Managing Remote Audiences

 

Engaging and interacting with remote, online audiences is going to be different to interacting with an audience at a venue.

You obviously have to see what works for your online audience in terms of keeping them engaged and interested in your event. You should try new ways to keep your audience involved.

Also, bear in mind that being remote, your audience may be joining in from different countries and time zones.

Audience behaviour for online events is different from audience behaviour at venues:

• ·       When people join an event
• ·       are they using a laptop or smartphone to join in,
• ·       how they interact with the host and other audience members,
• ·       are they using headphones to listen in,
• ·       are they viewing the screen or not,
• ·       are they eating during the event,
• ·       are audience members doing other things during your virtual event,
• ·       how long they stay,
• ·       when they leave,
• ·       do they come back and re-join later, etc.

I notice that for virtual events people don’t always join at the start. They sometimes join in part way through an event. This is unlike attending an event at a venue where people will try to get there for the start. Because there is no travel time to get to an online event, people, perhaps, tend to finish whatever else they may be doing and then join.

Audience members may even leave the live stream part way through and then re-join later or leave altogether when it suits them. If you are using your smartphone to join a virtual event, if you get a message, say, you may check out the message then go back to the event. This behaviour of audience members may differ to when they attend an online event or an event at a venue. You have to expect people to get distracted more easily during virtual events. People may be doing other things during your online event and may have your event running in the background.

As an event organizer, it may not always be easy to see if any member of the audience gets distracted during your online event. This is something you will have to deal with during your live stream events. Audience members may be at home, at the office or even travelling during your event – so distractions can be more for them.

This difference in behaviour for online events as compared to audience behaviour at a venue means you, as an event organizer or host, need different strategies for both types of audience.

If your virtual event lasts for over an hour, say, it’s unlikely that your audience will be continuously engaged throughout the event. In that case you probably need to expect that audience members will be doing other things during your event, at least for part of the time.

Get audience members involved in your live stream by, for example, allowing them to speak to your audience. If you give a shout out to an audience member during your event, it may make them more engaged in what’s happening.

As long as you keep learning as to what works and what doesn’t, you should improve.

New ways of conducting events, such as online events, means more opportunities for you to put across your ideas, products or services.

Hope these event marketing ideas help. Stay tuned for more...

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