Sarah Fejfar 0:00
The reason why this is important to you is that when your guests are engaged in the chat when that chat is well moderated, and on topic, your guests will stay with you longer in the virtual event. And when your guests stay with you longer in that virtual event, more of them see your offer, and when more of them see your offer, more of them will buy your offer. Okay, so this is a profitability tip.
Sarah Fejfar 0:29
How are entrepreneurs like us daring bravely to build a stage? Ditch the sweat pants and step up to the mic? How do we create our own transformative events? So we can get our message out into the world in a bigger way. It's not only profitable, but it's actually something we can be proud of.
Sarah Fejfar 0:50
That's the question. And the answers are inside this podcast. My name is Sarah Fejfar. Welcome to Green Room Central.
Sarah Fejfar 0:58
Hey, welcome back to another episode of the Green Room central podcast and today we're talking advanced chat moderation strategies. Now, I want you to catch that I just said the word advanced. And so today really is a build on Episode 24, where we talked about kind of the basics to chat moderation. So if you haven't already listened to that episode, I want you to go back after you listen to this one. today. I want you to listen to episode 24. It's called Chat moderation, what you need to know. And that's where we cover the table stakes, the things that I think are just basic and everybody should be doing no matter what that stuff like welcoming guests by name.
Sarah Fejfar 1:47
Recapping key points with emojis. Emojis is the monkey there. It's cheering people on the the highly engaged guests. It's sharing presenter bios, and it's dropping all the links. So go back to Episode 24. On chat moderation what you need to know. But today Today, we're talking advanced chat moderation strategies here in Episode 52. And we'll get into it the first one that I want you to know. And this again, this is not for you, the host of the event to be taking care of this is for you to assign to a team member who you've given the job of moderating the chat. Please hear me well, this is not for you the presenter to do, it's not possible to be present and presenting and at the same time in the chat.
Sarah Fejfar 2:48
And moderating that and reading what's coming in is not your job. It's your team members job. Okay. And thank goodness for the the world of virtual events, that person can be located anywhere, they don't have to be sitting next to you, but they can. But you can they can be located anywhere in the world and just logged in live for your virtual event. But these these tips I'm going to give you are going to level level up your your chat moderation, that much more. And the reason why this is important to you is that when your guests are engaged in the chat when that chat is well moderated and on topic, your guests will stay with you longer in the virtual event.
Sarah Fejfar 3:36
And when your guests stay with you longer in that virtual event. More of them see your offer. And when more of them see your offer. More of them will buy your offer. Okay, so this is a profitability tip getting the chat, right. So don't think that this isn't for you. It is it directly correlates to how engaged your guests are. And engagement directly correlates to how many people hear your offer and buy your offer. Okay, so this is important for everybody. First one is I think I'm such a stickler for being on brand that this one is just like, I feel like a soapbox item for me. But I want you to personalize and brand your chat moderators.
Sarah Fejfar 4:29
So what does that mean? First, I want you to have all of your chat moderators change their zoom name. So anybody from your team who is acting as a chat moderator on behalf of your business, I want you to have them use their first name. And then so I'm gonna use me as the example if I'm the chat moderator. I'm gonna say Sarah, and then I'm gonna put a dash and then I'm gonna put the name of the business So if it was my event, I would have everyone identify them as part of Team Sarah. So it would be like Clif dash team Sarah, it would be like j dash team Sarah, do you follow? S
Sarah Fejfar 5:16
o come up with your business name and then have everyone do their name dash the business name. It really helps I guess put a name with a face and personalize personalizes and humanizes the brand I really don't like when brands. So let's say it's a personal brand. Let's say, again, it's use my event as as the example let's say it's, it's an event put on by Sarah Fejfar. And then you go and have all of your, I don't like it when brands have their team members log in as them and don't change their name. And so then I'm speaking on on stage, and then at the same time, my name is commenting in the chat. Well, everyone knows it's not me. So why is that the name, my name, it just it, it almost feels like we're hiding something.
Sarah Fejfar 6:16
And I don't like that I really think it looks so pro team to have the person's name. And, and then a dash and then your brand name. The next thing I want done. And this doesn't take much time to look at next level of polished and professional and and kind of like put together is changing having everyone who's anyone from your team who's acting as a chat moderator who's already changed their zoom name, I want you to also change their zoom profile picture. And I want them I want you to provide someone from your team go and provide an image to each of them.
Sarah Fejfar 7:01
So they all use the exact same one. And what I want wanted to be is a solid color square that is reflective of your brand. Colors. So pick the most prominent color in your brand, in my case, it would be a Navy. And then two letters go on top of that. And or one or two characters, there's really just not much more to visually be able to see more than that. But for me, it would be like a blue with a, a white s f and and provide that to everyone who is a chat Moderator.
Sarah Fejfar 7:42
So that it also is visually eye catching every time and noticeable every time someone from your team is in the chat, it just kind of levels up their authority. And again, brands the experience. So those two things are so important. That's number one. The second thing is being prepared with rules of the road. And this one's going to take a little bit more preparation. And I think it's worth it.
Sarah Fejfar 8:18
It's like well oiled chat moderation is about preparing in advance for what you know, is coming and having stuff pre written in a in a Google Doc that can be copied and pasted into the chat by all of your chat moderators so that the message stays consistent and clear and on brand. And so when we're talking about and this works, you know, for links, we covered it back in that basics, Episode 24. But to take it to the next and you know, we talked about prewriting speaker bios and pre writing key points that you're going to drop throughout presentations.
Sarah Fejfar 9:02
We covered all of that in that basics, Episode 24. But to take that to the next level, what you can pre write is the following. I'm gonna give you a few prompts that will be extremely helpful to eliminate questions and confusion and too much unnecessary chatter in the chat that can derail us from like staying on track. And it's it's what what are the rules of the road or the how tos when it comes to first workbook and journaling. So if you're gonna call for people to fill out something in their workbook that was provided when they signed up for the event, or journal on something, what I want you to have pre written is that all of your chat Mater or you just can just copy paste is?
Sarah Fejfar 10:03
Where do I find that digital workbook or physical workbook was it mailed to the home? What am I supposed to write? And how long do I have for this exercise. So when you know that you're going to be doing those things in advance, and you can pre write those rules of the road in into that book shared Google Doc that all the chat moderators have access to, it can be a live living, breathing document that you can adjust on the fly. I love that for events, then you have any any information about in clear and concise, short, direct about work, booking, journaling, and have that ready. The next thing and the rules of the road can category is if there's going to be a contest. Or if there's going to be voting.
Sarah Fejfar 10:58
I want you to share instructions, rules, how to participate. When it starts, when it ends, the link, how many entries they get? You wouldn't believe, especially when we start working with these larger volumes of guests inside a virtual event, how quickly people can pile on when one person asks a question to clarify, and then everyone else like oh, I have that question too. Or I'm wondering too, and then it just seems like things are out of control and off the rails when they're really not. It's just this like piling on that's happening. And so I want you to nip that in the bud by being clear in advance of, hey, we are going to run this contest or we are going to open this thing up to vote.
Sarah Fejfar 11:49
And so let's let's write down those instructions, those roles, how to participate, timing. number of entries, when it starts when it ends the link, put it in the Google Doc, clear, concise, direct, so it can be copied and pasted into the chat. And bonus points. Like it's in your virtual cookie, I would use emojis because those definitely are not used very much by General guests in a virtual event. But they're easy to pre pre write into. I'm just gonna say Google Doc, again, whatever use whatever shared word processing platform that you can you can you want during an event, but I love having the the Chrome extension in my browser, so I can just get those, use those emojis whenever I want.
Sarah Fejfar 12:45
And putting those into that shared Google Doc for your chat moderators to kind of spice up and really highlight when they've shared something is a really good thing. And then last and the rules of the road section is breakouts. So anytime that you are going to do a breakout, I want you to share who goes first, who is the timekeeper, what to say? Or what questions to answer and how much time is per person. So put those the same stuff that would be on a slide in the PowerPoint and want you to have to be able to put into the chat. So that again, we're kind of nipping all of that extra chatter, unnecessary chatter in the bud.
Sarah Fejfar 13:34
Having the information come from the source, your chat moderator, right there in a timely fashion. And that's another reason why having it all pre written is a great idea because it allows your chat moderators to be timely. All right. Next one is like call this category end strong. Any time that you're wrapping up a session or even even the event itself, I want you to pre write the call to action, so that the chat moderator can just copy and paste when the time is right really end things on a high note with exactly what each guests should do next. Love that one and strong. Last one we're going to talk about today is how to end and redirect off topic conversations.
Sarah Fejfar 14:33
You've heard me say it many times today already that people it's easy for chat to get out of control for people to pile on. When one person asks a question and then everyone comes on and says Oh me too, or I have the same question. So aside from constantly saying, Alright, let's stay on topic or let's let's kind of quiet in The chat and you can have different versions of that pre written for your chat moderator to copy and paste into the chat. Monitor the chat for distracting conversations that really should be held elsewhere. And maybe they are a fabulous conversation, but it's just not on topic.
Sarah Fejfar 15:16
And for what's happening right now, and if that's the case, have something written in a way that sounds like it's from, you know, in your voice and your brand, something to the effect of let's stay on topic, you can connect on that topic, or with each other here. And then you have the link to your community. And I love that redirect. It's not like totally shutting people down, but you're just saying the appropriate place for that conversation is over here. Or if people are starting to try and share contact information in the chat, it's just hugely distracting and, and inappropriate, because it doesn't. It's just, it's distracting to the speaker at at hand.
Sarah Fejfar 16:09
And also probably not the fairest way to be exchanging contact information. So directing those people to a place where that is the appropriate venue for that and your community. So whether that's your circle community, or your Facebook community, wherever it is, having that link ready so that you can be constantly calling out, Hey, if you want to connect with each other one on one, the community is a great place to do that. access it here. And on that note, the linchpin nation community is a fabulous spot for you to be connecting with each other with like minded business owners, who are using events to scale their businesses that's over at linchpin, nation.com linchpin, nation.com Now, today, we covered four things.
Sarah Fejfar 17:04
First, how to personalize your chat moderators, and brand them. Second the rules of the road for workbook and journaling for contests and voting and for breakouts. We talked about ending strong and we talked about how to end and redirect off topic conversations. I hope this has been helpful. Again, go back and listen to episode 24 Chat moderation what you need to know for additional tips. I will link to that in the show notes for this episode. If additional questions come up for you, don't hesitate to drop me a DM over on Instagram and I will help you answer that question or brainstorm if that's what you need. Take care and make it an outstanding wrested away.
Sarah Fejfar 17:58
Thank you for listening to the greenroom central podcast. If you love this episode on advanced chat moderation strategies, then please take a screenshot on your phone and post it to Instagram and be sure to tag at Sarah Fejfar. And let me know why you liked it and what you'd like to hear or who you'd like to hear from feature. The handle helped me know what to create. Also, if it's on your heart to host your first or next event in 2023 and you need a jumpstart, then lets you and I connect on a strategy session, just go to greenroom central.com in a two hour intensive private session. I can help you pivot scale or start your event vision from scratch. Together, you and I will build an actionable plan so that you feel confident and clear on your next steps.
Sarah Fejfar 18:49
Go to greenroom central.com right now to sign up. This podcast is built on Kajabi I loved how easy it was to get things set up but more so I'm thrilled that my entire business is run within one platform, from my emails to my pages to My Courses, my podcast to it's all under one roof. If you love simplicity and scalability as much as I do, and go to green new central.com to get a free 14 day trial from Kajabi.
Sarah Fejfar 19:20
I appreciate your commitment to leveling up and learning the mindset and strategy of black plants. Keep going, keep learning if you want more head over to Greenham central.com For show notes and all the links in today's episode.
