Tutorial: How to Host Live Chats on Your Next Streaming Event

Whether you're hosting a sales presentation, learning and development webinar, or another virtual event, nothing engages your audience like live chat. When you enable live stream chats on your online video platform of choice, viewers can send you questions, comment on your content, and interact with other users in real time.

Research shows that live chat generates customer satisfaction levels of 75%, and it's the preferred communication method for customers who want to engage with businesses. But setting up live chat for your next stream isn't always straightforward. It all depends on the video platform you use.

In this tutorial, we will guide you through the process for some of the most popular video platforms online. We'll also demonstrate why using Viostream is a better option to engage with your audience when live streaming.

1) YouTube

YouTube has a chat feature for live streams on its platform that allows registered users to engage with content creators in real time. This feature experiences technical problems at times, and it's difficult for creators to monitor comments. Here's how to use YouTube chat:

1. Log into your YouTube account and head to your dashboard.
2. Click on the camcorder icon at the top-right of the screen.
3. Click Go Live.
4. Click Webcam.
5. Add the title of your live stream and change any privacy settings.
6. Click More.
7. Add a description of your live stream.
8. Now you can enable or disable the live chat feature.
9. Enabling the live chat feature allows registered users to post comments in the chat box during your broadcast.

2) Instagram

With more than 1 billion worldwide users, Instagram has become one of the most popular ways for businesses and governments to engage with customers and communities. Instagram can live stream content to your followers, but it's difficult to moderate comments. You also can't save live chats when your broadcast ends. However, the biggest problem is that you can only invite three guests to your live broadcast. If you want to engage with more people, look for an alternative streaming option.

Here's how to set up a live chat on Instagram:

1. Log into your Instagram account.
2. Click on Live from your feed.
3. Under the Requests menu, click on the username(s) of the person/people you want to invite to your broadcast.
4. Once your broadcast starts, these people can use the live chat feature to ask you questions or engage with your content.
5. Remove someone from your broadcast (and live chat) by clicking the "x" at the top-right corner of the video frame.

3) Facebook Live

Facebook Live lets you broadcast content to the world pretty easily. While there's no integrated live chat feature for communicating with viewers, you can engage with your audience via Facebook Messenger. The problem is, you can only interact with Facebook friends, and the platform's chat box might not offer the features you need for effective communication.

Here's how to chat on Facebook Messenger:

1. Start your live stream on Facebook Live.
2. Locate the chat box in the bottom-right of the screen. If you are on a mobile device, you will need to access the Facebook Messenger app.
3. In the chat window, select the people you want to add to the chat.
4. Communicate via Facebook Messenger during your stream.

Viostream: A Better Alternative

As you can see from the information provided, while the biggest video platforms offer a live chat option, they don't have the infrastructure to support chat during live streams and impose limits on their communication features.

Viostream provides an alternative. It's the No.1 platform for live streaming for Australian businesses and governments because of its various integrations that support live chat during streaming:

• Pigeonhole Live Integration: Pigeonhole Live is an app that supports live chat, quizzes, surveys, polls, and more during live streams.
• Slido Integration: Slido is a Q&A and polling app that lets users engage with your content in real time.

For even more engagement, you can create custom event templates for your next streaming event. This Viostream feature allows people to leave a comment about your event.

For nearly two decades, Viostream has been the leader in video technology, live streaming, video on demand, and asynchronous communication. Here are just some features that benefit businesses and governments everywhere:

• Security features you won't find on free tools like YouTube. Improve compliance, protect data, and increase peace of mind.
• The latest video playback technology, including 4K and HTML5.
• Bespoke video galleries and other customization features.
• Closed captioning, interactive transcripts, and other features for improving accessibility so more people can enjoy your videos.
• Real-time analytics. Discover how people interact with your content and use this data to influence your sales, marketing, and public service campaigns.

How Viostream Can Help

While live stream chat is possible on platforms like YouTube, Instagram, and Facebook Live, there are limited opportunities for engagement. YouTube's live chat feature is difficult to moderate, for example. Instagram only lets three users join your live broadcast. Facebook Live offers chat via Messenger, but it's a hassle to set up.

If you're looking for more engagement options, consider Viostream with its wealth of live chat features, including integration with Slido and Pigeonhole Live. When you integrate these tools into your next live streaming event, your audience can answer live polls, send questions, and comment on your content.

Viostream is a top live streaming solution for governments and businesses that want to communicate with their online audience in real time. Start your free trial with us today.