As I’ve written before, emotions matter in virtual events. When you host a virtual event, you’re not just blandly conveying information and checking boxes on a checklist – you’re hopefully connecting with your audience on a deeper and more memorable level.
Your choice of a virtual events platform can make a big difference in the capabilities available to turn a ho-hum event into a more impactful and interactive experience. Virtual events providers like Social27 can offer a range of features to enable your attendees to express feedback and register their emotional responses to the content – both during and after the event’s presentations.
With some of the features available on today’s virtual events platforms, you’re no longer limited to a simple range of expressions “Happy face,” “Sad face,” “Applause,” etc. One of the best examples is the mood-o-meter from Social27. With the mood-o-meter, you can give your attendees a full range of emotional options… bored, happy, agreement, surprised, etc.
There are benefits to both the audience and the event organizers from using features like the Social27 mood-o-meter at your next virtual event:
- Get more in-depth feedback from your attendees: One of the traditional challenges of hosting a virtual event is that 93% of communication is non-verbal, so you can’t expect your audience to directly “tell you” what they like (or dislike) about your event. This makes it imperative to find new ways to collect feedback in a manner appropriate to a virtual event. One of the biggest advantages of using a tool like the mood-o-meter is that it helps you create emotional profiles of your attendees, with a wider range of response options. You’ll be able to find out which parts of a presentation hit the mark (or miss the mark) with your attendees.
- Keep your attendees more engaged in the event: One of the best ways to keep attendees plugged in to what is happening during a presentation is to give them greater flexibility in how to respond to the content in real time. When people only have a few limited options to express their feelings, they are more likely to become bored or disconnected. When attendees have a richer array of feedback options, they are more likely to participate and interact with the presenter and with each other. Tools like the Social27 mood-o-meter help improve individual autonomy in responding to what they see and hear from your event. In the era of social media, instant feedback and self-expression, offering anything less is likely to make your attendees feel stifled. People are used to sharing how they feel, about anything, anytime. Give them that same freedom as part of your virtual event, and you will be rewarded with better feedback and better attentiveness.
- Obtain detailed data: A good virtual events platform should not only provide excellent capabilities for use while the presentations are in progress, but it should also give you some robust data collection and analysis tools. The Social27 mood-o-meter makes it possible to save and review the results of the feedback and instant polls from each presentation. Gauging your audience’s emotional response is part of developing business intelligence and measuring ROI for your presenters, sponsors and exhibitors at every stage of the event.
- Improve planning for future events: Once you’ve analyzed the results of the mood-o-meter for the various content and presentations delivered at your event, you’ll have a much more detailed idea of what works and what needs to be improved. Whether it’s a matter of improving the content, changing the lineup of speakers, or adjusting the format of the event, the mood-o-meter gives you a chance to find out which parts of your virtual event generate the best (and worst) responses from your attendees.
About Ike Singh
Ike Singh Kehal is a seasoned business professional with 15+ years of marketing, sales, and business development experience. His latest company, Social27 was founded in 2007 to take advantage of the growing need for social media and game dynamics integration in virtual events. Prior to starting Social27, Ike drove numerous startup projects, including Indiabulls Retail, where he was CEO. Previously, he held various business strategy positions at Microsoft, spread over a seven-year period. Ike is a committed member of the virtual events community and contributes regularly to the discussion at http://www.virtualeventshub.com
Join the conversation. Agree with me? Good. Disagree? Even Better! Tell me why…
What are some other advantages (or disadvantages) of improving your attendees range of emotional expression and real time feedback for virtual events?