When it comes to building a business or a following on social media, one of the most important things organizations need to do is interact. Going live is not enough. It is important to have ways to interact with your viewers during your lives and at other times in your marketing. Social media can help you build a business successfully when you can pull together all of these details.
Why Some Struggle with Interactions?
A number of people have moved to live video streams to connect with people. That includes everyone from business professionals, those conducting workshops, and social media users. Yet, moving to a live stream is not enough. The biggest drawback of this virtual experience is the lack of audience engagement. There is often a lack of audience involvement, and there’s no real sense of community when it is present. People do not feel as connected with the host or with others in the group.
To fix this, it’s important to get interactive. “Going live is a big benefit of using the right social media platform, but what you do with this tool is really what defines your success. Those who want real success from any social media live streaming event need to create the right atmosphere and build an interesting, interactive experience. That’s easier to do than many realize when you have the right tools in place to do so,” says a company representative from RingID, a revolutionary social commerce platform.
How to Create Engagement Through Live Streaming
There is no doubt that live streaming itself is an opportunity to create engagement. That is, it is one of the best ways to talk to and work with other people in a virtual environment. However, you have to add in other tools and resources to help make that experience worthwhile. Here are some tips for doing that.
Live Chat Option
People love to share their opinions. They will jump right in and communicate with you during your live streaming when you enable a live chat. This allows your audience to interact in a variety of ways.
- They can ask you questions about whatever you are talking about in real time. That can help to give your live event more depth and interest, especially when what they are asking is so valuable to their experience.
- You can ask them questions and get interaction opportunities that way. For example, you may ask them their opinion, or ask them how they handle a situation to use it as an example.
- Use the live chat as a way to poll your audience to find out what their thoughts are. That is a good way to gauge who you are talking to and what those people are looking for when communicating with you.
Have an assistant help you with this process. Let them write down the questions for a live Q&A later. Or you can use the chat feature to network with people later. Ask individuals to comment if they want you to send them a message.
Use Private Messaging
Sometimes people just do not want or cannot use a live chat. They want the benefit of being able to speak to you, though. In this way, they may want to be able to send you a private message about the topic. Providing this opportunity for your audience allows them to feel more connected to you, as the speaker, on a more profound level. They feel like they are valuable to you and your experience.
You can use private messaging in a lot of ways. For example, you may want to encourage your audience to send you a message with their email address so you can forward information. That can be automated so you can easily ensure you meet all spam rules while still creating a list of people to network with later.
Add in Some Gamification and Rewards
Most people love to interact in interesting ways. Gamification has become one hallmark of success for many organizations. It allows individuals to have some fun and be entertained while also keeping them in the live experience and communicating with you throughout the event.
Gamification helps to bring excitement to your experience, too. When people engage like this, they are more than able to dive in and participate. Then, a few days or weeks later, they remember your event in a positive way. They may also remember what they were playing for and what they learned.
It does not have to be hard to implement this. For example, you can create a leaderboard for those who answer questions properly or put people on the path to a treasure hunt to find specific information. You can even encourage them to run around their home to find items you are looking for specifically.
Poll Them
Incorporating polls into your live events is a simple way to get people interested and invested. When you issue a poll, you do two things. First, you encourage people to see where they fit within a group of other people. They learn how they stack against others. Second, you show them that their opinion matters. That is going to help your message to come through loud and clear.
With so many opportunities to create interaction and engagement during live sessions, there is no doubt this should be a key component of every live event you have. What strategies do you plan to invest in to create a more enjoyable experience?
