Ep. 97 | PixiWeb FAQ Vol. 2

Patrick Rife: 0:00

Hello and welcome to another episode of The Pixilated Podcast. I'm Patrick Rife.

Alex McGlynn: 0:03

I'm Alex McGlynn,

Patrick Rife: 0:04

and today is going to be the conclusion episode in our PixiWeb FAQ. For those of you not know, for those of you that tuned in to the first episode, you will know that we went through kind of the the wrote frequently asked questions that are on our product page for PixiWeb. You know, we extrapolate a little bit, Alex ran his mouth a lot. But now in this episode, what we're going to talk about is, is the realer side of the frequently asked questions, which is all of our clients who have decided to add this, and now the conversation has moved on to what are the things that we can do? How can we ensure that this is a huge success? We're really excited about it, we think it's going to really resonate with our community. What do you suggest, in which case, if you've been tuning in to our podcast, you know that we implore people to listen to their partners and to use their best advice. So this is us teeing up that opportunity for ourselves. So

Alex McGlynn: 1:02

Pat's, just tell us he needs to talk on the last podcast, I'm

Patrick Rife: 1:05

furious furious, actually was really cool. I could just kind of like float it out there and be like, all right, I can tell when you're winding down the to the next one up for the Starbucks diaries.

Alex McGlynn: 1:17

All right.

Patrick Rife: 1:18

Let's, shall we hop into this, shall we? First point, how do you share it?

Alex McGlynn: 1:27

Great question. So I actually get this question a lot. How do I hear this? What do I do? How do I get my people to

Patrick Rife: 1:32

use it? critical if you if you screw this one up, you will see no use. And we have we got some some some big boys that have screwed this up. And we've got some little little gals that have screwed this up. And we've had some people that have knocked it out of the park. And it's got a lot to do with Sharon,

Alex McGlynn: 1:51

read some small organizations absolutely crushed this. And we've had very large organizations drop the ball, I can promise you, it doesn't matter how big your brand is. And this is true for all engagement tools. By the way, this is blanket truth for all things, virtual events, I don't care how big your brand is, if you don't do a good job of communicating the tools that you have put together for your virtual event, no one's going to use them. So how do I share it, this is a really important question. And it's one you should really consider. And you should be asking all of your vendors this. So for us, for our product, the PixiWeb, virtual photobooth experience, my suggestion to you is to push it out on every platform to which you have access. So if you're using email, send it out in two or three emails throughout the day before the event kicks off. So send it in the day before reminder email, send it in the email that you send out with the agenda and run of show, send it out in the welcome email, just make sure people know about it, they might not have access to it right away, but you want them to at least know that it's an option. If you have text message alerts, you know, it doesn't hurt to send it out through there the day of the event to get people to to activate people, if you will, and get them to go in and use it. If your virtual event platform. If you're using a virtual event platform, add a button in there, send it out through the internal messaging system in there. If you're using zoom, use the chat feature to send it out. If you have a meetings emcee, have them tell people about it. And lastly, if you have any pre recorded content, or pre made materials, put the QR code on there so that people can scan it. And again, this is a blanket truth for all things engagement, engagement tools are going to keep people immersed in the event virtual event experience. So if you're using any of them, whether it's a PixiWeb virtual photo with experience, or a quiz or a survey tool, make sure that people are aware of its existence, and they know how to access it and use it.

Patrick Rife: 3:56

Yeah, yeah. So the next question on the FAQ is, is fixing cap good for x type of event? And I think that what we would say particularly about this is, the blanket answer is yes, it is as long as you're willing to be creative in how you're thinking about it. So we have had a pretty broad arrangement. So you know, when we first built the tool, we thought that we would see a bunch of house parties and birthday parties and graduations and things like that, which has been true. But there's also been some pretty tremendous outliers. So we have seen PixiWeb succeed in in large sorority reunion parties. We've seen it play a huge role in in large organizations and associations that are still trying to move forward and have a fun engagement aspect to their virtual gala that is supporting their previous Gala. We've seen clients memorialize people that have passed away and and share memories all the way across to tucking it into what's virtual events and marathon means any types of long term ongoing events it does exceptionally well in because it creates an environment that people can keep returning to and keep updating their status and, and whatever their their current state might be inside of that event or organization, as the case may be.

Alex McGlynn: 5:20

broader answer, it's good for pretty much any event, any event where you want someone to engage, it's great for it. So again, look into the PixiWeb, virtual photobooth experience, look at any other type of virtual engagement tool, they're all fantastic. But anyways, people use PixiWeb, there are some fun ways. So I would say that the most fun you're gonna have is by getting creative with the way that people are interacting and using the platform. So again,

Unknown: 5:49

people share

Alex McGlynn: 5:50

pictures of their children, their pets, their home offices, people have dressed up in their, their gala outfits and shared pictures of that. We've had people dress up in costume. We've had people share milestones during, you know, like month long exercise engagements, we've had people share photos of jewelry they purchased and the story behind it. So again, there are a lot of different ways that you can utilize the product. The biggest thing to do I would say, is try to have fun, you know, whatever it is you're doing your event, try to put a fun spin on and try to get people out of their comfort zone and sharing treat it like it's kind of like an icebreaker. People like to share photos, people like to share experiences, if you have everyone sharing a funny picture of their home office setup, or they're using a trashcan to hold up their laptop, which is something that we at Pixilated have actually done when we first started this podcast, you know, get heavens into picture in it's funny. It's like hard data. And that is kind of what this tool is for. It's to share memories. And it's to share light hearted, funny events and happenings and to build a community over a shared experience through the virtual photo booth and the virtual boot galleries, no

Patrick Rife: 7:04

icebreakers or icebreakers. So next up on the list and accessing this a little bit, the beginning when we talked about how do I share the URL for my PixiWeb experience? So you know, the next question is, how do we promote PixiWeb during the event, how do we promote it throughout the event? And, and I think what Alex mentioned before is, you certainly want to take into account any design branded collateral that's going to be going up anywhere. So whether it is an in person event, or whether it is a virtual event, you know, if you can add the QR code, if you can add a call to action that says Don't forget to pop over into our virtual photo booth and snap some photos, that's a great way to do it. Certainly having having the the moderator having whoever the person is that is the master of ceremonies for your event. I'm assuming that most of you are preparing a recurring script that they're returning to, there's going to be other announcements that need to recur throughout the, the length of your event, this is one of those things that you want to add on to that you want to take a little bit of time for whoever's moderating the chats, whether it's inside of the individual rooms, or it's not inside of the main space, probably you're gonna have someone from your team that's sitting there, that is the keyboard warrior, you know, you want to have, you know, pre write out three or four tweets, tweets, and by tweets, like, you know, feel free to evergreen them and tweet them out as well. But I just mean have that copy kind of pre written so that way that moderator all they need to do is you know, when when they see that it's in 357. And that scheduled for like another reminder about the PixiWeb virtual photo booth that go over, they copy and paste it and it already says like, you know, hey, cannon con Hope you guys are having a ton of fun, like don't forget the PixiWeb virtual photo booth, click here to take your photo now. Beyond that, if you really want to get get get smart and creative about it, think about the way that maybe you change your PixiWeb instance over the duration of your event. So change the overlay, update the overlay, have multiple overlays, and have them illustrate a certain point gamify it you know, tell people Okay, now, you know, now go in and take a photo and choose the overlay that best represents your mood coming out of this awesome keynote with whoever the case may be. That's a really great way as you know, not just leaving it as a passive part of the event, but instead including and blending it into the experience and, and gamifying it forcing people to engage with it to illustrate a bigger, broader third port.

Alex McGlynn: 9:31

We've actually seen that done. It's not like we're all the things we're talking about. We've seen done successfully gamifying it actually does work really well. Additionally, if you're thinking about switching out your your templates, consider selling a different sponsorship for each day. If you it's a sponsored event. It's a really easy way to get multiple people to chip in and pay for the experience and maybe make a little extra on top. certainly nothing wrong with that. Yeah, also, social media. If you have a strong social Media Presence. Don't be afraid to put it on your Instagram, or your Instagram stories, or on Twitter or Facebook, if you have a community that has a strong social media presence, share it out. Trust me, if you want a lot of eyeballs on it, the best thing you can do is share it on social media, because that's what people are engaged the most. Anyway,

Patrick Rife: 10:18

yeah. And you know, the opportunity could also be there, depending on how big your subject matter is, you know, your PixiWeb virtual photo booth, it can be a feature at your conference without being exclusively branded for your conference. So you know, let's just say that you're a breast cancer organization throwing your marquee event in October, and you're looking to like, make it a blowout, and you're adding PixiWeb to it. There's nothing from keeping you from buying a longer running PixiWeb experience and branding it for breast cancer awareness month, and really using it as a public reaching initiative to one further your primary goal, which is education, about breast cancer and fundraising, but to also to center yourself, center your organization as a real key contributor in the fight against whatever that thing may be. That can be another really great way to you know, as Alex mentioned, if you are going to pop it out on your social, make it more open ended and make it appeal to a broader set of people. And you're going to see that engagement go way, way up.

Alex McGlynn: 11:19

Yeah. and use it as an acquisition tool, slightly change the terms of service. And we can hopefully add all those people to an email list where maybe they become potential donors. Yes. So if your nonprofit you're trying to do good in the world, we want to help. And we want you to find new donors and Pixie looks a great way to do it. awesome way to do it. Yeah. So on the note of nonprofits, this is a great transition. A lot of nonprofits have an older leaning attendee demographic. And a lot of them are concerned that their virtual attendees are going to have a hard time using it. Don't be worried PixiWeb is super easy to use, we actually just last week or the week before, did an event for a retirement community, or the average age was probably 75 to 80. And they had no problem snapping selfies, getting pictures taken of themselves and sharing a ton of photos. I would say that in the few hours that their event was taking place. They took maybe as many photos as we've seen taken in that period of time. They used to the crap out of it, and they had a great time doing it. And again, that's a that's a that's an octogenarian population, that is certainly not going to be the most tech savvy and is definitely on the older side, and you still are able to easily access and utilize PixiWeb. And we've seen that time and time again, it's not like it's just 25 and 30 year olds using it. A lot of these events have 4050 6070 year old as their major population. And they're all utilizing and they're having a great time.

Patrick Rife: 12:47

Yeah, totally. So last one on the list is it's kind of like a double back. We've said this a few times. But there's a theme. And I bet that most of you can, can actually fill in the blank here if you're a listener of the show. But last question is how can I make this successful? And the answer to that question is a simple one, it won't take as long to say it's communicate, communicate, communicate. If you've been listening to our podcasts at all, you know that this is a common theme. There is nothing that makes an event more successful, whether in real life, virtual, hybrid, theoretical, conceptual, make sure that you're communicating with people, you know, whether it's how they show up, how they get value, how they meet someone, how they take a photo in the PixiWeb, virtual photo booth, every last bit of getting people to experience engage with benefit from your event is going to be it's in your hands. If you communicate clearly, people are going to follow your directions, they're looking for the opportunity to be told what to do so that way they can get the most out of it. And that is how you're going to make sure that this is a huge success, you're going to communicate.

Alex McGlynn: 13:55

So yeah, if you're tired of hearing us beat that drum. Unfortunately, you're going to have to get used to it because there are still a ton of events that we see time and time again, where they drop the ball on communication. I've been to a bunch of events where the ball and the communication ball was dropped and things weren't communicated properly. So until we find ourselves in a world where every event professional takes communication seriously, we will keep beating that drum because it is really important. And it's the easiest thing you can do to make sure your events success.

Patrick Rife: 14:26

Yeah, totally. All right. So that's it. That's the end of episode or Volume Two of this episode of the PixiWeb FAQ. So just to recap, first episode was really more about the fundamental questions that you might ask when you're trying to learn about if the product is something that you want to purchase. And then this episode was really focused on post purchase, how do I make sure that my PixiWeb event is a screaming success? So that brings us to the conclusion of this episode. If you could please remember to rate review and subscribe your reviews help us find More listeners for our show, and your subscription ensures that you're notified each day when we publish a new episode. So until tomorrow, I'm Patrick Rife

Alex McGlynn: 15:08

and I'm Alex McGlynn

Patrick Rife: 15:09

peace