Socialive blog

The past few years have shown that remote and hybrid work environments aren’t going anywhere. Virtual events and webinars are crucial to keeping employees and customers connected and engaged in these operating models. It’s no surprise, therefore, that the global virtual events market size is estimated to reach $657.64 billion by 2030, growing at a compounded rate of 21.4%.

And even though in-person events have returned after 2020, they tend to be a more exclusionary option. Many have found they prefer the convenience and cost-effectiveness of attending virtual events. Likewise, many organizations recognize that virtual events have the potential to reach far wider audiences than in-person events.

Hybrid events help provide the best of both worlds. Combining a “live” in-person experience with a virtual component enables attendees to pick their preferred format while allowing businesses to maximize their reach.

But executing an engaging, professional-looking virtual event is easier said than done. To provide the best experience for people in the room and virtual guests, leading organizations have turned to video creation platforms.

Combine pre-recorded and live content

Webinars, virtual trade shows, earnings calls, online conferences, digital job fairs, and fireside chats — all of these virtual events are ideal for companies to connect and engage with audiences of all kinds. But challenges like building a run of show in the video platform to match the event agenda, technical issues, and on-air speaker mistakes create added pressure for the teams behind these events.

To reduce day-of stress, consider pre-recording some of your event content. With Socialive, teams can remotely record and produce content before the live event. These recordings can then be seamlessly added to preset scenes that follow your event program.

Of course, you’ll still want to include some live content to provide the full event experience. Socialive’s platform can help reduce stress here, too. The digital version of a production studio, our Virtual Green Room is the perfect environment to conduct dry runs and technical checks before showtime — all behind the scenes.

Let’s say your company is hosting its annual industry conference. You could record all of your keynote speeches ahead of time, no matter where in the world your speakers are, then broadcast them live during the appropriate time slots. Each session could end with a 15-minute live session, like a Q&A with the audience, a customer story, or remarks from an expert on the topic.

This approach not only streamlines the creation process for virtual events, it also provides a more balanced experience for both virtual and in-person attendees. You can also use snippets from your pre-recorded content to create promotional content leading up to the event — engaging your audience well in advance of the event.

Enhance production value for virtual events and webinars

Still broadcasting a slide deck over a virtual conferencing platform? We have some bad news — your audience is bored. There are tons of virtual events and webinars they can choose from, and you’ll need to add more production value for your content to stand out.

The good news — Socialive’s intuitive cloud platform makes adding dynamic effects straight from your browser easy with a few clicks and drags. Custom graphics such as logos and automatic name tags are a simple way to uplevel production. Add audio and video overlays to take your content from static to dynamic. Effortlessly transition between different layouts with our drag-and-drop scene builder.

Best practices for virtual events and webinars

As event planners know, there’s a lot more to consider than just the day of the event. The tips below will help you flesh out your strategy before, during, and after the event.

1. Expand audiences, engage your people

Virtual events and webinars aren’t just marketing tactics. You can use this professional-grade content to engage your employees, stakeholders, customers, and job candidates. These audiences are just as vital to connect with as the prospects in your pipeline. Look at your strategic business goals for the next year and consider whether there are any opportunities to use virtual events for even greater impact.

2. Think human

If you think a virtual event is a one-hour webinar that pushes content in one direction, you may be missing the point. Remember that virtual events are about people. It’s easy to become distracted by the technological bells and whistles or get sidetracked by technical glitches. Even though the event is virtual, real humans on the other side of your screen want to connect with you. Look for ways to include them, such as live quizzes, Q&As, polls, and other interactions. Coach your presenters to develop an online presence that is personal and inviting.

3. Maximize content, drive engagement

To get the most from your virtual events, look for strategic ways to repurpose your content. Create snackable videos to share in social posts, newsletters, blogs, and campaigns. Download the MP3 file and turn it into a podcast. Reuse footage in future events by building a run of show featuring pre-recorded video to simulate the live video experience. Use recordings to build a marketing video that promotes your culture. The more you can do with what you create — and the less time, effort, and money it takes — the greater your ROI.

Scale your virtual events and webinars

Going fully virtual or providing a virtual component can increase the reach of your webinars and virtual events, elevate the experience for attendees, and boost their impact on your business. And you don’t need extensive investments in studios, equipment, and talent to turn your virtual events into immersive experiences.
Socialive is the fastest and most cost-effective way to create professional video content. Anyone from a newcomer to video or a video expert can use the platform to easily produce high-quality, branded, engaging virtual events and webinars right from their web browser. By using talent’s browser, mobile device, or professional camera to record and then the producer’s device to edit, publish, and livestream, the entire process is faster and easier than ever.

Take a quick, self-guided tour of our platform to see how Socialive can transform your virtual events and webinars.

Dating back to the 1930s during U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s tenure, fireside chats are still a valuable way for executives to connect with audiences in an authentic and interactive way.

Of course, a lot has changed since Roosevelt delivered his first fireside chat nearly 100 years ago. Now, these communications are no longer delivered via radio, but virtually via video.

While video has resulted in more opportunities for digital connection, today’s C-suite executives are busier than ever. Finding time to prepare for and participate in virtual discussions can be very challenging. That’s a problem because virtual fireside chats have only grown in popularity in recent years as workforces become more geographically dispersed.

Adding fuel to the fire, the overabundance of digital content made them lose their shine. To make these experiences feel as intimate as they were when Americans first cozied up around the radio to hear Roosevelt’s unprecedented broadcasts, leaders need to continue evolving the medium.

A video creation platform like Socialive enables corporate communications teams to remotely record leaders on their own time, which is critical for coordinating around busy schedules. Plus, intuitive drag-and-drop editing tools make virtual fireside chats more dynamic and engaging than ever — without delaying your timeline.

The value of virtual fireside chats

Virtual fireside chats and interviews have become a staple for business executives who want to be more approachable with employees and promote greater transparency about their business. They use fireside chats to informally share their insights and perspectives on the company or industry.

Virtual fireside chats and interviews give busy executives and companies with geographically distributed or remote workforces a high-impact way to engage with employees, share vital company information, and rally teams with a personal appeal by video, whether recorded and edited or livestreamed.

Virtual fireside chat format

The goal of a fireside chat is to have an organic discussion that feels open and natural rather than scripted or forced. That doesn’t mean, however, that you shouldn’t plan your virtual fireside chat.

Your program should typically include a moderator and one or two guests from your C-suite leadership team. Your moderator can be a member of your corporate communications team or a willing employee from rotating function areas, which can foster inclusion, cross-team collaboration, and transparency.

Often, a virtual fireside chat is delivered in a question-and-answer format, where you develop and share talking points or a discussion guide with your moderator and guests in advance. These questions can include pre-submitted inquiries from employees. This allows everyone to prepare well in advance so they can be sure to cover the most relevant and impactful information.

The moderator’s role is to help guests feel relaxed and keep the discussion focused. But they can also keep the content engaging by creating rapport and prompting conversation through commentary and follow-up questions.

How to take your virtual fireside chat to the next level

Transformative communication — or the evolution of your communication style to meet shifting needs and ways of working — is critical to the modern workplace. Despite their transition to video, fireside chats are not exempt from continued digital transformation.

As remote work becomes more common, traditional ways of creating video are no longer feasible. Creating content in a studio requires expensive equipment, on-location travel, extensive resources, and months of preparation.

On the other end of the spectrum, meeting platforms like Zoom and Teams don’t provide the quality or production value required to make these programs stand out, let alone meet the branding expectations of the enterprise.

Today’s teams need a solution that provides the quality of a production studio with the ease of use and remote capabilities of a virtual conferencing platform. Socialive sits at exactly that intersection. Our all-in-one cloud video production platform lets organizations:

• Record up to 4K quality from anywhere — straight from your phone, tablet, browser, or professional camera.
• Set up templates to mix and match live content, recorded videos, graphics, and screen shares in dynamic layouts with B-roll, music beds, and branded graphics.
• Manage your guests behind the scenes with your host and guests through a Virtual Green Room to ensure everyone is relaxed and prepared.
• Boost audience engagement with tools for live quizzes, Q&As, polls, and other interactions with your viewers.
• Publish simultaneously across channels, including social, digital, conferencing, and event platforms, with one click.
• Streamline content management with the ability to store and access video in a centralized, secure cloud-based recording library. No manual file transfer required.
• Edit your content, then pull audio files and video clips from your recordings for marketing, internal communications, learning and development, corporate training programs, and more, extending the life and value of your content.

One highly effective way to boost employee sentiment and truly get buy-in is through engaging company town halls.

Much more than a problem of low morale or behind-the-scenes grumbling, disengaged employees cost the world a jaw-dropping $7.8 trillion in lost productivity in 2021. That was 11% of global GDP. According to a 2022 survey from Gallup, nearly one in three employees is disengaged at work. On the flip side, companies with successful employee engagement realize about 23% greater profits.

Company town halls can help keep your employees connected and engaged, especially in dispersed work environments.

What is a company town hall meeting?

A company town hall is typically an all-hands meeting in which the leadership team looks to connect with employees, present critical business information, recognize employee efforts, and promote company values. These meetings can be held in person, virtually, or in a hybrid format. The main goal is to increase transparency and give employees a direct line to leadership — no matter the size of the organization.

Unfortunately, the challenging logistics of travel and planning an in-person town hall prevent many companies from holding them. This is especially true for companies with large-scale workforces and multiple business locations. Virtual town halls provide an effective, scalable solution for bringing employees together.

The value of a virtual town hall

While in-person meetings will always provide value in certain situations, video is the ideal medium for company town halls for a number of reasons:

1. Sense of community: At their core, company town halls connect employees and leaders, fostering a greater sense of community in your organization. If you have a large company with several offices, making these meetings virtual is a great way to boost camaraderie across different geographies.
2. Better reach: Akamai’s Senior Global Events Manager, Simon Gerzina, saw how his team dramatically expanded their reach with virtual town halls, switching from a process of flying executives from office to office. “As a virtual program, we had much better adoption because we could actually include everyone. We went from only being able to get in front of maybe 50% of our population, to being able to get in front of 100% of our people with the recording and 80% live.”
3. More inclusive: Greater reach yields greater inclusivity. Virtual company town halls provide better accessibility to employees who work remotely, manage caregiving duties, have a different learning style, or are unable to come into the office due to an illness or disability.
4. Flexibility: Video recordings enable employees to watch your company town hall on their time. For example, some employees may have conflicts during the originally scheduled meeting. Others may want to reference the recording later. Company town hall videos also make great onboarding resources.
5. Audience engagement: Many employees don’t want to speak up in front of their entire company and therefore remain silent during large, in-person meetings. Virtual town halls, however, allow for chat and polling functionality, creating a lower-stress audience engagement option. Employees can even pre-record messages of themselves to play during the town hall.

Finding the right virtual town hall platform

Employees have grown increasingly fatigued with the standard video conference experience. To keep them engaged, video meetings need to become more intentional and dynamic.

The right virtual town hall meeting platform should strike a balance between a professional look and feel and ease of use. Socialive’s end-to-end video creation platform, for example, provides intuitive tools that make it easy to create content for any business use. Especially for anyone who’s responsible for managing the town hall (who might not be a video expert), Socialive enables anyone in your organization to easily create branded, immersive town hall experiences that inspire, inform, and engage employees.

Once the meeting is over, one-click integrations ensure you can send the recording directly to anywhere you want to publish it — from social media accounts, meeting and event platforms, and file hosting sites to marketing automation platforms and video editing tools. This makes it easy to keep the meeting as an on-demand recording, clip the best parts for highlights or public consumption, or edit portions into new content.

Tips to improve company town hall engagement

Now that we’ve covered the importance of company town halls and what to look for in a virtual solution, here are a few tips to make the event robust and thrill your employees:

Pre-record content

Eliminate on-air stress and give yourself ample time to add finishing touches by remotely recording your content in advance. Not only does this method better accommodate executives’ busy schedules, but it also enables you to hear from more voices across the organization.

Include interactive live components

Socialive integrates with audience engagement tools like Pigeonhole to add live chat, polls, Q&As, reactions, and more to your company town hall program.

Amplify diverse voices

Source pre-recorded content from your employees, which can be seamlessly interspersed with live and other pre-recorded videos to showcase more perspectives across your company.

Prep your presenters

You might assume leaders are naturally good on camera, but they can often use a little coaching to make sure everything goes smoothly.

Consider live-to-tape or other formats

Psst! Your company's town hall doesn’t need to be live. Experiment with the way you deliver your presentation to see what resonates best with your employees. For example, you could pre-record the entire town hall for employees to view a simulive event, then set up a 30-minute true live Q&A session to answer any questions employees might have after they watch the recording. Or, you can send the first portion of the event as an asynchronous recording to be viewed on their own time ahead of the Q&A session.

The business impact of company town halls

Working to improve employee engagement through an engaging company town hall delivers enormous business impact. Virtual town halls can help you maintain strong connections with your people, engage your employees in an open and authentic format, and get everyone to buy into your corporate goals and your company’s mission.

Take a quick, self-guided tour of our platform to see how Socialive can help you easily create professional company town halls that keep your team connected and engaged.

Traditional communications is dead.

With the necessary shift to a remote working environment, businesses simply replicated the traditional in-person meeting through virtual means — it’s not working. While they can be useful in empowering people to communicate and collaborate remotely, 38% percent of professionals in a recent study reported experiencing video call fatigue (from Robert Half).

But it's not just in our business life. Social media has transformed how we communicate, and the enterprise must adapt or else be left behind.

It's time to explore how powerful video can be when it is used to deliver short, pre-recorded messages, also known as snackable video.

What is personalized snackable video?

Unlike other forms of asynchronous communications — "taking it offline" — such as email or chat messages, snackable videos put a human face on your communication. Typically friendly and brief, these videos can convey your message with the context and clarity that is sometimes missing from written communication. They can be shared and watched whenever, wherever, on your audience’s own time.

How to use snackable video

Best of all, personalized snackable video is endlessly versatile. Here are just a few of the many ways you could use them:

• Explain an assignment to supplement your learning curriculum
• Deliver a small, consumable chunk of course content between classes
• Prepare a team for an upcoming meeting by explaining the agenda and any pre-work you’d like completed beforehand
• Celebrate a big win with your team
• Quickly and personally introduce yourself when a sales prospect has reached out to you for more information
• Do a coffee chat with a co-worker you haven’t seen for weeks because you’re all working remotely
• Send a quick follow-up after a meeting, outlining the next steps
• Share a project status in between check-ins
• Explain a product feature or how to do something to a customer
• Explain a process to someone you’re onboarding

Not every communication requires a full-blown video meeting. When you start to think outside that box, you’re likely to uncover many more ways you might use personalized asynchronous videos.

Personable messaging through snackable video in CreatorSuite

Personalized asynchronous video can elevate voices in your organization, humanizing communications and freeing everyone to watch them on their schedule. With Socialive’s end-to-end video creation platform, enterprise companies easily create professional-quality, branded, personalized videos with the team they already have:

• Record crisp-quality video content from anywhere — straight from your phone, tablet or desktop browser — with Socialive’s CreatorSuite to ensure the highest quality possible
• Create a secure, permissions-based, centralized library of all your personalized asynchronous videos — automatically uploaded at the time of recording
• Enrich your message with our drag-and-drop editor, which includes preset layouts to combine previously recorded videos, newly recorded content, screen share video, and other media with branded graphics to guarantee a professional look and feel
• Create snackable video clips from other recordings so you can repurpose content that efficiently gets your message across

At Socialive, we believe that everyone, regardless of experience or skills, should be able to use video to easily communicate and collaborate across your business. Discover how we can help you personalize asynchronous videos that elevate your message.

Did you know that learning and educational content drive over a billion views a day on YouTube?

That is a jaw-dropping number — and it shines a light on a tremendous opportunity for companies that want to connect and communicate with people. Instructional videos, sometimes called how-to or explainer videos, should definitely be in your media mix.

Video appeals to both visual and auditory systems in the brain, making it an ideal medium for learning things. How-to videos are simply videos that explain or instruct.

How-to videos can be snackable, a lengthy recorded series, or even delivered in a livestream. They can be highly personalized or target a broad audience. They can be purely educational, educational with some entertainment, or even educational with a tiny bit of marketing to encourage viewers to consider purchasing (though it is extremely important that these videos never feel sales-y to viewers, which can be an instant turn-off).

These kinds of videos can provide step-by-step instructions for completing a specific task. They can also provide extensive background about why and how a product was built and explain how to tackle a complex, multi-stage process.

Below are four tips for producing educational and engaging how-to videos.

Make your videos relevant

Think like a search marketer! Consider your audience and how they look for answers. Imagine them typing, “How do I…?” into Google. What is of immediate interest to them? What educational information could you share with them that would be engaging and consumable in a short amount of time? How does it relate to your products or offerings?

Prioritize pragmatism

You don’t need to spend much time explaining why or what — most of your time should be spent explaining how. Get to the point quickly and focus on showing how. Eliminate any information that isn’t essential to the “How do I…?” question you’re answering.

Keep videos snackable

While long-form instructional videos have their place, the ideal length for how-to videos is less than three minutes. Focus on answering just one very specific question. If the topic you have in mind can’t fit into a short video, it’s likely not a good match for an explainer.

Be both educational and interesting

Yes, these are instructional videos, but you want to engage your audience while you educate them. Look for ways to introduce something lighthearted or even humorous to keep things interesting.

Educate and engage your audiences with how-to videos

Instructional videos, such as how-to and explainer videos, can help you provide answers to people’s questions while also establishing authority, building trust, showcasing your product, attracting new audiences, and so much more. At Socialive, we’ve made it easier than ever to create professional-quality video, empowering everyone from video producers to marketing staff to easily create branded, immersive experiences through video. Socialive’s end-to-end video creation platform powers the enterprise to:

• Record video content from anywhere — straight from your phone, tablet, or desktop browser — with Socialive’s remote recording capabilities, ensuring the highest quality content possible
• Create dynamic and engaging educational content with our drag-and-drop video editor, which includes preset layouts to mix and match video content, screen shares, and branded graphics to create the perfect video
• Reach the widest audience with one-click video publishing for recorded videos, or livestream an interactive session to a number of destinations simultaneously
• Streamline content management with the ability to record, store, and access HD video in a secure, centralized cloud-based recording library — with no manual file transfer required
• Manage talent behind the scenes during video recordings or livestreams, sharing talking points and other directions through a Virtual Green Room
• Produce a brilliant live session with the ability to set up scenes in advance, create a run of show, and add a professional look and feel in just a few clicks
• Repurpose educational content in multiple ways as snippets, clips for other videos, or more to share in marketing, sales, and training programs so you can extend the life and value of your content

How-to and explainer videos can be a crucial addition to your media mix, helping you to inspire, inform, and engage viewers. All you need to do is record, edit, publish, or livestream answers to your audience’s questions.