Author Archives: Paola Magni

10 Ideas for Virtual Events in Higher Education

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Virtual events in higher education are among the most potent ways to engage students, alumni, staff, and faculty. The COVID-19 pandemic forced many colleges and universities to improve their virtual events and, today, virtual events are still critically important as flexibility is now expected.

Despite their growing popularity, running engaging online events and hybrid events doesn’t come easy to everyone. There are new tools to learn, like live chat and live blog. It’s not just a question of technology either.

It’s also essential to adjust your event planning methods as well. Some elements of traditional offline events for higher education, like understanding your audience and their goals, fully apply to virtual events. Other requirements like maintaining high levels of digital engagement require new techniques.

Virtual Events, Hybrid Events, or In-Person Events: Which Is Best? 

Now that the pandemic is behind us, event organizers are asking themselves what type of event they should focus on. There are three main types of events for higher education, and they all have a role to play. 

In-Person Events

This traditional event category is excellent for deep connections. There’s nothing quite like sharing a slice of pizza and a drink to engage prospective students! 
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The downside to in-person events is the significant cost (e.g., catering and event space) of organizing these events. In addition, in-person events have a limited audience. Only people near the event venue can easily participate in the event.

Virtual Events

Virtual events for higher education offer several advantages to students, alumni, and faculty. Compared to traditional gatherings, a virtual experience is fast and inexpensive to organize. It’s also possible to invite large groups to participate in the event. The registration process can be simple – simply offer an online form.

Hybrid Events

A hybrid event features a combination of in-person and virtual participants. Hybrid events offer the best of both worlds when they are well-planned and executed. That said, it does take some practice to make this event work.
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While our focus is on virtual events in higher education, in-person events and hybrid events are valuable. All three types of events have a role to play in keeping students engaged.

Check out these virtual event ideas to help you save time in planning your next virtual event. Look at these ten ideas as a buffet menu: pick and choose the types of events that are most relevant to your needs. 

Once you have a virtual event for higher education idea in mind, check out this post – 8 Virtual Event Strategies For Universities To Keep Students Engaged and Entertained – for tips on organizing your online event. 

Top 10 Trends for Virtual Events in Higher Education

1. Virtual Alumni Homecoming

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Keeping alumni engaged in college or university after graduation is essential for a few reasons. Alumni donations to colleges were worth $11 billion in 2019 alone, according to US News. In addition to financial support, many alumni are interested in growing their networks and having fun with other alumni and college leaders.

Organizing a virtual alumni homecoming event is a great way to engage graduates for a few reasons. A virtual event eliminates travel time and allows people living far from campus to participate. Making the individual sessions of homecoming easy to attend is crucial to appeal to attendees who have significant family and work responsibilities. 

To make your virtual alumni homecoming event memorable, offer a combination of content and connection. Content means offering insights relevant to the alumni audience, like inviting a successful graduate to share lessons from their career. Connection means giving alumni plenty of time to interact through live chat and other means.

2. Virtual Graduation Ceremony

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Graduating from college is a significant accomplishment! It takes years of focused study and hard work to achieve. It’s important to celebrate this achievement with a graduation event.

A virtual graduation ceremony, or a hybrid event, is wise to offer. Many students move to new states or cities after finishing their studies to start the next chapter of their lives. As a result, graduates may find it difficult to attend a formal event.

Students aren’t the only beneficiaries of a virtual commencement event. In a traditional event, there is limited seating. A student might only invite one or two people to see them receive their diploma. With a virtual graduation event, it’s easy to attend many more participants.

3. Virtual Fundraisers

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As mentioned above, donors to higher education contribute billions to colleges and universities annually. When donors are engaged and treated well, donors are likely to donate even more over time. To maximize donations to higher education, offering virtual fundraisers is smart.

Large institutions tend to have alumni spread over a large area. For example, the University of Central Florida has more than a dozen chapters across the US and other countries. Relying solely on in-person events would mean most alumni leaving far away would not have a chance to participate in fundraisers and other events.

Virtual fundraisers for higher education can take a variety of formats. For example, the Borough of Manhattan Community College (BMCC) held a virtual fundraiser in 2021. This event featured stories from students and recognition opportunities for donors. Benedictine College, based in Kansas, held a highly successful virtual fundraiser in 2021 that generated over $1.1 million in donations. To develop your virtual fundraising concept, review the examples above for inspiration.

4. Virtual Fun Run

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Sitting at a desk for long periods to study is unavoidable. Yet, maintaining physical fitness is important to manage stress and live a healthy life. That’s why more organizations are organizing virtual fun-run events.

Virtual fun run events have two elements. Participants run the set distance or time for the event. The next element is a digital gathering to celebrate the event. For example, you might recognize the people who had the fastest runs!

To show how a virtual fun run is organized in practice, look at Florida Memorial University. This university offers multiple fun run events and charges a ticket price for each event. Proceeds from the fun help the university to fund scholarships.

Virtual fun runs are popular because of their flexibility. Participants can choose where to perform the activity, as long as they track and send it to the organizers. From there, organizers will take note of the distance and time, and medals will be mailed to the winners.

5. Virtual Happy Hour Activities

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Bringing students together to enjoy beer and other drinks is a time-honored tradition at many colleges and universities. This unstructured social event is a great way to encourage students to make friends and connections.

Virtual happy hour events are worth offering for a few reasons. First, a traditional happy hour event may not work well for students with substantial work schedules. In addition, some students are not interested in consuming alcohol for various reasons.

A virtual happy hour event tends to work best when there is a specific theme or activity for everyone to enjoy. For example, you might invite people to play a game like “Two Lies and A Truth” to get to know their fellow students more.

Also, you might organize a virtual Bingo game. Rather than using traditional cards with numbers, replace them with words or phrases everyone in the group can relate to. By hosting this type of virtual event, you will leave your participants entertained, happy, and engaged throughout the session.

6. Virtual Dance Events

Like the virtual fun run, a virtual dance is a fantastic way to encourage people to move around while connecting with others. Dancing online has exploded in popularity over the past few years, thanks to TikTok. See this guide to 21 of the most popular TikTok dances to get inspiration.

Columbia University shows that virtual dance events can be short and sweet. Columbia has organized a 30-minute “dance break” event for students. Organizing this type of event when student stress is high – like during exam season – is one way to support students facing pressure.

In general, it is best to encourage a range of dance styles. Some students might like hip-hop styles, while others might not have a recognized style. All kinds of dance are enjoyable! The important part is to share a love of music and movement with your fellow students.

7. Virtual Book Club For Students or Alumni

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Virtual book clubs are one of the best ways of bringing together students and alumni. For example, you might organize a virtual book club to help students discover new perspectives and enjoy fruitful discussions with their peers. There are a few different ways to organize this kind of event.

The University of Toronto alumni virtual book club takes a gradual approach. Alumni read a few chapters of the book and share their thoughts on a discussion board. Taking a slower approach is an excellent way to appeal to busy working professionals who may have limited time to participate in the event.

You can also use virtual book clubs to engage students with shared concerns. Washington State University has organized a virtual book club for those interested in disability issues. This focused book club concept can be adapted to suit a wide variety of student interests, including careers (e.g., finance book club) or types of fiction (e.g., science fiction and fantasy book club).

To make the most of each virtual book club session, check out Arena’s education solutions. With live chat, you can make it easy for students to ask questions, discuss their favorite characters and find students with common interests. 

8. E-Sports Tournament

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Fitness is great, but sometimes there is nothing like enjoying a few hours of gaming with your friends. E-sports – playing competitive video games – has become one of the most popular leisure activities for young people. By some estimates, there are over 200 million E-sports enthusiasts today.

An e-Sports tournament is a popular choice for college and university students as a virtual event. For example, Siena College has an e-Sports team that plays various games, including League of Legends, Fortnite, and Super Smash Bros Ultimate.

Unlike other events, e-Sports events are digital by design. That’s great because there is no need to adapt the activity to work in a digital environment. 

To spark even more excitement for e-Sports, organize an e-Sports competition focused on charitable fundraising. If the fundraising idea appeals to you, look at the Esports Foundation. The organization brings together gamers to make the world a better place!

9. Virtual Meditation and Awareness Sessions

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According to the American Psychological Association, anxiety and depression are prevalent mental health difficulties for college students. Supporting students through these challenges requires multiple approaches, including mental health professionals and medication. Providing virtual meditation events can also help support students to thrive as well.

UCLA offers free weekly drop-in meditation sessions to help students. These half-hour sessions are offered twice a week. In addition to video conferencing, you might also add live chat to the session so students can ask questions without disturbing other participants.

Some research suggests that offering meditation sessions can significantly impact students. A 2019 study found that offering a six-week yoga and meditation program “may reduce stress and anxiety in college students.”

10. Virtual University Orientation Week

Open week, frosh week, orientation week: the activity goes by various names. Whatever your college calls it, orientation week activities are a crucial way to introduce students to higher education. With the right approach, an orientation week with a focus on academic skills can lift graduation rates. 

Some aspects of orientation week are best delivered in person, like taking students on a tour of important buildings and facilities at your campus. However, some orientation events work well in a virtual environment. In your list of sessions, try some of these ideas. 

Virtual study skills event

This academic-style event helps students learn how to boos their study and research skills using your college’s educational resources. For example, a traditional arts program might have learning outcomes like critical thinking and writing skills as a focus. Introducing your college’s writing center can help students get started.

If your college offers digital learning options, you may also want to cover how to make the most of online classes. 

Meet upper-year students

Senior students have a lot of insights to share with students. Host a virtual mixer event to introduce newer students to established students. To encourage an even deeper discussion between students, work with student affairs to build a mentorship program.

Virtual career events

This type of virtual event is especially important for graduate students and professional students. For example, a college of education might organize a panel discussion with local school principals.

Campus safety event

Some of your students may be anxious about living on campus. A virtual safety event is an excellent way to equip students with details on how to get help and avoid problems.

Introduce campus organizations and clubs

Making new friends doesn’t come naturally to everybody. For example, you might have some students who commute from their family home to save money. Give these students opportunities to discover campus life through a virtual event.

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Do you want to get even more inspired about virtual events for college and university students? Check out this awesome list with 60 ideas to bring a bit of campus life to the students’ own homes.

The Best Technology For Virtual Events In Higher Education

Now that you have inspiration for your next virtual event, you just need the right tools. In many cases, a video conferencing app is helpful. That’s not the only tool you need. A live chat app is a crucial tool as well. Some students prefer to type their questions and interact directly with peers through private messages. A live chat room is a great way to offer a safe space to your students.

Over 500 educational organizations already leverage Arena for their classroom engagement needs. Check out how Pecege Institute applies Arena Live Chat to make tia global success case. Want to see if Live Chat is suitable for your college or university website? Arena has the perfect tools for blended learning engagement.

What is Customer Service | Arena

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Customer service gives companies an edge over their competition. It is one of the most powerful ways to retain customers. At the same time, customer expectations are rising. They expect faster answers to questions and concerns. If they don’t get those answers, you might not get another chance to win that customer’s loyalty.

To help you succeed in today’s competitive environment, use this guide to build and develop your customer service department.

Bookmark this page so you can come back to it as needed to achieve your business goals.

What is Customer Service?

Modern customer service is crucial for a few reasons. First, high-quality customer service directly contributes to customer loyalty. Second, strong customer service keeps your company safe from social media criticism. Third, robust customer service gives you insights into the concerns and needs of customers.

Customer Service Definition

Customer service means answering questions, responding to complaints, helping your customers use your products, and services and creating a memorable customer experience. 

How To Set Your Customer Service Strategy

Your business goals are fundamental to making customer service decisions. For example, a company focused on growing word of mouth referrals and high lifetime customer value should invest heavily in customer happiness. On the other hand, a company with low customer lifetime value may decide to keep its annual support costs to a minimum.

Step 1: Set Your Business Goals For Customer Service

Let’s assume that your business goals include growing your Customer Satisfaction Score. This goal will inform the types of customer service you provide. Through customer feedback and discussions with your team, you may find that customers want longer service hours, faster answers to their questions, and the ability to speak with somebody on the phone when they have a problem. 

Step 2: Choose Your Customer Service Channels

In this situation, your customer service strategy should probably include the following options: phone support and customer service live chat. To manage your operating costs, you might limit phone service to standard business hours and offer live chat until 9 pm. This combination means that you can offer more service to customers.

Step 3: Create Your Customer Service Metrics

In addition, your plan should include objectives for customer service quality. It is not good enough to say that you want to meet customer expectations. To manage customer queries effectively, you need specific numbers and metrics. To get you started, see our guide to the top 10 live chat metrics. These measures will help you to determine if your customer service agents are responding to customers with prompt, high-quality service.

Your metrics should a variety of scenarios including proactive and reactive customer service. Reactive customer service means quickly responding to the customer when they pose a question to you. Proactive customer service means improving your company’s processes to solve common problems. For example, you might notice that customers have problems entering their payment details. Instead of manually solving this problem repeatedly by issuing a service ticket, ask your IT colleagues to develop a lasting solution.

Step 4: Apply Continuous Improvement To Your Customer Service

Few companies have fully optimized their customer service capabilities. There is almost always an opportunity to enhance the quantity and quality of the service you provide to customers. If you are not yet delivering customer delight, use these two strategies. By using these strategies, you will also find it far easier to keep your loyal customers.

1) Offer more customer service 

While basic, it’s important to start here. Start by comparing your typical customer service hours of operation with customer needs. For example, a company located in California may have a significant number of customers on the east coast. In this situation, you may have a mismatch because 9 am to 5 pm Pacific is equivalent to 12 pm to 8 pm Eastern time. As a result, frustrated customers may have to wait all morning for your customer service to open. This means many customers will have a negative experience due to long response times. Adding customer service reps on the east coast (i.e. increasing the quantity of customer service) can solve to solve this problem.

By the way, your approach to customer service should offer multiple options. For example, you might have the following customer support channels: live chat, phone support, and a knowledge base. Some of your customers might prefer to interact with your agents digitally while others might prefer the human interaction available through calls.

2) Improve customer service quality 

When consumers walk away from their customer service interactions with all of their questions answered, it becomes easy to grow relationships with customers. By reducing the number of bad experiences, customer retention will also get easier.

Each company will have its own approach to customer service training. Some organizations emphasize scripts while others offer a comprehensive knowledge base. Equipping customer service professionals with training and knowledge is essential to raising the quality of service. Without a knowledge base and other support documents, customer support agents will struggle to effectively solve problems or answer questions.

The 6 Key Barriers To Delivering Excellent Service

Now that you have established your customer service strategy, channels and metrics, it’s time to face the challenges. Delivering stellar customer service in today’s environment is tough! Customers have been conditioned to expect instant gratification thanks to ecommerce and other advances. 

Consider the following significant customer service challenges and discuss them with your managers and reps. If you find that your company is experiencing multiple difficulties, you’re not alone. Few companies have solved all of these problems. However, making progress on these challenges is well worth the effort because you can gain a competitive advantage.

  1. 33% of customers are most frustrated by having to wait on hold. (HubSpot Research)
  2. 53% of shoppers believe their feedback doesn’t go to anyone who can actually act on it. (Microsoft)
  3. Over 70% of consumers believe that companies should collaborate on their behalf so that they don’t have to repeat information to different representatives. (Zendesk)
  4. For 33% of consumers, the most important aspect of a good customer service experience is getting their issue resolved in a single interaction. (Microsoft)
  5. Over 40% of customers consider having to deal with automated systems that make it hard to reach a human agent a frustrating experience.
  6. Over 40% of customers are frustrated at having to repeat information  multiple times.

Solving these causes of poor customer service is well worth the effort. Research indicates that 82% of customers will spend more money on companies that deliver great online service. 

Preventing these issues requires multiple strategies including equipping your staff with effective training and encouraging collaboration between customer service. Finally, the right customer service technologies are also critical. For example, a customer service agent should be able to enter a customer’s details into a service ticket into a customer relationship management platform. If a customer has to repeat themselves, call back or contract multiple people to solve a problem, that is a sign that your customer service processes are not working well. 

Five Key Traits & Skills Your Customer Service Team Must Have

Human interaction is at the heart of strong customer service. Therefore, getting clear on the specific traits and customer service skills your customer service reps must have is vital. Keep these capabilities and traits in mind when recruiting new customer service representatives, developing training, and coaching your reps.

1) Communication skills

Communication is the key skill of customer service. It starts with active listening and the ability to express yourself are crucial skills in customer service. This skill set is so important that it is worth testing candidates on their communication skills during the recruiting process. 

For even greater results, it is helpful to break down communication skills into different sub-skills like listening, speaking, reading, and writing. For example, a customer service agent may need the ability to answer phone calls in the morning and then switch to answering live chat questions in the afternoon.

Customer service managers should regularly coach their employees on communication skills as well. Our ability to interact effectively with other people, especially when there are problems, is a crucial business skill. To help your reps deliver a consistent experience, make sure your customer service training covers communication skills in detail, especially listening skills.

2) Company and product knowledge

New hires may join your company with strong communication skills. However, few people will have the right level of company and product information when they join your customer service team. Even if your staff has good technical skills, you still need to train them on how to apply your organization’s customer service standards. That means spending significant onboarding time on company and product training.

There are three popular ways to help new customer service representatives acquire product knowledge. Start by developing a structured training program or handbook covering the most common support questions. New representatives should be equipped to answer common questions before they start interacting with customers. After newly hired customer service representatives have a basic understanding of your products and company policies, you can move to the next phase.

The next phase of developing customer service representatives is to use a job shadowing process. This is a simple way to build relationships between staff and encourage knowledge sharing. Pair your new customer support reps with an experienced rep. Let me listen in as the experienced employee works with customers. After a few interactions switch roles (i.e. let the new person interact with the customers and have the experienced person listen in). Through this process, customer service representatives will learn more about how to deliver a seamless customer experience.

Finally, recognize that all customer support teams need access to ongoing training. Your company will continue to come up with new products, company policies, and change processes. Equip employees to thrive through these changes by giving them access to a knowledge base. This is a common resource where customer support staff can ask questions and share solutions to problems.

3) Problem-solving

Problem-solving skills are critically important when serving difficult customers. Extensive training on your company’s processes will help your customer service staff to solve many problems. However, do not expect training to cover every situation. Therefore, it is crucial to recruit employees who have a track record of solving problems with people.

4) Empathy

Logical problem-solving skills will only take you so far in the customer service world. It’s also vital to have empathy – to listen and understand a customer’s feelings. Finding common ground with customers goes a long way to creating a human connection with the customer.

For example, a customer might be angry if an important Christmas present did not arrive on time. Immediately attempting to solve the problem without acknowledging the customer’s feelings is unlikely to be productive. Instead, acknowledge the customer’s feelings and how this delay may have ruined their day. Instead, it is more effective to spend some time listening to the customer and understanding their disappointment. Only after the customer feels heard will they be open to a solution (e.g. a refund, discount on a future purchase, or something else).

5) Patience

Patience is another vital customer service trait that matters. In a customer support role, you will often interact with frustrated customers. Without the patience to calmly listen to the customer’s comments, a customer service representative may anger a customer even more!

It is challenging to develop patience if you do not already have this trait. Therefore, it is especially important to ask about a person’s customer service experiences during the hiring process. For example, if a customer service representative has had jobs in retail, restaurants, or hospitality in the past, there is a good chance that they have developed patience.

How Excellent Customer Service Boosts Sales

Delivering outstanding customer service is also crucial to lifting sales. When your sales reps have a happy customer base, it is far easier to ask for referrals. High customer satisfaction levels also make it easier to upsell customers on additional products and services.

Offering customer service via live chat is especially valuable as a way of lifting sales. After the interaction is complete, spend some time reviewing the most common customer requests. For example, a software company might find that its customers want hands-on implementation support. Offering that package to customers during the sales process can bring new revenue to your company and ease pressure on customer service.

Lifting sales and customer service becomes easier when you give options to customers. Industry research shows that 41% of customers prefer live chat as a way to interact with companies. With Arena Live Chat, you can meet serve customers quickly and efficiently through your website. Sign up for a free trial of Arena.

What is a Live Blog? The Ultimate Guide

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A live blog is a communication platform to cover rapidly developing news stories and events. While this concept has been around for years, journalists and others are still finding new ways to use live blogging to bring important information to the public.

How A Live Blog Works 

A live blog gives the reader a stream of updates about a rapidly developing news story. For example, journalists have used live updating for years to cover elections where vote counts and other factors constantly change.

A successful live blog requires an app like Arena Live Blog installed on your website. Second, you need one or more people to create engaging content updates for your live blog. Third, a live blog is successful when it is about an event that many people find interesting.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nxgRBLN5cGU

Live Blog For News

Thanks to innovative journalists, the live blog concept (also known as live blogging) first became well-known. The live blog approach to news coverage is best suited to news stories with rapidly changing developments and intense public interest. Live blogs are commonly used to cover elections and significant sporting events.

A few examples will illustrate how journalists use live blogs to provide up-to-date coverage and analysis of current affairs. 

Successful News Live Blogs

These live blog examples show how news organizations have used live blogs to engage their audiences.

The 2021 Climate Summit

The last climate summit was held in Glasgow in the fall of 2021. Given the impact of climate change on the world, many world leaders attended the United Nations event. CNBC had a live blog dedicated to the event as it unfolded. 

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CNBC published posts at ad posts at 12:30 pm, 12 pm, 9 am, 8:44 am, 8:31 am, 7:28 am, 6:28 am, and other times in a single day’s coverage. Each of these posts was relatively short, typically featuring an attention-grabbing quote. These updates would be too short to work as a standalone article. By posting multiple updates throughout the date, CNBC gave its audience a reason to keep returning to their website. 

CNN also had a live blog dedicated to covering the climate summit. CNN’s approach to covering the event featured even more updates. In a single live blog post, CNN published over fifty short updates. Like CNBC, the CNN live blog coverage featured quotes from politicians. However,  CNN also included photos for most of their posts.

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Image Credit: CNN

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The 2022 Invasion of Ukraine

Earlier this year, Russian troops invaded Ukraine. As the war unfolded, journalists have used live blogs to tell the story from various perspectives. 

Image Credit: Washington Post

The Washington Post live blog on the war features a multi-media approach with text posts, videos, and images from the front. Users also can listen to the live blog updates in audio format. Offering live blog content in audio format is a creative way to increase the reach of your live blog. The Washington Post live blog includes updates from the war zone and broader developments such as the impact of the war on trade.

The ABC News live blog concerning the war provides coverage of the war in a single day. The news outlet reported on the changing diplomatic situation as more countries considered NATO membership. The live blog also features photos of the war, political leaders, and other aspects of the developing situation.

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Image Credit: ABC News

As the war continues to develop, news outlets are likely to continue using live blogging. As the war impacts more and more people worldwide, interest in live updates is likely to increase.

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The Liveblogging Benefits For News

Running a live blog on a breaking news story is one of the best ways to stand out. A live blog is a powerful way to present your coverage when a critical news story comes up.

By running a live blog covering a significant event, news outlets give their audiences a reason to keep coming back for regular updates. As we’ve seen in some of the examples above, you can publish several updates per hour in some cases. Each live blog post adds new insight to your audience and the opportunity to generate revenue.

Live Blog For Companies

While journalists and media outlets most commonly use live blogging, companies can also use it. For a corporate live blog to gather attention, think about your event from the perspective of your favorite journalists at NBC News, Fox News, or other publications. It’s essential to report the facts of the event and help viewers understand why the issue matters.

The easiest way for a company to get started with a live blog is to focus on conferences and trade shows. Specifically, start with conferences that already draw significant crowds like the annual events run by Apple, Facebook, and Google. 

There are two main ways to use a live blog with a significant corporate event. If your company is the host of the event, you can run an official live blog to share highlights from the event. This is a powerful way to extend the value of the event beyond those attending. Alternatively, bloggers and specialized media outlets can use live blogs to cover the event directly.

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Image Credit: The Verge

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To see how a live blog can work for company news, look at The Verge. The publication’s live blog had a live blog focused on the event’s keynote address. Unlike the live blog examples covered above, The Verge’s updates are closer to tweets than traditional posts. Many of the updates are just a few sentences long. The Verge live blog also included some image-only posts. 

For a different perspective, look at TechRadar’s coverage of the Mobile World Congress 2022. TechRadar took a team approach to develop its coverage with staff on the ground at the event in Barcelona and others providing support from further afield. The TechRadar live blog also emphasizes short updates such as bullet-point lists of new products. 

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Image Credit: TechRadar

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TechRadar’s live blog also shows how to respond to the uneven nature of events. The live blog points out that most companies participating in the event make product announcements early. That begs the question – how do you sustain the live blog if the most prominent news has already happened? The TechRadar solution is to add other types of coverage like analysis and feature-length articles to its live blog. 

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How To Get Live Blog Coverage For Your Company

Getting early coverage for a new product through a live blog is beneficial. There are a few ways you can increase your odds of earning coverage. Put yourself in the journalist’s shoes for a moment. Reporters and bloggers often want to be the first to cover a story. So, consider offering exclusive coverage for some time to get your company featured on a live blog. In addition, it is essential to prepare high-quality photos and images that can be freely used. You don’t want your big announcement to be undermined by out-of-focus or unclear photos taken at an event.

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10 Tips To Launch Your First Live Blog 

Launching your first live blog is exciting! Use these tips to plan and make the most of your live blog opportunity. 

1. Identify live blog opportunities

Setting up your foundation for live blog success starts with selecting the right opportunity. Think about what your audience is excited about. Are they passionate about politics? If so, reading in-depth coverage of an election, including commentary on debates, might be a good fit. Ideally, your live blog should ride a wave of interest if it already attracts significant interest.

2. Install and test your live blog app

Set up your live blog software once you have a clear live blog opportunity in mind. Arena live blog is designed to be installed and set up quickly. Arena’s Live Blog solution is designed to be installed fast, so you can be up and running in less than an hour.

Once you choose your live blog technology, install and test it a day or two before the event. Testing the platform in advance is brilliant because you want to minimize embarrassing mistakes in front of your audience. 

3. Prepare posts and coverage in advance

Even the most exciting breaking news event will have slow periods. Take inspiration from TechRadar’s live blog. They prepared analysis and feature articles in advance of covering a technology event. Aim to prepare at least two or three posts in advance of the event so that you can prepare accordingly. 

Tip: Some breaking news stories and events develop so quickly that it is challenging to prepare content in advance. In that case, you can still prepare but in a different way. For example, contact a few people to ask if they would be willing to be interviewed for your live blog.

4. Start your live blog early

Attracting an audience to a new live blog can take some time. With scheduled events like elections and conferences, starting your coverage early gives you the advantage of building an audience faster.

5. Use a variety of media in your posts

While most live blogs are built on a foundation of written posts, that is no longer your only option. At a minimum, include original photos and images in your posts. Short videos can also work well if you can produce videos quickly.

6. Emphasize short updates

By convention, live blog posts are relatively short. Most live blogs are a few short paragraphs in length. If you have longer updates to share, consider posting an entire article elsewhere and then creating a short post to link to that post in your live blog.

7. Recognize the need for corrections 

A live blog assumes rapid coverage of a developing event by its nature. If your coverage has an error, resist the temptation to delete the older update. 

Deleting an older incorrect update may be interpreted as covering up the news. Instead, include a link to another post where you provide the correction. Responding quickly to errors is the better way to engage your audience.

8. Engage your audience with live chat 

Most traditional live blogs are one-way conversations with the minimal ability for the audience to participate. It doesn’t have to be that way! Add a live chat app to your website to bring your audience even deeper into the conversation. 

Find out more about Arena Live Chat and how easily it can be installed on any website in minutes. Arena also supports popular publishing platforms like WordPress.

9. Share your live blog on social media

Want to get more people on your live blog? Use a live blog app that offers one-click social media sharing. Sharing a few posts to your social media accounts is an excellent way to bring more people back to your website.

10. Get ready for your next live blog

After your live chat session ends, it’s time to take stock of the event. Meet with your team and review your performance. Start with the positive – what topics resonated most with your audience? Keep those topics and angles in mind when planning your next live blog.

Next, look for opportunities to improve. For example, your staff might have found it very stressful to publish a large number of updates throughout the day. It’s possible to ease this stress in a few ways. You can prepare more content in advance of the event. Or you can add additional staff to the live blog or reduce the number of posts.

The Simple Way To Get Started In Live Blogging

Your next step is simple and easy. You can install Arena’s liveblogging software in minutes. After you have the software installed, set aside time to brainstorm ideas. 

The first step in launching your Live Blog is to sign up for Arena Live Blog. It can be installed on nearly any website in sixty seconds by uploading a short piece of code. Start your free 14-day trial of Arena Live Blog.

What is Live Chat?

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Live chat software is a popular way to deliver better customer service, fantastic online events and get more leads for the sales team. There are multiple live chat apps on the market and each one is suited for different needs. You’re about to learn how live chat works, the key features of live chat, and the key benefits of online live chat for companies.

What is Live Chat?

In simple terms, live chat provides a chat window where people can interact in real-time. It is a type of messaging software that lets two or more people interact by entering text. For example, customers can ask questions about a product they are interested in or check on the status of their report. The tool is particularly popular for live chat for customer support and sales teams, but it can also be used to increase audience engagement on online events, video live streaming and live blogs.

The specific benefits of live chat software depend on the type of technology you use and the features you select. The best chat messaging apps are lightweight and run quickly on your website. For example, some live chat apps have chat feed management tools which come in handy when you have a chat room with many participants.

To really understand how live chat technology works, it is helpful to understand the two main types of chat technology. One type uses automated chat agents to handle simple questions while the other is focused on building human relationships. Both types of chat apps have their role to play.

The two types of chat technology

The world of chat services can be summarized into two broad categories: automated services that use automatic responses and actual live chats with human-to-human interactions.

Automated Chatbots

Also known as automated chatbots or messenger chatbots, these services are helpful in cases where there are standard questions and answers (e.g. what is the status of my order). Artificial intelligence is often able to manage these types of basic customer conversations effectively. For example, many of your customers may call to ask about store hours, the status of a shipment and other basic questions. With canned responses, it is easy to use chatbots to respond to these questions. Use these tools to deliver standardized conversations at scale with customers. While this category of chat tools is helpful, it is important to recognize its limitations.

Automated chatbots are usually not effective at complex real-time chat support. In addition, the lack of a real chat operator means there is a lack of human touch that might be necessary in many scenarios. If a customer is upset or displeased, relying on automatic responses is not enough. Your business systems need to have the flexibility to use a chat app staffed by real people.

Live Chat

Cloud-based live chat software like Arena takes a different approach. Instead of restricting people to interact with automated chat agents, the Arena chat solution is focused on bringing groups together. For example, Rogers Media uses Arena Live Chat to bring sports fans together. In addition, Arena Live Chat makes communication between individuals easier.

The downside to live chat software that focuses on people instead of bots is the staffing effort. Take the use case of an online event where you plan to announce a new product to your audience. You may have a MC to act as the host of the event and a few influencer guests to drive excitement. In addition, you might also have a small support team to handle technical or product questions when running larger events.

While AI-powered chatbots have their value, there is another type of chat platform you need. Chat services like Arena are designed to offer an engaging experience for customers. They are designed to bring together a group of people – like sports fans supporting their favorite team in a major competition.

Benefits of Live Chat

Adding real-time chat to your website benefits your company in many powerful ways. Here, we have highlighted the four most important benefits of adding a live chat software into your business’ strategy.

1. Deliver real-time customer support

Customers hate to wait for support when they have a problem, and the days of making customers’ way in phone queues are over. Online chat support for your clients allows chat agents to quickly ask a few questions and solve the majority of customer problems in no time.

For even greater efficiency, some managers review live chat transcripts to find out the most common questions. Mining live chat data for insights means you can develop better answers and scripts to help your customer support staff provide even better support.

2. Increase sales and conversions

A live chat solution can boost the bottom line directly! For example, you can present a chat window to customers when they visit certain pages or take certain actions (e.g. viewing multiple product description pages). By converting more of your online visitors into leads, your sales lead will have more opportunities to spend their time with warm leads.

3. Boost customer loyalty

Delivering faster high-quality support to customers is one of the keys to unlocking higher customer lifetime value. When your customers are able to get their questions answered and problems solved, they are more likely to keep buying from your company.

4. Increase advertising revenue

The way to raise ad revenue with live chat is simple. You need a way to convince your website visitors to stay on your website longer. Regularly offering engaging online events is a great way to keep visitors engaged for an hour or more at a time. The longer visitors stay on your website, the more ads you can display.

As you host more online events with Arena Live Chat, you can use the customer data platform to find out which content and experiences your audience likes the most. Use these insights to create even better events in the future.

As you implement live chat more thoroughly, there are even more benefits available. Find out more in our comprehensive guide: Top 40 Live Chat Benefits You Need to Know.

Why is Live Chat Fundamental to Build a Strong Online Community

Live chat is essential for building a community on your website as it fosters real-time interaction and engagement. By offering immediate responses to visitors’ inquiries, live chat creates a more personalized and responsive experience. This instant communication helps build trust and rapport with users, making them feel valued and heard. As users interact more frequently with live chat, they are likely to return to your website, participate in discussions, and contribute to a vibrant community atmosphere.

Furthermore, live chat can facilitate deeper connections among community members by enabling group chats, forums, and discussions. These interactions allow users to share experiences, exchange knowledge, and support one another, fostering a sense of belonging. By integrating live chat into your website, you not only enhance customer support but also cultivate a loyal and engaged community that can drive sustained growth and user retention.

Live chat core features

Sorting through all of the chat app options on the market is tough. To save you time, here are some of the most important chat features most companies consider essential. The specific chat capabilities you need will vary depending on a few factors including your company size and whether online events are an important part of your business model.

Easy To Use Chat User Interface

To maintain high customer satisfaction, the chat vendor must provide a simple and easy chat experience. At a minimum, the real-time chat user interface should be fast and run in most web browsers. Without a fast and lightweight user interface, the real-time conversation will slow down and become less interesting.

The best way to assess if a chat platform is easy to use is to take the platform for a spin! Click here to test Arena for free. As a starting point, you may want to hold a question and answer session with your management team and your employees. This type of chat event is a good way to take live chat for a test drive.

Chat Widgets

Support for chat widgets is critical! Chat widgets mean that the website can be installed on your website using a chat plugin. By making your chat accessible to all of your online visitors, it will be easier to get people using the chat app to interact with you. Chat widgets on a website are powerful because the end-user does not have to install anything – there is no app to download.

Chat Analytics

When you add a chat to your business model, it should be easy to gather data. For example, you may want to measure customer satisfaction or engagement. Some chat providers like Arena also offer a customer data platform (CDP) which gives you advanced analytics capabilities.

Chat Feed Management

As more users join a chat window, keeping up with the chat feed gets more difficult. The best chat website software, like Arena, has features to help users navigate conversations using threads, private messages, and 1:1 messages.

Without these chat capabilities, it may be impossible to host large online events with your chat app. The chat feed can easily become overwhelming when you have hundreds or thousands of people in the chat room. With one-on-one messaging and Q&A support, it is far easier to keep the session focused.

Chat Emojis

Emojis are a popular way to add fun and variety to chat interactions. As emojis have increased in popularity, support for emojis is an important feature in chat apps. Without this feature, your audience may become disengaged as they are used to using this feature on social media platforms. Arena Live Chat includes support for emojis so you can keep your audience fully engaged.

Chat Transcript Support

The ability to export a chat transcript (or conversation history) is a valuable chat option. In terms of customer experience, your customer may want the option to review details (e.g. verify a charge has been removed from their credit card) of the discussion.

From a company standpoint, reviewing a chat transcript is a valuable training and development tool. For example, your customer service agents may struggle to answer a certain type of question like questions about out-of-stock products or customization requests. Regularly reviewing the top questions in chat sessions means you can keep your finger on the pulse of your customers. Reviewing chat in combination with call recordings is a powerful way to empower managers to deliver better coaching to their employees.

Moderation Features

What happens when you have a large number of people in your chat channel? If the chat channel is open to the public, you may face struggles with profanity and other unacceptable comments. To solve this problem, Arena Chat has moderation functionalities includes a profanity feature and the ability to quietly remove disruptive users.

Integration With Existing Business Systems

Adding chat conversations to your business should be easy. You can add Arena chat software to your website in less than 10 minutes. Also, Arena is built to integrate with popular platforms like WordPress. That means you can set up fast and start your first online chat easily.

Flexible Plans For Chat Pricing

Flexible plans are the final important feature to consider in a chat vendor. Many chat vendors offer standardized plans like a business plan or enterprise plan. Also, you can sometimes find a free limited plan like Arena. Finally, check to see if the chat service offers custom plans which are helpful if you have a large volume of chat users and need advanced features.

The top live chat use cases

Knowing the most popular chat software trends and use cases gives you a starting point to develop your chat team and chat strategy.

Live Chat For Customer Support

Thousands of companies are using live chat for support instead of customer service email. In this use case, customers ask their questions directly to a chat operator. As a communication channel, there are a lot of benefits of live chat for customer service, because you don’t have to worry about critical information (e.g. order number, account number, address, etc) being misunderstood. By reducing the potential for confusion, your chat support agents will have more capacity to focus on solving the customer’s main problem.

Chat staffing can become a challenge in some cases. For example, some retailers face a large number of chat requests during the holiday season. This challenge can be mitigated by developing scripts with canned responses to the most common questions. Of course, canned responses are just one part of delivering great customer service. You may also want to consider scheduling regular lunch & learn sessions to share best practices internally in chat support.

Fundamentally, modern customer service needs to offer multiple digital channels. Equipping customer service teams with live chat, an email address, and a phone number has become table stakes for many companies.

While chat customer service is a well-known way to use live chat, it is just one of the use cases that companies are leveraging today. Learn about 14 ways that Arena’s Live Chat is a customer service game-changer in our article.

Live Chat For Sales and Marketing

Don’t forget about your sales team! With the right technology and design, a sales chat window can fill the sales funnel. For example, you might set up your website to display a chat box when a customer visits certain pages like a checkout page. To provide the best response time, many companies use pre-chat forms to gather basic information like name, contact information, and an overview of the problem.

For sales reps, capturing leads through live chat is an effective way to grow leads. Incoming chats are usually a good sign that the person is very interested in learning more. If the chat volume becomes too high, you may need to divert some chat app users to other channels like calling your sales team instead.

Live Chat For Events

To gain a competitive edge, you need to give your prospects and online visitors a reason to keep coming back to your website. That’s where organizing virtual events with live gives you an edge to stand out. In virtual events and hybrid events, a chat window gives your audience the chance to have a real-time conversation without disrupting the flow of the event.

Adding a live chat app to your events is a smart way to deepen your engagement. For example, colleges and universities like Coventry University in the UK and California State University, Northridge have used live chat to engage new students, deepen relationships and grow admissions. Live chat is a key part of offering personalized services to students in higher education.

It’s not just colleges and universities that are turning to online events either. Companies are turning to online events like online events for internal meetings to lift employee engagement and online events for hiring to attract talent.

Live Chat Is Your Path To More Engaged Customers

Adding live chat to your company’s website used to be solely as a strategy to improve customer service. Today’s live chat solutions are much more powerful. You can use Arena Live Chat to power online events which means more opportunities for conversions. For publishers focused on advertising, live chat is powerful because keeping your audience on your website longer.

To see for yourself how Live Chat works, take Arena for a test drive. You can test Arena for free for two weeks to see if it helps you get more customers. Installing Arena Live Chat usually takes less than thirty minutes – often less time than that – so you can easily get the app installed and deepen engagement with your customers.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5c2aNilRUqM

Top 40 Live Chat Benefits You Need to Know

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Arena Live Chat is one of the most powerful live chat platforms on the market. If you’re undecided on whether to try it, you might not know about the benefits.

Top 40 Live Chat Benefits

1) Increase sales

There’s a saying in sales: the confused mind does not buy. When customers have questions or doubts, they are less likely to buy.  With Arena Live Chat on your website, you can make it easy for customers to get answers about potential purchases. By providing quick answers to interested customers, you can earn more sales.

2) Build a community of fans on your website

Customers are probably talking about your brand and products, but those conversations are not happening on your website. Instead, those conversations are probably already happening on social media sites like your company’s Facebook page. When people talk about your brand away from your website, it is tough for you to provide answers and drive conversions.

By adding Arena Live Chat to your website, you can build a thriving community of users in two ways. First, your customers can make friends with each other during group chat sessions. Second, you can provide a welcoming virtual place for customers to come together as a community. If you want to see some solid events, check out how Nubank leveraged Anita’s community engagement for its IPO live event, or how Vans uses Arena Live Chat to aid live DJ music sets in its website.

3) Keep people on your website longer

According to Crazy Egg, the average person only spends 15 seconds on a website before leaving. Yikes! That’s not much time to make a good impression, let alone earn a sale or generate a lead. What if you could encourage users to spend 10 minutes or even an hour on your website happily?

That’s possible when you organize a virtual event with Arena Live Chat. For example, you could invite a social media influencer to present a live stream video session for an hour. During that session, attendees can ask questions through Arena Live Chat. In addition, you will have the opportunity to drive conversions by using the conversion card feature in Arena.

4) Qualify leads for the sales team

Is your sales team too busy with prospects who are not a fit for your products? That’s a problem you can solve by using Arena Live Chat. Invite customers to answer a few simple questions through chat before booking a call with sales.

For example, consider a B2B company that mainly sells to large companies with more than $100 million in revenue. In that case, the sales team shouldn’t spend their time talking to small businesses. You can use Arena Live Chat to qualify leads before they are sent to the sales team.

5) Reduce customer service delays

Forcing customers to wait in long phone queues to get customer service is no longer good enough. In 2020, more than 10% of customers abandoned their calls before being connected to an agent. When a customer gives up on their call, that disappointment hurts your company in two ways. First, you have lost a potential sale today. Second, the frustrated customer may complain to their friends and family.

Offering customer service through Arena Live Chat can help you to minimize customer service delays. For the best results, equip your customer service agents with a frequently asked questions (FAQ) document and other training to help them answer common questions quickly.

6) Create more engaging live events

Offering a live virtual event to your customers is a great way to build loyalty and drive sales. When planning an event, use the virtual events checklist to plan your event properly. At the same time, you also want to allow for some flexibility to adjust your topics based on what your customers are most interested in.

With Arena Live Chat, you can ask poll questions during an event to gather quick feedback. At the end of the event, you could ask attendees to vote on what your next live event should focus on. Acting on this feedback means you can avoid the frustration of offering live events that nobody is interested in attending. Swoogo has already found out that offering Live Chat is a home-run in live events.

7) Boost conversions in live shopping events

Live shopping events are an exciting way to drive increased sales. According to McKinsey, live shopping events may generate between 10-20% of all ecommerce sales by 2026.

During these events, customers are likely to have questions about product size, color, shipping, and much more. To make the most of your live shopping events, provide fast answers through Arena Live Chat.

8) Gain feedback on new product ideas

Are you debating what product to launch next? You could use market research surveys to gather insight on what people might want. That kind of research will yield some valuable insights. However, there is an even better way – get insight directly from customers using Arena Live Chat.

For instance, let’s say that you run a clothing brand and consider offering a line of blankets for winter. Before investing time in manufacturing and marketing, ask your next 100 live chat users if they are interested in a blanket. If the customers are interested, take note of their contact details and follow up with them later if you launch the product.  

9) Improve your chatbots

Adding a chatbot to your website is an excellent way to provide even faster customer service. However, chatbots are only as good as their input. One of the best ways to make your chatbots more effective is to look through your Arena Live Chat transcripts. You’re bound to find new ideas to make your chatbots more effective.

10) Enable flexible remote work

Survey after survey has shown that flexible remote work is popular with employees. According to Forbes, 74% of professional workers expect remote work to become standard in the coming years.

Give your employees the option to provide customer service, event support, and sales through live chat sessions. Giving your employees flexibility about when and where they work can drive productivity and help you retain more trained workers.

11) Add value to your product’s customization options

Many companies offer many different features, options, and customization choices. For example, think of an online jewelry store that lets customers choose different types of metal or engraving. Many customers like the idea of additional choices, but there is a downside. Your customers might get confused about how to use the options.

Use Arena Live Chat as a solution to this problem – let customers ask questions about custom options. With practice, you may even be able to increase the average order value by selling more upgrades.

12) Provide the most up to date information

Supply chain problems, new product launches, and staff turnover are just some of the changes your company might be managing today. With all of these changes, the information on your website might be out of date. For example, you might only be able to offer a few of your products in the extra-large size category.

With Arena Live Chat, you can invite customers to confirm the details of their order before they buy. This is a great way to prevent buyer’s remorse and disappointment.

13) Offer personalized service

Think about the last time you went to an excellent restaurant or hotel. The way staff greeted you and addressed your concerns was probably a big part of the experience. For example, you might have been asked if you were celebrating an occasion. Taking the time to ask a few good questions makes it much easier to offer a memorable customer service experience.

By engaging each customer through Arena Live Chat, you have the opportunity to build a relationship with the customer. Taking the time to listen to their comments and questions means customers are more likely to come back to your company.

14) Improve the quality of your sales training

Hiring and training a new salesperson is one of the best ways to grow a business. Unfortunately, it often takes a lot of trial and error for a junior salesperson to become effective. With the right approach, it’s possible to get sale people working productively quickly. How? Harness the power of live chat.

To improve the quality of your sale training, keep a log of the most common questions that customers ask during your Arena Live Chat sessions. By developing accurate and persuasive answers to those questions, your salespeople can be prepared to answer common concerns and close more sales. 

15) Enhance the post-sales experience

Making a sale today matters, but the long term is even more critical. If you engage customers thoroughly and pay attention to the details, they are more likely to keep buying from you in the future. 

You can enhance the post-sales customer experience with Arena Live Chat. For example, send customers a message inviting them to ask questions when their new product arrives. Nobody likes to look uninformed but accepting an invitation to a live chat session is different.

16) Grow customer service agent productivity

More sales mean more customer service employees, right? Not necessarily! It all depends on how you plan out your customer service program. For example, a company that only offers telephone customer service might hire more staff to keep up with demand.

By offering Arena Live Chat, you can grow customer service productivity without skyrocketing your costs. Why? A customer service person can easily maintain a few chat sessions at the same time. 

17) Encourage employee service specialization

Specialized employees are often able to provide better customer service and close more sales. Yet, encouraging generalist employees to develop a specialty can be difficult. One way to overcome this reluctance is to start small: encourage specialization through chat.

With Arena Live Chat, employees work with different kinds of customers and sales conversations. After a few weeks, they may better understand what kinds of customers and products they find most interesting. In this manner, live chat helps your employees quickly discover their strengths and build expertise.

18) Enhance the quality of your sales coaching

Sales managers have an essential role to play in helping their employees to improve their sales skills. Unfortunately, it is relatively complex for a sales manager to observe their sales reps in action and provide timely feedback. Asking managers to review live chat sessions can help.

When your sales representatives finish a sales chat session, encourage them to send the transcript to their manager for review. By asking an experienced person to review the interaction, it should be easy to find a few ways to improve. For example, the sales manager might encourage their staff to ask more questions early in the chat session to understand customer needs better.

19) Reduce painful interruptions for customers

In today’s digital world, it is difficult to get focused. Once you get down to work, the last thing you want is an unwanted sales call. At the same time, managers know it is essential to make it easy for customers to reach out. 

Adding Arena Live Chat to your website makes it easy for customers to reach out when they have questions. By focusing your effort on people interested in what you have to offer, you can avoid wasting time on disinterested people. 

20) Never lose another sales lead

In benefit 4, you learned that live chat could be an excellent way to qualify sales leads. That is helpful if your business is overwhelmed with prospects. Your situation might be quite different. If you are struggling to meet your revenue goals, you can use live chat to maximize leads instead.

Use Arena Live Chat to engage every website visitor and ask them questions about their needs. In this way, you can make a personalized pitch to every person who comes through your website.

21) Make your website more inviting to customers

Put yourself in the shoes of a prospect visiting a traditional website. It is a passive window shopping experience. You can look at product photos, view videos, and look up order status information. The lack of interaction means customers may become disengaged before finding the right product.

Adding Arena Live Chat to your website makes your website more like a store where employees greet customers as they come in. By making your website more inviting, customers may be more comfortable asking questions. 

22) Discover your customer’s pain points and solve them

Right now, your potential customers have questions, concerns, and worries about doing business with you. They might be worried that your shipping service or return policy isn’t going to work for them. Every business has different customer concerns to face. Ultimately, you can only solve these problems and get more sales if you know those concerns.

You can discover the worries that hold people back from buying by encouraging customers to ask more questions through Arena Live Chat. Once you have those insights, you can update your website to answer those concerns.   

23) Cross-sell related products and accessories

Cross-selling is one of the best ways to increase revenue. Fast food restaurants mastered this technique years ago by offering customers fries, drinks, and other items when they ordered. You can make similar offers to customers once you start a conversation.

For example, let’s say you have an online sports apparel store. A customer might start by asking about running shoes. By offering an Arena Live Chat session on your product page, you can answer questions about shoes and suggest related products (e.g., running shorts and shirts). 

24) Meet customer expectations for interaction

Keeping up with changing customer expectations is essential. For example, most businesses know that they need a modern website and a social media presence today. Today, many customers expect a live chat experience. More than 40% of customers expect live chat on the websites they use, and that number is likely to rise.

To stay competitive with customer demand, install Arena Live Chat on your website. You can get started for free. 

25) Track customer service performance

Do you know if your customer service is performing well? Traditional ways of measuring performance – like measuring how long it takes to answer a phone call – are limited. It is far better to look at the quality of live chat interactions.

Arena Live Chat includes analytics so that you can better understand how well you are answering customer questions over time.

26) Serve international customers

Did you know that more than one-quarter of revenue earned by S&P 500 companies came from outside the US? Your company might have customers around the world! Serving customers in different time zones and languages doesn’t have to be complicated.

Arena Live Chat can run around the clock on your website. For example, you can staff your live chat function with staff in the US and UK to provide customer service in the US and Europe.

27) Reduce product returns

When unhappy customers return products, your profitability is likely to suffer. Unfortunately, product returns are a significant problem for online companies. CNBC reports the returns cost the retail industry over $1 trillion annually. 

To reduce your product return expenses, engage customers in more conversations before they buy. Taking 5 minutes to answer questions before a customer buys pays off right away in higher satisfaction, lower complaints, and fewer returns.

28) Engage B2B or B2C leads

Consumers and corporate customers have different needs. A corporate employee buying laptops might have questions about contracts, support services, and discounts if they order 500 computers. In contrast, a consumer may ask questions like which computer is best for gaming.

If your company sells to multiple markets, use Arena Live Chat to start the conversation. If a customer says they are buying on behalf of a company, you can route the inquiry to the B2B team to address right away.

29) Troubleshoot live shopping

Live shopping events are taking off in popularity for many ecommerce companies. These events blend entertainment and retail into an appealing package. However, many consumers are still learning how to use this technology. When technical problems occur during these events, providing fast support is critical.

In your next live shopping event, use Arena Live Chat as your support platform. If you fail to offer easy-to-access support, customers experiencing technical problems might give up and leave your event.

30) Build trust in your company

Building trust with customers in the online world can be challenging. Customers may be worried about their privacy and security. Others may wonder if your company can deliver. Facing these concerns directly through a conversation is one of the best approaches.

You can use Arena Live Chat to build trust with your potential customers through multiple interactions. Taking the time to answer questions today through live chat means you can make a positive impression.

31) Improve webinars and virtual classes with feedback

Delivering a webinar or virtual class is a powerful way to equip people with new knowledge. Yet, there are downsides to virtual education and training. It is difficult for the teacher to connect with their audience. Without that connection, students may become disengaged.

With the polls feature of Arena Live Chat, you can make your online learning more engaging. For instance, you can follow up on an assignment with a poll and determine which topics students want to cover in a review. In this way, a teacher can quickly adapt a virtual class to suit student needs.

32) Make asking questions embarrassment free

Asking questions is the key to unlocking sales and connecting with customers. However, some people are reluctant to raise their hands and ask a question. Why? Nobody enjoys looking uninformed, especially in front of an audience, like a live virtual event.

Using the direct message (DM) feature of Arena Live Chat solves this problem. Event attendees can ask questions privately without fear of embarrassment by sending a DM to the event host. 

33) Run engaging family-friendly virtual events

Offering a virtual event suitable for the whole family is challenging. For example, a sports broadcaster might want to encourage a broad audience to view online coverage and participate in online coverage. A public virtual event carries a risk – some people might attempt to disrupt the event with profanity or spam comments. Failing to address this kind of disruption quickly can make the event hosts look incompetent.

Arena Live Chat comes with moderation tools that make it simple to stop profanity automatically. In addition, you can quietly remove disruptive users from the live chat event. These features make it much easier to keep your virtual events engaging and family-friendly.

34) Support advanced marketing campaigns

The changing landscape of digital marketing means companies have to change how they engage with customers. Recent changes by Apple and Google are making traditional digital marketing methods less effective.

One solution to these challenges lies in leveraging the Arena customer data platform and live chat together. For instance, you can identify patterns between customer interests (e.g., sports, business, lifestyle) as expressed in website activity and purchases. Understanding these links can help you to create more relevant marketing campaigns.

35) Quickly improve website engagement

In the online world, high engagement is crucial. Low engagement can cause your conversions to fall. There are also signs that Google and other search engines consider user engagement from a search engine optimization (SEO) perspective. Unfortunately, some ways to increase engagement are brutal, like redesigning an entire website! 

On the other hand, you can install Arena Live Chat on your website in less than 10 minutes. It is one of the fastest ways to make your website more engaging.

36) Improve question & answer (Q&A) sessions

In live shopping events, webinars, and other live events, you might decide to offer a dedicated Q&A session at the end of the event. In larger events with dozens or hundreds of participants, keeping up with the questions is tricky, especially if questions are mixed with other comments in the chat window.

Arena Live Chat makes Q&A sessions easy to manage by organizing all live chat questions in a dedicated Q&A area. Event moderators can then decide which questions to answer.

37) Boost engagement with chat channels

In a conference, participants can go to panels and sessions that specifically relate to their interests. With virtual live events, it can be more challenging to engage each niche interest. Using custom chat channels is one way to solve this engagement challenge.

Arena Live Chat offers dedicated channels for your live chat sessions. For example, you could have one channel for customers, one for technical support, and one for future event suggestions.

38) Keep users engaged with social profiles

Nobody likes to feel like a number in the online world. Unfortunately, some chat tools give users generic usernames and numbers. It doesn’t have to be that way.

When users sign up on Arena Live Chat, they can create custom user profiles with avatars to make them more personal.

39) Avoid live chat reply confusion

With dozens, hundreds, or thousands of live chat participants, it is easy to get confused. One friend might send a question in the chat room to somebody else only to obscure that question by the flood of chat comments.

Arena Live Chat offers reply features so that user replies are kept together with the main message. That’s valuable because user conversations are never lost in the noise as a result.

40) Drive conversions with conversion cards

Organizing a virtual event takes significant time and effort. You might spend hours writing a virtual event script, inviting guest speakers, and promoting the event. Offering interesting content matters, but you also have to watch business results like conversions and purchases. 

Arena Live Chat helps you achieve goals like lead generation and purchases through conversion cards. You can use these cards at several points during your live chat session to draw attention to your offers. By using a few conversion cards at every event, you’ll never have to struggle to prove the ROI of your live chat events.

Get Started Today For Free

Arena Live Chat is simple to install – most customers install it on their websites in less than 10 minutes. Not sure if it is suitable for your company? You can try Arena Live Chat for free.

The 4 Best Gaming Chat Apps

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Gaming chat apps give players the ability to connect with their audiences effectively. Taking the time to find the right tool for your audience and goals makes all the difference. 

Livestream Gaming Is Worth Billions

Livestreaming video gameplay has become big business! Whether you prefer to play Dota, Overwatch, League of Legends, Elden Ring, or other popular games, eSports and game streamers are building significant entertainment businesses and careers today. According to Juniper Research, game streaming and esports are already generating $1 billion in revenue. That’s not all – the industry is forecast to generate billions of dollars – $3.5 billion to be exact – by 2025. 

That explosive growth means more and more players and entertainers will jump into the live streaming market. Those new perspectives and styles mean more options for people to find streamers they like.

There is a dark side to the growth of streaming – audience engagement will become more difficult. As your audience gets even more choices to get their gaming fix, streamers will need to look for new ways to stand out. Inviting special guests, developing new jokes, and playing the latest games will all play a role.

However, you also need to give your audience an appealing way to get involved. That’s where using gaming chat apps is powerful. When your audience has access to a chat room to ask questions, applaud your play and engage with friends, the stream becomes a social experience. That means that your audience is likely to keep returning to your session repeatedly.

5 Ways Gaming Chat Apps Will Grow Your Audience

Adding gaming chat apps to your game streaming brings several powerful benefits. Achieving all of these benefits may take some practice, so don’t worry if it takes you a while to realize all of these gains.

1 Verify streaming quality

Streaming technology has come a long way over the past few years, but it is still far from perfect. With a gaming chat app, you can run a quick soundcheck and instantly determine if your audience can hear and see you. Getting quick technical feedback means solving glitches fast and keeping your audience engaged. Neglecting this factor can drive your audience away.

2 Get more content ideas

As a streamer, you’re on stage! It is up to you to perform and share exciting stories and jokes with your audience. After a while, you might feel some level of creative burnout. Fortunately, your audience is full of ideas! By paying attention to the comments and questions in your chat app, you can get new ideas for future streaming sessions. Maybe your audience wants to see you play a different type of character or solve a problem? Add these audience suggestions to your ‘ideas file,’ and you’ll never struggle to come up with fresh ideas in your streaming sessions.

3 Test product ideas

What if you have a new idea for a product like a mod for a game or merchandise? Before investing significant time and energy into developing the product, use chat apps to get rapid feedback. For example, you could work with an artist to produce a mockup of a product idea and share it with your audience in a stream. If you see many people asking how to buy it, that is an excellent signal to move ahead! 

Likewise, the reverse reaction – a lack of audience interest in a new product idea – is valuable. You’ve just saved yourself from pursuing an idea that may not find traction in the market.

4 Deepen audience loyalty

Building an engaged audience for your streaming career doesn’t happen overnight. Instead, it takes regular engagement – answering questions, interacting with comments, and more. Using gaming chap apps in your live streams lets you interact with the audience as the stream unfolds. That’s a powerful way to make your audience feel valued and eager to keep coming back for more.

5 Increase advertising revenue

By adding chat apps to your streaming, you give your audience a social experience. Not only will they be entertained by your stream, but they will also have the chance to connect with other people. Now that your audience has an easy way to interact with other viewers, they are likely to stay engaged with you for longer periods. Ultimately, this translates into higher advertising revenues.

Now that you know how gaming chat apps can grow your audience and engage

The 4 Best Gaming Chat Apps

These significant platforms give you access to users, text chat features, voice chats, social features, and more to easily connect with channel viewers.

For many streamers, Twitch is a popular choice for streaming. Certainly, Twitch has advantages like a large user base. Yet Twitch is no longer the only or best option for all streamers today.

Arena

  • Chat Type: Text 
  • Key Features: social media integration, profanity filters, embed the app on your website
  • Pricing: the basic version is free! For game streamers with larger audiences, consider one of the paid plans. 
  • Free Trial Available: you can use the free basic plan or sign up for a free trial of one of the higher-end plans

You may not have used Arena yet, but it is one of the most powerful live chat tools on the market. This lightweight chat app is designed to keep large virtual audiences engaged. Arena Live Chat can be installed on your website in a few minutes, so there are no delays. This chat tool also has chat restrictions which means less work for chat administrators.

At this time, Arena does not support voice calls or video chats. However, keeping your audience in a text-only chat window is helpful. When attempting something difficult in League of Legends or other challenging online games, you may prefer to focus on gaming.  

Twitch 

  • Key Features: Twitch has millions of active users, including many hard-core gamers 
  • Pricing: $5 to $25 per month, depending on the plan
  • Free Trial Available: the partner program does not have a free trial app

Twitch has the advantage of a significant gaming community of game enthusiasts – over 2 million active users, according to the Business of Apps. The large audience potential Twitch offers is very appealing to game streamers. However, there are some drawbacks to Twitch. To access the platform’s most powerful capabilities, streamers must fee the company’s Twitch Partner Program requirements, including mandatory training. 

Discord

  • Key Features: Discord offers text chat and voice chat capabilities
  • Pricing: there is a paid version of Discord called Discord Nitro ($99 per year) that offers large file transfer options, custom emojis, and more customization options
  • Free Trial Available: there is a free version of Discord, so you can test the platform

Launching a Discord server has become a popular choice for social gamers due to the platform’s focus on audio means it has excellent sound quality. It is also easy to create a different voice channel for different groups of Discord users. High audio quality communication is the perfect choice for many hard-core gamers who want to focus on their gameplay. The service includes direct messaging (i.e., the ability to send direct messages to other users) and file transfer.

Join a few public servers before taking the time and effort to become a server owner. See how other streamers run their game nights, interact with fans and create a great gaming experience.

Epic Game Store

  • Key Features: among gaming platforms, Epic Game Store stands out because it offers free games and game communication. 
  • Pricing: None
  • Free Trial Available: you can play some games for free on the platform.

Like Twitch, the Epic Game Store has an application-based program for streamers called Support-A-Creator. Essentially, streamers earn a 5% affiliate commission on purchases. There are several requirements to qualify for the Support-A-Creator program, including having at least 1,000 followers on social media platforms and following the service’s terms of service. Beyond this core feature for monetization, the Epic Game Store website sets expectations: “please expect modest results.”

The Epic Game Store approach to streaming is best suited to a few cases, including playing Fortnite and other epic games. Larger entertainment companies may prefer to use a multi-gaming platform not focused on Epic game titles. 

Which Gamer Chat App Is Right For You?

With all of the chat applications on the market, choosing the right app for your needs can take time and experimentation. To simplify the process, ask yourself which of the following categories best suits your needs.

Entry Level

An entry-level gamer chat app like Epic Games is a good choice for someone just getting started. You might have one or two thousand people in your audience and have modest revenue goals. In that case, a more straightforward app makes sense.

Intermediate Level

In the intermediate category, you have more choices for a voice chat service. A Gamer chat app like Discord makes sense. Setting up private servers for each gaming community you serve can help to lift engagement – League of Legends fans might not be interested in Fortnite or DOTA. The lack of a video chat feature may benefit since it can help you focus.

Professional Level

In chat clients, the professional level of chat clients comes down to two options: Arena vs. Twitch. With millions of potential channel viewers, Twitch is a popular choice. Yet, Twitch is not suitable for everyone. For example, your live streaming events might need chat restrictions t0 keep the event family-friendly. Arena’s moderation features like the profanity filter make organizing events for a large community easier. 

Since Arena is installed right on your website, your audience will not suffer through a significant learning curve. 

Arena vs. Twitch: Which Offers The Best Game Chat Experience?

Game chat, whether by voice or text, is an important way to engage your gaming audience. If you’re currently using Twitch, you may want to reconsider your options.

Twitch: Pros and Cons

In the gaming industry, Twitch has become one of the most popular apps with solid video quality and voice quality. Also, Twitch offers a variety of additional features that end users like the option to offer exclusive content. For end users, the platform offers many different channels so you can easily find streams featuring your favorite game.

There are disadvantages to relying exclusively on Twitch however. It is difficult to achieve complete control over the streaming experience. Other channels are just a click a way. That means you may lose users from your game chat.

Arena: The Way To Achieve Complete Control Of Your Gaming Chat App

When you want to make the most of your game time, complete control becomes valuation. You might want a way to sell products or ask users to enter their email address to join your list. With an off the shelf gaming chat app, full administrative control is tough if not impossible.

The solution is to build your our gaming chat app. Fortunately, there is no complicated coding involved. Instead, you simply need to install Arena Live Chat on your website. By using Live Chat on your website, your audience doesn’t have to download anything from an app store. They simply visit your website and start engaging with their friends. It’s a great way to engage community-minded gamers.

From a business standpoint, using Arena Live Chat instead of Twitch opens up new opportunities. For example, you can gather new data on your audience’s preferences with a customer data platform. With that data in hand, it far easier to understand what your audience wants and what they might be willing to buy. The best part? Your audience will get used to associating your website with leisure time rather than viewing you as one channel among many on a platform like Twitch.

How To Create A Custom Gaming Chat App

Adding a custom gaming chat app experience to your website is simple. For the best experience, download our new ebook: Declare Your Independence From Twitch. Arena Live Chat can be installed in minutes. It’s one of the best ways to engage your audience without the distractions of a voice chat application.

4 Reasons the Metaverse matters to marketers and what to do

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The metaverse – the next phase of the Internet – is coming soon. This trend has the potential to transform how you interact with customers and how you market. Before going much further, there is a fundamental question we need to answer: what is the metaverse?

What Is The Metaverse?

In his novel Snow Crash, the term metaverse was initially coined in the 1990s by science fiction author Neal Stephenson. While the word itself has been around for decades, Facebook has recently emphasized it to a much greater degree. In October 2021, Facebook announced that it was changing its name from Facebook to Meta. The change reflects that Facebook has invested substantially in other areas beyond social media, such as investments in virtual reality.

In simple terms, the metaverse is a new way of connecting with other people in immersive online worlds. It will involve several technologies such as augmented reality (AR), virtual reality (VR), mobile devices, and high-end graphics capabilities. Today, most metaverse efforts are primarily focused on video games and entertainment. However, there is also potential to create conferences, trade shows, and shopping experiences in the metaverse.

The Metaverse Impact on Marketing Strategies

As the metaverse becomes more significant, marketers are wondering how it will impact their growth strategies. The impact will vary from company to company depending on how digitally savvy your customers are and your existing technology. Over time, we expect the metaverse to impact marketing in the following ways.

Drive Higher Engagement With Immersive Experiences

The metaverse focuses on creating a digital experience with audio, video, and more. Over time, marketers will be able to create virtual reality experiences for companies. A few early adopters are already creating these kinds of experiences at conferences and events. For example, the CES conference has featured virtual reality experiences since at least 2017.

Brands and marketers who successfully create immersive experiences for their customers have the potential to drive more sales and conversions.

Establish A Presence In Virtual Worlds

The metaverse will feature virtual worlds where users can visit, walk around, fly and build property. In November 2021, Liquid Avatar launched a metaverse environment called “Aftermath Islands,” where users can interact with each other and buy virtual real estate.

To imagine what the coming wave of virtual worlds may look like, it is helpful to consider earlier examples. In 2003, Second Life launched as a virtual world accessible by computer. By 2020, the virtual world had grown to 900,000 users. In Second Life, users can create an avatar to interact with the world. Users can visit companies, libraries, and educational experiences. Second Life is significant because it is not structured as a game. There are no objectives, goals, or quests per se. Instead, the platform emphasizes socializing.

Virtual worlds are significant for marketers and brands because of their scale. Creating a single immersive experience for your company will have some appeal. That said, creating a virtual experience where users can only interact with your company may have limited appeal unless you already have a cult following like Apple.

Many companies may ultimately find it more cost-effective to set up a presence in virtual worlds that already have a presence. For instance, an entertainment company might reach out to Roblox. As of Q2 2021, Roblox has 42 million daily active users. Establishing a presence early in platforms like Roblox and other virtual worlds may give you a first-mover advantage comparable to building a Facebook following in the 2000s.

Earn Revenue By Selling Collectibles

In addition to driving engagement, companies can generate revenue directly through the metaverse. Think of the recent boom in non-fungible tokens (NFTs) – a kind of digital collectible.

Billions of dollars are rapidly pouring into these digital goods. NFTs have generated over $2.5 billion in revenue in the first half of 2021, according to Reuters. That activity level is even more striking when you realize that NFTs generated just $13 million in the first half of 2020. The current boom in NFTs is partially driven by low-interest rates and a gold rush mentality. However, there is likely to be ongoing demand for digital collectibles.

The marketing potential for collectibles and NFTS in the metaverse becomes more evident when you combine collectibles with other trends. For example, imagine consumers buying a virtual house, a virtual card made by their favorite athlete, or digital artwork.

Integrating Metaverse and Offline Marketing

Selling NFTs and other digital goods may not be your primary focus. In that case, the metaverse is still relevant to your marketing opportunity. Specifically, you can use the metaverse as another marketing channel to drive users to interact with your business offline or visit your website. For example, you might create a temporary presence in a metaverse world to promote your company at an event.

What To Do Right Now While The Metaverse Matures

While the metaverse presents an exciting opportunity, it will likely take a few more years to become commercially significant. While that technology matures, it is also essential to act on immediate marketing opportunities.

For more than a decade, digital marketers have relied on cookies to power their marketing. The age of tracking user behavior through cookies is coming to an end due to privacy changes implemented by Apple and Google. As those cookies decline in value, it is time to create your customer data platform instead of relying on third-party cookies.   

The Arena customer data platform is your opportunity to understand customer behavior without relying on traditional third-party cookies. With the Arena customer data platform, you can track a customer’s journey by clicking on an online ad, participating in a chat room, and ultimately placing an order. By gathering these marketing data from multiple online platforms, you can better understand your audience’s interests. Ultimately, that means you can design more relevant marketing, live shopping experiences and offers, and drive conversions.

Youtube Creators Are Leaving Youtube. Should You?

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Youtube was once the main video streaming platform and had no competition since its nascent arrival; but, in 2021 TikTok surprised the streaming world with an increase in average viewing time, and some Youtube creators, already dissatisfied with the status quo streaming monetization model, began to favor the preferred Twitch format. This led to Youtube creators asking the question: how will this scenario evolve into a new format? At the moment, Youtube creators alternatives aren’t abundant on the streaming horizon.  Let’s review the trends related to streaming, creators, and monetization. 

Competition inside the Youtube Creators program 

Perhaps this is a reflection of pressure from TikTok, a more nimble and democratic platform. This could be one of the reasons why Youtube has given free rein to their community and why some Youtube creators have complained.

There are contests, prizes, and fame for those who make the most the quickest. If you’re in the visual content business, you know it takes time, blood, sweat, and tears to make something good. Publishers take and make time to create quality material, but platforms don’t look at this. To do more and do it faster, Youtube creators have to invest more, otherwise, they deliver poor content. This fact of life leads us to turn our attention to another challenge, monetization.

Making money with Youtube, is it still possible?

Yes, but it depends on whether your model is a subscription-based or views-based one. Subscription models can be profitable even with small accounts. For example, if you have less than 20,000 subscribers, Twitch or Vimeo can be more profitable. However, this is where the problem crops up its ugly head. If you get more views, it would be prudent to put the same video streaming platform content on YouTube. 

In 2021 when Twitch data was leaked from Reddit accounts, some creators opened their values publicly. Youtube pageviews are very profitable according to Covertblue by a factor of 10. However, the same video(link) shows that within Twitch, Prime Video subscriptions have a good ROI ratio for the creators themselves. However, this is where the system can be hacked. If Covertblue created all of this content not only on these two platforms, but also on their website,  how much money should they be making? Not to spill the beans on Google, but, they should be making 7 times more. This means that 2.7 million views are converted into 2.7 million pageviews on a website with Adsense plugged in and can be roughly worth $200,000 to $290,000 US dollars. That’s no chump change we’re talking about. So, mumm’s the word. Also, by using YouTube on a website, both revenues are accrued. We have literature curated for you in the form of tips and tricks here (link to an internal link about Arena.im products monetization article). Top notch global creators privy to this information are already taking advantage to monetize their websites. Why not you too?

Youtube Algorithms and their War on good Content

Yes, it may seem nonsensical, but according to a study published by Mozilla Youtube AI seeks to attract your attention with “poor content”. The title and thumbnail will draw your attention, but the content may be less appealing than an advertisement. It’s just all about business. Many creators are “upset” with Google and YouTube because they are expanding their structure to include more cameras, editions, and content study. Although the AI was attempting to serve more beginning Youtube creators, your subscribers are receiving more from them rather than from you.  It’s regrettable, but this is a “sad but true” set of circumstances.  Its advice is more about metadata than it is about what you follow.    

A recent article from Bloomberg.com reported that Twitch, the Amazon.com Inc.-owned live-streaming website, has been toying with ideas on how to pay its top talent. This seems to parallel YouTube’s tack. People familiar with the planning stated that the effort would boost its profits but would risk alienating some of their biggest stars.

Under consideration are updates that would offer streamers incentives to run more advertisements. Additionally, the proportion of subscription fees dolled out to the site’s largest performers would be reduced, said a few who asked anonymity because the negotiations are still private.

This move by Amazon indicates the changes surging through all video streaming platforms. Viewership for live videos of people playing video games has skyrocketed recently and this has elevated a new genre of internet celebrities. Twitch is leading the market, now, but Amazon is more interested in generating revenue over the long haul. It has started work on new, profit-driven programs; however, some employees have said the shift hurts its users. An exodus of top and longtime employees, who said Twitch has lost touch with its community’s needs has recently been reported by Bloomberg.

Duration and Theme  

Again, AI, if the computer algorithm determines that your content is fine, you won’t be able to edit it. Youtube creators invest time in improving Youtube SEO, editions, editing, effects, and thumbnails, but if they change the video duration and talk about anything else, the results may suffer. Perhaps YouTube AI is putting too much weight on that. Is YouTube’s neural machine learning engine picking up on the video or channel’s context?  Nobody knows, yet Youtube creators have been observing / watching and grumbling about this.

If you meet the Youtube criteria, maybe you will be able to start making some money. Instead of slaving away for one of the big four, there are alternatives to make more and collect data for your company. It’s no wonder why media giants like Globo TV, Rogers Media and Fox Sports have left YouTube and brought their content to their own domains. Some creators and companies have already noticed that. They are taking their first steps into creating a new digital streaming environment. And so should you. 

Best Way to Make Live Shopping Successful

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The eCommerce industry boom, since the pandemic, has increased sales capabilities in thousands of different ways. Live shopping is now the new galvanizer. So, how can you drive more revenue to your website with live streaming?

A novel concept taken from an older idea – the Shopping Channel – is this live shopping solution.

This easy format mixed in with social media excitement is the current burner, and when you throw in the weight of Tik-Tok influencers or other media stars as hosts to live events, you have a solid winner on your hands.

If you are looking for some live shopping solutions use cases, Alibaba’s live shopping App Tabao just naturally springs from the ground. Dominating the field, at the moment, is the Chinese market. 

But you say to yourself, “Is this just a fad or does live shopping have substance to take the market by storm?” Tabao (mentioned earlier) generated more than 61 billion dollars GMV (Gross Merchandise Volume) in 2020, according to TDinsights. This spurred Amazon to invest in livestream shopping big time in 2021.

The secrets to make live shopping successful

According to an emarketer study, live shopping will be a market of 623 billion dollars in 2023. 80% of consumers prefer watching videos about products rather than reading about them. People expect to be entertained today. By next year more than 30% will increase. So, if you are planning to create an ecommerce presence or if you already work with this, you should dive into this amazingly fast growing market.

Just ask yourself this rhetorical question,”How can I use live shopping to generate ecommerce revenue?”

1- Live Events engage audiences

If you haven’t started using live shopping yet, time’s a wasting. Start creating live events and engage people with good content and tools that can provide you with insights, data, audience engagement and customer loyalty. Creating “Lives” is a challenge that you can surmount with some tricks, like good planning and organization . A big tip: you need to listen, ask, interact and just not create ads in a live streaming. The big picture comes when you provide content tailored to your customer and listen to their desires, then making this happen.

2 – Typing… making people generate insights

People love to be mentioned and honored. They like to be wooed and entertained. The pandemic has created a vacuum of boredom that is being filled with live shopping solutions.  

By giving them prizes, they will go crazy. Giving them discount coupons to use in a limited time will increase sales from their desires. 

Using a chat like Arena Live Chat, you can enrich your customer profile with their favorite products that you can get from Arena’s Customer Data Platform (CDP).

How does the audience speak about competitor’s products? Using personas and single sign-on you can read more data about them and make wiser decisions about your marketing mix.

The devil is in the details which is what you need to access your ideal customer from the audience.

Make them enjoy the shopping extravaganza your live event is all about and you’ll have a fan for life.

3 – Live shopping: Live conversion 

Imagine creating a live event on youtube or facebook. There you need to ask people to enter your website and then “shit happens”. Common sense says that it is impossible 100% of our clicks really become visits. People are fickle and have short attention spans in this go-go world. Also do you want to generate revenue or friction? 

Make your website the rising star instead of an external service. Guaranteed that more conversions will happen because people don’t like to change their navigation. On average, people click 22 times until they convert at ecommerce. Hit the nail once to drive sales.  

4 – Data can be creative

Imagine that you can manage an audience and create personalized offers during your live event, look at comments and, better yet, use what people are chatting about to generate creative things as you do on social media. If your audience is talking about other products, how can you use that to your benefit? What do they like the most about that product? What do they dislike? Ask them questions in real-time, make polls, request reviews, and create some fun with that. Understanding your audience will help you choose the optimum strategy.

5 – Answering your audience is intelligent

People with a buying intention normally have some doubts about prices, size, deadlines, colors. If they are buying, they want to know what they are getting for their money. And, they don’t like surprises because key information has been withheld. You can run a Q&A session to narrow their buying intention. By answering people at your live stream, you avoid them “googling” and becoming disengaged. Let’s be honest, if they google your product or categories, how many competitors will they find? So use the moment to answer objections and make deals.

In the end, it is easy to turn your website into a Youtube or Twitch type presence. With that type of venue, you can manage audiences, get to know your customers, enrich their profiles with preferences, and sell directly without needing to run ads to capture the audience again. Don’t let them leave your live event, on your website, with money in their pockets. Use the moment when  you have already acquired that customer in some way because it takes money and time to acquire a customer. Live shopping is bout a shortcut to your clients’ heart and better conversion rates and you can use any white label live shopping software, your live stream, and add Arena Live Chat to generate all those amazing solutions.

6 – Live Chat brings home the bacon

Putting Arena’s Live Chat to work to help you convert your live streaming events into revenue generators is easy. With guest influencers engaging the audience, and having the right format for your “lives” can make the experience become a real-time shopping extravaganza.

Adding that dollop of excitement where the audience can ask questions, get answers, and tell their stories will boost your brand at each successive event. Customers will have better experiences, and if there are other attractive products they may make additional purchases while there. An engaged audience that is having fun will shout this out to their fellow netizens and make referrals because of your outstanding products and services. 

Live environments are exciting because they have that sense of urgency, freshness, and professionalism. With content being continually refreshed, new products being placed on the  carousel, and the host adding to the excitement and fun of the moment, how can you not increase conversions with Live Chat at your event?

Have a Live Chat solution for free

You can magnetize new customers’ attention by giving them exclusivity. Personalized service while having an entertaining live shopping experience. Satisfied customers are repeat customers. Expect the crowd to turn out at your next “Live”.

Arena can give you a Live Chat solution right now with no code hassles.You can have it fully operating within minutes on your platform. Did we say it’s free?! Create! Embed! Ready to go!

The world is your oyster when Live shopping is done right.

How To Create Your Hybrid Team Engagement Playbook

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The shift to the hybrid teams is one of the defining management challenges in the 2020s. Traditional wisdom like ‘out of sight is out of mind’ no longer helps. The inverse is also true – showing dedication by logging punishing hours at your desk is no longer enough. The mix to hybrid work is changing how managers and employees think about their work.

The Mixed Blessings of Hybrid Work

The hybrid work concept is born out of a compromise between two competing visions of the modern workplace. In one corner, there are remote work evangelists like Atlassian, Drift, Okta and other companies that have enthusiastically embraced remote work as their default. In the other corner, there are workplace traditionalists who see significant value in working together in-person.

In theory, hybrid work is supposed to offer something for everybody: a few days of remote work and a few days of in-office work. The practical realities look a lot different.

Put yourself in the shoes of a project manager working toward an upcoming deadline. They might grab a few people and set up shop in a conference room for a focused session. If they have some bad luck, they might be in a room with limited connectivity that makes it difficult to connect with remote staff.

It’s not just urgent project deadlines or trying to organize hybrid events either.

Like it or not, the speed of work and collaboration is quietly governed by the depth of trust in the team. When some or all of your team are remote sometimes, you end up having deeper interactions with people in the office compared to remote staff. As a result, trust doesn’t develop evenly and productivity will start to slow down.

If you’ve been struggling with hybrid team engagement, you’re not alone. It’s a new way of working. Our older social skills and work habits aren’t a natural fit. Fortunately, there are a few simple strategies you can adopt to drive engagement higher.

Building Your Hybrid Engagement Playbook

There is no one size fits all approach to driving up hybrid engagement. Several factors influence the difficulty of remote work like your history with remote work, the level of technology investment and management skills.

To evolve your working habits and relationships, you need to build a playbook specific to your challenges. View each of the following ideas as inspiration to help you develop your playbook.

1. Set The Tone From The Top 

Many organizations shifted suddenly and dramatically to a high level of remote work a few years ago. Fortunately, that era of crisis induced flexibility is now in the rear view mirror. Now, the first strategy is to set the right tone from the top.

To set the right tone from the top, the words and actions of managers and executives need to send a consistent, positive message for their hybrid teams. Act as a role model yourself by reaching out to remote and on-premise employees for special opportunities. Further, share your struggles and solutions with making hybrid work effective so that your staff know it is okay to admit struggles.

2. Clearly Communicate Expectations 

Updating our communication habits and preferences to thrive in a hybrid workplace is a vitally important strategy. Start by encouraging asynchronous communication (i.e. encouraging people to reply to messages on their time) rather than relying on video meetings as the default option for hybrid teams.

Further, you may need to revise your professional communication expectations for the hybrid world. For example, some companies encourage informal dress and communication for internal meetings. On the other hand, video meetings with customers and clients are a different story – dressing up and presenting a more professional image in those settings may be worthwhile.

3. Update Your Hybrid Work Communication Technology

Take a hard look at the communication tools you use with your hybrid teams. You’re probably used to relying on email, phone calls, messaging apps and video calls. What about your larger meetings like all-hands meetings?  

Running an event with dozens or hundreds of people can easily get disorganized and unruly. In a hybrid office, you might have some people raising their hand to ask questions while remote staff use messaging. Your speakers might end up favoring in-person questions – a tendency which can hurt remote staff engagement. 

One solution to these challenges is to use Arena Live Chat in your hybrid events. It has support for polls and Q&As so you can easily gather feedback from employees. The best part? You can review the chat log after the meeting to identify broader concerns in your employees and nip engagement problems in the bud.

4. Make Casual Connections Easier

Participating in formal meetings, collaborating on documents and responding to messages all matter. Yet these forms of engagement are not enough for the hybrid workplace. People are social creatures – even introverts enjoy interacting with others on occasion.

To help your team come together as one, it is important to give employees regular opportunities to connect informally. As a starting point, check out our guide to online events for employee engagement. Holding social events is a great way to laugh and come together.

In addition, look for smaller ways to encourage connection like virtual coffee chats or even giving people 5-10 minutes during team meetings to share personal news. 

5. Update Your Work Life Boundaries 

The old way of thinking about boundaries at work and at home have been fading for years. Many, if not all, professional employees have a work phone that allows them to stay connected to the office even while on vacation. Left unmanaged, work responsibilities in a hybrid work environment can bleed into every evening and weekend.

The solution to these challenges is to encourage employees to set boundaries around the work schedules. To avoid the temptation to check work messages constantly, consider powering down and disconnecting work devices once you finish your work day.

By the way, your boundaries may need to look different depending on whether you are working remotely or in the office.

The Unexpected Way To Drive Higher Hybrid Team Engagement

Sometimes, a shift in perspective can unlock new potential in hybrid teams. Put on the hat of an event producer seeking to create an inspiring live event. Done right, live events create memories and bring people together. Even if you only create a few live hybrid events for your teams this year, it could make all the difference in getting your staff on the same page.

To help you plan your next live event faster, download a free copy of our ebook on improving live events. You’ll discover how to organize live events on your own platform so your employees can stay focused.