Tag: user experience

After The Build: How To Realize ROI On Your CMS

Selecting the right content management system (CMS) for your business is vital to support your storytelling and community development initiatives. Having the right CMS influences the entire content strategy for a business, which is how to build a brand loyal community that supports revenue objectives.

According to the Content Marketing Institute Insights for 2022, only 26% of B2C marketers rate their content marketing efforts as very or extremely successful. That’s a big drop from 2021 when over one third rated their efforts as handily paying off.

What caused the massive dropoff? Marketers, and publishers, need to demonstrate ROI from posting content on their CMS platform, and many just don’t know how to do that.

Break down conversion rates into segmented touchpoints

One of the challenges in proving ROI on your CMS is that executives at the top of the business are most persuaded by revenue numbers. All they want to know is how much revenue did a story help generate.

It’s a necessary mindset for the sake of the business, but it’s a very hard metric to use when evaluating content marketing and publishing. While 61% of B2C publishers admit to measuring content marketing ROI, the savviest publishers measure the share of conversation attributed to particular stories.

They use metrics like website traffic, audience engagement, pages per viewing session, and paywall conversion rates to identify top performing posts. They’ll also monitor comments, discussions, and UGC content in threads or forums attached to published stories.

Content creators need to know why they’re writing a story

A great piece of content is educational, by nature. But it should also plant a subconscious seed in the mind of the reader for them to want more. The story should be so insightful and so thought provoking that readers feel an inherent need to get more information from your CMS.

Creating content that appeals to different segments of readers is the top creative challenge cited by 42% of all content creators. Audience data evaluates what readers think about existing content, providing a roadmap for what stories to focus on next. When you align creators with audience intent, you lay the foundation for a winning CMS content strategy.

First-party data is the best way to profile your readers

To get your creative team on the same page as your reading audience, they need to know what the audience cares about. This is how the power of first-party data can prove the ROI of your CMS content strategy.

First-party data is how you profile your audience and learn to understand what matters most to them. Aligning creators and the goal of the user experience is how to build a loyal network of highly engaged readers and subscribers. In fact, highly engaged subscribers have a 50% retention rate by the second month of the subscription. That means half of your subscriber base is brand loyal by month two, provided you speak the right language to them.

Use the right audience insights platform to profile readers

When you have the right data, your entire creative team is aligned on how to connect with the audience. This means that new content will support that ubiquitously important “share of conversation” in a positive manner by boosting traffic, pageviews, time on site and, most importantly, paywall conversions.

Audience insights tools like Viafoura help your publication make strategic decisions with content. You’ll be able to track audience engagement and plug those analytics directly into your CMS console. By creating a central pillar of truth, you can acquire the first-party data necessary to convert more readers into subscribers, and identify new ways to boost revenue for the business.

Embrace the art of data visualization for simplified analysis

Data visualization describes how companies use charts and graphs to visualize information. In 2017, the global data visualization market was valued at over $4.5 billion dollars. By 2023, it’s forecast to exceed $7.7 billion.

When people think of data visualization, the first thing that comes to mind is publishing a chart of insights to make it easy for the reading audience to understand. In this case, apply those same data visualization concepts to your internal content creation team.

In order to get your creators to think like your reading audience, make it easy for them to understand the data points. Using audience insight tools like Viafoura, centralize your findings within the existing analytics of your CMS. From here, you can produce graphs that track the flow of traffic growth, engagement rates, and paywall conversions for your creators to visually digest.

Turned internally, data visualization is a great way to educate your internal team on what content is deemed most valuable by the reading audience. Once you profile the big winners in your content library, your entire team knows what to double down on to support the revenue strategy for the business. With your entire team on the same page, you have the winning formula to prove ROI from your CMS content strategy!

Behind the Data: 78% Of Consumers Give Their Loyalty To Brands That Treat Them as Individuals

It’s very easy for publishers to lose sight of the fact that the readers who consume the content they produce are, in fact, individuals. As much as publishers want to profile their readers and establish common themes or pain points that resonate with their collective tastes and interests, it’s important never to lose sight of the fact that each reader is his or her own individual.

Publishers can’t allow themselves to lose sight of those facts while collecting audience data in an effort to stimulate audience-growth strategies. Everyone wants to feel like they’re valued, and that a publisher offers a user experience that’s unique to their specific preferences. A reader who feels valued and appreciated through personalized content recommendations is far more likely to become brand loyal, which is the pathway to earning subscription revenue from loyal readers.

Majorities of readers reward brands that earn their loyalty

Here are some helpful facts to paint a clearer picture. According to the 2022 Digital Consumer Trends Index, as many as 78% of consumers admit to having a favorite brand because that brand rewards them for their loyalty. This could be expressed in the form of discounted subscription rates, or a free month of access to premium content.

Additionally, 74% of those same consumers prefer brands that treat them as individuals. It further validates the point that every person has unique tastes and preferences. When a reader visits a website to engage with new content, they want to believe that the content was created specifically for them. They want to feel as if the entire user experience is built to appeal to their unique interests.

Readers provide plenty of incentive for publishers to earn their loyalty. Over 70% of readers say their favorite brand is a business that strives to build a relationship with them. Another 64% say their favorite brand rewards their loyalty with surprise benefits, and 58% cite their favorite brand as the one that treats them like a VIP.

Everyone wants to feel like they’re special. Publishers that know how to create those feelings among their readers earn that invaluable brand loyalty.

First-party data shines a light on how to personalize content

Here’s the truth: 90% of readers respond positively to personalized experiences. As publishers, it’s essential to speak to individual readers using messaging that appeals to their interests. It’s through this approach that publishers show the humanity behind their brand identities, effectively communicating as one individual to another.

First-party data is how to create that personalized engagement and boost reader loyalty. First-party data enables publishers to learn specific details about individual buyers and monitor any change in those behaviors over time. Publishers use these insights to build rich audience profiles to develop behavioral patterns of their most avid readers.

A data-driven content strategy prioritizes personalization

Using these audience profiles, content creators produce highly personalized content across the entire website. Audience segmentation is one of the building blocks of a content strategy that’s informed by behavioral data.

Once you begin segmenting your readers, you can go a step further and analyze where in the subscription journey different types of readers happen to fall. Segment readers between new visitors, known readers, and subscribed loyalists to build richer details of how people respond to your content.

Using an audience insights solution, all of this data can be pulled into a dashboard that your creative team can review at their convenience. Creators can review the journeys taken by current subscribers to understand what types of content converted them into brand loyal readers. With those insights in hand, a data-driven content strategy can flourish and ultimately guide more readers to cross that threshold into the realm of becoming loyal subscribers.

Profile readers, build loyalty, boost subscriptions

Rich audience profiles tell creators how individual readers will respond to freshly created content. Using those insights, your creative team can double down on creating the types of stories that foster greater reader engagement. By relying on first-party data to direct the content strategy, you successfully create those personalized experiences that foster reader loyalty.

As data-driven content strategies develop over time, it’s important to never lose sight of the fact that the audiences that you depend on for first-party data, helpful insights, and subscription revenue are all made up of individuals. Individual readers have their own tastes and preferences, but it’s incumbent on publishers to learn about those interests so that readers are incentivized to provide more first-party data or, as they become fully brand loyal, subscription revenue.

HotNewHipHop focuses on showcasing artists and driving audience engagement with Viafoura

HotNewHipHop (HNHH) is an online publication that covers daily news about hip hop and pop culture, including streetwear, sports, and sneakers. In addition to its editorial news content, HotNewHipHop also produces original features and many video series. The site has been nominated multiple times for the BET Hip Hop Awards in the category, “The best Hip Hop Platform.”

HNHH empowers artists by letting them showcase their music to real hip hop fans while its members enjoy the latest and hottest in hip hop singles, mixtapes, videos and news. Saro Derbedrossian, CEO says that “HotNewHipHop is partnering with Viafoura so we can focus on providing our highly engaged community with a platform for lively discussions and civilized discourse, while also driving registrations and unlocking first party data. Our members will get an unparalleled personalized experience that will ensure they register, keep coming back and spend more time on our site.”

With the use of Viafoura’s full suite of services and features including Conversations, Custom Badging, AMA, Engagement Starter, and  Automated Moderation,  HotNewHipHop’s users will be able to build their identity on the HNHH platform. Whether it’s through sharing their opinions on the latest news, rating songs or album releases, the opportunities for registered users are endless.

“We’re very excited to partner with HotNewHipHop to bring a new layer of engagement and civility to their site,” says Dalia Vainer,  Director of Customer Success. With their eclectic, unique and highly-engaged community, we’re looking forward to unlocking brand new first party data to feed back to their editorial, product and commercial teams! We’re also very proud to welcome another Canadian customer to our collective!”

The Only Guide To Comment Moderation You Will Ever Need

A quick search of the Internet will show you a plethora of guides on using comment moderation features provided by popular social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter. It comes as no surprise; the liberty of free speech is abused quite often on the web, where trolls and toxic individuals can hide behind the relative anonymity of their usernames. And at the scale on which some platforms operate, it’s impossible to have enough mods to catch and handle every single offensive comment or inappropriate post that gets left on their pages.  

Comment moderation tools offer a relatively hassle-free way to keep your brand’s web platform a safe and inclusive space for everyone. Viafoura includes comment moderation functionality within our software suite, and we’re a big fan of using them to supplement your efforts to regulate and moderate the type of conversations and content that gets shared on your platform.

But successfully performing comment moderation takes more than just leaving it to the algorithm; any digital media brand that’s looking to develop the right kind of community around their content needs to understand the principles behind the act. This post aims to cover the essentials of comment moderation and how you can use them as the basis for your own approach to comment moderation on your website.

The importance of comment moderation

Comment moderation requires so much time and attention because failing to have proper measures in place can expose your community to profanity, abuse, spam, and other unsavoury elements. Not only does this harm your overall image as a brand, but it also discourages prospective audience members and first-time visitors from coming back. Every brand’s responsibility is to ensure that their community is healthy and free from this kind of toxicity, and comment moderation is just one of the methods that make it possible.

But note that the aim of comment moderation isn’t to suppress individual opinions or views that are critical or against your brand’s interests. There’s a fine line between moderation and censorship. Doing it for the right reasons is essential to ensuring your digital media brand nurtures a positive relationship with its audience. Focus on creating an environment that facilitates healthy discussion and respectful exchanges.

comment moderation importance

Tips towards impactful comment moderation

We mentioned earlier that if you’re looking to implement comment moderation on your platform, it isn’t enough to just rely on comment moderation tools. You need to form a cohesive strategy and comment moderation policy that aligns with your brand’s values. Here are some steps that you can take to get some ideas on a practical approach to comment moderation.

Plan for uncivil content with your comment moderation policy

Get your team together to predict possible responses to your content that might seem likely based on prevalent ideas and ongoing discussion about your topic. For example, if you cover a story on a political topic, expect supporters of the opposition to push their own beliefs and agenda. If your moderation team knows what to expect, they’re better prepared to handle the possible situations that may arise.

Comment moderation on Facebook as well as Instagram comment moderation are both meant to align with their terms of service, showing audience members that they’re consistent with their values. This can be a good starting place when looking to flesh out your comment moderation policy, since shaping your t comment moderation policy around your community guidelines also makes it easier for their audience to understand why your moderators take action against certain types of post and content.

Ensure your team knows your policy

Everyone on a ship needs to know how to sail, and everyone on your team involved in moderation and platform usage needs to know your comment moderation policy like the back of their hand.

Consider preparing a document with keywords or names that may indicate problematic topics that require extra attention. Take the time to go over the specifics, reasons, and practices of your comment moderation policy with anyone involved in the process, especially your moderators.

This will ensure that their actions and judgement remain consistent with your approach and the policy that you’ve put forward for your audience.

Enforce the comment moderation policy when necessary

Once you have the guidelines for comment moderation in place, you’ll need to prepare to enforce them. It’s not enough to put up the rules and expect that everyone will follow them; you’ll need to actively remove posts or edit them to align with your policies.

Remember that comment moderation should only be performed to steer the discussion towards safer spaces and remove outright harmful or toxic content that doesn’t serve much purpose. But you also shouldn’t be afraid to ban users outright when necessary; it’ll be much more beneficial for your customer acquisition and retention in the long run.

Still, depending on the scale of your platform, this can require a lot of manpower, which can be expensive and is based on the assumption that you can afford to hire the number of moderators needed.

comment moderation enforcement

Communicate and take breaks when necessary

Using communication software like Slack or Google Hangouts is a great way to keep your moderation team in touch and create a space where they can get support and depend on each other during busy times.

Your moderators can get clarification on topics they’re unsure about, and they can also feel more comfortable taking breaks knowing that the rest of the team can handle things in their absence.

These aspects of comment moderation are very important to keeping your team feeling empowered and supported, and it can help them work much more effectively to keep your comments free of any problems.

Conclusion

Comment moderation is an essential part of managing relations with your existing audience. It allows digital media brands to exert control over the type of content and discussion on their platform. But while comment moderation can easily be left to an automated system, it takes a structured, intentional approach to ensure that it functions successfully. Viafoura’s suite of tools is designed to promote community engagement and comes with comment moderation features that can easily be integrated and customized to suit your platform’s needs. Get in touch with us to schedule a demo and see how we can help you build a safe space for your community today!

How to Properly Target, Develop and Maintain Your Digital Audience

The concept of a digital audience and digital audience management has only really come about in the past decade or so in the marketing field. This fact speaks volumes about how different the general views on web-based branding and engagement were back then. But it’s pretty clear that nowadays, the widespread success of digital audience targeting is plenty of reason to use it as a standard for all digital media brands.

But while it’s easy to understand that engaging with a digital audience is the smart thing to do, it’s not nearly as easy to know how to go about it. Today, stats and metrics dominate how we typically measure success, and it’s easy for digital media brands to forget that clicks and views aren’t as crucial to the big picture as digital audience retention. 

Thankfully, Viafoura takes a structured approach to digital audience targeting and development, one that we’re happy to share here for any readers interested in learning how to go about it the right way. 

What exactly is digital audience development?

For those who are a bit behind on things or are just looking to understand why it pays to maintain a digital audience, it’s best to start from the beginning – specifically, the objectives of maintaining a digital audience.

Establishing relationships

We’re long past the times where all organizations and brands were simply expected to deliver a product or service, with everything else being at their discretion. Customers today aren’t enticed by just getting a good price or exactly what they asked for. Instead, digital media brands should build relationships with their digital audience to create connections and have them value your efforts.

digital audience relationships

Getting more customers

Of course, this is still a big part of marketing and brand development; but the idea is that it isn’t the bottom line. Expanding your digital audience is something that will naturally happen over time as you build connections with your customers and engage with them beyond a source of information or a service provider; effectively, you’re taking out two birds with one stone. Be it through referrals, added value in your content, or using digital audience targeting to appeal to new, unexplored demographics, new customers can discover your brand and convert to paying members of your online community.

Building customer loyalty

It’s not enough to simply secure a customer for the moment. Continued success is built on digital media brands’ efforts to engage with their audience and encourage them to return for more. It’s essential to keep finding ways to turn first-time arrivals into repeat visitors since this forms the backbone of your community. More often than not, satisfied customers will bring their friends and family to you, which makes it even more important to secure the loyalty of your audience.

The difference between digital audience development and marketing

The first step to understanding the right approach to digital audience development is understanding its differences from marketing. Granted, there are some definite similarities between the two concepts, but some significant differences also need to be noted.

Marketing focuses on showcasing the full value proposition of your product or service. Print ads, commercials, billboards, and more connect customers with a specific need with a product that satisfies it. But developing an audience is more humanistic; it goes over what your audience likes about your service, what they want to see more of, how they use your services, and so on. Digital audience development actually shares a lot of its sensibilities with customer retention, which also employs marketing tactics to pull in and retain an audience.

So does this mean that you should prioritize one over the other? Not exactly. Digital audience development and marketing naturally promote each other; digital audience measurement and development often use marketing strategies, and digital marketing is often vital to building brand loyalty. Both are important to a brand’s overall success and should be equally utilized as a part of a digital media brand’s overall strategy.

It is worth considering that marketing tends to be more expensive compared to digital audience development. Since marketing works on creating ads and paying for advertising space, these costs are similar to traditional methods and can add up to a significant amount. On the other hand, digital audience measurement and development costs are much more frugal, often offering venues that are free to implement within your plan. And since digital audience development focuses on customer relations and your audience bringing in more first-time visitors in touch with your brand, your returns on investment are much more long-term. Viafoura’s tools are designed to do precisely that; provide long-term value and form a community that propagates itself after enough time and investment.

Most digital media brands have already implemented a combination of these strategies within their environments, but hopefully, these financial benefits convince those still wary of the returns on digital marketing development more of a reason to divert more resources towards it.

The key factors in digital audience development

Digital audience development has no formula, but it is based upon some concepts that can be considered key principles in developing your digital audience. They’re well known as the 4 C’s of successful audience development, and they apply at a digital level just as well. Take these factors into account when developing your strategy, and you’ll see significant success in bringing in members to form a community around your digital media brand.

Collaboration

Audiences respond positively to a brand’s efforts to interact and partner with organizations or causes they support. Because of this, collaboration is a crucial aspect of digital audience development that all digital media brands should be open to implementing. Collaboration offers opportunities for new members to find your brand and expands your audience over time. Collaboration doesn’t need to be at an organizational level either; interacting with your audience and sharing and highlighting their stories and experiences are also ways to collaborate with your readers to promote your brand.

Connection

Retaining an audience boils down to how much of a connection they have to your brand. If your audience agrees with your practices, supports the opinions you promote and sympathizes with the content you present, you’re building strong connections that last well past their initial visit to your platform. But this also means you’re expected to keep an ear to the ground and pay attention to what your audience thinks about your brand. Ignoring their opinions and value as individuals is a quick way to lose their interest and loyalty.

Caring

Newer generations of consumers are increasingly distrustful of advertisements and marketing strategies. As a result, the best approach to convincing them to give your digital media brand a shot is candid honesty. Make your communications, policies, and decisions transparent, and convey as clearly as possible what your intentions are. Promoting healthy discussion, entertaining critique, and taking your audience’s opinions into account is key here. This promotes trust, and digital audience development is much more successful when your audience members trust their brands.

Community

This is our personal favourite C, not just because we promote online community development and management through our software suite. Following the previous 3 C’s will naturally allow your audience to come together around a digital media brand. When this happens, it’s up to the brand to provide the space and tools needed for healthy discourse to occur. And it doesn’t need to stop there! As the brand, your opinions and actions carry enormous sway within your audience. Therefore, a key aspect of digital audience development is taking part in the conversation. If you mingle with your audience, it humanizes your brand and reinforces their connection towards you and your content.

digital audience

Takeaway

Digital audience development has always held the same concepts at its core – it’s just the times and the methodology that have changed over the years. Digital media brands are expected to remember their audience’s human aspect and look past the numbers when looking to promote goodwill and loyalty towards their content and image. By following the steps within this article, any brand can achieve huge success in bringing in and retaining an audience. 

Viafoura strives to assist digital media brands with developing and maintaining a robust digital audience. Our suite of software tools is specifically designed to promote and retain audience viewership and attention through providing tools for community development. To learn more about what we do, contact us to schedule a demo and start building your online community today.

Effectively Using Microblogging to Cover Live Events

Most of us have come across a blog post at some point in our time on the Internet – you’re reading one right now! They’re a great way to share opinions, discuss topics, and express ourselves. With how easily accessible they are for both authors and readers, it’s no surprise that blogging is a popular and widespread function used by individuals and organizations alike. But most people overlook (or maybe aren’t even aware) of a subsection of blogging that’s gained massive traction over the past few years. 

Microblogging has quickly expanded to become a popular option for sharing content across the digital landscape, and with good reason – it’s easy, effective, and allows people to engage in a shared space similar to blogs, but in much more manageable, time-efficient sections. As a result, more and more media companies have realized the benefit of microblogging, and are using it to engage with their audience within their own platforms.

An incredibly effective way to do so is by covering live events through frequent, rolling updates on their platform. Live events usually attract significant interest, so providing coverage can help you gain a good amount of attention and engagement. Read on to learn more about why using microblogging to cover live events could be a great option to drive community engagement, especially when supported with the right tools and functions.

What is microblogging?

This is probably the first question that some may want to ask. So what exactly makes microblogging different from regular blogging, and why does it make a difference?

In simple terms, microblogging is about creating shorter, more succinct content for audiences that can be consumed quickly. Compared to regular blogs, audience members will spend much less time on individual posts, so microbloggers usually make up for this by making more frequent updates to their pages so audiences can remain engaged. 

Compared to blogs, microblogging involves much more picture and video content, which can be a great way to stimulate audiences without writing in detail. Twitter, Instagram, and Tumblr are some great microblogging examples. As the saying goes, a picture is worth a thousand words!

Advantages of microblogging

Of course, microblogging has some definite advantages over the traditional blogging format, which is why advertisers, media outlets, and big businesses are jumping on the bandwagon. Here are some of the biggest reasons why microblogging is worth it.

Efficiency

Since microblogs are based around shorter, less detailed chunks of content, they take a lot less effort to produce big results. For example, you can prepare several microblog posts in the same amount of time it takes to write and put up a blog post of standard length. There’s clearly a tremendous amount of value to be derived from microblogging just from how easy it is to prepare content for the format.

Mobile-friendly

It’s official; more people spend their time browsing the Internet on mobile devices than on desktops or laptops. This means that if you’re looking to engage an audience, your content needs to be mobile-friendly. Blogs can be a chore to read through on mobile devices, and scrolling through walls of text is just as appealing as you’d expect (it isn’t).

This is where microblogging and its focus on visual content shine – your audience will happily view videos and interact with exciting photos, since they translate much better onto mobile platforms. In addition, the shorter content segments often mean that you can prepare posts that can be taken in with little to no scrolling at all, which is great for the quick, concise updates that are standard during live event coverage.

Flexibility

Since your content is produced in smaller, more frequent intervals, microblogging allows you to change the subject and direction of your content on the fly. This is a lot easier on your content producers since each post usually takes minutes to conceptualize and write out. In addition, covering new developments, reacting to events, and responding to audience interests are effortless on a microblogging website.

Covering events through microblogging

We’ve gone over the benefits of microblogging, and its clear that the time-limited and fast-paced nature of live events make it very hard to cover them effectively through regular blogs. Microblogging is clearly the way to go, and some of our readers may already have theirs up and running. However, some important steps need to be followed if you want to effectively do live coverage and drive engagement. Here are some of the best tips to make your next event coverage session a huge success.

Prepare and confirm functionality

Before the event starts, you’ll want to make sure that your platform doesn’t have any outstanding issues or bugs that might end up being a problem during the live coverage. Finding and sorting these problems out beforehand will save you a lot of trouble down the line and make your live microblogging coverage a much smoother experience.

Take pictures

The strength of microblogging stems from the added engagement driven by graphic content. While it’s acceptable to provide only text based post updates on your feed, you’ll find it much easier to break up the monotony of your text wall with photos or images of the event itself. If the event is live, consider having someone attend and take pictures. If you’re covering a streamed event, take screenshots of memorable moments and pair them with your text posts for great effect.

Talk to your audience

Your audience will be having conversations based on the event; you should join in as well! Have someone ready to reply to comments, like popular opinions, and generally promote discussion. Not only will you spark added activity and continue to drive engagement, but you’ll be able to show that your platform is involved within the community and cares about what the audience has to say.

Be ready to moderate

Not all discussion around microblogging coverage will be healthy. Plenty of trolls and toxic individuals will likely attend the event, more than happy to spread negativity, toxic thinking, and outright inappropriate content. If using automatic moderation, make sure your algorithms are working as intended, and it’s highly recommended you use live moderators to cover all the bases and put out fires as they start.

Endnote

When done right, microblogging to cover live events can help media platforms boost their reputation as a trusted source of information and discussion. But using the right tools and taking the proper steps to prepare for your coverage is just as important. Our solutions suite offer several practical and highly effective tools that can be used to enhance your next live event blog. If you’re interested in learning more about what we can do for you, contact us today to schedule a demo, and elevate your next live blog event from good to extraordinary.

How to Generate News Article Ideas

Digital media brands and web publishers are keenly aware of the importance of new articles, especially feature stories. These content pieces draw in and hook an audience; they inform, entertain, provoke, and stimulate readers to elicit responses. Viafoura provides a fantastic array of software options that allow those readers to share and discuss their thoughts, which leads to community development and brand investment. But without an interesting, appealing flow of content, your audience is unlikely to stick around long enough for any of that.

The solution is simple; continuously generate fresh new content that everybody will love, of course!

 But let’s get real – it’s not nearly as simple as it sounds. Writer’s block is very real, and you might struggle to find the right kind of material to cover despite your best efforts. But don’t worry – if you’re looking for ways to get news article ideas, we’ve compiled a list of helpful strategies and approaches you can use to find the right topics for your platform and audience.

Focus on local issues and incidents

If you’re looking to start from the basics, going local is one of the best ways to get compelling news article ideas for your pages. The biggest benefit of this approach is that you’re living in the middle of what’s happening. You or your team may have come across a story waiting to be told just by going about your day. Or you might end up hearing an interesting tidbit from your social circle that could make for a great feature story idea. And often, many outlets usually skip over local news for being too niche or small scale. But there will always be an audience for the small stuff, which means you’re the digital media brand they turn to for more.

Look up what's trending

Social media has its ups and downs, and one of its big ups is that it’s got its heart on the pulse of what’s hot right now. Looking up trending terms can be like following a trail of breadcrumbs to your next big news article idea. You’ll eventually come across a big event, an impactful announcement, or something else that’s getting a lot of buzz, which will give you a good idea of where your brand should focus and what your take should be. 

Turn to pop culture

Tried and true, pop culture gossip and coverage have always been a staple for reliable views and attention. From shocking headlines to entirely false information about which big celebrity did what to who, they’re compelling enough that most readers will at least stop to take a look if only to see how much they believe it. Of course, your digital media brand could take a much more professional approach towards these topics when gathering news article ideas. Still, it stands that the appeal for this type of content is undeniable, and you can always choose to focus on smaller yet relevant niches such as music or book releases for feature article ideas.

Dive into self-help

These types of articles and columns are a surprisingly effective source of news article ideas, especially when building a group of returning readers and audience members. Many readers find these kinds of articles uplifting, form connections with their own needs, or are sometimes just curious about the issues that others might be facing. Self-help articles can range from how-to-do-x style, step-by-step manuals to weekly columns where a qualified responder selects and answers a reader’s question. As long as you’re tactful and write with the intent to help, you’ll find a lot of success in coming up with news article ideas with this approach.

Cover international angles

Most members of your audience would love to hear about far-off lands and stories on different cultures or lifestyles. That’s why international stories make for fantastic news article ideas; you get to introduce a little exotic flavour in the content they read, which is a great way to get people talking, discussing, and sharing their own experiences in your community space. Of course, using international stories for news article ideas does require you to sponsor your writers for some globetrotting, which may or may not be within your means – but we’d highly recommend giving it a shot!

Turn to science

Technology and science is wild, and it’s getting wilder by the decade. There’s always some new discovery or research that’s making waves in the scientific community, but that doesn’t mean your average reader can’t appreciate the magnitude of what’s happened. Providing a layman’s breakdown on a scientific or technological topic while also going over what exactly that means for us as a community is a great way to bridge the gap while giving you some great news article ideas.

Read the news

Yes, that’s right – oftentimes, the best way to cover a topic is to find out what’s being covered! Even if you’re not the first one to use it as a news article idea, you can choose to write updated or follow-up stories based on the topic, which can let you provide additional insight or follow up on a topic competing media brands might not remember to follow. While it probably won’t be the primary source of all your news article ideas, it can still be a great way to supplement them.

Conclusion

And there you have, some varied yet effective strategies for overcoming writers’ block and generating some interesting news article ideas for your platform. Remember that while content is the backbone of what drives your audience’s interest, it’s the experience and journey they go through with your brand that ultimately gets them coming back for more. Viafoura’s software suite can provide you with everything you need to elevate your digital media brand to the next level, so don’t hesitate; contact us today to schedule a demo and see how we can support your content efforts.

Deep dive: What a digital customer experience should look like

Customer interactions with brands are increasingly being carried out in the digital space. As a result, the digital customer experience has become a major, if not the major, aspect of customers’ overall journey with digital media brands. In addition, with technology continuing to push the way we interact with each other online, content providers and media companies have also changed radically to accommodate their audience in the digital landscape. 

But catering to a digital audience isn’t as simple as “post content, get benefits”. Readers and subscribers are increasingly looking for added value from their interactions and looking for a holistic experience rather than just a great product or service. More than these, it’s the lasting impressions made on an audience that’s the key to having them come back time and again to your platform; the kind of impressions you can build through Viafoura.

In this article, we’ll go over why you need a digital customer experience strategy, what the key aspects of this experience look like, and how it’s essential to the growth of your digital media brand and its orbiting community.

Why bother with a digital customer experience strategy?

There are some essential facts about today’s online audience that highlight how important it is to tailor a digital customer experience around your brand. Consider the following:

From both a financial and audience retention standpoint, it’s clear that an elevated digital customer experience plays a huge role in the success of a digital media brand. If your customer doesn’t feel valued or feel that the unsatisfactory aspects of their interactions aren’t reasonably addressed, they’re more than ready to leave without looking back. As we head into an ever-growing digital era of interactions and commerce, taking the time to make sure your web platform supports a healthy digital customer service experience will be virtually mandatory to sustain audience interest.

Key insights into crafting a digital customer experience strategy

A digital customer experience strategy is usually tailored to the specific needs and circumstances of a brand, so we won’t be able to provide an assessment, nor the exact steps you need to take to improve your own customer experience on the web. But we can identify some critical components that form a solid foundation for good digital customer experience management. Making sure your strategy takes these into account will show results through increased engagement and satisfaction with your brand.

Prioritize convenience

Consumers aren’t switching channels because they want to ride the bandwagon; it’s because, above all, consumers value convenience and ease of use. As long as elements of your strategy take the hassle out of things and provide the most convenience, your audience will respond favourably. Making it easier to find content, share opinions, have discussions, and contact you are just a few ways your brand can provide convenience.

Pay attention to audience needs

Your audience is unlikely to be interested in all the content you offer, because everyone has their own tastes and preferences. Recognizing this and adjusting what you offer them is key to keeping them interested and engaged. Most digital customer experiences involve using gathered consumer data to make smart, automatic decisions about content recommendations. While external services and tools can do this for you, the best practice is to collect and analyze this data on your own and adjust your digital customer experience strategy accordingly.

Consider the audience's whole interaction

The digital customer experience starts when they arrive on your site and ends when they leave it on a web platform. Everything from how they log in, the content they read, and the tools they use to engage with the platform and each other, are part of the impression that’s made. It’s also important to consider any non-digital interactions since your audience will not differentiate between their online and offline experiences.

Empower mobile usage

A significant portion of your audience is highly likely to engage with your platform and content through mobile devices. In fact, consumers actively prefer to use multiple channels and methods to engage with brands, so it’s essential to make sure that your mobile digital customer experience is just as highly tuned as your desktop interactions. Ensure your platform has an alternative, mobile-friendly formatting and maximize how many features carry from desktop to mobile browsing.

Drive engagement

Since consumers are driven by the emotional impact and engagement they receive from a brand, supporting the ability to participate beyond simply reading your content is key to a successful digital customer experience strategy. Consider integrating the ability to comment, reply to posts, and like their favorite content to have your audience switch from passive to active interaction. These interactions are more likely to leave a lasting impression on your audience and, in turn, more likely to get them coming back for more.

Conclusion

Having a digital platform isn’t enough to keep your audience engaged with your brand; it’s important to consider the overall digital customer experience. Remember that an audience looks for convenience, consideration, responsiveness, and lasting impressions. Your audience will also respond well to active engagement, and one of the best ways of doing so is through online community engagement and management software. Viafoura offers you the tools you need to take your engagement to the next level – so if you want to build upon your digital customer experience, contact us to schedule a demo and learn more about how we can help you connect with your audience.

How the Online News Association Captivated Audiences at a Virtual Event

Spotlight:
  • Online events can be successful when organizations back them with an audience engagement strategy.
  • The Online News Association (ONA) turned to Viafoura to prevent passive video consumption and provide a seamless user experience during its digital event, ONA20.
  • With Viafoura’s support, ONA encouraged its 1880 attendees to be highly attentive throughout the event.
  • At a time when 53% of people experienced screen fatigue in their daily lives, ONA20 attendees stuck around for an average of 70% of each live video session.
  • By building outstanding digital experiences, Viafoura helped ONA convince event attendees to view around three live video sessions each.
  • Virtual events will continue to drive success for organizations in the future — and Viafoura can help companies secure audience interest and attention.

Ever since the pandemic started, organizations have been moving to embrace virtual and hybrid events. However, some industry professionals are still stuck on a common misconception about online events: They’re all unengaging.

Many companies have actually experienced incredible success by building an audience engagement strategy to support their virtual events.

The Online News Association (ONA) is just one organization on a growing list of companies that had an extremely positive experience hosting a digital conference.

With help from Viafoura, the news association was able to captivate 1880 attendees online in its annual event, ONA20. Explore the text below to discover how Viafoura’s partnership with ONA combatted screen fatigue, leading attendees to view 70% of each live, online session.

The Fight To Activate Passive, Disconnected Viewers

Until the pandemic hit, ONA’s annual events were typically held in person, where media professionals could come together and exchange industry information and best practices. But the emergence of COVID-19 in 2020 meant that ONA had to move its event to an online space. Unfortunately, it quickly became clear that hosting digital speaker sessions wouldn’t be enough on its own to make the conference impactful and memorable.

With 53% of people experiencing screen fatigue throughout the pandemic, event staff needed to find a way to emulate exciting, in-person social experiences online.

And yet, it seemed like basic event solutions couldn’t engage attendees adequately to prevent passive video consumption.

ONA’s staff knew that an out-of-the-box webinar solution wouldn’t offer attendees a noticeable live chat tool that would stand out from its video streams. Nor would many social tool providers offer a frictionless login experience for users that wouldn’t require people to make multiple accounts or go to another website.

Ultimately, ONA had to capture viewer attention around a distinct social tool, allowing attendees to connect with each other — and somehow not break the user experience or disrupt session speakers.

Paving the Way for Outstanding Event Experiences Online

ONA selected Viafoura as its partner in audience engagement for ONA20, which gave the news association all the tools it needed to create captivating digital experiences.

By embedding Viafoura’s live Community Chat tool next to its video streams, attendees could ask questions and talk without interrupting the session speakers. This meant that speakers could address questions and comments from audience members in real time and collect valuable feedback. And with the addition of chat managers to greet users and prompt conversations, viewers were quickly drawn to the social spaces.

Thanks to these collaborative, digital spaces, ONA was able to avoid passive, unengaged consumption around its video streams. Instead, Viafoura’s tools created a safe, social space where industry professionals could share knowledge and expand their networks.

Viafoura’s live chat was also reskinned to align with ONA’s brand and integrated seamlessly with other digital tools. Attendees could even view the speaker sessions and engage during the event through a single login on ONA’s website.

As a result of the partnership, conference attendees remained active and engaged, tuning into the conference for an average of three live video sessions each.

Learn more about how Viafoura helped ONA capture the attention of hundreds of event attendees here.

Embracing the Virtual Future of Events

Many organizations first turned to virtual events out of necessity rather than preference during COVID-19. However, as demonstrated by ONA, virtual events can be just as effective as in-person events and even bring additional benefits to the table.

For instance, digital events remove travel challenges and can sustain high participation and attendance rates. Not to mention that organizations can provide people with unforgettable digital experiences worth sticking around for with the right audience engagement partner.

“If online events have taught [organizations] new skills and a less costly way to bring people together, it makes sense for them to continue online events post-pandemic, whether they are stand-alone or part of hybrid offerings,” Mark Glaser, a news consultant, stresses.

Whether organizations plan to host hybrid or online events in the future, Viafoura’s tools can enhance the experience around any event, supercharging attendee excitement and attention.

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