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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.

The Ins and Outs of Event Blogging

While we always have good things to say about blogging, it’s hard to ignore that several subtypes come with their own territory when it comes to building an audience and keeping them coming back for more. Even among these, event blogging tends to be an outlier that gets overlooked by many digital media brands, even though it has the potential to pull huge audience numbers if done correctly. Event blogging also serves as a great way to introduce your digital media brand to newcomers. It entices them to check out your other content and hopefully find more reasons to stick around.

The good news is that event blogging isn’t that different from regular blogging. It’s incredibly accessible and easy to start doing on your platform, and Viafoura’s suite of community engagement tools is excellent for supporting your event blogging efforts. So let’s go over some event blogging tips and how you can start implementing them on your website.

What is event blogging?

Digital media brands are no strangers to blogging, but event blogging may not necessarily be on their radar. In a world where generating stable, consistent views and retaining an audience for as long as possible is ideal, event blogging may not seem like the most effective strategy at first glance. But the fact is that in some ways, event blogging relies on consistency even more than other blogging methods.

As the name suggests, event blogging focuses on covering seasonal topics focused around specific events occurring near a particular time or date. For example, a big concert tour in town, an upcoming awards show, or a convention that’s set to reveal some new technological innovation; all of these are potential subjects for an event blog. The idea is to cover live happenings as the event rolls around, but news and updates in the weeks leading up to the event can also be a focus. Readers that are interested in that event become part of your audience and contribute to the success of your blog and web platform.

How event blogging benefits your brand

Apart from the obvious statistical uptick in views, audience, and potential revenue, there are quite a few reasons why you might want to start event blogging.

For one, event blogging is considerably easier to start up and get running. Since you’re focusing on events that will already be on people’s radars, your blog needs to provide the right information and details to attract a rush of interested audience members. You start an event blog anywhere from a few weeks to a few days before the event and still benefit from it.

Event blogging also puts your digital media brand on the radar as a source for exciting news and coverage. Many first-time visitors tend to find new sources of information and news through event blogging, so having one can bridge the gap between your brand and potential community members who just haven’t stumbled upon your website in the vast expanses of the internet.

Now it might be obvious that there’s a potential flaw with event blogging – it’s all well and good to focus on events for your blog material, but what about the space in between happenings? Sometimes, there just isn’t much going on at all, and the fact is that event blogs are best used to supplement an existing blogging niche.

You won’t be drawing in a huge amount of traffic or a loyal audience base just by event blogging. But on the flipside, event blogging can provide additional value for your blog to audience members and search engines. Combined with how simple it is to start up an event blog, it’s a great option for digital media brands that already have a respectable following to raise their appeal and draw in more of an audience.

Event blogging tips: Step by Step

Now that we’ve gone over the benefits of event blogging, you may have been convinced to start your own. Here are some great event blogging tips and a general outline of how you can go about putting together an event blog.

Choose an event

This may be obvious, but you need an event for event blogging. But choosing the right type of event is just as important as adding blog content for it. You’ll find more success finding an event that’s related in some way to your original niche. For example, if you produce sports content on your web platform, you may want to find a big game or tournament that’s coming up and cover that.

Start early

While you can launch your blog just days before the event and still find success, setting it up for success can take weeks or even months of planning, depending on the scale of the event. You’ll need to figure out a schedule and monitor the official event source for any news or updates on a regular basis to be on top of your own coverage. If you’re willing to put the time and manpower behind it, you can start event blogging very early, especially if the organizers are doing a great job marketing it and producing lots of content for you to cover on your platform.

cover the right details

Focusing on just the facts isn’t the only way to cover an upcoming event; many readers, especially the younger generation, are just happy to be part of the experience and excitement. There’s plenty of content that you can generate on your own still related to the event. You might share some opinion pieces that speculate about the happenings, performances, or results of the event or compile a list of hotels or accommodations that attendees might consider if the event goes on for multiple days. This lets you deliver direct value through event blogging, and new audience members are likely to remember your platform positively as a good source of the overall information.

Update regularly

Try to keep your blog content fresh and flowing. The frequency of your posts will probably scale with how early you start event blogging; you don’t need to post every day if you start covering the event weeks in advance. The key is to avoid dead space between your posts and updates, as this is a great way to lose attention fast in both search engine algorithms and audience members. Your frequency is likely to peak just before the event or if you do live updates during the event proceedings.

Conclusion

Event blogging is an often overlooked way to supplement your web platform’s efforts to bring in and retain an audience for your web community. You’ll probably see some great results by following the event blogging tips in this article, but you should also remember that a brand experience is supported by effective tools that let your members communicate and share their opinions and responses. Viafoura’s suite of community management software is a perfect choice for generating more discourse on your event blog, so contact us today to schedule a demo and see how we can make your next event blogging venture a success!

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:

Two out of three consumers expect brands to understand their needs and what they expect from them
Consumers are 26% more likely to recommend a brand to their friends and family if they feel emotionally connected
73% of brands that devote resources to an improved customer experience perform higher than their competitors

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.

The Facebook Page Moderation Feature: What Makes it so Flawed?

As one of the biggest social media platforms out there, Facebook boasts a record number of global users — over 2.6 billion of them — and there’s no doubt that number has gone up since then. A huge number of users means a huge need for effective moderation, and Facebook has placed moderative control on its users through the use of the Page Moderation tool — a feature that can be used by anyone to control the discussions, comments, and content posted on their platform.

However, there are some key flaws related to the Facebook Page Moderation feature that make it unreliable in the long run and ultimately tie into the overall flaws with Facebook’s content moderation system as a whole. Read on to learn more about these issues and why you should consider alternative options like Viafoura for your moderation needs.

Limited ad control

The Facebook Page Moderation feature covers the basics when it comes to managing the comments and replies that are made on your page or posts. It allows you to block specific words, implement a profanity filter, block specific users from posting entirely, and more. However, there’s only so much you can do with these features, and there are many issues that remain unaddressed.

For example, note that Facebook runs automated ads that are not filtered by the page moderation tool at all. You have zero control over the ads that are displayed on your page, and you also can’t run your own algorithms to better detect and remove unwanted content, meaning your settings aren’t stopping advertisers from presenting ads to your page viewers that you wouldn’t want associated with your page.

Filters have workarounds

Filters and blocklists are a simple way to moderate content on your page, but they’re only effective until a determined spammer or troll finds a hole in your defenses. Once they’ve found a workaround that isn’t being restricted by the Facebook comment moderation tool, nothing is stopping them from spreading toxic content apart from Facebook’s innate algorithms, which are notorious for misfires and failing to restrict negative content.

Another factor to consider is that while setting a filter and blocklist in Facebook works for text content, there is no way to moderate images and videos apart from deciding whether your visitors can post them or not. Visual content like shared pictures and videos are a huge part of engagement in social media, so restricting them can do more harm than good. But determined trolls and malicious users will often post images or videos containing their negative content that will fly right under the Facebook page moderation radar.

Facebook’s moderation algorithms need work

In a report published by Forbes, it was estimated that Facebook makes around 30,000 moderation mistakes per day. That number might not sound so big when compared to the number of users the social media platform has, but it’s still a huge margin of error when it comes to restricting the wrong user. There’s nothing more off-putting than getting flagged for a comment or reply that’s completely appropriate and relevant to the discussion, and Facebook as a platform still struggles to get this aspect of their moderation right.

As mentioned earlier, there’s no way to modify or customize the algorithms being used on Facebook, and you can’t run your own either. These factors, combined with the Facebook spam filter censoring safe comments and letting toxic ones through, means that it can be extremely difficult to drive lasting engagement through the social media platform alone.

Live moderation gets overwhelmed

Depending on individual needs, any user that seeks to moderate content on Facebook or otherwise will eventually realize that live moderators are still needed for more comprehensive content control. We’ve made amazing advances in our technology, but algorithms aren’t perfect. When some inappropriate content slips through the cracks, live moderators are the best way to make up for it.

While Facebook does employ live moderators, the sheer scale at which they operate means that it’s almost impossible for them to reliably cover all the bases. On top of all the regular censoring and removal of globally inappropriate material, there are local and cultural considerations that also require close review when moderating content, which can’t be done by algorithms and AI that simply blacklist Facebook users. This means that try as they might, Facebook’s live moderators are spread so thin that may never actually get to cleaning up toxicity off your page, which means you’ll have to do it yourself, using the limited functionality of the Facebook page moderation feature.

So what’s the solution?

Despite the many flaws of Facebook’s page moderation, it’s understandable why so many content producers and organizations rely on the platform. Like all social media platforms, Facebook does an amazing job at providing a space in which users can engage with one another. But what if you were to create that community space within your own platform?

Through the use of online community engagement and management software, content distributors can integrate the key elements of social media — the ability to comment, share, and discuss content with other users — as well as the functionality to effectively moderate and control the discourse around the platform. Once users start interacting within your own community space, you can fully control the algorithms used for moderation, activate and deactivate the features you want, and create a returning audience that contributes to the overall growth of your platform.

Viafoura provides robust community engagement and management software with several popular social media features that can be integrated right into your website. We also offer highly effective moderation services, from preset and customizable algorithms to live moderation services that focus on driving engagement while filtering out toxicity.

Learn more about our product suite by signing up for a demo, and start growing your online community today!

Unbiased & Reliable News Sources for Real Facts

We’re at a strange place in our society where news and information are available at the touch of a button and from an endless array of sources. Still, their reliability is more suspect than ever before. The digital age has put the power to make thoughts, opinions, and personal agendas publicly available into the hands of the everyday person, and you would be hard-pressed to distinguish whatever they’re putting out there as fact or fiction.

Viafoura’s software suite promotes discussion, engagement, and community establishment around brands and we strive to work only with reputed and trusted digital media brands.

But the amount of misinformation out there makes those few reputed media outlets and brands that much more valuable and necessary. But even amongst more well-known news sources, there’s the unmistakable influence of bias, which forces viewers and readers to take in all provided information through tinted lenses. As a result, digital media brands that genuinely wish to serve as a source of unbiased news and information need to review their policies and approaches towards their publications.

Thankfully, there are still unbiased news sources available on the web that can be relied on to provide factual, objective, and trustworthy content, which including those digital media brands that are working with our digital experience platform. Let’s go over some of the considerations that need to be made when vetting a news source and some places where you can find responsible content.

Can reliable news sources really be completely free of bias?

It’d be fantastic if we could believably claim that even the best new sources were capable of acting wholly neutral and free of all bias. But it’s our opinion that news isn’t really delivered to us intact – it’s reported, which means that someone tells us the story. So maybe when scientists develop some fantastic AI capable of truly neutral reporting, we can expect a sober, entirely unbiased view of what’s happening.

But the news is gathered and given to us by individuals who have their own thoughts, ideas, and perspectives. This fact holds across all facets of news media, from television to newspaper columns to web articles. Digital media brands may strive to keep up to high standards and function as neutral news sources, but it is still the individual that shapes the message of each article and feature story.

And bias isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Opinion articles are often some of the most popular posts made on news outlets because they resonate more strongly with certain readers and spark responses and counterarguments from others. Our Conversations and Community Chat features find the most use on pages like these that prompt discussions and stimulate healthy and civil discourse. The issue arises when bias prompts certain digital media brands to spread misleading and non-factual information as the whole story.

How do you determine if a source provides unbiased news?

We’ve established that unbiased news sources are essential but also harder to distinguish from those that skew the facts and details for their benefit. But it might not be clear how everyday individuals can make sure they’re looking in the right places for their news. So here’s a checklist that you can use to determine if the source you’re looking at is likely to be offering unbiased news.

References or Publication in Libraries

Libraries work on a non-profit basis, and as such, have no reason to push an agenda or skew the facts towards a specific interpretation. News details that can be corroborated with articles in library databases are much more reliable as news sources. These sources will make it very clear if any part of their information is based on their perspective or opinion.

Pulitzer Prize-Winning outlets

Newspapers, magazines, or websites that have earned the Pulitzer prize have met the awarding committee’s criteria for excellence in news reporting and journalism. Any member of this group can be considered an excellent source of unbiased news that’s sure to give you the facts from as objective a standpoint as possible.

Outline their sources when possible

Some news and media outlets will draw from other resources or references to obtain statements and details, and unbiased news sources will have no problem explaining exactly where they got their information. In addition, reliable new sources offer names, positions, and sometimes even the dated timeframe when they obtained their information. Some of the more academic publications might provide related readings and sources as a supplement to the article.

Top reliable sources for unbiased news

These are some, but not all, of our favourite sources of information for unbiased news in North America, in no particular order. You can’t go wrong with getting your info from these outlets.

CBC

The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation has had a longstanding reputation as one of Canada’s most reputable and reliable sources. They have recently spoken out on the crisis of faith in journalism and the steps that they have taken to restore it. Their commitment to excellence and factual accuracy in new reporting has stood the test of time, and they remain an excellent source of unbiased news even today.

Toronto Star

Founded in 1892, the Toronto Star has served as the mainstay of journalism and news reporting in one of Canada’s most densely populated regions. They hold highly detailed and admirable journalistic standards that they make publicly available and are committed to accuracy and truth in their publications.

Tribune Publishing

As the head of such illustrious outlets as the Chicago Tribune, The Baltimore Sun, and the Orlando Sentinel, Tribune Publishing is known throughout the East Coast as a digital media brand that works towards responsible and factual reporting in journalism. They have continued to push to inspire and inform communities down to the local level, making them a great source of relevant, unbiased news in their respective areas of publication.

The Philadelphia Inquirer

The Inquirer boasts of almost 200 years of journalism that has been for the benefit of the people. Having won Pulitzer prizes for their high integrity and public-focused brand of new reporting, they continue to act as one of the most trustworthy and dependable new sources available on the web today.

The New York Times

The New York Times has won 132 Pulitzer prizes throughout its publication and is recognized globally within the industry as a newspaper that sets the standard for journalism and news reporting. Even amongst reputed news sources, it is well known for its dedication to getting the facts right and providing an unbiased version of events and information in its reporting. Although recent public views have thrown unnecessary doubt onto their commitment to responsible reporting, the New York Times remains one of the best sources of unbiased news, period.

Takeaway

Reporting on a topic is much easier than it was a few decades ago, and news outlets have become so varied and diverse that it’s difficult to know if you can rely on the news you come across. However, there are still ways that the public can assess the content that’s presented to them to decide on whether it sounds legitimate or not. On top of this, there are still several unbiased news sources that can be relied on to provide news in these uncertain times.

If you’re looking to establish your own digital media brand as a reputable news source, engagement and connection with your community is the key to success. Building a community around your brand will get your audience talking about your credibility and sharing it with their circle of acquaintances, which leads to a higher public opinion of your brand as a whole. Viafoura has several products that we offer as part of our software suite that can help you achieve this engagement and promote your brand as a reliable, unbiased news source. Contact us today to schedule a demo to learn more!

How to Host a Virtual Conference, Webinar or other Event

Most organizations are aware that making connections in person is a valuable aspect of growth and development. But in recent years, there’s been a major shift to fully digital conferences, meetings, and events, which has resulted in an influx of new social engagement and networking methods. As a result, it’s a good idea to understand the importance of virtual events like conferences and webinars, and how to successfully host one through your web platform.

Some businesses have had it harder than others when it comes to making the switch to digital and may be considering holding off on such events until large-scale in-person interactions are viable again. However, you can still take advantage of the positive aspects of conferences, webinars, and panels on an entirely virtual level while also enjoying additional benefits exclusive to this format.

If you’re unclear on how to host a virtual conference, don’t worry; this article will take you through the basics of how to host a virtual event as well as some virtual event best practices. Let’s get started by taking a look at some key concepts.

What Is a Virtual Event?

The majority of the North American population has likely become very familiar with virtual events in the past few years. These events are hosted digitally with content being streamed or shared in a communal setting, which allows people to participate in an event regardless of their location using their digital devices.

Depending on your goals, there might be different types of gatherings you can organize, from virtual webinars to discussion panels to live streams of performances or readings. That’s why the first thing you need to do is determine what kind of event you want to host according to your objectives. Remember that the focus of these gatherings is engaging with the audience like you would, for instance, with live blogging or informational streams.

Virtual Event Checklist

When it comes to hosting virtual events, there are some practices you need to follow.

Determine the length of the event

In the past, public expectation was that conferences would last a whole day, which allowed all participants sufficient time to network and make connections. However, this doesn’t work with virtual webinars. Nowadays, people prefer to register for virtual events that last for a short amount of time, a maximum of 1-2 hours long. Of course, we understand that sometimes this might not be enough for your needs, but note that you can always organize a one-week virtual conference and have all the events spread throughout the week.

Creating an agenda

Just like an in-person event, you need a plan for virtual webinars. Often, panels and conferences are long and can last for several days. Having a proper agenda can allow attendees to choose which sessions they would like to attend. Remember, as a rule of thumb, when organizing an online conference, you should line up all the essential information at the beginning of the event. Then, to close up the entire event, schedule your most dynamic speaker

Rehearsal

If you are thinking about hosting a virtual webinar, a round or two of rehearsal is a must. In this regard, you can find software that allows you to have a practice room, where you can go over some points with speakers, test the quality of the video/audio, and make sure the slides and tools are working before all the attendees connect. In addition, there are some platforms where you can even record your practice sessions. Doing so can improve parts of your online presence to make it more engaging.

Internet connection

Having a solid internet connection is non-negotiable when hosting an online conference or event. Any disruptions in the quality of Internet connection can prompt many attendees to drop off. That’s why every event-hosting software offers you the chance to check all your levels. Remember that it is also crucial to make sure that your speakers and microphones provide high-quality audio.

Virtual Conference Best Practices: How To Host A Virtual Conference?

Organizing and hosting a virtual conference is not an easy task. We’ve put together a list of actions you can take to ensure your online event will go smoothly.

Choosing the right webinar software

Some of the best platforms you can find online for digital events include GoToWebinar, WebinarJam, BlueJeans Events, and even Zoom. To pick the perfect platform when learning how to host a virtual event, you need to look at the platform’s features. Remember to check the maximum number of attendees, engagement tools, analytics, and community chats and plan your schedule and budget accordingly.

Presentation tools

Depending on the type of software you choose, there are different presentation tools you can use. For example, some of them allow you to present a pre-recorded presentation that way, and you can be more engaging with the audience through real-time conversations. Depending on the nature of your event and its intended purpose, some tools may be better than others.

Picking topics and speakers

Like in-person conferences, choosing relevant, engaging topics is key to maintaining engagement throughout your event. Otherwise, your overall conversation might be spread across such a wide range of topics that attendees might find themselves confused, distracted, or unsure of what to take away from your presentations. Also note that selecting your speakers is also integral to the success of your event; try to have a panel that offers different perspectives about the subject. Three to five industry experts would be an ideal amount for most events.

Making a registration form

The best way to plan out your virtual webinar or conference is to create a registration form that tells you the information of the people who will attend. Here, you need to request details like their contact information, age, location, and gender. This form also allows you to share some things about the event, like the list of speakers, schedules, and social links, and also provides some useful data and statistics on your attendees.

Promotion

If you want to know how to host a virtual event, we can tell you that it involves more than just organizational skills. You will also need some marketing know-how to promote your virtual event, and you’ll need to use email marketing and social media to keep your audience posted well in advance. Keep in mind that the objective is not just getting the most number of registrants; what’s important is having the proper attendance ratio scaled for your event so things remain manageable.

Making your platform secure

Having a virtual event means you will be the host of a professional conference. That’s why it is vital to ensure that the platform is secure. To achieve this, you need to look for software that has authentication to protect the entire event. You’ll also need complete administrative control over the event, allowing you to moderate participants as necessary. Various online community management softwares offer these as functions in their software packages, so consider investing in one of them to better regulate your virtual webinar.

Conclusion

In summary, we hope we’ve convinced you that virtual webinars, conferences, and other similar events can be just as productive, profitable, and beneficial as traditional, in-person events. And note that while digital events provide a direct benefit, their effects are proportional to your investment and the effectiveness of your preparations. Consider implementing community engagement and management software to expand your web community and create a space where your brand can develop a dedicated following. Alongside well-planned virtual events, tools like these can help solidify your online presence and help your business grow across the web.

Building a Social Media Style Brand Experience for Any Website

Crafting a brand experience successfully is one of the key goals that a company should work towards to when looking to improve its online performance. It leads to audience engagement which is crucial for conversion and sales on your site and for building a loyal customer base. To achieve a high engagement rate on your site, you need to get creative and stand out from your competitors.

Over the past decade, one of the biggest success stories in audience engagement has been the explosive rise in social media usage and dependence. With so many individuals active on various platforms, organizations have been quick to direct their marketing and engagement efforts through social media. However, it’s important to note that due to how data is exchanged and used on the web today, integrating a web feed for a social media platform doesn’t do nearly enough for your website, as you get almost nothing in data returns while the social media platform continues to receive continued referrals and activity.

So what’s the alternative? The fact is that it doesn’t take much to create the same levels of engagement that can be found on social media platforms. You just need the right tools and knowledge to develop social media-like experiences for your audience. By emulating the beneficial aspects of these platforms to create a digital brand experience, you can build a community that invites members to revisit and engage with your services.

Why use tools to create a brand experience on my company website?

If you are looking to build a loyal customer base, a standard interface is no longer enough in today’s market. Instead, your audience needs to feel intrigued, motivated to participate, and valued for their contributions. Integrating tools that facilitate these events for visitors to your website elevates their experience with your business from a chore to a customer experience. But if you don’t know much about a brand experience or the tools used to make it happen, it can be challenging to visualize how you can take your website from here to there.

Don’t worry; to help you get started, we’ve put together some easy to understand examples of brand experience design, fostering increased engagement that can make a world of difference to your current website.

Brand experience examples

As mentioned above, creating a media feed on your website makes it more attractive for customers who heavily use social media. Creating similar experiences for them likens the positive experience of social media to the brand experience they undergo on your web platform.

Below, we’ve listed several different website features modeled around social media that you can use on your platform.

Complete social wall

The social media feed does a lot of things right; it provides a constant flow of content to engage the visitor, provides vibrant visuals with plenty of imagery, and provides value that encourages them to revisit the website. However, building your own brand wall doesn’t have to rely on social media directly; you can use tools to create a similar social wall built around your brand experience and customers.

Testimonial space

Word-of-mouth is a more powerful tool than ever before. Because of how often the consumer journey begins from references and good reviews, it’s essential to show potential customers that you have a satisfied audience. You can create a testimonial space that shows what people have to say about your brand to achieve this. Showcasing what satisfied customers are saying about their experiences does wonders to foster positivity and encourage new visitors to start their journey with you.

Personalized user profiles

Having a system in place that allows your visitors and customers to create an identity is key to crafting a brand experience. It’s much easier to remain engaged and participate as part of a community when viewers can record and build on their actions and overall experience with your brand. Software tools can let your users create an avatar, respond to likes and follows, and view their historical activity. Features like this provide the infrastructure you need to have your brand members keep up with their interactions and contribute to the growth of your audience.

Likes and follows

You can argue that the ability to like, follow, and share content on social media platforms is one of the defining features of the core social media experience. Integrating these options directly into your platform through software tools can be a straightforward and effective way to capitalize on user preferences, and build a social media-style, branded experience that promotes continued engagement and association with your platform.

Community Chat

Having great content on your website is a fantastic way to develop your brand experience and promote engagement. Providing a way for your community to discuss and share their thoughts on that content is even better! Community chat systems like the ones provided by Viafoura offer real-time, active engagement that can be extremely effective at letting your users feel like they’re part of the conversation and within a larger circle of association. These tools will often provide the ability to capture user data, which can be used in a variety of ways to increase conversions and tailor your brand experience to user needs without direct reliance on social media.

Conversations and Comments

Users often have immediate reactions and responses to content, posts, articles, and updates that you might offer on your website. Providing a space to comment on your content and begin conversations with fellow users is a great way to allow your users to interact with each other and enjoy a brand experience. Like social media platforms, certain software tools also allow for likes, badges, and other meaningful means of recognizing noteworthy contributors, which rewards positive contributions and provides your users with a means to identify helpful or exciting content.

Moderation

It’s important to note that while most users in your community will add to and build upon your brand and its level of engagement, some users may detract from building positive brand experiences. For example, troll posts and toxicity are a very real part of any online social community, and they’re most likely an aspect of the social media experience that you’d want to avoid actively. Good software tools like our content moderation tool will have ways to quickly and effectively flag these types of comments and posts and remove them while also offering a means to moderate walls, active feeds, and comment sections actively.

These are just a handful of examples that show how you may engage with your users and grow your community and note that none of these require direct integration of social media websites into your website. Instead, you can incorporate these features straight into your website to start building a community within your own digital space through social media-like experiences. Viafoura provides an incredible array of community-building tools and solutions that can help you establish a strong web presence, so if you’re still wondering how to increase brand engagement, look no further! Click here to request a demo on how we can help you meet your engagement goals.

Ultimate Guide on Website Personalization: Tools, Ideas, and Real Life Examples

It’s no secret that a successful business organization is built upon powerful marketing strategies. But implementing a successful strategy requires you to consider several factors that foray into the digital and web-based markets, with aspects such as social media presence, paid advertisements, and community engagement playing key roles in marketing success. Amongst these, an often overlooked factor that has a similarly significant impact is website personalization.

Website personalization is a strategy that can result in a noticeable increase in customer engagement, conversions, and brand loyalty. This happens because you offer users a unique experience through the website’s personalization tools, though note that to do this, its important to have information about your users’ preferences and browser behavior.

There are several parts of your website to implement this personalization, and it can feel overwhelming when starting out. But below, we’ll go over some of the best website personalization ideas and examples to help you visualize how you can take advantage of this key aspect of user engagement.

What is website personalization?

Website personalization is a strategy that will allow you to create a unique experience for each visitor, satisfying their needs. Since you will target customers according to their behaviour, you will need data that helps you determine which products or promotions might interest them.

Benefits of website personalization

With the website personalization ideas we will present below, you can bring endless benefits to your company. Let’s take a look at some of them.

Customer engagement

You can boost your customer engagement using website personalization tools since you will offer your website’s visitors targeted content relevant to their interests and purposes. Plus, you will be able to generate more leads and accelerate the purchasing experience for any user.

Build loyalty

With all the data you gather from the website personalization tools, you can create a unique marketing experience. That will allow you to build brand loyalty, even with new customers. To get more information, you can even acquire an identity management tool.

More conversions

If you understand what your clients are looking for, you will know how to construct more effective strategies. Using things such as audience insights reports, you can understand the preferences of all clients. That way, you can show them what they want. In the long run, this will increase your conversions.

Personalized notifications

Remember that website personalization does not stop there since you need to keep in touch with your customers. For instance, you can send emails to all customers offering promotions on items they already bought. Plus, you can also use this to market all the new articles in your store.

Website Personalization Ideas

Now that we’ve answered “what is website personalization,” your next question might be “What are some examples?” So we’ve compiled a list of specific examples that some entities are using to build their web platforms. Take a look to see what you might be able to make use of for your own website personalization.

Show recognition for loyalty

Your users need to feel like they’re a welcome and essential part of your organization. A straightforward way of conveying this is to greet returning customers with a standard greeting and a returnee benefit, such as a discount coupon or a free sample of your digital products. This makes users feel valued as individuals and increases goodwill and brand loyalty, and is used across countless platforms as an effective engagement tool.

Make suggestions

If you already know the browser behaviour of your customers, you can use this data to suggest products based on their buying cycle. Suggesting content or products that are similar to those they’ve already viewed or purchased on your platform can increase convenience as well as the size and number of conversions you receive. A good personalization website example is a platform like Amazon, which provides excellent suggested content through their “related to items you’ve viewed” sections.

Customize testimonials

When you are a big company, chances are you offer different services to your customers. For example, let’s say some of them purchase a social media marketing package while others pick an SEO one. Instead of showing them general testimonials, you can classify the users and divide the reviews. That way, clients will only see information regarding their interests.

Unique experience

Companies such as Stitch Fix have become masters when it comes to personalizing the experience of their users. For example, this clothing store collects the information of all users through a series of questions and compares it to the data they already have. As a result, the client will receive hand-picked items that will match their style. Creating your own unique experience can be a great way to make your platform stand out from competitors and remain memorable for your users.

Tailoring to their needs

When customers arrive at your landing page, it’s necessary to help them quickly find the content they want. However, users can soon decide to end their session with you if your interface is too complicated or hard to navigate. To resolve this, ensure your website is designed for optimal, intuitive usage and provides essential information in short, easy-to-understand segments. For example, list categories of content you have available in a noticeable, neat format so users can quickly access what they’re looking for.

Storing their progress

If you are looking for the best website personalization examples, you should visit Hulu or Spotify’s platforms for some of the best. Their programs and web platforms will store progress through a selected series and notify users when new episodes or songs are available. In a similar vein, compiling your content offerings into categories and series and offering them as a set can increase the amount of time your users spend engaging with your platform and encourage them to come back and pick up where they left off.

Different background image

To sell your services to a specific client, you need to show them you care. The good news is that you can do this just using a different background image that resonates with their products. For instance, use sports-related visuals for posts, articles, and other media related to

Showing live chat

Even though many companies have a live chat available to all users, a better strategy is choosing which clients could need it. What does that mean? The purpose will be to identify high-value customers that are more likely to make a conversion. That way, your team can have more personal conversions that will increase your sales.

With all the website personalization ideas that we have explained above, we are sure that you will notice a boost in your customer loyalty in no time. If you’re looking for more ways to use website personalization to spruce up your platform, check out Viafoura’s array of online community engagement solutions to see how we can help.