Sharing smarter documents: How filesharing services fall short

In MARKETING
9 November 2018
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Filesharing tools have become an important part of modern digital life. Services like Dropbox store files on the cloud and synchronize them on different devices so that users can share and collaborate. However, they aren’t always the best option for distributing your documents online.

In this article, we will explain five ways that these services can fall short. Plus, learn why digital publishing can offer a great alternative to filesharing.

Lacks polish

Most popular filesharing services began as a tool that allowed users to work on a single file across multiple computers. For teamwork and individual use alike, filesharing is strongly associated with drafts and projects in progress. This can make it a poor choice for sharing finished work. We recommend publishing your reports, presentations and newsletters digitally for professional results.

Statistics not included

Whether you’re sharing sales material with a potential customer, circulating a memo to your team or publishing a magazine, you want information about how it is being viewed. Filesharing services generally do not provide readership statistics, so you won’t know if your audience has opened your document a dozen times or not at all. As an alternative to filesharing, opt for creating a digital publication on Calaméo. You’ll get insights on views and a full range of advanced statistics.

Limited enrichment

Although some filesharing services let users add external links and images to their documents, the possibilities for creating interactive publications are limited. With the Calaméo Editor, you can add links, video, audio and more to your publications in just a few clicks. Then all you have to do is share!

Privacy headaches

Filesharing services often require users to choose between making their documents available to everyone and approving viewers for private documents one-by-one. Want a single, private link to send to your whole mailing list? It’s easy with Calaméo. Just select “Allow access with a private URL” in your publication’s Properties. If you need more security, set up password protection for your documents with our Subscribers feature.

One look fits all

Since filesharing solutions focus on drafting, editing and modifying documents, they offer few options for tailoring your publication’s final appearance to your needs. Digitally published documents benefit from a dedicated viewer and on Calaméo, it’s fully customizable. You can add a logo, change the colors and even add your own buttons so that your publication matches your brand perfectly.

While filesharing services can be great for collaboration, digital publishing is a better fit for sharing professional, interactive documents with your audience. You’ll enjoy publications that look polished, smart privacy controls and advanced readership statistics. And the best part? Publishing on Calaméo is a breeze.

Sign up for free and start sharing smarter documents today!

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MARKETING

5 essential types of content to create in 2023

In MARKETING
5 January 2023

What better way to start the year than by setting resolutions? For 2023, you’ll be required to include updating your content marketing strategy, and you’ll need to put in the work to make sure it’s flawless and eclipses those of your competitors.

Videos, articles, photos and online magazines will need to be more impactful than ever! And to support you in your resolution, today we’re sharing the top content trends for 2023.

1. Short videos

The video format has a promising future. Notably, because it can easily adapt to changing fashions and shape itself according to needs. In 2023, it is the short videos that will be honored. Made popular in turn by Vine in 2013, then by Tik Tok in 2020, the format of short videos continues to conquer social networking platforms in recent years, such as Instagram and its “Reels”.

YouTube has also introduced a new specific format of short videos on its platform, named “Shorts”. In 2021, more than 1.5 billion monthly users watched Shorts. It’s not a surprise that YouTube has decided to monetize Shorts. Indeed, these are very engaging contents with a strong viral potential, they can reach thousands or even millions of views much more easily than traditional length videos thanks to their faster pace and more engaging vertical format, which keeps the audience’s attention from the beginning to the end.

So short videos are a must-have format this year to add to your content marketing strategy.

2. Podcasts

The podcast has become a must-have format for content creators and brands alike. Not only is it an easy format for the public to consume, to listen to on the go, or while cooking, for example. But it also allows you to position yourself as an expert in your field and attract new prospects.

In France, 1 out of 2 people have already listened to a podcast, which shows how important the format has become in recent years. It is therefore essential for you to create your own podcast in 2023.

Choose your formula according to your resources: with or without guest, on which platforms to host it, etc. Then go for it!

3. Behind-the-scenes photos

In 2023, on social media, the people expects to see more authenticity. Gone are the filters and retouching, the trend is towards “reality”. To reach the new generation of young adults, generation Z, you must now necessarily play the natural card. The trend has even allowed the birth and growth of the new social network BeReal, which offers to share photos to its network instantly, without being able to retouch them.

For companies, a good idea to meet this new expectation will be to offer more ” behind-the-scenes ” content, which reveals what goes on behind your brand and presents the faces that make it work day by day. This will make your customers feel closer to you and improve your brand image, in just a few posts.

So, don’t hesitate to share your company’s daily life on social networks in 2023.

4. Content that show your values

If the year 2020 was marked by the COVID virus, it was also marked by major social movements like Black Lives Matter. During the summer of 2020, we saw many brands and public figures get involved by sharing statistics or information with their audiences in support of the movement.

Thus, brands are now expected to get involved in social movements: gender equality, racism, environment, social inequalities, etc. In France in 2022, 89% of people expect brands to do something for the common good.

This demand for brand involvement can also be explained by the trend described in the previous point: an expectation of more naturalness, and more transparency from brands, but also, ultimately, of more humanity.

If generation Z is the most sensitive to environmental issues, it demands a real commitment from brands. Thus, it will no longer be possible to display a false commitment and to do Greenwashing because it will necessarily lead to bad buzz, or even boycott by an entire generation.

In 2023, creating socially-engaged content that reflects your brand’s true actions and beliefs is essential to attract new consumers to your products.

5. Sustainable content

It has always been advisable to create high-value content, however, in 2023, the bulk of your content will have to provide interesting, timeless and highly useful information to your audience to be considered green and sustainable.

Indeed, it is in response to environmental concerns that this trend was born. We will therefore prefer quality to quantity. Your contents must be original and offer original and imperishable information to be qualified as sustainable.

If the lifespan of content is often very low on social networks, you will have to think about the use you make of your various channels. To increase the lifespan of your content, it is advisable to use sites such as Pinterest, YouTube or digital publishing platforms such as Calaméo. Offer formats like videos, infographics or online magazines to ensure you offer quality content that lasts over time.


Authenticity will be the keyword for your content in 2023. Less perfect publications, less retouched, but more real and more useful. Show the true face of your brand (and your employees) by supporting the causes you care about and create a podcast on the subject, or film short videos of your actions. In conclusion, rework your content marketing strategy to reflect the expectations of new consumers and to remain effective in 2023.

MARKETING

Measuring “dark social” shares on Calaméo

In MARKETING
1 April 2021

Do you know the term “dark social”? Although a lot has changed about social media since the idea was first described in 2012, dark social sharing is as important as ever. In fact, this type of sharing might be even more key to understanding your content’s success today. Read on to learn why dark social matters in 2021 and how to track it for your digital publications on Calaméo.

Dark social sharing basics

All the way back in 2012, people were beginning to wonder how much content was being shared to social media networks. Or how much content was being shared in other ways. Because networks like Facebook and Twitter were growing fast, share buttons popped up all around the web to make reposting to your own feed easy—and trackable.

But while the number of shares ticked up, this new behavior couldn’t be the only way users were passing along videos, publications and posts. Despite the buzz around social feeds, research showed that plenty of people were sharing in a simple way: copying and pasting the content’s URL into email and messages. Unlike regular social shares, this kind of social activity wasn’t tracked.

As a result, it was easy to miss dark social sharing’s value. However, over the past several years sharing to social media platforms has declined. There are several reasons to explain this trend, including algorithm changes, rising interest in digital privacy and concerns about how information spreads online. Since more than a third of businesses say that “social shares” are a goal for their content, these harder-to-see forms of social sharing must be taken into account.

💡 TIP: Not sure whether social shares are a priority for your publications? Our quick checklist will help you brush up on your digital publishing strategy in no time.

How to track shares on Calaméo

So, how should you track the “dark social” sharing of your content? When it comes to your digital publications, Calaméo’s advanced statistics are a great place to start. That’s because our publication viewer’s own share button was designed with lots of different uses in mind. Take a closer look and you’ll see some options beyond the usual social networks.

Even better, the Shares section of your Calaméo statistics will show you just how many times your publication was emailed, embedded or its URL copied. And the results might surprise you. For example, we were checking the stats for our most recent issue of CALAMEO Magazine and noticed this breakdown:

  • 30% shares to social media platforms
  • 70% “dark social” shares to email, embed or copying URL

To access your publications’ Shares data, go to the Statistics section of your Calaméo account. Click on the “Shares” tab and scroll down to find the full statistics.

Also, be sure to note that these numbers only reflect “dark social” shares coming from inside the publication viewer. You can almost certainly be sure that other readers have, for instance, copied and pasted the publication URL directly from their browsers to share with their networks. Or to put it another way, public social shares may only be telling you a small part of the story.

💡 TIP: To keep digging deeper into the impact of dark social sharing for your content, consider using tracked links and Google Analytics to reveal more data.

In short, social media metrics don’t give you the whole picture when you want to measure how your content is shared online. If you’d like to start looking at complete Shares statistics for your publications on Calaméo, request your free, two-week PLATINUM demo today.

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