We just wanted to let you know of some changes that have/are taking place for the HTN community and humantalentnetwork.com
1- Announcing the new site user experience, and the heat/popularity index.
2- Deprecating the old contributor application process and replacing it with a sweet, slick and simple process.
3- You now have Login Access: Announcing the new user dashboard for guest article submissions and allowing more individual personalization for contributors and their representatives.
4- Announcing the new book store and the play or pay system (Q2-Q3).
5- Growth statistics.
New User Experience & Heat Index
What we want to create is a user experience where our community decides what is relevant, what great content is, and what the HTN community wants to see more of. This is why we developed a user experience that allows our users to interact with our content in multiple ways, and those interactions would translate into better experiences for other users.
This means that we had to redesign our site to better reflect that. If you haven’t yet checked it out you can do so here.
As you will be able to see every article has a Heat Index attached to it. This heat index is an advanced algorithm that takes all interactions with this content and aggregates it into a single popularity number. The heat index formula, in its basic form is:
A x Views + B x Likes + C x Emotes + D x Comments + E x Rating Factor
Where A, B, C, D, E are constants we keep private so that the system isn’t gamed by others, and x= multiply.
You don’t have to be a math wiz to see what this means; the more interactions there are with content you and your clients submit, the more it will be pushed up in the rankings, the more it appears on the site, and the more visibility it receives. And this is a self re-inforcing cycle. It also means that content submitters that submit and forget, and don’t help promote their own content by answering questions in the comment sections, ask peers to rate/like/share their content, and don’t even visit their own content to view it will pretty quickly move down the ranks and receive less visibility.
This allows us to be what we truly are, a medium and a portal for great ideas, not just a loud speaker for anyone.
Deprecating the Old Application Process
To stay true to the vision, having a manual contributor application process doesn’t make sense, and you told us so with your feedback. Additionally, cycle times from the moment someone applies to the moment they contribute were not what we wanted them to be. Therefore, we’ve gotten rid of the traditional application process, and replaced it with a simple 2 step process outlined here. There is also a section that outlines how publicists/PR and communication professionals can engage this new system.
To summarize it, those who are interested in contributing, should sign the contributor agreement, create an account, add their social links/photo etc., and within 24-48 hours, when they log back in, they’ll find a link in their dashboard that allows them to submit their articles, or even edit old ones. The articles are then reviewed, and if all is ok, we publish.
If your author/contributor/client did not sign the contributor agreement, you will not see that link.
Announcing the New User Dashboard
Speaking of logging in, all HTN members, and contributors now have access to their own profile and guest submissions, simply by logging in and going to their dashboard (the key icon in the top menu). That means they can edit their bios, headshots, social media and site links etc. In an upcoming update, we’ll also allow for the personalization of their profile page background and imagery, so that they can align it to their own corporate and/or personal brands.
To access your dashboard, simply log in to their account here. If you do not remember your username reach out to me by email (reply to this message). You can then use that username to reset the password.
Announcing the new Book Store in Q2-Q3 as an Amazon.com Partner
We strive to offer many benefits for HTN community members and contributors, as well as continue the process of creating a complete knowledge portal for academics, and practitioners of the social sciences and social professions.
In order to capture that goal, we are in the final stages of creating a book store, with fulfillment partner, Amazon.com.
Our store will aim to provide book and other item listings, with fulfillment by Amazon.com that we feel are relevant to HTN community members, and we will offer our contributors a special pay or play system, that allows them to get their books listed in exchange for contributing on a regular basis, or to pay a monthly fee to be listed, and recommended by HTN editors. For more information on getting your books listed, please email Joe Shaheen at [email protected].
Growth Statistics
In the last 18 months we have been humbled by the level of interest coming from you and the HTN community in a portal that allows good ideas to be heard, and for HTN members to finally have a platform where their livelihoods can flourish, and I wanted to share with you just a few statistics on how well we’ve done as a community in bringing in new people.
In 2014, we’ve grown our contributor membership base by over 600% with about 1M impressions over main site articles and social media. The average visitor reads 25% more pages than the market leader. Our users also spend 20% more time on our site than the market average and over 80% of our audience are from the USA, Canada, Germany, and the UK. On social media, in the last quarter our follower base has grown by over 20%, while social media interactions grew by an average of 50%.
The demographics of our audience are also encouraging. In 2014, while more than 35% of our audience was made up of the social media savvy 24-34 year olds, the coveted (for business and brand marketing) 35-54 segment made up over 47% of our audience—a stark difference between market leaders and HTN—and for our partners, a reason to celebrate.
We believe this drastic difference is due to our editorial requirements focusing more on quality and depth of content, rather than on socially popular shallow content.
All in all we’ve had a great 2014, and we’re looking forward to some great additions and changes for 2015.
We hope you’ll continue to join and support us on this journey.
Please feel free to reach out to me if you have any questions, or to give feedback.
Truly yours,
Joe Shaheen
Editor-in-Chief
Human Talent Network