Hosting an online event at the best of times is already a daunting ordeal. To make the experience even better for your attendees and keep their attention it’s crucial to entertain them and engage with them. So you might be wondering how to interact with your audience online, let’s have a look at some popular ways to do this and some less common/quirkier Ideas.
4 Main Ways to Interact with Your Audience Online
Live Chat
The first and usually easiest way to interact with your virtual attendees is via the chat function of the platform you are using. Most platforms will definitely have this or at least some form of live comments. To use this effectively make sure you or someone in your team is monitoring the chat. It is one of your greatest tools in engaging with your attendees, as well as a great tool for them to interact amongst themselves.
You can use the chat for it’s basic chat function or you can throw in a few fun ideas. How about asking your attendees to post questions for an upcoming Q&A section. Or maybe you could quiz your attendees on the topic of your discussion to get them warmed up. These extra ideas all have ways of being done with other online functionalities you might have depending on your platform. But if all else fails or you’re on a cheaper platform don’t underestimate the chat!
Polls
Another great tool at your disposal is the Live Poll, many platforms have a way of integrating this and you can always easily go back to good old Sli.do. Polls are a great way to gauge your audience on a particular subject.
You can use polls in a more official way maybe to check on your attendees understanding of a topic or to quiz them if you are running an online course.
However where I believe polls really shine is just to get your audience engaged and involved in your event. Use this at the start of the event as an icebreaker. Check out these top icebreaker ideas for some inspiration.
A great way to engage your audience is to poll them on a question and break expectations. This works well if the topic you’re about to discuss is surprising or you have facts that disprove popular belief. This also works to engage your guests if you know that their are 2 sides to a topic and you can demonstrate this by getting a 50-50 poll result. They will then be keen to know more.
Q&A
Now what kind of event doesn’t include a good old Q&A session?
The Q&A process is a really important one that you shouldn’t overlook, it is really interesting to see what your audience wants to know more about. It could also possibly reveal if you haven’t covered a topic well enough. Definitely take note of what questions were asked and if this is a repeat event try and incorporate the answers into your presentation.
There are multiple ways to include Q&A into your event and the most basic way would be in the chat. However, in online events people are less shy than in person and you will likely have more questions come your way. Perhaps more than you have time for. A great way to handle this is to have an upvoting system on your platform. The questions can be submitted throughout your presentation and are visible to all. Your audience can then upvote certain questions. This usually dissuades from repeat questions and allows you to focus your time on the key points.
It is very important to schedule some time for questions in your event unless you are unwilling to take some.
Make sure to record these questions even if left unanswered so that you can get back to your guests post-event. Maybe in a recap email to all the attendees.
Games & Entertainment
Even through virtual events and meetings have been rising in popularity throughout the years, many of us are currently experiencing “zoom fatigue”. Most of us are currently in lockdown or working from home for the foreseeable future so all of our socialising is mostly virtual. This is why its crucial to stand out when you interact with your audience online.
It is time to up the fun factor on your events. I won’t go over every single option out there and we already have a great article you can check out on the subject.
Here are some of my highlights though:
- Mini quizzes inside your event, either on your topic or just as a way to break the ice.
- Word clouds, Ask everyone to describe something in one word and show the resulting image.
- Group activities like mindfulness practices or exercise.
Conclusion
I’ll wrap up here by saying that after the surge in virtual events it’s now more crucial than ever to interact with your audience online. This will keep them engaged and will keep the event message on their mind for longer.
You don’t have to incorporate all of these ideas but just a few can make a huge difference. An important last one to include is a post-event survey, ask about those interactions and see what could be done better and what your audience really wants. Like this survey Here.
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You can also ask attendees what future topics they would like you to cover.
True, that is also a great tip for creators!