As we post this it is Mental Health Awareness Month in the US, and after months of social isolation due to the pandemic, we all know the importance of connection with others.

High engagement in a digital space does not just happen by accident.

It needs to be intentional and thoroughly thought over in order to craft a virtual event that will give attendees all they need to feel engaged with your content, and to feel connected to the experience of the event.

We have some basic notes and advice in order to lay the foundation for strong engagement during a virtual event.

1. Have a clear understanding of how to measure engagement

Engagement success can mean a lot of different things to people when it comes to virtual events. It can be the amount of comments people write, the amount of shares of a link, the amount of people that tuned in, or the average duration of the event that people stuck around to watch. If you ask us, the latter is the most important; how long a person stays to watch a virtual event is the most meaningful engagement metric.

Think about it, if a person is watching a virtual event in their home, and they are not enjoying it, there is little stopping them from just shutting the tab and moving on with their day. If you have convinced your attendees to stick around to watch your virtual event, you have already successfully engaged them.

Pro tip: We have put together a really handy tool for calculating the ROI for a virtual event that you might find helpful.

Summary: Holding someone’s attention is the ultimate engagement success.

2. Build an event program that is worth sticking around for

Scripting an event is something we always do with our Happily virtual events. Looking at the whole event as a story, and storyboarding it as such, will allow you to craft those engaging moments for your audience and to build momentum, with the goal of keeping people watching for longer.

Once you have a detailed ROS (run of show) you can look at it, and identify moments you anticipate that the energy will drop, or people’s attention might drift, and edit the program accordingly. You want your attendees to feel like the event is constantly moving forward, and that there is so much more good stuff to come. It may not always matter how notable a guest speaker might be, the event around them needs to be packaged and teed up properly.

Summary: An event program needs to hold someone’s attention at every turn, just like a talk show.

3. Seat shadows to moderate and get the conversation going

Most of the time, no one wants to write the first comment in an empty chat box. So it is always a good idea to have people dedicated to adding comments and building some chatter in that space. This could be as simple as asking some of your staff members to create that energy in the chat, to add emojis, to make a basic comment, or agree with other people’s comments. It doesn’t have to be sophisticated sentences or questions. Most people will feel more comfortable contributing in the chat if they see other people doing it first.

Summary: Someone needs to be the one to break the ice and start the conversation.

4. Use a familiar platform that people already know how to engage with

Finding the right platform that people feel comfortable with talking in, commenting in and engaging in is really important. A digital space that is familiar and comforting to an attendee will naturally allow them to feel more confident to engage and chat, it’s that feeling of ‘I know how this works’. Which is why at Happily we utilize Zoom more than any other platform.

Summary: People will find it easier to engage in a way that is already familiar to them.