TownNews.com has added a new, easy way to see how readers are responding to your content: User Reactions! With a click, users can express an opinion about a story—thrilled, furious, or somewhere in between—strengthening their connection to your brand.
Capturing reactions from users has many benefits:
Rank stories by reaction type: All reactions are logged to the individual articles and can be queried within the BLOX CMS block editor. Create blocks showing content ranked by reaction. For example, lighten things up on the front page by showing the funniest stories of the day.
Compare reaction analytics: When users click a reaction icon, a record of the interaction flows into Google Tag Manager. Analyze your GTM results to determine which stories are most engaging and what kind of reactions they produced. Great for planning future content.
Target content based on reaction behaviors: All reactions are collected as part of the TownNews.com iQ program. Use these signals for audience targeting, ad targeting and behavioral content recommendations.
Group reader engagement: User reactions are also weighted against keywords in an article as part of the iQ Engage program. Content can be analyzed according to sentiment or behaviors, and used to show visitors content that meets their individual interests.
“We've enabled user reactions,” said Robert Armstrong of the Western University Gazette. “We love how it adds an extra level of interaction for those people who want to comment on a story without actually commenting.”
User Reactions in BLOX CMS are simple to enable and free to use. You can enable reactions sitewide or only for specific sections, and restrict reactions to logged-in users or allow anonymous reactions—the choice is yours!
