experimentation over time to determine the best ways to balance offline and online learning experiences for your students.
Six Ways To Support Students With Live Chat and Live Blog
A growing number of educators are discovering the power of using real-time engagement tools to support their students. Arena’s education solutions are here to help you increase graduation rates and support your students.
Tips To Use Live Chat In Blended Learning
In a few minutes, you can install Arena Live Chat on your website. Use these tips to engage your students more deeply.
1. Set Ground Rules For Chat
Depending on their age and experience, your students may have experienced using other chat services in the past. To foster a safe place, it’s important to set clear rules for your classroom’s chat experience. Start by referring to your school’s values such as respect and curiosity.
2. Ask For An Assistant
When you have a large number of students using live chat, it can be difficult to keep track of the discussion. Invite one of your students or a teaching assistant to act as an assistant for the duration of the chat session. With Arena Live Chat, it’s really easy to make your staff help you during the class, with different roles and permissions.
3. Follow Up On Questions After Class
Unlike a traditional physical classroom, you can download a transcript from your live chat session. Exporting chat logs and reports to a CSV file will give teachers and instructors the ability to look at trends and/or revisit specific points.
A valuable tip: spend a few minutes reviewing the transcript after class to look for any questions you didn’t have time to address. In your next class, whether it is online instruction or in the physical classroom, start off by addressing these questions.
Tips To Use Live Blog In Blended Learning
A live blog is a bit different from other communication technologies. Your students may not be familiar with this technology. You may need to offer a training program to faculty and students to help them learn their way around how and why to use the live blog. To get you started, use the following live blog tips.
4. Look For School Events To Celebrate
Many schools have events throughout the year including athletic competitions, awards ceremonies, and more. Running a live blog during a school event is a great way to mark the event. Also, an event live blog makes it easier for students and families to hear about the event if they are unable to attend in person.
5. Support Your Student Journalists
Does your school have a newspaper or other outlet? If so, adding a live blog to your media outlet is smart. Many journalists and news organizations use live blogs to cover events like wars, elections, conferences, and more. Give your students experience in how to use a live blog to cover an event.
6. Enhance Conferences
High school and college students may travel to events like math and science competitions, Model United Nations, and more. A live blog is an exciting way to add authenticity and depth to these events. For example, you could have a team of three live blog writers and have them interview conference participants.
How To Bring Live Chat And Live Blog Technology To Your School
Getting started with Live Blog and Live Chat technology is easy. Find out more about Arena’s education solutions.
Engaging college students in their studies and university life is getting more difficult. There are countless distractions and stresses that make it difficult for students to focus on remote learning. Organizing inspiring, educational digital events for students is one way to inspire your students.
Choosing the right virtual event idea is just the beginning of planning a successful virtual event. There are many other details to think about like managing registration, inviting guest speakers and appealing to student concerns. This guide to virtual event strategies for students will guide you through those concerns.
Use these seven strategies to make your virtual learning experiences memorable and glitch-free. For the best results, sit down with your event team and review each of these strategies before you plan your event.
In a previous post, we covered 60 Awesome University Virtual Events Ideas. That guide included ideas like virtual language lessons, virtual learning experiences, virtual career fairs, and more.
Now, read on as we share with you the top 8 virtual event strategies for universities that event organizers can use to inform their planning process.
Take inspiration from current affairs
Organizing a virtual conference (or more demanding multi-day conferences) is one of the best ways to engage students and professors. You can invite college leaders, industry experts, and outside experts to share their insights. To make the event stand out, critical insights from the event should connect to issues that students care about. For example, a university with experts in eastern Europe might organize a marquee event about the war in Ukraine.
As you plan the event agenda, it’s essential to create space for event participation. For example, include time for networking opportunities. With digital platforms like Arena Live Chat, it’s easier to boost attendee engagement because more people.
Think through the event duration thoughtfully
In your strategic planning, consider the feedback from attendees you want to see and what you want to avoid. Ideally, you want to see your target audience raving about their favorite speakers on social media platforms! You also want to avoid complaints like virtual attendees getting bored.
A digital or hybrid event is different from an in-person conference. In a traditional event, it is easy to take breaks. Also, speakers can quickly determine if attendees are getting bored. In a virtual setting, measuring event success is more complicated.
Avoid burning out attendees if you want positive comments on feedback surveys. Before the event, email newsletters with all the events listed so that students and other attendees can choose which events interest them. In addition, make sure to deliberately schedule meal breaks when running a more extended event.
In general, virtual events should be at least one hour in duration. If you include interactive content like polls and question and answer time, you can sometimes stretch to 90 minutes or even two hours. Anything more than 60-90 minutes and your attendees are likely to get tired and disengage from the event.
Connect your virtual event to student goals
As you plan the attendee experience, keep students’ goals in mind. Most students spend years at an educational institution because they are hungry for better career opportunities. Therefore, events like job fairs and the chance to connect with employers will also be attractive.
Therefore, it is wise to prioritize virtual career events because that is a top goal for almost all students. That said, a blend of traditional educational sessions and career-oriented events can work well. This balanced approach can also work well when designing events with prospective students in mind. After all, prospective students want to know what is like to be a student and what careers they might have after graduation.
By offering digital experiences with career goals, increasing event registrations will get far easier. Fundamentally, event attendees vote with their attention. As an event planner, talking to students about the types of events they value is crucial.
Offer a world-class experience for your speakers
Take inspiration from the events industry – value your event speakers. When speakers are well supported, they can focus on delivering a great event program. Some event presenters and expert panelists may be unfamiliar with how to deliver a great virtual experience. Help them to look good by organizing a pre-event planning session for event speakers. You can also use the pre-event meeting as a critical element of your event marketing strategy. Speakers who feel confident and well supported are more likely to promote your event online using event hashtags and other means.
Helping speakers thrive in a virtual event setting is simple. Guide your speakers through what to expect in terms of potential attendees, how to use your event technology, and the key performance indicators you will track.
Potential Attendee Expectations
Attendee Numbers
Tell your speakers how many event participants to expect in the event as a whole. There’s a big difference between in-person events with thousands of attendees and a minor format event.
Attendee Interests
In your event planning software, you might survey attendees’ interests and top questions. Share these attendee insights with your speakers to determine what to expect.
Attendee Event Goals
To the best of your ability, guide your speakers about attendee goals. For example, prospective students may have questions about the university’s academic offerings (e.g., core courses vs. elective courses). Students nearing graduation may be more interested in meeting prospective employers.
Event Technology
Avoid assuming that your speakers know how to use the specific virtual event platforms you have selected. They may need support on best practices. For instance, you might use Arena Live Chat through your event to gather questions and conduct quick attendee surveys. Tell your speakers that they will have support to sort through this feedback. Keeping an email in the chat window while delivering a speech or comments in a panel is tough!
Event Management Process
As you conclude your speakers’ briefing, ensure the event details are covered in detail. It’s tough to organize successful events when speakers don’t know where to turn to get support.
Think through technical support needs in detail
Careful planning is critical to crafting a successful event on a virtual platform. Students, alumni, speakers, and university staff may be unfamiliar with a wide range of settings, software, and ways to participate in a digital event.
The type of technical support you need to offer will vary depending on the complexity of your events. The most significant events may need a dedicated team, similar to what you would see in corporate events. In contrast, a more minor event – like a virtual coffee with alumni event – might need just one technical person on call.
The most common technical and logistical problems you’re likely to encounter are the following.
1) Registration problems
This type of technical problem is most likely to occur before the event starts. The best way to prevent registration problems is to pretend to be an attendee: take a few minutes and see if you can successfully register for the event, including making any needed payments.
Testing the event signup process in advance is especially important when you add new technology to the mix.
2) Audio and video problems
Whether mobile technology or laptops, audio, and video glitches are typical in most virtual events. Troubleshooting these problems is often tricky because devices have a variety of settings. For example, some platforms automatically mute people or require people to turn on their cameras. Make sure you have a technical support person available to answer questions during the event.
3) Challenges using the event management platform
This issue mainly applies to more significant events where there are many different sessions. Attendees may have problems registering for their preferred events. Make sure your university website has live chat software installed so that you can provide support before, during, and after the event. For example, some attendees may ask if they can volunteer at the event instead of paying the registration fee. When possible, take a flexible approach to accommodate these requests.
4) Event recording problems
Some universities offer on-demand sessions from their events. Recording an event and letting people view it after it ends is a great way to reach more people.
That said, successfully recording and producing an event takes effort and planning. For example, it is crucial to advise all attendees that the event will be recorded before starting. In addition to requesting permission, look at different ways to use your event recordings. For example, you might decide to offer one recording for free on the web to encourage signups for future events.
Use event reminders strategically to lift virtual events participation
Students may not show up even when you have the most engaging speakers and topics. Virtual events’ flexibility can help lift attendance because there is no travel time involved, unlike in-person events. Use the following techniques to lift your event attendance rates higher.
1) Send reminder emails
At a minimum, send emails to remind students about the event. Specifically, we suggest sending at least two reminders: one reminder 24 hours in advance and another 60 minutes before the event. In the reminder event, include the login details and exact event time (including time zone). For events with multiple sessions, consider sending reminder events for each event.
2) Don’t stop your digital marketing efforts
When a student or alumni registers for your virtual event, your marketing should change, but it should not stop. For example, send messages emphasizing the value of attending the event live (e.g., the chance to connect with potential employers). Ideally, your digital marketing outreach will vary depending on attendee type (i.e., send different outreach efforts to students vs. alumni)
3) Send reminders by text messages
Check if your mobile event app allows you to send notifications or other messages to attendees. If you are not using a mobile event app, look into sending a regular text message to your students. Most students have mobile phones – over 80% by some estimates. Text messages tend to have a very high open rate, so sending text reminders has a good chance of being read.
While most students don’t have children or full-time jobs, they are still busy people. Many are worried about completing all their academic work, paying bills, and maintaining relationships with their friends. Sending multiple reminders is crucial – otherwise, students will likely lose track of the event.
Use post-event surveys to make your next event better
Ever wondered how event planners become so proficient at running smooth events? If you answered “experience,” then you would only be partially correct. Reflecting on your experience of planning and running the event is a good starting point. However, it is just part of the story.
It is also critical to use tools like a post-event survey to understand what your students, alumni, and other participants thought of the event. In the survey, make sure you cover event satisfaction (e.g. “was this a relevant event to your interests and goals?”), technology (e.g. how would you rate the event technology on a scale of 0-10?). Once you receive the survey results, look for patterns and suggestions you can use in the next event you plan.
By the way, you may find it helpful to share data points from the post-event survey in your reports to the university management.
Enhance your university with real-time engagement technologies
Expecting students to sit through a virtual event passively is unlikely to succeed. There are simply too many digital distractions for students – TikTok, Instagram, and email are just one click away. Asking students to close other browser tabs and turn off their phones will only take you so far.
The better way forward is to offer more opportunities for real-time engagement directly on your university website. With a live blog, you can showcase the expertise of your academic staff and students. Adding Arena Live Chat makes it easy to provide better support to students and engage them more deeply in class discussions. Mirror your digital practices on Pecege Institute, and find out more about Arena’s solutions for education.
