Find out how to embed group live chat on your website step by step with screenshots.
Live Chat
November 11, 2022
Embedding a group live chat app on your website is a great way to increase engagement, get more leads and add a community feel to your website. With Arena, you can install and set up your group live chat in less than an hour.
To successfully add a group live chat, there are a few resources you need.
First, you’ll need to ability to access your website’s backend interface. For WordPress websites, this means an account to log in to the WordPress dashboard. You'll find the process straightforward if you have installed and configured other plugins before. If you’re new to the process, follow our detailed steps below. Alternatively, ask your webmaster to read this guide.
Second, you will need a group live chat app for your website. Arena Live Chat is a great choice because it is fast, lightweight, and highly customizable. In many cases, you can add Arena Live Chat to a website in 10-15 minutes - sometimes even less time! It’s important to choose a live chat app that runs directly on your website
Now we can start the technical steps of adding Arena Live Chat to a website.
Before you can embed a group live chat, you need to install a chat app first. In these directions, we’ll cover how to get started with Arena.
We recommend using Arena Live Chat for a few reasons:
You can get started using Arena for free to see if it is a good fit for your needs. Click here to sign up for Arena.
When you log into your Arena account for the first time, you’ll see a dashboard that looks like this.
You will see the following screen:
In this window, you have some choices to customize the position of your group live chat. In many online events, the side position is a popular choice if you are streaming video or showing other content in the main window.
By using the embed code option, you will get a snippet of code to copy and paste into your website. In the next step, we’ll assume that you are embedding a group live chat on a WordPress website.
The best way to use Arena Live Chat with WordPress is to install the Arena WordPress plugin. This software makes embedding a group live chat easy.
Start by installing the Arena WordPress Plugin. It just takes a few minutes if you already have your Arena account set up.
After installing the WordPress plugin, a new Arena button will appear available in WordPress when you create or edit an existing WordPress post. Clicking on the Arena button will open a window like this:
Once you click the Add button, the embed code will directly appear in your WordPress post as shown in the example below:
While WordPress is a popular platform, your organization might be using a different CMS platform. In those cases, the following steps may help to embed Arena Live Chat on your website. If you run into challenges, contact Arena for support.
The overall process is similar. However, instead of using the WordPress plugin, you can use the iFrames option. Using iFrames is a good alternative for websites that are uncomfortable adding 3rd party JavaScript.
In your Arena dashboard, you will see various options listed on the left side.
You will see the following screen:
In the window, select the iFrames button and you will see code you can use on your website to embed a group live chat on your website.
If iFrames isn’t suitable for your situation, there are a few other choices like AMP (Accelerated Mobile Pages).
The steps above are all you need from a technical perspective to launch a live chat session. To create a safe and engaging experience for your community, there are a few other points to keep in mind.
With Arena Live Chat, you can control who can participate in your chat experiences. You can make events fully public or restrict them with registration. Fully public chat experiences are a good way to maximize attendance. However, public chat experiences often need additional moderation.
There are a few ways to create a safe experience for your live chat participants. Start by creating a few simple ground rules for your community. For example, you might have a company rule against profanity or spam in the chat. Taking a moment to explain your chat rules at the start of each session is a good way to keep participants focused.
In addition to ground rules, Arena Live Chat has a few features to make moderation easier. The profanity filter automatically detects and blocks the most common profanity words. You can also update the list of profanity words to suit your needs.
In some situations, like a product launch event with journalists and executives, additional moderation may be wise. In these cases, you can pre-approve each chat message before it appears in the group live chat window.
A successful group live chat experience requires support. In most cases, we recommend having two people to support each group live chat experience. One person can serve as your event host and focus on engaging with the audience. The other person can focus on support needs like moderation and answering technical questions.
You’ve learned the key steps to embedding a group live chat experience on your website. All you need to do now is choose your group live chat app. Learn more about Arena Live Chat!