A question I often ask myself is: How can we create a better, more engaging experience for readers on our newspapers’ digital platforms? One that differs from what readers’ experience on social media?
Last Wednesday, It was a pleasure to have a virtual coffee with @Miguel Angel Gomez. Miguel is an art director and visual innovator for Print and Digital Platforms with focus on mobile storytelling. Miguel has worked with many media brands and won numerous awards.
We talked about what separates social media vs our news products.
It is in part the curation. Well told, clear stories, presented in a thought provoking exciting ways, one that readers want to know more about.
Miguel argued that if you present the stories in an engaging way, the user will come back to you, stay longer on stories and then be willing to pay or subscribe. That was his definition of engagement.
I believe that if we also make the content about our readers or with our readers, they are even more invested in the outcome and bound to engage with our brand further. If there are floods, their photos or stories of how it’s affecting them. When Halloween is approaching, readers costumes, or even local businesses sharing Christmas parties in their area for others to join. (This can even bring new revenue).
It’s about taking all these individuals’ experiences, these people powered stories and making them into something bigger and better. Individually they may seem insignificant or lack impact but when we bring them together it can create a feeling of unity, we want to be part of something bigger than us.
From our virtual chat, my takeaways were:
-
🧑🎨 Great designed stories makes readers want to spend time with our news product
-
🤩 Using readers’ and their peers’ content makes them invested in the outcome
-
📎 Curation and doing something great with that content is what delivers value to the readers and separates us from social, making our community feel they are part of something bigger
-
✋A human touch in that curation is what creates connection with readers and builds loyalty - they want to know about the person on the other side of the screen, engaging with them, it makes it authentic. ‘You are probably drinking your coffee whilst reading this, or I am scrolling through these whilst on my sofa at home’
At Contribly we recognise the value of publishing and curating your readers’ content into everything you do.
That’s why we’ve automated these processes, so that busy teams can deliver value to their readers by including people powered stories. And it works. News Brands using Contribly have found 3x – 10x times more time spent on page on these curated stories.
Thanks for your insights Miguel!
Francesca Dumas
Audience engagement strategy director and co-founder of Contribly