Digital content platform for EM360 Tech
Development of a user-generated content platform on Drupal.
About EM360 Tech
IMI Publishing is a publishing company that creates various types of thematic content platforms. One of them is EM360 Tech, where the users can add technology content, like articles, podcasts, whitepapers, and videos, to become authorities in the IT industry.
Challenge
The general assumption was to create a platform functionally similar to LinkedIn. The new website had to allow for following other users or connecting with them, sending messages to each other, writing posts, and creating events. Unlike LinkedIn, EM360 Tech had to be focused on one industry - IT.
The IMI Publishing team needed a complete platform combining the content functionalities and social features. For these purposes, we needed to create the content workflow, article categories, user accounts, the possibility to log in via LinkedIn API, and integration with payment gateways (to enable paying for subscriptions), to name a few.
Solution
We’ve developed a content platform where users create accounts, publish articles, and interact with others. Due to the scoring system implementation, they get points for their activities and go through different levels in the ranking - New Contributor, Rising Star, Expert, and Industry Guru. Each role comes with benefits like writing content without moderation, the possibility to participate in podcasts as a guest, or asking questions in such programs. Besides these roles, there are separate tabs on the EM360 Tech website gathering the industry leaders (individuals), solution providers (companies), and media partners (event organizers).
This content creation platform is equipped with a dedicated content workflow that starts with selecting a post type and its category, goes through the article writing and editing, and ends with Post under review stage. The ready materials are displayed in feeds. Each of them applies to a given category, like AI in the Enterprise or Data Management.
Result
The digital content platform EM360 Tech contains various mechanisms tailored to its specific needs.
Promoting content
The Recommended section is present in every content category and is based on content advertising. It uses the article ranking and management panel we developed entirely in Drupal CMS. The user creates a new post, chooses its category, and selects the Get premium option. Once they enter their content, they see the Buy subscription view. Here are three plans available - free, optimal, and premium - that come with different publishing possibilities.
After selecting the subscription plan, the user chooses the payment method and is directed to a payment platform. To select content to promote, the user goes to their posts list and chooses specific materials. In this view, they can see the limits they can use and the possibility of upgrading their subscription plan.
Content advertising logic
In case multiple users would like to promote their articles, videos, or podcasts in a given category at the same time, we designed the content advertising logic. The content is queued and rotated. If more than nine articles are to be promoted in a given category, the next material lands in the queue and waits for a free spot in the Recommended section.
Only three entries are visible in a given category without sliding the carousel. Every hour the category is refreshed, articles, podcasts, or videos are randomly shuffled so that each is shown more or less the same number of times.
Marketing automation tool integration
We supported the EM360 Tech team in integrating their digital content platform in Drupal with Mautic - a marketing automation tool. Due to our help:
- After user registration on the EM360 Tech content website, the contact is automatically created in Mautic. It contains first name, last name, email, and a tag informing that they came from the website.
- The user gets email notifications when someone comments or likes their article, or follows their profile. They can adjust the frequency of the messages or turn them off.
- Once the user subscribes to the newsletter, their contact in Mautic is assigned with the appropriate tag. The EM360 Tech team can later send the newsletter to a group of users with this tag.
Audience metrics
The users that want to publish and promote their content on this platform can check the details of the audiences they can reach. On the Tell us your audience page, they can see the statistics on the industries, job functions, levels, and countries the website visitors come from. The data is regularly updated.