Boom 93: Using mPanel tools for enhanced audience engagement
Boom 93 is a local media outlet in Požarevac, Serbia. Operating both online and on the radio, Boom 93 reaches a wide local audience but is also motivated to innovate to engage its audience. The text below shows how tools such as push notifications, quizzes, and polls can enhance user engagement.
Latest News and Push Notifications
Boom 93 utilizes Appworks' mPanel CMS for efficient news entry. While mPanel can integrate with WordPress or any external site, some of our partners use CMS to create and edit news. While we have aimed to create a system that is as simple to use as WordPress, we have a number of additional modules which make it flexible, including some mentioned below.
Push notifications have been the most direct and fastest way to deliver news to users and media companies are using them with more or less success for years. However, the issue here is in how often to send them - send too many and you will lose interaction, send too few and you will lose on the opportunity of enticing the user into the app more frequently. Boom 93 is using notifications mostly for the news which they are offering in a different way from the other - local news and notifications on local events. If you live in Požarevac, you are probably subscribing to notifications from one or two national news outlets, so you are covered with national or global breaking news, but you will also want to subscribe to Boom 93, in order to keep track on what is happening locally.
Geo-location targeting
One of the advanced features of mPanel CMS is geo-location targeting. This works not only with push notifications, to send notifications to users to pre-set locations, but also to display different news to different users in various areas.
In the mPanel, it works simply - the editor will enter the GPS coordinates of the area that you are targeting, plus the radius which is covered from that point on. With that approach, you will get the possibility for precise location targeting, even down to specific neighbourhoods. As Boom 93 is expanding its coverage to other cities in the region, it is using this feature to cover different cities with different news. If you are living in Požarevac, your menu in the app will look different than the one on the user living in Velika Plana, for example.
All-in-One App: News and radio integration
Boom 93's app integrates both news and radio functionalities, providing users with a comprehensive media experience. With an integrated audio player directly connected to their live radio stream, users can listen to Boom 93's broadcast while interacting with news content or have it playing in the background. This kind of integration becomes especially important when you combine it with tools for interaction and engagement - activating the radio listeners to answer to the poll questions inside the app, or take the quiz which is related to the radio show content, for example.
Liveblog
For ongoing events, Boom 93 uses our mPanel CMS for live blogging. This feature includes live push notifications, where a single notification is updated with new information instead of sending multiple new ones. This method efficiently keeps the audience engaged without overwhelming them with constant alerts.
Boom 93's use of modern tools like push notifications, geolocation, live blogging, and interactive quizzes has improved the engagement with their audience. Local media outlets have a more limited reach, that is for sure, but if they are able to offer a modern and interactive approach, something above "just the news", they are in the position to convince users easier to download their app - rather than the "big one" from the national news outlets. By embracing these innovative solutions, Boom 93 not only keeps its audience informed but also builds a loyal and engaged community.
Other features
Here are some additional ideas that could benefit for local media companies
- Advanced E-paper eeader: Available for both app and web, complete with an automatic invoicing system.
- Obituaries: Easily managed through the app and web, with automatic invoicing.
- User-Generated Content: Users can submit news or reports (picture, video, text) directly from the app, with moderation levels already determined through CMS, either automatically approved or reviewed by your team.
- Chat / Forum Module: Similarly to what you have seen on Discord, this feature enhances user interaction within the app across multiple topics, with options for "premium" or "journalistic" discussions.
- User Profile & Points System: Users can earn points through in-app interactions (participating in quizzes and polls, but also by only reading articles), bringing engagement to a higher level. This can help you build a loyalty system by giving out rewards to the most loyal and active users.
- Automatic Article Translation: Using AI, easily provide a website in a second language for just a few euros per month.
For more information on how you as a local media can implement these tools in your media strategy, feel free to reach out to us. Let's enhance your digital presence and engage with your audience more effectively.