Jordan Kretchmer is the founder of Livefyre, an engagement platform that goes beyond threaded comments to help you increase the conversation on your web properties, attract new readers and commenters from all over the web, and build hyper-active communities around your content. Follow Jordan on Twitter at @jkretch.
The last five years of web innovation heralded a frenzy of shiny new products that provided people with fresh ways to interact. Simultaneously, the amount of content produced sky-rocketed, with more compelling material than ever before.
However, the past decade hasn’t fostered thoughtful interaction between that content and its consumers. It could be argued that the now-ubiquitous “like” button has replaced thoughtful participation and diminished the relevance of actual conversation. As a result, publishers and bloggers of all sizes are constantly bleeding site content to social channels in order to encourage crucial engagement and interaction outside of their homepages.
As publishers continue to rely on the outside social web to foster their communities, they often witness dire consequences. Sites have experienced a dramatic decrease in core metrics and a dispersion of their most passionate community members. As a result, publishers are placing a higher value on keeping their readers engaged within their own walls.
Ultimately, we’ve been offered the opportunity to completely rethink the passive “comment sections” of the past. Today, the comment section provides a tool to build community engagement around a publisher. The trick is not to think about comments in terms of five years ago. The game has changed, and savvy publishers will also alter their approach to match the new community landscape.
Engagement is About Humans, Not Clicks
Let’s face it: Content is becoming commoditized. Within minutes of any event, identical information can be found on thousands of sites around the web. There are only two ways that publishers can keep their edge in this environment: 1) build a strong editorial point of view; and 2) awaken a passionate community.
Nothing provides a better backdrop for conversation than inspired content that sparks community interaction, specifically in the comment section.
Recently, publishers have nurtured that human desire to participate by covering sites with shiny “share” buttons that push their unique content onto other sites. In theory, other potential readers will find it. “Share” buttons can be useful amplifications tools, but they’re often not turned on with a strategy in mind and don’t help build a feedback loop back to the publisher’s site. The problem is, when you focus so much on distributing your content, you also end up scattering your community conversations along with it.
Despite its knowledge, the industry has spent several years continually sending its communities away. Publishers that care about distribution more than community are taking their eyes off the ball. The reason people click a share button is because it takes them to places that better understand how humans want to interact (Facebook, Twitter, Reddit, Google+, etc.). If publishers offered the same degree of human interaction on their own sites, readers would have less reason to click those buttons in the first place.
The key to solving the problem of building community engagement is to focus on humans as first priority. Not technology, not buttons, not widgets. Today’s community wants to engage around your content, and they’ll do it on your site when provided with a human experience that truly engages.
Creating An Engaging Human Experience
Trying to have a conversation in a static comment section is slow, disorganized and inefficient. The experience is akin to hanging up the phone and redialing after every sentence, which frustrates and discourages people from continuing to participate.
Real-time conversation streams can fix that problem by making conversations more like a fluid dinner table discussion. Whether a few people participate or thousands, real-time conversations are magnetic to watch and participate in.
Secondly, an element of social connectedness will make it easy to mention and notify friends from every social network and from your community — right from the comment box. Make your content the center of the conversation by aggregating the social web back to your site.
A more social and real-time community will self-perpetuate content. It increases page rank, page views, perceived authority, content accuracy, quality, brand, and ultimately, valuation. The proof lies in Huffington Post’s valuation and subsequent acquisition by AOL.
More Innovative Social Platforms
Publishers today are paying off years of technology infrastructure debt. Most publishers are built on top of custom infrastructure and/or single-point third-party systems that restrict the company’s ability to change with the times. These systems are burdens that require millions of dollars a year in upkeep, in addition to being static, cumbersome and slow to progress.
Beyond technology, most publishers have a decentralized decision-making process when it comes to social strategy. In fact, many publishers are unsure of who within their organization is responsible for managing comments, social user registration and loyalty programs.
Large publishers need to create a process for selecting social platforms that is based on a clearly defined strategy, and most importantly, to appoint one person or team to direct it.
In the past year, major publishers around the world have created centralized digital and social teams directly responsible for integrating the next generation of social platforms. These forward-thinking publishers are able to make fast decisions and react to market innovations and user expectations nimbly. They’re ahead of the game, and reaping the benefits of being there.
Think about it this way: Ten years ago, Facebook didn’t even exist. Five years ago, Twitter didn’t exist. On the other hand, almost every publisher has technology powering its web presence (like a customer CMS) that’s much older than either Facebook or Twitter. How can you expect to keep up with your community when you’re stuck with a multi-million dollar investment and a 20-year-old piece of software?
Publishers are used to making large top-down investments that are meant to provide long-term, sustainable and competitive advantages. But the old way of doing things doesn’t cut it anymore. Meanwhile, bloggers and small content producers are adopting new technologies at lightning speed. Communities change their technology preferences even faster than bloggers and small content producers. Have you heard of Google+?
The answer is plain: Publishers need to swap cumbersome infrastructure for flexible systems and simple APIs. Innovation is more important than product maturity. Best-of-breed focus is more beneficial than “one-stop-shop” solutions. Finally, finding dedicated partners with specific expertise will help you stay ahead of the curve.
Publishers can integrate powerful, innovative community platforms in a fraction of the time by adopting agile applications that use APIs. That way, every time people change the way they interact with content, publishers won’t be left behind in the dark ages.
On the other hand, more important than changing out the technology is changing the way publishers think about technology. You can’t pull off the monolithic IT thing anymore. Publishers that understand the value of community understand the importance of having an agile technology strategy. It makes the difference between falling woefully behind and maintaining a competitive edge.
What’s Next
To succeed today in building strong communities, we have to think more creatively about the role of conversations and the people who join them.
We have to provide easy access to users’ social graphs both inside and outside the publisher community.
We have to build real-time tools that are complimentary to Facebook and Twitter. The integration will better disseminate content and conversation, instead of simply building one-way connections to those networks.
We have to embrace new infrastructure and decision-making to transition to new conversation technologies quickly — before the conversation splinters further.
Do it on your terms, but have a goal of enabling people to engage in the ways that they want. The content itself should be the hub for web discussion, and not just another spoke on the wheel. These practices will increase the value of your community, your content and your brand.
Images courtesy of iStockphoto, ra2studio, and Flickr, vittaly
More About: business, community, social mediaFor more Social Media coverage:Follow Mashable Social Media on TwitterBecome a Fan on FacebookSubscribe to the Social Media channelDownload our free apps for Android, Mac, iPhone and iPad
Posted on Fri, 19 Aug 2011 14:00:03 +0000 at http://feeds.mashable.com/~r/Mashable/~3/32y9honaYww/
Comments: http://mashable.com/2011/08/19/community-content-publishers/#comments
The last five years of web innovation heralded a frenzy of shiny new products that provided people with fresh ways to interact. Simultaneously, the amount of content produced sky-rocketed, with more compelling material than ever before.
However, the past decade hasn’t fostered thoughtful interaction between that content and its consumers. It could be argued that the now-ubiquitous “like” button has replaced thoughtful participation and diminished the relevance of actual conversation. As a result, publishers and bloggers of all sizes are constantly bleeding site content to social channels in order to encourage crucial engagement and interaction outside of their homepages.
As publishers continue to rely on the outside social web to foster their communities, they often witness dire consequences. Sites have experienced a dramatic decrease in core metrics and a dispersion of their most passionate community members. As a result, publishers are placing a higher value on keeping their readers engaged within their own walls.
Ultimately, we’ve been offered the opportunity to completely rethink the passive “comment sections” of the past. Today, the comment section provides a tool to build community engagement around a publisher. The trick is not to think about comments in terms of five years ago. The game has changed, and savvy publishers will also alter their approach to match the new community landscape.
Engagement is About Humans, Not Clicks
Let’s face it: Content is becoming commoditized. Within minutes of any event, identical information can be found on thousands of sites around the web. There are only two ways that publishers can keep their edge in this environment: 1) build a strong editorial point of view; and 2) awaken a passionate community.
Nothing provides a better backdrop for conversation than inspired content that sparks community interaction, specifically in the comment section.
Recently, publishers have nurtured that human desire to participate by covering sites with shiny “share” buttons that push their unique content onto other sites. In theory, other potential readers will find it. “Share” buttons can be useful amplifications tools, but they’re often not turned on with a strategy in mind and don’t help build a feedback loop back to the publisher’s site. The problem is, when you focus so much on distributing your content, you also end up scattering your community conversations along with it.
Despite its knowledge, the industry has spent several years continually sending its communities away. Publishers that care about distribution more than community are taking their eyes off the ball. The reason people click a share button is because it takes them to places that better understand how humans want to interact (Facebook, Twitter, Reddit, Google+, etc.). If publishers offered the same degree of human interaction on their own sites, readers would have less reason to click those buttons in the first place.
The key to solving the problem of building community engagement is to focus on humans as first priority. Not technology, not buttons, not widgets. Today’s community wants to engage around your content, and they’ll do it on your site when provided with a human experience that truly engages.
Creating An Engaging Human Experience
Trying to have a conversation in a static comment section is slow, disorganized and inefficient. The experience is akin to hanging up the phone and redialing after every sentence, which frustrates and discourages people from continuing to participate.
Real-time conversation streams can fix that problem by making conversations more like a fluid dinner table discussion. Whether a few people participate or thousands, real-time conversations are magnetic to watch and participate in.
Secondly, an element of social connectedness will make it easy to mention and notify friends from every social network and from your community — right from the comment box. Make your content the center of the conversation by aggregating the social web back to your site.
A more social and real-time community will self-perpetuate content. It increases page rank, page views, perceived authority, content accuracy, quality, brand, and ultimately, valuation. The proof lies in Huffington Post’s valuation and subsequent acquisition by AOL.
More Innovative Social Platforms
Publishers today are paying off years of technology infrastructure debt. Most publishers are built on top of custom infrastructure and/or single-point third-party systems that restrict the company’s ability to change with the times. These systems are burdens that require millions of dollars a year in upkeep, in addition to being static, cumbersome and slow to progress.
Beyond technology, most publishers have a decentralized decision-making process when it comes to social strategy. In fact, many publishers are unsure of who within their organization is responsible for managing comments, social user registration and loyalty programs.
Large publishers need to create a process for selecting social platforms that is based on a clearly defined strategy, and most importantly, to appoint one person or team to direct it.
In the past year, major publishers around the world have created centralized digital and social teams directly responsible for integrating the next generation of social platforms. These forward-thinking publishers are able to make fast decisions and react to market innovations and user expectations nimbly. They’re ahead of the game, and reaping the benefits of being there.
Think about it this way: Ten years ago, Facebook didn’t even exist. Five years ago, Twitter didn’t exist. On the other hand, almost every publisher has technology powering its web presence (like a customer CMS) that’s much older than either Facebook or Twitter. How can you expect to keep up with your community when you’re stuck with a multi-million dollar investment and a 20-year-old piece of software?
Publishers are used to making large top-down investments that are meant to provide long-term, sustainable and competitive advantages. But the old way of doing things doesn’t cut it anymore. Meanwhile, bloggers and small content producers are adopting new technologies at lightning speed. Communities change their technology preferences even faster than bloggers and small content producers. Have you heard of Google+?
The answer is plain: Publishers need to swap cumbersome infrastructure for flexible systems and simple APIs. Innovation is more important than product maturity. Best-of-breed focus is more beneficial than “one-stop-shop” solutions. Finally, finding dedicated partners with specific expertise will help you stay ahead of the curve.
Publishers can integrate powerful, innovative community platforms in a fraction of the time by adopting agile applications that use APIs. That way, every time people change the way they interact with content, publishers won’t be left behind in the dark ages.
On the other hand, more important than changing out the technology is changing the way publishers think about technology. You can’t pull off the monolithic IT thing anymore. Publishers that understand the value of community understand the importance of having an agile technology strategy. It makes the difference between falling woefully behind and maintaining a competitive edge.
What’s Next
To succeed today in building strong communities, we have to think more creatively about the role of conversations and the people who join them.
We have to provide easy access to users’ social graphs both inside and outside the publisher community.
We have to build real-time tools that are complimentary to Facebook and Twitter. The integration will better disseminate content and conversation, instead of simply building one-way connections to those networks.
We have to embrace new infrastructure and decision-making to transition to new conversation technologies quickly — before the conversation splinters further.
Do it on your terms, but have a goal of enabling people to engage in the ways that they want. The content itself should be the hub for web discussion, and not just another spoke on the wheel. These practices will increase the value of your community, your content and your brand.
Images courtesy of iStockphoto, ra2studio, and Flickr, vittaly
More About: business, community, social mediaFor more Social Media coverage:Follow Mashable Social Media on TwitterBecome a Fan on FacebookSubscribe to the Social Media channelDownload our free apps for Android, Mac, iPhone and iPad
Posted on Fri, 19 Aug 2011 14:00:03 +0000 at http://feeds.mashable.com/~r/Mashable/~3/32y9honaYww/
Comments: http://mashable.com/2011/08/19/community-content-publishers/#comments