As organizations continue to operate in remote and hybrid work environments, they’re no longer satisfied with the bare minimum when it comes to virtual events. Whereas 2021 saw most enterprises striving to simply make remote work functional, 2022 will be all about enhancing digital experiences to keep employees and customers engaged.

That’s why we’re so excited to partner with Pigeonhole Live, an audience engagement tool that makes it seamless to incorporate live Q&As, chats, polls, quizzes, reactions and surveys directly into your virtual and in-person meetings, webinars and events via Socialive’s intuitive platform. Plus, interaction analytics provide insights into what your audience truly cares about, so you can shape new content to meet their needs.

Virtual events present new challenges

Although virtual events have kept us connected even while physically dispersed, they haven’t come without their challenges. In our 2021 State of Enterprise Video report, more than half (55%) of respondents said it’s been challenging for their organizations to create, broadcast and distribute video content with a remote or hybrid workforce. In addition to time, budget and bandwidth constraints, organizations are struggling with complex and bloated video tech stacks, low audience engagement and live video drop off rates.

Virtual meeting fatigue may be one factor contributing to the finding that nearly half of respondents (42%) only experienced moderate engagement throughout their events. Nearly one-third (29%) of respondents also reported that these events received higher engagement at first, with attention dropping off over the course of the video event. After spending much of their day communicating via video conferencing platforms, attendees want something more from their virtual events.

Given that remote and hybrid work environments aren’t going anywhere, improving audience engagement is critical to the success of your organization’s virtual events. In fact, many companies are already strategizing for the future. Half of enterprise professionals surveyed in our study reported that they’re planning to produce higher quality, more engaging video content to decrease the impact of virtual meeting fatigue.

Improving audience engagement with interactive participation

The benefits of boosting audience engagement are clear. More engaged customers have better experiences, increasing their trust and loyalty with your brand. More engaged employees are happier and more productive on the job, decreasing costly voluntary turnover rates.

But increasing engagement is easier said than done, especially in remote and hybrid environments. Video conferencing tools simply weren’t built for virtual events. Attending events on these platforms is akin to watching a course through a window at the back of the lecture hall — possible, but not easy to participate in. Static video streams get old quickly, causing viewers to become disengaged or drop off altogether. Audiences need ways to interact with your brand to get the most of your content.

By partnering with Pigeonhole Live, we’re giving enterprises the ability to add even more interactivity to our dynamic video platform purpose-built for the video needs of the modern enterprise. This flexible, turnkey solution enables organizations to conduct live Q&As, chats, polls, quizzes, reactions and surveys — directly within our all-in-one platform for video creation, broadcasting and distribution.

Interactive elements turn passive virtual events into active video experiences, improving audience watch rates on the channels that matter most. Embed your stream directly on your website to better control the experience, and simultaneously multicast across other channels like LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter. Real-time reports allow you to easily view the number of participants, questions, comments, ratings and results from your event, taking the guesswork out of audience engagement.

The scale of Socialive + the power of Pigeonhole Live

Together, Socialive and Pigeonhole Live empower organizations to host professional-grade, highly engaging virtual events from their own website — plus multicast across all their preferred channels. Producers and guest directors can control Pigeonhole Live’s interactive features directly in the Socialive Studio and Virtual Green Room, giving presenters visibility into audience interactions in real time and ensuring productions are seamless and polished.

To deliver the engaging video experiences your customers and employees crave, it’s time to move beyond the patchwork solutions stitched together at the beginning of our transition to a hybrid world. Video will only continue to play a pivotal role in the future of business — the tools you use to create it should be up to the challenge.

Schedule a demo with us to see Socialive and Pigeonhole Live in action.