April 9, 2020 by Rutger Verhoeven
What is the story value engine©, we can hear you ask. Great question! Here we’ll take you through what happens during the process step by step, and explain how we make sure our story value engine © calculates the best scenario for your story. We’re pretty sure you’re going to love it.
If you’re convinced, intrigued or just plain excited about this, please get in touch with us and we’ll be more than happy to hook you up and get you going.
Let's dive into the machine!
Our machine feeds itself on your stories. And when we talk about stories, we mean any content that is meant to make a real connection with your desired audience. In that sense it can be a post on social, a video on YouTube, an App or web push, an article on your homepage, an Insta story - anything. As long as we know where to find it and can catch its unique ID, we will be able to connect the dots and smartocto will recognise your story.
And then, as if by magic, it will start to generate crystal-clear visuals and graphs in real time, giving you a perfect overview of what is happening with all the precious material you send out in the digital world.
Of course the Story Value Engine© is a smart machine: it has seen millions of stories and it has supported multiple journalistic and business models. That said, we think it’s vital to set it up properly, so we dedicate time to do just that. We know that every newsroom has a unique strategy so we also spend a lot of time and effort to really understand how we can make it work best for yours.
We have several intakes to determine what is truly important to you. And there’s no wrong answer here; we are just eager to find out what makes your strategy special. We only want the best for you. We’re perfectionists like that.
Do you focus on Pageviews because you have an advertising strategy? Is it Subscriptions and Paywalls that drive you? Or are you in it for Reader Engagement or Loyalty? We will find out with questionnaires and intake conversations and together we set up the strategy. And then we’re all set to go and let the engine do what it’s best at: calculating stuff that matters to you!
Once we get the engine all warmed up and your stories are going through it, we can start making calculations with our unique algorithms. These wicked smart little gears are able to connect the data of your story to the desired strategy. We worked for almost two years on how we combine historical data and real time insights within the Story Value Engine© - it’s actually the heart of the system - and the result is that we’ve made it possible to create predictions on story performance before you even publish it. And this will help you get more from all your storytelling efforts. It sounds almost magical - and maybe it is - but we’ve got proof that it works and we’d love to show you how it can work for you! The only thing you have to do is switch on the machine. It’s that easy!
We believe that the solution to being data informed isn’t about bringing more data to the newsroom. Of course, technically, we’re a data company: the app works by collecting data and then translating it into tips and easy-to-understand visuals. But that’s how we do it. The why is what drives us and so actually we see ourselves being more of an impact company. Our mission is to help you optimise your output, so you can become more relevant, more impactful - and more profitable.
That being the case, we don’t think that what’s going to help your newsroom is more spreadsheets. What you actually need are plain and easy-to-understand tips on stories. That’s why we created our highly appreciated notifications. With these simple suggestions on story improvements - sent to you in all the common channels (WhatsApp, Slack, Mail etc) - we make it possible to act in real time on stories that could use a little tweak, uplift, change of plan or follow-up. Little changes that can make a massive difference. That’s super powerful.
Look at it as the best colleague you’ll ever have. And, together with your strategy and the custom designed calculations, smartocto will start to fire all sorts of relevant suggestions on improvement to whatever channel is integral to your workflow. Tips on reach, on loyalty, on engagement, on orchestration, on specific timing and channels… we’ve worked closely with several large newsrooms for more than five years to create more than a 100 different tips. And we’re making new ones every day!
Although we would love to see all editors diving into our system and staying there all day, we know it doesn’t work that way. That’s why the notifications come to you on a mobile device or in a channel you prefer - and that’s also why we’ve built modular big screens. In many cases, this is the first touch point for a newsroom to see where and how the data for smartocto is being visualised.
With a clean overview of daily best performing stories, the expectation of reach during the day, the most engaging stories, the most urgent notifications smartocto believes you should take action on, and insights on conversion or subscription - these things make this application very powerful and insightful.
Many newsrooms use big screens and they often act as a conversation starter on the floor: the pulse of the day is shown and, while they’re drinking coffee, editors can discuss why certain stories are going wild and others lag behind. Since smartocto visualises actionable tips on specific stories with a recognisable red dot, there’s also a reason to rush back to your desk and help your story get some more audience attention!
At the end of the day, you want to know how you performed with all the stories you put out there. This we understand. You want proof of a job well done and a digital pat on the shoulder saying you did all right. We’ve packed everything you need to know into the reporting part of the Story Value Engine© .
Smart daily, weekly, bi-weekly, monthly reports can be created and automatically sent to you, or any other mailbox you prefer. There’s an overview on story performance, on the impact on all channels, on topics, on authors - you name it, we can measure it! We are especially very proud of the fact that our metrics go far beyond expected insights on Pageviews and Reach.
We serve insights on Reader Loyalty, Engaged Time, Article Reads and many, many more specific metrics that give you necessary info on the strategy you want to roll out. And on top of that (yes! There’s more!) we can have our strategists give you additional - custom made - insights and ‘deep dive reports’ where we can even take a much more detailed look at all the data that we’ve collected - and what that tells us about specific topics you want to learn more about.
Have a chat with one of our customer success managers, and they will be happy to show you examples of these reports.
Our story life cycle approach
We think of stories as being part of a cycle: an ongoing process which gets more and more refined with experience. We’re able to help guide you through each of the 8 stages of this cycle, offering guidance at each step of the way.
The next step in editorial analytics: smartify
Smartify is not a single product or feature. It's a revolutionary decision making system that gives newsrooms AI-powered advise. This technology makes any data collection out there smart.
