Publishers, do you know what your readers want?

Everyday, you get to know things from many sources. You read news online, you are hooked onto Twitter, and RSS feeds. You visit your favorite site on the web. But no site can match the relevance of some one from social network says something to you.Whether its about a new music album, or a new movie. Whether its about a funny incident that happened, or about a political issue worth debating – you give the highest attention when you hear something from your social network. I am not referring to your Facebook news feed here. Your Facebook news feed is still about news being broadcast to the social network. I am referring to things someone tells you directly. Statistically, news, information and tidbits you receive directly from your social contacts are the most relevant to you.

Why is word of mouth so effective compared to other channels?

Social information filtering!

Social contacts constantly seek feedback, and learn what kind of news is appropriate. There is filtering happening at two ends.

Inbound filtering: When I hear something from Shradha (of YourStory.in) about publishing, I give it a higher weightage – than when she says something about search algorithms. When I hear something from my professor about a new type of auction, I am all ears – but not when he comments about the startup ecosystem. I apply a filter about what I give importance to. This is an inbound relevance filter.

Outbound filtering: I know what to say to whom. I will recommend an user engagement strategy to Shradha, but not about a new cool programming language. With my colleague, I’ll discuss the Bowling Pin strategy to acquiring customers. I know what they are interested to know about. I do outbound filtering.

Word of mouth communication is so effective, because of this dual filtering. Information is not broadcast to everyone. It is targeted. Similarly, everything thats received is not given the same importance. It is prioritized. The actors quickly learn and adapt. They do not spend energy shoving information down a channel thats not receptive.

So, whats the connection to the article’s title?

As a publisher, you are writing several articles. All of these are going down a twitter, RSS or Facebook stream to your readers. Your readers are already applying inbound filtering. They look at an article title, read a snippet and then decide if they should dive in.

But, are you doing your outbound filtering? Do you know your audience? Do you know what they want more? Do you know what they want less? Are you adapting to their taste?

Before trying to achieve the holy grail of emulating the effectiveness of word of mouth in the online publishing world, you must first get feedback about your audience’s taste. This article is about that!

Why should a publisher know what the reader cares for? To improve relevance. Every article you write takes some effort from you. Do you like these articles going down the twitter stream of your readers being overlooked? No. You want them to like and read as many articles. How can you adapt to their interests, drive up relevance and hence engagement on your site? By knowing their interests.

But how do you estimate their interest? Yes, I know you all have Google Analytics, and Google Analytics tells you which articles got more traffic. You also know the top queries that brought you traffic. With some effort you can pull out the articles that have increased commenting. But all if the information you have is about articles. Can you bubble up these patterns to the concepts that readers respond to?

I’ll organize this discussion around some questions for which you should find answers.

1) The content profile: Build a profile of the concepts you are writing about. These are the concepts you are investing on. They form the basis for which we’ll measure ROI and response.

2) The traffic profile: Build a profile of your most popular articles. These are the articles that have kept Google Analytics’ servers busy. They are feeding your display ads too. Is the traffic profile the same as your content profile?

Traffic from different sources

2) a) Direct traffic profile: Build a profile of articles that are visited directly by your users. These users come to your website, and then read your articles. Which ones are they reading?

2) b) Social media traffic profile: Build a profile of articles that get shared on social networks. Sharing is the best response you can get from a reader. He’s not just happy, but is encouraging his network to read as well. Its important to separate the bots and trolls from the real users in the social networks. So instead of the actual act of sharing, we’ll measure the traffic your site gets as a result of sharing.

2) c) Search engine traffic profile: Build a profile of articles that get you traffic from a search engine. While social media can give you a measure of how interesting your articles are, search engines give you a measure of how useful your articles are. People search for their needs, and then click to come to your site. users from a search engine are purposeful, and state what they want clearly. They also present better monetization opportunities.

3) Exploration profile: The direct traffic you get is biased by your most recent articles, since you’ve placed them in prominent places on your website. The social media traffic you get is biased by how interesting the articles are. The search traffic you get is biased by the intent content match, and your competition. All of them tell some aspect of your readers, but seldom give the complete picture. However, when any of these users read an article, and explore your site further – you know what their interests are. Their first click may be influenced by your placement, their social content or immediate need. But their second click in your site helps see beyond their immediate context into their broader interests. What kind of articles are they exploring into?

The explorers

4) Comment profile: When a reader comments on your article, he’s increasing the wealth of your content. Comments are not just a great way of soliciting reactions from your readers, they also serve as ways to extend your content into a discussion. Not all of your articles get the same commenting. Some do. What concepts do people comment on? Are they indicators for your next articles?

Comments

A case study with YourStory

We did an experiment using YourStory’s data, and the information analytics engine behind Dhiti, and created these profiles. While they are only taken from a time limited sample of the site to ensure no competitive intelligence is revealed – we still had some great insights.

1) Content profile: What are the concepts YourStory is writing about in the last few days?

Entrepreneurship: Entrepreneurial ecosystem, Founder

Business terms: Funding, Customer, Corporate training, Leverage

Private equity: Venture capitalists, Venture investor, Business angel, Angel groups

Finance: Debt capital, Financial advisory, Public companies, Issuance, Accounting, Long-Term, Project financing

Academia: Intellectual, Academy, Undergraduate, Faculty, Alumnus, Term, Chair

Business: Business administration, Ensure, Exports, Business Development, Disappoint, Vendor, Business acumen, Nascent market

Industries: Professional, Distribution, Energy sector, Consumer Electronics, Governance

Marketing: Product planning, Software Development, White Paper, Advertising, High end, Product line, Distribution, Presentations

Motivation: Action plan, Incentives, Enable, Objective, Promotion, Energy, Hunger

Financial markets: Liquidity, Capital Market, External financing, Financial Services, Guidance, Valuation, Hybrid market, Long

2) Traffic profile: What concepts are people actually reading?

Entrepreneurship: Entrepreneurial ecosystem, Founder

Management: Resources, School of business, Professional, Entrepreneurialism, Management Consulting, Senior management, Head office, Business Management

Economics of service industries: Costs, Managed Services, SaaS, Service Provider, Suppliers, Quality, Computer Security, Certificate

Learning: Ability, Experiment, Studying, Learning management system, Learning Community, Lessons, Interesting, SKILL

Economic development, technological change, and growth: Productive, Emerging economies, Renewable Energy, Technological progress, Capacity building, Development, Slums, Rural infrastructure

Motivation: Innate, Incentives, Action plan, Enable, Object, Energy

Promotion and marketing communications: Self-promotion, Advertising media, Internationally, Poster, General public, Multi-media, Brand name, Direct to consumer

Maintenance: Maintain, Repair, Failure, Service,

2) a) Direct traffic profile: What concepts do people coming directly to the web site read?

Agronomy: Horticulturists, Farm Management, Agricultural research, Sowing

Bookstores: Bookstores, Book store

Business term: Customer, Corporate training, Funding, Leverage, WORK

Business models: Revenue model, Subscriber, SaaS, Service Provider, Sustainable business, TRUST

Branding: High end, Brand recognition, Brand name

Industries: Distribution, Professional, Energy sector, Governance

Accounting systems: Book keeping, Double entry accounting, Credit

2) b) Social media traffic profile: What concepts do people share and read from social media? To see the difference between Facebook and Twitter audience, the two are presented separately.

Facebook:

Promotion and marketing communications: Target audience, Advertiser, Coupons, Press Release, Reach

Indian masculine given names: Deepak, Harsh, Abhishek, Naveen, Raj, SHARAD, Kartik, Arun

Business models: Revenue model, Subscriber, Micro-Enterprise, Business Model, TRUST

Healthcare quality: Disease management, Health care services, Cost effective, Medical Care

Business term: Corporate training, Customers, Funds, Funding, Clientele, Leverage, WORK

Occult tarot: Tarot card reading, Tarot card reader

Motivation: Innate, Ambitious, Enabling, Energy, Resilience

Primary care: Primary Health Care

Twitter:

Entrepreneurship: Entrepreneurial ecosystem, Founder

Motivation: Actualize, Innate, Primary objective, Ambitious, Enabling, Morale, Inquisitiveness, Goal

Business: Businesses, In-house, Ensure, Selling, FMCG, Proposal, Firm, EXPORT

Business terms: Market Capitalization, Operating costs, In-house, Retail chain, Payment, Tycoons, Bespoke, Funds

Consulting: Management Consulting

Financial ratios: Capital ratio, Rate of Return, Leverage, Statutory Liquidity Ratio, Beta, Color

Financial markets: Financial market, Liquidity, Financial instruments, Guidance, Financial sector, Systemic risk, Private Equity, Financial products

Investment: Investment fund, Developed markets, Private Equity, Carry, Mutual Fund, Collar, Correction, Option

Banking: Investment Banking, Capital ratio, Banking system, Statutory Liquidity Ratio, Banking Business, Cheque, Free Banking, Bankers

Interest rates: Sub-prime mortgage

2) c) Search engine traffic profile: What concepts do users coming from a search engine tend to read?

Promotion and marketing communications: Promotion, Target audience, Advertise, Coupons, Sponsorship, Press Release, Buzz

Strategic management: Strategy formulation, Competitive Advantage, Management Consultant, Corporate Strategy, Leading, Leadership, Leverage

Types of organization: Non-Profit Organization, Professional association, NGOs, Institute, Socially, COMMUNITY, Foundation

3) Exploration profile: What concepts do users tend to explore on the site? Analyzing this was made very easy by the Dhiti widget on YourStory. Dhiti organizes relevant articles from the site into concepts making it easy for readers to dive deeper into them. When readers explore on a concept, they are giving away their interest to know more on the topic. The concepts readers dived into at YourStory are:

Entrepreneurship: Entrepreneurial ecosystem, Startup companies, Entrepreneurial education, Entrepreneurs, Business Plan, Creative entrepreneurship, Center for entrepreneurship and innovation, Small enterprise, Startup Weekend, Founder, Venture Capital

Business terms: Business models, Business acumen, Business idea, Business Development, Technology Business Incubator, Customer base, Privately held company, Arbitration, Strategy Consulting, Sustainable business

E-Commerce: Group buying

Marketing: Marketing strategies, Online marketplace, Display advertising,

Software Development: Software Testing

Rural economics: Sustainable business, Social impact, Wave power

4) Comment profile: What concepts in articles seem to invite more commenting from user?

Promotion and marketing communications: Target audience, Advertising, Ratings, Sponsor

Business term: Customers, Funds, Funding, WORK

Marketing: Marketers, Target audience, Advertising, Discounts, Pricing, Consumers, Win-win situation, Service

Renting: Rentals. Car rental companies

Advertising: Advertising, AdAge, Sponsor, Attention

Blogging: Micro-blogging

Analysis

With a reasonable amount of data, its time to put our analysis hats on, and draw inferences. The intent here is not to judge the audience of the site, or the content on YourStory. The sample taken is intentionally small – so as to not reveal broad patterns. That analysis should be confidential to the owners of the site. This inference exercise is mainly to observe differences in information consumption based on the channel of discovery. They would reveal different patterns for different sites giving clues towards content strategy. Notice the following patterns here:

YourStory’s content production is clearly skewed towards Entrepreneurship, and Venture capital. However the direct traffic from their home page tends to prefer outlier areas. This may be indicative of the type of stories they “feature” on the site.

Traffic from twitter is mostly interested in technical aspects from the site.

Personal and social aspects (like health care, entertainment (tarot reading) tend to be popular in Facebook.

Search engine traffic shows the presence of social entrepreneurship – for which YourStory has good search engine presence.

The exploration profile matches entrepreneurship and venture capital the most – which is the focus area of the site.

Topics that tend to have more public opinion get more commenting (rentals).

Applying outbound filtering:

Getting back to the main theme with which we started the article – outbound filtering. The different channels clearly show different patterns of consumption. YourStory’s direct audience wants features – stories about outliers. The Facebook audience is interested in personal and social stories. Twitter audience seems more tech savvy. YourStory’s search engine presence is skewed towards a different area. How can YourStory make use of this to improve relevance across all channels?

. Concentrate on “features” on the web site’s home page. Get more stories on outliers.

. The Twitter audience is more interested in technical articles. Feed them more of that. Perhaps curate your audience by sharing relevant content from elsewhere in the web.

. The Facebook audience is more personal in nature. Perhaps thats the place to “connect” to entrepreneurs.

. Depending on whether YourStory is happy with its search engine profile, it can pump up more content in that area, or invest in SEO for getting better coverage for its other content.

So after so much analysis to know about reader intent, we must not forget the most well-tested method of all. Just ask! Have you considered doing surveys with your readers?

Bharath Mohan is the co-founder of Dhiti (http://dhiti.com), a content discovery startup based in Bangalore. Bharath has a Phd in information retrieval from IISc. Before founding Dhiti, Bharath has worked at Google and other startups in research and development roles. Bharath is an avid information dissemination enthusiast and has been studying how information flows through online societies.Bharath tweets at @bharath_mohan