Category Archives: Group Chat

8 virtual event strategies to inspire university students

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Engaging college students in their studies and university life is getting more difficult. There are countless distractions and stresses that make it difficult for students to focus on remote learning. Organizing inspiring, educational digital events for students is one way to inspire your students.

Choosing the right virtual event idea is just the beginning of planning a successful virtual event. There are many other details to think about like managing registration, inviting guest speakers and appealing to student concerns. This guide to virtual event strategies for students will guide you through those concerns.

Use these seven strategies to make your virtual learning experiences memorable and glitch-free. For the best results, sit down with your event team and review each of these strategies before you plan your event. 

In a previous post, we covered 60 Awesome University Virtual Events Ideas. That guide included ideas like virtual language lessons, virtual learning experiences, virtual career fairs, and more.

Now, read on as we share with you the top 8 virtual event strategies for universities that event organizers can use to inform their planning process.

Take inspiration from current affairs 

Organizing a virtual conference (or more demanding multi-day conferences) is one of the best ways to engage students and professors. You can invite college leaders, industry experts, and outside experts to share their insights. To make the event stand out, critical insights from the event should connect to issues that students care about. For example, a university with experts in eastern Europe might organize a marquee event about the war in Ukraine. 

As you plan the event agenda, it’s essential to create space for event participation. For example, include time for networking opportunities. With digital platforms like Arena Live Chat, it’s easier to boost attendee engagement because more people.

Think through the event duration thoughtfully 

In your strategic planning, consider the feedback from attendees you want to see and what you want to avoid. Ideally, you want to see your target audience raving about their favorite speakers on social media platforms! You also want to avoid complaints like virtual attendees getting bored.

A digital or hybrid event is different from an in-person conference. In a traditional event, it is easy to take breaks. Also, speakers can quickly determine if attendees are getting bored. In a virtual setting, measuring event success is more complicated.

Avoid burning out attendees if you want positive comments on feedback surveys. Before the event, email newsletters with all the events listed so that students and other attendees can choose which events interest them. In addition, make sure to deliberately schedule meal breaks when running a more extended event.

In general, virtual events should be at least one hour in duration. If you include interactive content like polls and question and answer time, you can sometimes stretch to 90 minutes or even two hours. Anything more than 60-90 minutes and your attendees are likely to get tired and disengage from the event. 

Connect your virtual event to student goals

As you plan the attendee experience, keep students’ goals in mind. Most students spend years at an educational institution because they are hungry for better career opportunities. Therefore, events like job fairs and the chance to connect with employers will also be attractive. 

Therefore, it is wise to prioritize virtual career events because that is a top goal for almost all students. That said, a blend of traditional educational sessions and career-oriented events can work well. This balanced approach can also work well when designing events with prospective students in mind. After all, prospective students want to know what is like to be a student and what careers they might have after graduation.

By offering digital experiences with career goals, increasing event registrations will get far easier. Fundamentally, event attendees vote with their attention. As an event planner, talking to students about the types of events they value is crucial.

Offer a world-class experience for your speakers

Take inspiration from the events industry – value your event speakers. When speakers are well supported, they can focus on delivering a great event program. Some event presenters and expert panelists may be unfamiliar with how to deliver a great virtual experience. Help them to look good by organizing a pre-event planning session for event speakers. You can also use the pre-event meeting as a critical element of your event marketing strategy. Speakers who feel confident and well supported are more likely to promote your event online using event hashtags and other means.

Helping speakers thrive in a virtual event setting is simple. Guide your speakers through what to expect in terms of potential attendees, how to use your event technology, and the key performance indicators you will track.

Potential Attendee Expectations

Attendee Numbers

Tell your speakers how many event participants to expect in the event as a whole. There’s a big difference between in-person events with thousands of attendees and a minor format event.

Attendee Interests

In your event planning software, you might survey attendees’ interests and top questions. Share these attendee insights with your speakers to determine what to expect.

Attendee Event Goals

To the best of your ability, guide your speakers about attendee goals. For example, prospective students may have questions about the university’s academic offerings (e.g., core courses vs. elective courses). Students nearing graduation may be more interested in meeting prospective employers.

Event Technology

Avoid assuming that your speakers know how to use the specific virtual event platforms you have selected. They may need support on best practices. For instance, you might use Arena Live Chat through your event to gather questions and conduct quick attendee surveys. Tell your speakers that they will have support to sort through this feedback. Keeping an email in the chat window while delivering a speech or comments in a panel is tough! 

Event Management Process

As you conclude your speakers’ briefing, ensure the event details are covered in detail. It’s tough to organize successful events when speakers don’t know where to turn to get support.

Think through technical support needs in detail

Careful planning is critical to crafting a successful event on a virtual platform. Students, alumni, speakers, and university staff may be unfamiliar with a wide range of settings, software, and ways to participate in a digital event.

The type of technical support you need to offer will vary depending on the complexity of your events. The most significant events may need a dedicated team, similar to what you would see in corporate events. In contrast, a more minor event – like a virtual coffee with alumni event – might need just one technical person on call.

The most common technical and logistical problems you’re likely to encounter are the following.

1) Registration problems

This type of technical problem is most likely to occur before the event starts. The best way to prevent registration problems is to pretend to be an attendee: take a few minutes and see if you can successfully register for the event, including making any needed payments.

Testing the event signup process in advance is especially important when you add new technology to the mix.

2) Audio and video problems

Whether mobile technology or laptops, audio, and video glitches are typical in most virtual events. Troubleshooting these problems is often tricky because devices have a variety of settings. For example, some platforms automatically mute people or require people to turn on their cameras. Make sure you have a technical support person available to answer questions during the event.

3) Challenges using the event management platform

This issue mainly applies to more significant events where there are many different sessions. Attendees may have problems registering for their preferred events. Make sure your university website has live chat software installed so that you can provide support before, during, and after the event. For example, some attendees may ask if they can volunteer at the event instead of paying the registration fee. When possible, take a flexible approach to accommodate these requests.

4) Event recording problems

Some universities offer on-demand sessions from their events. Recording an event and letting people view it after it ends is a great way to reach more people.

That said, successfully recording and producing an event takes effort and planning. For example, it is crucial to advise all attendees that the event will be recorded before starting. In addition to requesting permission, look at different ways to use your event recordings. For example, you might decide to offer one recording for free on the web to encourage signups for future events.

Use event reminders strategically to lift virtual events participation

Students may not show up even when you have the most engaging speakers and topics. Virtual events’ flexibility can help lift attendance because there is no travel time involved, unlike in-person events. Use the following techniques to lift your event attendance rates higher. 

1) Send reminder emails

At a minimum, send emails to remind students about the event. Specifically, we suggest sending at least two reminders: one reminder 24 hours in advance and another 60 minutes before the event. In the reminder event, include the login details and exact event time (including time zone). For events with multiple sessions, consider sending reminder events for each event.

2) Don’t stop your digital marketing efforts

When a student or alumni registers for your virtual event, your marketing should change, but it should not stop. For example, send messages emphasizing the value of attending the event live (e.g., the chance to connect with potential employers). Ideally, your digital marketing outreach will vary depending on attendee type (i.e., send different outreach efforts to students vs. alumni)

3) Send reminders by text messages

Check if your mobile event app allows you to send notifications or other messages to attendees. If you are not using a mobile event app, look into sending a regular text message to your students. Most students have mobile phones – over 80% by some estimates. Text messages tend to have a very high open rate, so sending text reminders has a good chance of being read. 

While most students don’t have children or full-time jobs, they are still busy people. Many are worried about completing all their academic work, paying bills, and maintaining relationships with their friends. Sending multiple reminders is crucial – otherwise, students will likely lose track of the event.  

Use post-event surveys to make your next event better

Ever wondered how event planners become so proficient at running smooth events? If you answered “experience,” then you would only be partially correct. Reflecting on your experience of planning and running the event is a good starting point. However, it is just part of the story.

It is also critical to use tools like a post-event survey to understand what your students, alumni, and other participants thought of the event. In the survey, make sure you cover event satisfaction (e.g. “was this a relevant event to your interests and goals?”), technology (e.g. how would you rate the event technology on a scale of 0-10?). Once you receive the survey results, look for patterns and suggestions you can use in the next event you plan.

By the way, you may find it helpful to share data points from the post-event survey in your reports to the university management.

Enhance your university with real-time engagement technologies

Expecting students to sit through a virtual event passively is unlikely to succeed. There are simply too many digital distractions for students – TikTok, Instagram, and email are just one click away. Asking students to close other browser tabs and turn off their phones will only take you so far. 

The better way forward is to offer more opportunities for real-time engagement directly on your university website. With a live blog, you can showcase the expertise of your academic staff and students. Adding Arena Live Chat makes it easy to provide better support to students and engage them more deeply in class discussions. Mirror your digital practices on Pecege Institute, and find out more about Arena’s solutions for education.

5 Powerful Live Chat Features for Digital Education

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Educators, administrators and student led organizations are realizing the benefit of using a Live Chat tool for blended learning and digital education. This is  because it can be used to create real connections between students, teachers and affiliated groups – like alumni or investors – on virtual platforms.  

Research has shown that social interaction plays an important role in learning. Interacting with other people has proven to be quite effective in assisting the learner to organize their thoughts, reflect on their understanding, and find gaps in their reasoning and, as the world went digital over the pandemic, Live Chat emerged as one of the top tools for increasing social interaction in digital classrooms. That’s because Live Chat can make it easier to collaborate digitally, in real time, or, even to bridge virtual and IRL students together through a unified, collaborative, experience.

So, let’s explore the five features of Arena Live Chat that immediately enhance the whole digital education experience, especially in blended learning environments.

Upgrading Digital Education with a Live Chat

One of the greatest challenges for digital education is to enrich the students’ learning experience (LX) in a significant way. In the post-COVID world, where many classrooms have permanently adopted blended learning tactics, there are thousands of stories of students (and teachers!) with “zoom fatigue”, who either turn off their cameras, or use other tactics to fake engagement. 

This is where Arena’s Live Chat features can help to drive, and track engagement. There are a few reasons why:

  1. Arena works like the chat programs many students prefer on other platforms – like YouTube or Twitch – making adoption easy.
  2. Arena allows educators (and students!) to add content in real time, making it easy to engage and react to what’s happening.
  3. Arena offers chat logs and engagement reports, so teachers can analyze what worked, and what didn’t, across different courses, classes and events.

See it in action and discover how adding a Live Chat boosts your virtual classroom.

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

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Read on to learn more about how specific Live Chat features work, and get best practice tips to improve the learning experience.

Polls 

As in real life classes, knowing if a lesson was truly comprehended by students is a big uncertainty for instructors in digital education, but, of course, in real life, teachers can ask the question and easily see who’s engaged and who isn’t.

A Poll can easily solve this problem in virtual classes. And, it can be quickly enabled on the Arena Live Chat’s dashboard in just 2 clicks!

There are no limits to what you can ask and measure using Live Chat Polls and because they can be created quickly teachers can create engagement moments that capitalize on what’s happening in-class now. Even better, results can be stored and analyzed later in chat logs and engagement reports. More on that below!

Q&A 

No matter what subject is being taught, there will be areas of uncertainty.

To turn this situation around into a more satisfying experience, Arena Live Chat has a Q&A (Questions and Answers) feature. When combined with content moderation features, you can strike the balance between open collaboration, and moderated control that fits best for each course, class, or event.

Like everything in Arena solutions, set up is very-very easy: it takes just a few clicks to make things work.

Using this feature is easy. Once you’ve enabled the Q&As, you’ll see a tab on the Live Chat widget. And, when a question is posted, you have the power to approve it, or not. Note, replying to questions out loud during a live event or live class is what likely comes natural to most educators, but don’t forget to also post the answer using the Q&A feature, so that you can keep a record of this for later.

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Conversion Cards  

Of course the cornerstone of any lesson is content. Luckily sharing content in Arena Live Chat is easy! As with most of our features, content collaboration can be set up in just a couple of clicks and the next step is setting up how much sharing access you want to provide to your students. 

Our chat provides the ability to grant or restrict different content types to accommodate different needs as well as the ability to add profanity filters to ensure respectful, class-safe conversations.

Please see below for a list of common content types used by educators, administrators and students:

  • Case Study
  • Ebook
  • Cheat Sheet
  • Study Lesson
  • Articles

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Or, a subscription form to a mailing list. 

Once again: sky’s the limit. 

Chat Log History & Engagement Reports

Every class has its moments that make it unique. 

Even in digital education, there are remarkable questions, comments, and insights – words that help explain and expand worlds. 

But the challenge with a lot of engagement tools today is that the data from one class is lost afterwards, and can’t be connected to the data from other classes. Arena’s chat logs and engagement reports solve this by allowing educators to go back in time to see historical conversations, questions, answers, polls and, of course, engagement to track how these insights have trended over time.

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And, they can be downloaded to a single CSV file (which is easily opened in an Excel -or- similar sheets software).

Monetization & Fundraising 

Last, but certainly not least: some of the 500+ schools that use Arena have expanded its use outside of the classroom, and into the administrative and marketing side. Fundraising at alumni relations events, or donations  during sponsored sports or art performances are some of the more out-of-the-box implementations we’ve seen. Usually this type of activation works best when paired with a live stream service, like Vimeo, and if that’s something you’d like Arena Live Chat can be used outside the virtual classroom as well.  

It can be used to raise funds.

There are three possibilities that can be used: Donations, Tip Jars, and Gifts.

All of them are simple to configure, and they’re connected to the major payments services on the web, like PayPal.

This is very useful in campaigns promoted by the community, parents, or alumni. 

Conclusion

Digital education is  just entering its maturity. After its boom during the pandemics, a lot of lessons were learned. Now, it’s time to apply them, and make sure that the learning experience (LX) continues evolving in an excellent and engaging way. Check out how edtechs are leveraging Live Chat to take their learning experience to a new level, and book a call to better understand how Arena is trusted by 500+ education institutes all over the world.

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60 Virtual Event Ideas For University Students

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The days of sitting in a boring classroom are over, thanks to the rise of remote learning. Universities and colleges need to innovate to keep students engaged. These 60 university virtual event ideas will give you plenty of inspiration. Also, read this insightful How Stanford, University of Pennsylvania & Caltech Students Run Virtual Events article recently published by Arena.

Keep reading to discover ideas and examples from creative students and universities across the country. Whether you’re looking for a way to learn life skills like cooking, network with alumni or spend an afternoon creating music with friends, you’ll find something for you in this guide to online event ideas for college students.

Download the free ebook: Online event ideas for colleges & universities that work

Once you see an event idea you like, explore Arena’s solutions for education for the following steps on how to bring your event to life with technology.

60 University Virtual Events Ideas

1. Share documentation of previous university-wide lectures

Learning must always be at the student’s reach. If your university keeps records of previous guest speakers who made notable declarations, you can share them with your student body to keep their thirst for learning going. Keep them engaged by hearing them out through a follow-up discussion.

2. TED Talks School Edition

The concept of this virtual activity is to share bite-sized learning that is powerful enough to motivate students through tough times, for example. Some can also nominate a video clip to be played and make a thorough explanation of how the message of the clip got through to them.

3. Spill the Tea

This is a phrase commonly used by young students today when they want to get more information about a certain topic that catches their interest. It may not necessarily be a tea though, attendees can have their hot drinks like coffee, cocoa, or hot milk. The activity is as simple as picking one hot or pressing topic and allowing everyone to discuss their opinions in turns.

4. Lunch and Learn

This activity is somewhat similar to “Spill the Tea” but on a different setup. Instead of hot drinks, students can talk about interesting topics while having lunch and learn from each other.

5. Amateur Podcaster’s Corner

We are sure that in every group of students, some have an interest in voicing their opinions or talking about a certain topic over a mic, recording it, and sharing it with their peers. With this virtual activity, listeners can participate even when they are doing household chores.

6. Alumni Networking Activity

Keep not just your students engaged but also your pool of alumni. Through this, they will be able to network with your students and bring with them possible employment opportunities for your current enrollees. Students can also learn valuable insights from someone who has something in common with them, your university.

7. Workshop on Hosting Webinars

Many of these ideas involve technologies for hosting webinars and virtual conferences. To keep your students engaged, allow them to cast their ideas out while teaching them how to manipulate this technology on their preferences.

8. DIY Tutorials

It catches students’ interest if they can learn a simple skill aside from the lessons they learn from formal classes. A simple tutorial on how to do stuff that they will enjoy will also make them thirsty for more learning.

9. What-Grown-Ups-Do lessons

Adulting may be an informal term to call it but there surely is a lot of learning to be unlocked in conducting these lessons!

10. Master Chef lessons

Now that all of us spend most of our time at home, students can easily get bored. Help them appreciate the joy of cooking their meals instead of opting for microwaveable food. Simply livestream your creations, take the most “Instagrammable” picture of the food, and leave them asking for more.

11. Financial Literacy TV

Saving money is way beyond chasing discounts and coupons! Whether it is your students’ program or not, financial literacy is vital for them to acquire wealth. Teach your students the basics of saving, investing, and other financial instruments which we bet they will thank you later on.

12. Coping with COVID Groups

Besides the relatability of this topic, the long-lasting effect of the pandemic needs to be addressed among your students. Use this program for them to share their experiences and how they are coping with the pandemic.

13. Socratic Philosophers Group

The concept of this group is more of a Q&A discussion among the students where they can discuss their thoughts about life. Consider facilitating this with a Philosophy or Ethics professor and make your students appreciate Humanities on a deeper level.

14. Get-Psyched!

Let students know themselves more by administering personality tests to them. Nothing ever interests people more than knowing themselves better.

15. Learn a New Language Group

It is said that learning a new language improves the confidence and intellect of people because they form new connections now and then. Engage your Linguistics Department and help them teach students from other program languages that interest them.

16. Social Awareness Group

The pleasure of helping out others is the same as with the helpers. Volunteerism is a good value that your university can inculcate your students. Simply form objectives and together, a small effort of every member will go a long way when everyone does.

17. For-Cause Celebrations

Every month, you will find days of “international affairs” that are celebrated. Take part in these movements to keep your students abreast of what is happening in society. Celebrations like Earth Hour, Pride Month, World Youth Day, and a lot more can be an avenue for their engagement.

18. Virtual Museum Stroll

In learning more about our history, you do not anymore need to step inside an actual museum and glance at the richness of our heritage. With this program, you will be able to take your students on a virtual tour of museums.

19. Journaling Sessions

Little has been said about it, but keeping a diary has its benefits to us. By writing even some of the most menial tasks, it helps in storing and retaining information in our brain which makes it sharp. Pair this session with calming music to enhance the experience.

20. Indoor Jungalow

This concept is about teaching your students the hobby of gardening in their homes. Thus, the word jungalow. You can share gardening videos that will teach them techniques on taking care of plants and see them grow together.

21. Self-Awareness

Because of social media, students are bombarded with tons of information and sometimes, they can get easily distracted by all the noise. Help your students relax and get back to themselves through meditation.

22. Home Fitness Sessions

Encourage your students to get fit even at home. Collate exercises that are easy to do in front of their screen but will make them sweat. Through this program, you are helping your students maintain their physical fitness and mental sharpness.

23. Nest Incoming Freshies

Because of the many changes that are happening around them, a freshman will surely get anxious as they enter university life. Help them out by having currently enrolled students connect with them and share their own stories to break the ice.

24. Bark-ual Class and Meow-ferences

Let your students take a break from being in front of the camera all the time! Destress with the cuteness of every household pet and let them step in the spotlight for a change.

25. Virtual Career Fairs

After having the degree, most of your students are motivated to join the workforce. Open opportunities for them by inviting organizations and employers who are on the lookout for fresh talents

26. Community Playlist

All students have different tastes in music, but a generation mostly knows similar ones. Get them in tune with music by contributing to a playlist they all love.

27. Dance Classes

Showcase your student’s talent by organizing a virtual dance showdown when they take your dance classes. Everyone is invited, even the ones who dance on two left feet.

28. Movie Critique Sessions

Film students will surely have their day when they share their opinions on a popular or independent film. You can stream movies so all your students can watch them together and discuss the events afterward. No spoilers are allowed!

29. Fine Arts Classes

Now, where is my beret? Let your students unleash their inner artist by holding paint classes and other fine arts classes. To keep them engaged, you can post a photo of a scenic view or a macro shot of food that they will paint. Disclaimer: This can get messy!

30. Vlogger-of-the-Day Competition

There are so many interesting things everyone can share throughout their day. With this competition, you allow your students to document their day and make it exciting. Students, staff, and faculty members can join.

31. Virtual Theatre

Even the landscape of theatre and performing arts has changed in the post-pandemic scenario. Showcase your students’ creativity by holding an online drama performance or an open-mic comedic monologue. When it comes to creativity and imagination, the sky’s the limit!

32. Best Room Decor Competition

All of your students probably take their virtual classes in their rooms. Allow them to showcase their study space by holding friendly competitions like this where they will take their creativity to the next level.

33. Holi-daily Celebrations

It is going to be a holiday every day somewhere in the world. Engage your students by asking them to research the most absurd holidays in the world that they can find and discuss them.

34. Crochet Match

Do your students have a hobby that they can share such as crocheting? Surely, not all of us know how to do it but holding this friendly competition is good for learning and developing a simple hobby.

35. House Tour

It has become popular content for YouTubers to showcase their homes to subscribers. Well, students may have something unique in their home that they can share with the group such as a walk-in cabinet, a fishpond in the house, or a golden staircase.

36. Sudoku Challenge

Sudoku is a great game for stimulating the mind and making it more analytical. Students will benefit from this challenge while incorporating this into their lessons. Simply reward the fastest student to solve the puzzle.

37. Crosswords Challenge

If your students get dizzy with Sudoku because of all the numbers in the puzzle. It is time to introduce this game to sharpen their vocabulary. Another similar game you can try is crossword puzzles.

38. Pets of the University Photo Competition

It is time to show off those pets whether exotic or not in a photo competition. Let your students dress their pets and post their photos on social media to capture the engagement of the netizens.

39. Online Charades

Take some time off from draining lectures and play charades with your students to break the ice. Plus, there are apps online where you can generate words to make your charades more exciting.

40. Online Quiz Bee

There is so much trivia around us where students can learn. Get creative by assigning themes like history, politics, or just some memes. The winner gets to choose the next round’s questions.

41. E-Games Tournaments

E-Sports has gained momentum when the pandemic arrived. Now, there are a lot of recognized E-Sports that are played internationally. Challenge your students to an E-Games Tournament and reward the Champion. There may be newbies but take time to educate them with this kind of sports.

42. Most Creative TikTok Competition

There is a lot of #challenges in the TikTok app nowadays. Encourage your students to post their most creative TikTok content and you will be surprised at how they manipulate the app because it is the younger generation’s forte.

43. Digital Scavenger Hunt

A scavenger hunt game may not always be physical, but it can translate to the digital space as well. Take your students to a hunt over clues to answer your cryptic puzzles.

44. Baddest-Joker-Takes-it-All Contest

A good joke is funny, but a lame one is funnier! Let your students tell their corniest jokes and see who gets all the laughter.

45. Lip-Sync Battle

Be on a search on who among your students is the most musically inclined person by hosting a Lip-sync battle. No inborn talent is required, just good coordination between lips and lyrics.

46. Your Holiday Your Rules Contest

Remember the most absurd holiday competition we have just discussed? Well, it is time for your students to make their holiday based completely on them. It can be about traditions, the birthday of famous personalities, or certain university events. Let the whole campus vote on it to engage the community.

47. Co-Curricular Elective Groups

Besides the program of your students, give them a chance to learn more about topics that interest them. Who would have known that an Engineering student is interested in Humanities unless these programs are hosted?

48. Career Counseling Sessions

To give your students a boost in enriching their career and their expectations toward work after they graduate, it is best to have your guidance counselors available for this type of situation. Through this, your students will get to know more about what awaits them after they finish their degrees.

49. Resume and Cover Letter Groups

Your students’ resume is their ticket to employment. Teach them to leave the best first impression to prospective employers with advice from professors and other lecturers.

50. Creative Writing Centers

For students who want a career in writing, it is important to hone their skills and teach them techniques as early as now. Creative writing is both an art and a science so they need to know the fundamental ways on how to write a masterpiece.

51. Peer Facilitators Group

This group is the student version of guidance counselors. Of course, because of limited manpower and somehow a big discord in the ratio of counselors against students, it is good to train their peers to help resolve issues that concern them be it academic, personal, or social.

52. Academic Advisors Guild

This group is intended to be a help desk for students who need assistance with the field of study they are currently taking. Because of several factors that affect students’ motivation, academic advisors are there to let them see the bigger picture and help them navigate smoothly with the end goal of finishing their degrees.

53. Student Awards Ceremony

It is time to recognize your exemplary and outstanding students and give them the spotlight. By hosting this kind of event, you can recognize student leaders from various recognized organizations, academic scholars, and other achievements from your student community that are worth recognizing. It will motivate your students to strive harder and inspire them to become active members of their community.

# No time to read this article now? – Download a free PDF version of this blog post

54. Religious Services Group

As discussed earlier, a student may encounter several issues in the course of their life in the university and one of them is spiritual. Keep your students’ spiritual health in check by providing services from the chaplain or from various religious sects that are part of the student community.

55. Virtual University Fairs

It is time to open your gates to prospective students and show them how the student life in your university looks like to give them a clearer view of the big picture. This is also an opportune time to showcase your outstanding alumni and entice them to enroll in your school.

56. Virtual Summits

Host virtual summits for important university events like your foundation day and hold breakout groups depending on your student’s interests and inclinations.

57. Live Concert

Admit it, we all miss going to a live concert since the pandemic started. Take advantage of today’s technology by holding live virtual concerts in the comfort of your students’ homes.

58. Online Photo Booth

Explore filters from social media apps with this online photo booth and you will find out that there is so much to discover there.

59. Code Breaker Games

Challenge your students’ mental capacity by solving complex questions as a group. Since there is a lot less physical requirement for this game, your students will get their brains to the test. The group that wins the most rounds gets the prize.

60. The Criminal Files Case Solving Games

Tickle your students’ imagination by making a hypothetical situation of a crime and make them collaborate to solve this mystery crime team-building activity.

How To Engage Students More Deeply

Besides all of the examples mentioned above, you might also want to check out some Virtual Event Strategies For Universities To Keep Students Engaged and how to Enhance the E-learning Experience with Live Chat to enhance virtual classroom experiences.

By implementing technologies like the Arena Live Chat and Live Blog, you will harness the ability to provide a platform where your students can voice their opinions, comments, messages to one another, participate in polls, and much more. In addition, with the integration of the Live Blog feature, your presence in the digital space is felt even more.

By publishing content into numerous social streams in real-time, your university is sure to reach students on whichever platform they are on. Know more about the benefits and strategies in holding successful virtual events by downloading our FREE E-book today!

And, in case you haven’t yet, you should check out how Pecege Institute leverages Arena Live Chat to allow students to engage in real-time with their teachers and classmates.

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.

How To Add Live Chat Overlay In 6 Steps

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Adding a live chat overlay to your website is a powerful way to enhance livestreams and customer interaction. The instructions in this guide will help you to get started. Before getting into the technical tips, let’s clarify the purpose of a live chat overlay.

What Is A Live Chat Overlay & Why To Add It To Your Website?

A live chat overlay is a simple way for your customers and staff to exchange chat messages on your website. A live chat overlay is usually added to a website using a chat widget compatible with most major browsers. Brands in all sizes and shapes have in their websites, from small yoga studios to giant broadcasting conglomerates.

It is called an overlay because it usually does not operate as a full-screen application. Instead, the chat window may appear in the bottom-left corner or bottom-right corner. Keeping the conversation on the side allows customers to easily see the rest of your website. That means your users can see the video stream or other content on your website while chatting.

How To Add Live Chat Overlay

Use these steps to select a live chat app for your website and test it to ensure it is a good fit for your goals.

1) What Is Your Goal For Adding Live Chat?

Adding a chat window or chat program to your website requires some tools. Arena Live Chat is different – it usually takes less than an hour to set up the chat widget. That said, it may take longer for your employees to learn the most effective ways to participate in a chat session.

Before investing the time and resources required to power a chat conversation, get clear on what you plan to achieve. Generally, most companies add a chat function to their website for a few reasons: increase time on site, lift customer loyalty and boost lead generation. It’s also possible to gain more sales by adding live chat.

Once you know what you want to achieve, you can start compiling a list of options.

2) Get Inspiration From Other Chat Experiences

Your customers have probably used chat widgets and services on various other websites before coming to your website. Some of the most popular chat options available today include:

  • Facebook Live
  • Facebook Gaming
  • Twitch Chat
  • Youtube Chat

Spend some time looking at how these services offer customization options (e.g. the ability to change the background color), chat transcript and chat history. Simply observing how users interact with a chat box widget is extremely valuable.

If you’re already using one of the platforms above, it’s easy to see the appeal in using the platform’s solution like built-in YouTube chat. While YouTube and Switch can offer a fantastic streaming experience, it’s still wise to have a chat pane on your website. Having your chat pane can better customize the experience and ensure that your customer service team covers questions in the active chat.

3) Make A List Of Live Chat Widgets Options

There are many chat apps on the market you can use. For simplicity, let’s assume that you are looking for chat windows focused on bringing users together. Automated customer service using common chat bots is an entirely different experience than live chat.

Some popular choices include

Arena Live Chat

Arena Live Chat is an excellent choice to bring live chat to your company. You can install it quickly, and it runs fast. With built-in content moderation features, Arena Live Chat is an excellent choice for significant events.

Zendesk Support

Zendesk is an excellent live chat choice if you are focused on improving customer service specifically. Zendesk also has Zapier integration so you can easily connect it with your current infrastructure.

ChatBot

While automated chatbots are not the focus of this post, this category is worth touching on. ChatBot is a chat app aimed at small businesses looking to automate the purchase and customer service experience. Adding some type of chatbot to your company is an excellent way to augment the efforts of your in-house customer service team.

4) Test The Performance With A Free Trial

The next step in adding a live chat overlay to your website is to install a free trial. For example, you can install Arena on your website in a few minutes. Once you have it installed, invite a few colleagues to join a chat session and experiment with the chat experience.

In particular, compare how the live chat performs on the following aspects.

  • Chat Appearance. Customizing your chat box is important so look for ways to customize the chat box theme in terms of color, branding, and additional options like a fade-out option. The ability to change background opacity matters critically to the appearance as well.
  • User Options. Your users should be able to control their chat experience by switching to a popout chat window. In addition, there should be ways for the user to manage chat comments like exporting a transcript, sending private messages, or replies. The ability to manage chat content is critical when you have a large number of chat participants. 
  • Browser Compatibility. Test the browser with popular web browsers like Chrome, Edge, Firefox, and Safari. If you find that only the latest browser version performs well, highlight this fact to your users to reduce technical support requests. 
  • Interaction With Your Website. Carefully check the chat window covers critical features on your website like audio controls. Is it possible for users to buy products on your website while using the live chat widget?

5) Select Your Live Chat App

After your complete a few test sessions with your live chat tool, give each tool a score. You might rate live chat apps based on speed, the ability to customize the chat appearance, user options, browser compatibility and website integration. 

It’s important to consider all of these options along with cost before selecting a live chat app for your website.

6) Promote Your Live Chat With Events

Installing a live chat option on your website is an important first step. Simply having a live chat widget in place is not enough to achieve success though. You also need customers to show up! 

Combining live chat with events is one of the most powerful ways to drive engagement. Use these 8 best practices to promote your online event and attract more chat users.

Add Live Chat To Your Website For Free

Not sure what your website will look like with a live chat overlay? The best way to find out is to add a live chat widget today and experiment with it. You can also try Arena Live Chat for free.

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3 Ways To Grow Revenue With Customer Data

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The Metaverse is an exciting new development for marketers and brands. Creating immersive experiences and mixed reality experiences on metaverse platforms means a greater opportunity to deliver a personalized experience to customers. 

In the short term, the metaverse customer experience will likely require a virtual showroom, a virtual reality headset, and other resources to create a compelling digital realm. Right now, online games are dominating this type of Internet experience but that will change over time. Arena has this great article with tips to set you up for the metaverse.

Three Ways To Grow Revenue With A Metaverse Concept

Before investing significant resources in interactive content and virtual environments, let’s get clear on the business value of the metaverse. This type of virtual space is at an early stage of development but business leaders have already found a few opportunities.

1. Entertainment

Online games and extended reality – remember the Pokemon Go craze of 2016? – are the first way brands can earn revenue from digital reality. For example, gaming technology companies are already working on creating entertainment experiences for online avatars. Gaming isn’t right for every brand, however.

2. Sell Digital Products

Creating a highly entertaining consumer experience isn’t your only option. You can also offer digital products like non-fungible tokens (NFTs). For example, imagine creating exclusive NFTs and other virtual products to celebrate a product launch. 

3. Augment Your Marketing Strategies

Immediate revenue generation may not be your primary focus. Instead, you can use the digital environment to grow customer loyalty or better understand your prospects. Increasingly, concerns over privacy rights mean brands have to work harder to convince brands to share data. Offering a novel experience, even a straightforward virtual mall, is a powerful way to get started.

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In the rest of this post, we’ll focus on the third strategy – using the metaverse to boost your marketing strategies – since that approach is relevant to most brands.

Why Do You Need A CDP In The Metaverse?

There is a lot of hype around metaverse technologies like virtual reality, augmented reality, and virtual worlds. Video game and entertainment companies are early adopters of the Metaverse because there is an easy fit with their business model. If you’re not in the entertainment business, the metaverse is still relevant as a way to enhance your marketing.

Driving business results from the metaverse becomes far easier when you use a Customer Data Platform (CDP). There is no simple way to track which customers and prospects engage with metaverse content without it. 

Integrating a metaverse concept with your customer data platform is the best way to go. In this situation, you can track user activity from your website, the metaverse, and elsewhere. You’re able to measure what kind of people find your metaverse content engaging. Most importantly, you get faster feedback on user behavior. That means you can iterate and optimize your metaverse experiences faster and reach your return on investment goals.

Attaining a profitable metaverse experience starts with creating the proper foundation. Before you purchase virtual reality hardware or consulting, set up your customer data platform foundation first.

Preparing For A Profitable Metaverse Experience

Use these tips to get ready for the Metaverse. The first few steps of the plan do not directly involve the Metaverse by design. Jumping into a metaverse experience without first establishing a foundation is a recipe for wasting time and money.

1. Review Your Marketing Goals and Key Performance Indicators

Start with your marketing goals and KPIs in mind before everything else. Your goals will likely include the following:

  • Lead Generation. You may have a defined KPI like the number of marketing qualified leads (MQLs), email subscribers, app installs, or free trial sign-ups.
  • Audience Growth and Engagement. For most companies, this goal indirectly contributes to lead generation.
  • Sales. Ecommerce companies may be focused on metrics like average order value and customer lifetime value.

Once you have your goals in mind, let’s look at how your customer data supports those goals.

2. Assess Your Customer Data

There are three dimensions to assess your current customer data: quantity, quality, and utility. By optimizing all of these factors, you can grow faster.

  • Customer Data Quantity. Count the number of customer profiles you have in your databases. Ensure you check all of your tools and apps like email, customer relationship management, and live chat.
  • Customer Data Quality. The quality of your customer data also matters. For example, do you have processes to test the data? Remove duplicates and errors? Without quality control, it won’t be easy to run effective campaigns.
  • Customer Data Utility. This dimension refers to the capacity of your organization to use customer data to achieve your goals. Using Arena CDP, you can see your customer data from multiple sources in a single place, making the data much more valuable.

3. Analyze Your Content and Engagement

Engaging content and ideas are crucial to achieving success in the Metaverse. You can save time in the content creation process by reviewing your current performance. Use the following techniques to identify high-performing content.

  • Website Analytics. Check which content has the most page views and user engagement. Based on these insights, you can come up with ideas for metaverse experiences.
  • Customer Feedback. Survey customers about which content they are most interested in.
  • Social Media Analytics. Measure the number of likes, comments, and other engagement factors on your main social media accounts.

From the above sources, you should be able to come up with at least 5-10 ideas that can inform your approach to the Metaverse.

4. Set Up A Customer Data Platform On Your Website

The next step is to set up a customer data platform on your website. Leveraging Arena Personas makes it easy to create a single customer profile that covers Google Analytics, Facebook, chat, mobile and other platforms. Adding it to your CDP will lay a good foundation for your metaverse marketing program.

5. Add Live Chat To Your Website

Once your customer data platform is fully set up, it is crucial to make your website more interactive. To achieve that goal, consider installing Arena Live Chat. Live Chat is valuable because it makes it easier for customers to ask questions and get answers fast. Most users can install Arena Live Chat in 5-10 minutes.

6. Test Metaverse Content Ideas Through Virtual Events

At this point, you are ready to start your metaverse experience planning process. You have a strong marketing foundation in place. In addition, going through step 3 should have given a few ideas of the kinds of content your customers are most interested in.

Now, start planning a virtual event experience with metaverse technologies. To inspire your approach, seek inspiration from these events in the metaverse.

  • Augmented World Expo USA (June 2022). With 5,000 attendees, this event explores the metaverse from several angles. Look into the event’s speakers to see some of the newest trends.
  • Metaverse Global Congress (June 2022). Based in San Jose, the Congress event covers experiential marketing, monetization, and training topics. The Congress event also includes events aimed at metaverse beginners.

7. Create A Metaverse Pilot Project

Now you are ready to start preparing metaverse pilot project ideas. Most companies find it easier to enter the Metaverse on an event basis. That is the approach that we recommend as well. Designing a metaverse experience that runs for a few hours to a few days is much more manageable.

8. Enhance The Conference Experience.

You may already be planning an event or company conference. In that case, look for ways to bring some of your panels or discussions into the metaverse context.

9. Experiment With Gaming Style Experiences

Gaming companies have the most experience in creating metaverse experiences. Therefore, creating a branded game could be a simple way to get started. For example, a homeware company might work with; The Knights of Unity to create a branded experience. The company has created a virtual world where users can buy, build and decorate homes.

10. Experiment With Exclusive Products

Earlier, we mentioned the example of Gucci selling exclusive products through the Metaverse. If your company has a new product release planned, launching the product through a metaverse world might help to generate additional excitement.

Once you have selected your metaverse idea, you can move ahead to launch the event.

11. Run The Event

Thoroughly planning a metaverse event goes beyond the scope of this post. Instead, we are going to focus on the marketing implications. Before, during, and after the event, users should have multiple opportunities to visit your website, ask for more information and make purchases. All of this activity should be tracked through your customer data platform so that you can follow up afterward.

In addition, your customers may need additional support because the Metaverse is still relatively new. For example, customers may have difficulties using virtual reality hardware. In this case, providing technical support on your website with Arena Live Chat is smart. Otherwise, confused customers may give up and leave your event if they cannot get the support they need.

12. Evaluate The Metaverse Event With Your Customer Data Platform

Finally, take some time to evaluate the metaverse event using your customer data platform. Refer back to the marketing goals and key performance indicators you outlined in step one of this process. If you did not generate new leads or sales, you have achieved other benefits like increased loyalty.

Lay Your Metaverse Foundation With Arena Personas Today

Whether you join the Metaverse today or in a few years, it is vital to act now to prepare for the event. Arena Personas helps you to create data-driven user profiles so that you can fine-tune your CDP towards marketing.

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Drive Player Engagement With In-Game Chat

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Social gaming is becoming popular with today’s social players. The days of being forced to play video games by yourself are over. Today’s social players have other options. Many gaming platforms have added text-based chat, voice chat, and other game communication options.

6 Popular Online Games With In-Game Chat

The best way to how the gaming industry is using chat messages, private chat, and more is to take a look at some of the most popular games. 

1. Facebook Gaming

Facebook Gaming launched in 2020, and it has quickly become one of the most popular choices for social players. Today, Facebook Gaming supports many of the most popular titles in the gaming industry like Grand Theft Auto V, PUBG Mobile, Garena Free Fire, and Mobile Legends. The platform supports both PC and mobile device games at this time.

Facebook Gaming is successfully driving higher engagement in a few ways. The platform features games that are already popular. The top three most popular games on the platform have 40 million followers. In addition, the platform supports gaming tournaments and charity events. These 

So far, Facebook Gaming appears to be offered as a free service, but that is likely to change in the future. Facebook will likely add advertising in some form to their game chat solution.

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2. Ludo King

Ludo King approaches in-game chat very differently from others in the gaming industry. The game emphasizes voice chat and encourages users to interact socially. Inspired by a board game, the Android app has hundreds of millions of downloads. To use the voice chat feature, players must watch videos.

The Ludo King approach to the game chat experience is different. The game essentially restricts access to the chat feature until users perform a specific action (i.e., watching videos). Other game developers use a similar strategy – restrict access to gaming content until players watch ads. 

Keep in mind that Ludo King had a few specific advantages that made their approach work. First, the game is based on appealing to a community of players filled with nostalgia for a childhood game. Second, the app has a more extensive user base. 

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3. Fortnite

Fortnite has a strong commitment to social interactions. The app has granular voice settings where users can control whether they speak to the public, friends, or private. In addition, the real-time chat has moderation capabilities so that you can kick out of mute other players.

In addition to text chat, Fortnite partnered with Houseparty to offer video chat to players. However, this specific video chat feature was removed in 2021. According to TechCrunch coverage, Fortnite appears to be moving toward metaverse technology instead.

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4. Call of Duty

Call of DuTy has earned a large following of online players since it was first released in 2003. The action game often involves teamwork to achieve missions. To coordinate these interactions, the platform required a game chat solution. 

In Call of Duty, your interaction with your game friends can take a few forms., You can use a text chat window to interact with other players. Some players use game voice chat to speak with their players. Offering both chat options is smart because unexpected voice chat issues can strike at any time.

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5. Roblox

With more than one hundred million players, Roblox is one of the most successful gaming platforms. The company encourages third-party game developers to create new experiences for players. Roblox operates based on a freemium business model like many other gaming platforms. Obtaining Robux, a type of in-game currency, is required to access many of the platform’s advanced features.

Roblox offers a powerful in-game chat for players. Users can create custom chat groups, send private messages, and chat during gameplay. The Roblox chat interface shows which experience users are involved in to encourage further interaction. That’s a powerful way to use a chat interface to encourage more app usage.  

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6. Lady Popular

Launched in 2009, Lady Popular is an online game aimed mainly at girls and women. Lady Popular is a dress-up fashion game where the player decides the clothes, makeup, accessories, and other aspects of their character’s appearance. 

Lady Popular users also have an online chat room where you can invite other users into chat rooms. Some users have commented about a poorly moderated chat experience, including bullying. Offering a welcoming chat experience that protects users is challenging for every game platform.

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In-Game Chat Vs. Third-Party Chat

In-game chat is popular with gaming communities. Building an in-game chat experience may not be the focus of your game. Other developers may prioritize the development of in-game chat experiences.

Consider the following questions to help you decide whether to focus on in-game chat or third-party chat experiences.

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1. What social interactions are users asking you to build?

Check specialized forums, Reddit, and other sources to get a sense of the social features that players are most interested in.

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2. How will you approach the chat moderation issue?

Like it or not, online bullying and abusive behavior are common problems. According to some studies, over 70% of students have suffered cyberbullying. Choosing a chat app like Arena Live Chat can help because it includes content moderation features.

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3. What type of chat – text, voice, or video – does your game need?

There are three popular types of chat available today: text, voice, and video chat. While video chat and audio have a lot to offer, they are not always ideal for gaming. Your users might find audio and video chat distracting. It is wise to offer text chat as a choice for your in-game chat. 

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The Easy Way To Add Chat To Your Business

Building chat features into your game may be challenging if you already have a complex user interface. There are other ways to offer chat to your users, however. You can install live chat directly to your website with Arena Live Chat. It takes just a few minutes to get set up. You can use chat to support players and host events to bring your community together.

The Ultimate Content Wall Guide

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A content wall is a powerful way to attract online visitors and keep them on your website for minutes. Best of all, you can create a content wall fast by leveraging social media and post updates. To create your next Content Wall, use this ultimate guide to engage your audience!

What Is A Content Wall?

A content wall is a digital hub where you present curated content to your audience in various formats. Also known as social walls or social media walls, a content wall can combine posts from your community and your staff. For example, your social walls might feature Instagram posts from customers, videos from your YouTube channel, and blog posts. Publishers, companies, and educators can use content walls to engage their communities.  

A content wall is distinct from your blog in a few ways. A blog is often structured with posts in reverse chronological order (i.e., the newest posts are displayed first). On the other hand, a content wall is a curated experience typically focused on a single theme like a specific conference.

In brief, content walls present and package content from multiple sources and make it easy for your audience to consume this information. 

Five Reasons Why Companies Are Using Content Walls 

There are five reasons why more companies invest in curating and presenting content walls.

1. Enhance their positioning 

Selecting blog posts, videos, images, and other material for your content wall takes significant effort. When a company develops a reputation for selecting the best content on a given subject, you will draw in more traffic and be perceived as an expert authority in your field.

2. Increase revenue from your audience

Giving your audience a good reason to stay on your website for more extended periods of time is a crucial benefit of content walls. When a customer spends several minutes or longer on your website, you can display more ads and generate more revenue. Further, you can also present more calls to action (e.g., sign up here to get notified of our monthly content wall series)

3. Aligning the marketing and editorial sides of your business

Publishing companies sometimes struggle to bring together their editorial content and marketing communications. A social wall can help! Your editorial team starts the process by selecting the best content around a given theme (e.g., the very best photojournalism showing your city). The marketing team can then step in to organize and structure the content to make it more engaging. 

4. Decreasing reliance on social media websites

Relying on social media sites to bring traffic to your business puts your growth at risk. What happens when ad costs go up? Or if these companies change their algorithms to make it harder to bring traffic in? Over the years, one thing has become clear. Social media sites want users to stay on their sites rather than leave.

Your goal is different – you want people to come to your website after discovering you on social media. 

There’s a solution to this challenge – add highly engaging content experiences to your website. What do the most popular social media websites have in common? Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, and Instagram all present feeds to their users. Creating a content wall of highly curated content gives your audience a reason to experience a sense of community right on your website!

5. Increase audience loyalty

Allowing your audience to discover new ideas and insights on your website is powerful. In a way, your audience will start to experience a sense of adventure by visiting your content walls. That means your audience will keep coming back to see more content. Over time, your audience is likely to trust you more, which means that it is easier for them to download content, ask for information and make purchases.

Adding content walls to your business is even greater for publishers.

Content Wall Publishers & Media: 6 Ways To Grow And Stand Out

Publishers are in the business of creating exciting, informative content for their audience. Today’s publishers create articles, blog posts, social posts, live streams, videos, and live chat experiences. 

You can draw even more value from these assets by presenting them as content walls. These curated experiences are valuable because they are organized in focused themes that speak to the audience’s interests. This means you’ll be positioned to compete with today’s most engaging online services like Netflix, Disney+, and social media sites.

Now, let’s explore how content walls can help publishers attract readers and subscribers and deepen those relationships effectively. 

1. Positioning your company as an authority in your industry

Fake news and misinformation are major social problems today. So becoming a trusted source has become even more important recently. The Pew Research Center has found that a personal connection to a journalist or news organization can increase trust. 

One way to develop and strengthen that trusted relationship is to create high-quality content walls. Thoughtfully creating a content wall with the very best content on a topic positions your company as trustworthy. This is a great place to highlight how much work your staff put in. 

For example, you might point out that your journalists evaluated over 500 sources before picking the 20 best sources for technology stock insights. In essence, you’ve saved your audience the trouble of sifting through endless sources to find quality data and insights.

By regularly presenting curated content walls to your audience, your audience will increasingly view your website as the best place to find high-quality information.

2. Increase your visibility and discoverability in search engines

It’s not enough to be a trusted authority anymore. You also need a consistent, reliable way to attract new people to your properties.

Fortunately, content walls can play a crucial role in helping you grow your audience through SEO (search engine optimization).  Content walls give users significant content about a single topic from several perspectives. Search engines, including Google, increasingly value authoritative websites that authoritatively present content when determining rankings. 

In other words, content walls can drive more organic visitors to your site!

3. Gain more control over your content 

Once you publish a new article, post, or video on the Internet, it can spread wildfire. Alas, there’s a downside to the ease of spreading information. It’s far too easy for unscrupulous people and companies to copy and monetize YOUR content without permission. That means lost revenue and online visitors for your publication.

Content walls offer one solution to the challenge of online plagiarism. Content walls make it easy for publishers to control how their content is displayed to readers. For example, you can make it more difficult for people to copy and paste content and spread it without your knowledge or consent.

From an editorial point of view, increased control is helpful in another way. You can tailor the audience’s experience based on your expertise. You can present trigger warnings, background information, and more information to make your content more meaningful.

4. Generate more paying subscribers  

Did you know that the New York Times has about 8 million paid digital subscribers? Those subscribers are helpful for the company to thrive in the digital age.

It’s no longer enough to generate millions of page views and attract online visitors to your website. You also need to convert those visitors into subscribers. Limiting some of your best content walls to paying subscribers only will make signing up for a paid subscription much more valuable. 

5. Understand your audience more deeply 

There’s an art and science behind creating a successful publishing experience. In many cases, publishers do not fully understand what their audiences value. 

Content walls can help you understand your audience better in two ways. 

Content Wall engagement

You’ll get this benefit when you create several content walls over time. Pay attention to how your audience interacts with each content wall you create. Which videos or images do they like? See which content drives people to share your content wall on social media. These insights will help you see the themes and approaches your audience likes the most.

With these insights in hand, you can create content that immediately connects with your audience in the future.

Gain more insights with your customer data platform

Content walls are mighty because they give people a reason to visit your website and interact with it deeply. If you install a customer data platform, you’ll be able to quickly understand the exact profile of your most engaged viewers. That means you can more accurately target your marketing efforts in the future.

6. Hit your marketing metrics goals 

Most publishers have demanding marketing key performance indicators (KPIs) to meet each month. You might be focused on:

  • Monthly unique visitors
  • Increasing your clickthrough rate (CTR)
  • Growing your email list

A content wall can help you hit all of these goals more quickly. As website visitors see the quality of your content wall, they are more likely to like and trust your brand over time. That means more people giving you the benefit of the doubt when you offer a new call to action (e.g., sign up for our next live chat event). A content wall also adds to your sense of community – it’s something remarkable to share with other people. 

Demonstrating that your publication is pulling in a large and growing audience also means that your advertising revenue will keep growing. 

What types of content work best in a content wall?

When you first get started with a content wall, getting overwhelmed is easy. There are many different kinds of content you could feature – articles, e-books, how-to guides, videos, embedded social feeds, links to webinars, podcasts, etc. 

How exactly do you craft an engaging content wall for your audience with so many types of content to choose from? There are a few guiding principles we recommend.

Start with a theme

Choosing a the right idea is the first and most crucial step in the content wall planning process. 

If your company is hosting a major conference, the Content Wall could focus on that event. A publisher might choose to create a content wall around a major news event like an election.

It’s essential to select a theme your audience is already interested in and one that fits your company’s goals. If you have too many content wall ideas, choose an idea where you already have a significant body of in-house content to draw on.

Create a foundation of in-house content

Your organization’s content is an excellent foundation for a content wall. Let’s say your theme is cybersecurity innovation. Pick a few articles, videos, and other posts on cybersecurity that have performed well in the past year on your website and put those on your content wall.

Enrich your Content Wall with third-party sources

Your next opportunity is to go out and find the best third-party content relevant to your theme. Start with publications that are already well respected by your audience. For example, a business-themed content wall might draw on the Wall St Journal and Harvard Business Review. 

It is best to present short quotes from third-party sources and link back to the source. You don’t want your content wall to cause any copyright infringement headaches!

Add user generated content 

Pulling in a few social media posts from current customers is an intelligent way to show appreciation for your customers. Ask permission before copying somebody’s else content and putting it on your content wall.

Consider relevant ads  

Publishers, take note! You can include relevant ads on your content walls. These ads should be relevant to the content wall. For example, your staff might have created a special report about the future of cryptocurrency recently. Your content wall is about blockchain or cryptocurrency topics, including a few ads for the particular report makes sense.

Keep in mind that the best content walls are customer-centric by nature. Therefore, advertising and self-promoting content should be kept to a minimum.  Ultimately, a content wall or content hub is a way of growing awareness and trust in your brand.

Content Wall Examples

What if you’re still not quite sure what a content wall is? Look at these examples in different niches and discuss them with your team as you plan your content wall.

SportsNet Celebrates Black History Month

The SportsNet content wall effectively connects their core coverage – sports – to Black History Month. Notice how the publisher presents each part of their content wall with a small photo, headline and copy. This is a great example of a content wall that combines content from the publisher and social media updates.

The PPA Festival Social Wall

The Professional Publishers Association (PPA) recently used a social wall to boost awareness of their annual conference. The PPA Festival approach primarily focused on Twitter. Featuring updates from social media is a good approach when your audience is actively engaged and posting about your event.

Content wall core features

A good idea for your content wall is the spark that will drive engagement. However, a robust content management platform is essential to keeping your content wall organized. As you consider the different content walls on the market, look for these critical features.

Get more SEO traffic with keywords 

The best content wall platforms are designed with SEO goals in mind. Look for a platform that supports your organic traffic growth goals.

Customize the look and feel of your content wall

The content wall should match the colors and design of the rest of your online presence. It is crucial to select a content wall that lets you control its visual appearance so that you can offer a compelling appearance.

Flexibility to add new content walls

Your content wall should make it easy to publish new content walls (or update existing ones) easily. 

Create and send content wall updates 

Your users might get busy and forget to come back to your website to see your latest content wall. Choose a platform that lets your users subscribe to receive new updates by email to keep your audience engaged.

Add recommendations to explore other content

Deeply exploring a content wall might not interest all of your audience. Therefore, your content wall should make it possible to add suggestions to other content on your website like ebooks, webinars, videos, interviews, and other content.

Make social sharing easy

The best content wall apps do not rely exclusively on SEO to attract new visitors: they also support social media sharing. Look for an app that includes easy sharing with Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Instagram.

If you’re unsure which content wall platform to use, why not try Arena’s Live Blog? 

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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.