Increasing engagement with content..not only for Coil

March 11, 2020

⌛ Reading time: 6 minutes

Perhaps you have notice recently i have added to my blogs here at Coil some kind of header allowing to share my articles via Twitter or Facebook and giving you, dear reader, an estimated reading time for you to have an idea on how long(or short) the article you're gonna start reading is.

...why have i added this to my blog posts? Simple question with a simple answer: giving my readers some kind of engagement with content.

Engagement with content simply explained

Creating a perfectly engaging blog or article can be a real challenge, we all know that. And the problem is you need to struggle with billions of bytes of info and the short attention spans of readers when thinking even in start writing. So you need to make you blog(and your posts) more attractive and digestible for common user.

There's not a “given” definiton for “engagement with content” but we can think on it like the way you have to quickly catch the attention of the readers, get stick them out on your content and make them value your writings as a positive thing, so they will keep reading and wish to come back later for more.

There are several ways to make your content engaging for users(you can check here and here) but what i want to explain here is how we can provide our readers some useful tools to make our content engaging even in platforms who are developing their status right now(like Coil ;) ) and does not provide, directly, the means to achive this.

It's all a matter of choices!

You can check some older articles written by me right here in my blog and maybe you can find something like this:

Fig 1. Simple engaging “header” added to the top of my blog posts here at Coil.

...a couple of share links and an estimated reding time? :) You may be wondering why i call it “engaging header” if it is so simple at plain sight...In fact, Coil offer us a lateral menu where we have three icons(Twitter, Facebook and Reddit) allowing us to share our article using those social media sites but still i have decided to create my own “sharing links” embedded into my “special header”...why?

Fig 2. Lateral menu allowing us to share content using Twitter, Facebook or Reddit here at Coil.

There are many “why” actually and, in fact, it is all a matter of choices. Let's take a look closely on those “why”:

❶

Coil offer us a “sticky lateral menu” with icons allowing us to share our articles on selected social media sites but it's a very common pattern to place social media buttons at the top of blog posts rather than the side.

There is a general consensus that tell us the best place to position those buttons is generally on the top(as i do) or left side(as Coil does) of a page because of the way we read and view a site. Also, it may seem silly to put them above a post, but studies show around 60% of content is shared socially before it is even read. :o

With that idea in mind i have placed top and bottom sharing links on my Coil blog posts trying to catch the readers attention on socialize the content before and after they have read the whole article.

❷ Customization:

The sharing links offered by Coil only allow us to share a predefined message with our links:

Fig 3. Predefined tweet offered by Coil.

It's true a reader sharing the link can change the message and add some valuable content and some tags to make the message

spread out in a more social way; but to offer a customized message to share can be a more powerful tool and give the impression to your readers that you really care what is shared on the networks regarding your article. You can add your own tags too after studying the trends that are significant to your content...so nothing is random after all :)

Fig 4. Customized tweet: no doubts it is better than “check out this post....”. :)

Besides you can add other social media sites(like Pinterest or Linkedin) aside those offered by default options here at Coil or maybe in other blogging platform as well.

As added value you can use a link shortener allowing you to shorten the link and to track actions over that link representing your article.

...next WHY, please!!! :)

❸ Tracking:

As stated previously, you can use when predefining a custom message to share, a link shortener allowing you to short the link and giving you the ability to track action over that link, wich will give you a neat idea on how many people are somehow “interacting” with your content.

Fig 5. Tracking clicks over time in your shortened link.

Fig 6. Tracking locations where people have clicked your link...pretty cool isn't?

❹ Reading time:

This “why” is not offered by Coil by default and i think it is an important thing to consider when we offer an article to the crowd.

No mater how long or short your article is, offer users an estimated reading time for your articles is considered a good practice among bloggers from everywhere. This concept was popularized by Medium platform back in 2013. Since then many other blogging platforms have added this feature to their resident software.

The concept is simple: if you just tell readers how many minutes it will take them to read your article, they’ll be more likely to read it. It’s psychology at work. That, in turn, works in your favor. :)

Some recent studies have shown that showing a reading time to our users makes the bounce rate decrease by 13% while the overall time on site increase by 13.8%. According to Medium the ideal article takes 7 minutes to read!

...so, adding an estimated reading time to our blogs is a pretty cool idea after all!!!

This is a feature Coil hasn't but i miss a lot from my previous day as a a beginner blogger. Adding related posts to your blog can help improve content engagement, keep visitors on your site, and boost your SEO.

It is a proven fact that on websites with this feature activated generally experience increases in the average length of time that each visitor spends on those sites. By displaying related posts underneath an article, you are telling visitors what to do next. Showcasing content in a similar niche to the post they have just read will keep them interested in what your site has to offer; so they will spend more time reading articles in your blog.

My friend Ken Melendez(a prolific blogger here in Coil) have shown us this feature adapted to his blog posts.

Fig 7. A snapshot of one of the blog posts of Ken Melendez showcasing related articles.

As Coil does not offer us this feature right now, it is imperative to do this manually, but given the results will improve your users engagement on reading time mostly, i think is a good idea to add this valuable feature to our blog posts.

Final thoughts...by now...

Writing a blog post can be really difficult sometimes and for people who dedicate their lives exclusively to this it could take even days to get a nice “piece of art” to publish :) That is why bloggers need to focus in content and the way they offer this content to the crowd trying to create valuable and engaging content at the same time, trying to take advantage of every tool and feature available on blogging platforms we choose...and if those tools aren't provided, we can manage ourselves to get the job done: it's just a matter of choices, inventiveness...and a bit of luck ;)

So if you are an enthusiast of historical photograph and amazing discoveries do not forget to follow me at https://coil.com/u/deyner1984 because i will be releasing soon new and impressive contents about it!!!

...and if you valuate our work and want to support good and amazing content exclusively for you, do not forget to get a Coil subscription....it is a small fee to get great content for you and learn a lot!!!

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✰ Coil features i miss about...

❤ Share via: Twitter | Facebook

It only takes me 5 minutes to create my “engagement header and footer” :) using the right tools.

...you wanna know how to add those features to your articles here at Coil and wich tools do i used to achieve this?

Continue reading with a Coil membership.