7 professional tips for your account

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!

By now, the advantages of digital communications are obvious to almost everyone. Thanks to tools like email, online publishing and social media, it’s fast and easy to get your message out there. In fact, the explosive growth of digital channels is overtaking traditional ways of doing things. From meetings to marketing, online options are on top.

However, there are also some disadvantages to common forms of digital communication. For example, they often rely heavily on text. And while text-heavy formats like email are efficient, they aren’t as good at creating trust and engagement in their audience. According to media richness theory, contextual elements enhance those features and improve the quality of communication.

In other words, considering when to use enriched media can have big benefits for your digital communication. But how exactly can you create richer documents to engage your readers? Our guide has three great ideas to get you started.

Step 1: Interactivity

To take advantage of rich media in your communications, interactivity is the most important value. Don’t be fooled by its sometimes gimmicky history! Today, interactive features encourage distracted Internet users to go beyond skimming. Instead of passive scrolling, digital publications require readers to stop, think and click through for active browsing.

Even the pageflip effect helps to enrich your communications, via the concept of skeuomorphic design. Unlike the flat design style, skeuomorphism incorporates shapes and textures from real objects in digital interfaces. Because they’re more detailed than flat buttons and grids, skeuomorphic elements catch your eye. The interactive interface of an online publication can make your message stand out—and engage your audience’s attention.

Of course, you can add many other interactive features to your digital publications. For instance, external links let your readers follow up on CTAs in one click. But to get the most out of enriched media, you’ll need to consider including audio and video alongside images and text.

Step 2: Audio

Compared to written communication, it’s not hard to understand why audio is a “richer” format. Think of all the things that a phone call has versus an email: the speaker’s pauses, hesitations, laughs and above all, the tone of voice. These signals let the person listening to interpret and process the message better than with just the words.

Luckily, digital tools have made audio content extremely easy to produce and integrate into your communications. To record a voice clip or podcast, all you need is a microphone and simple editing software. Once you’re happy with the sound, upload the file to a hosting platform like SoundCloud. Then, add it to your online publication for readers to click and play.

If you’re wondering what kind of audio content to include, don’t be afraid to get creative. You can boost the impact of any message by providing an audio version. For example, try having your company president record her message to shareholders inside your annual report. Or explore the conversational side of audio and integrate a podcast into your digital publication. Since users can’t get enough audio, the possibilities are endless!

Step 3: Video

Although audio is booming, there’s one great reason to choose video to enrich your communications. That’s because in media richness theory, video is the top option. In addition to audio signals, video gives your audience visual information like movement and body language. In digital terms, video communication comes as close as possible to the engagement of a real-life experience.

Unfortunately, the infamous “pivot to video” convinced many businesses that video was too expensive an investment. And indeed, high-quality video content does take time and resources to produce. But that doesn’t mean your online communications strategy should write off video. Instead, think again about the kinds of video you can prioritize.

Three simple but extremely effective ideas include product demonstrations, tutorials and calls to action. All of these make the most out of video’s strongest features to enrich your digital publications: visual action and human presence. When your audience watches another person ask them to sign up, or show them how to, they can connect more deeply with the message.

To sum it up, media richness theory has a lot to tell us about how to communicate with audiences online. Used wisely, enriched media like digital publications can be a powerful tool for creating memorable content and developing audience relationships.

And if you want to see for yourself, why not request your two-week demo of our PLATINUM plan? You’ll enjoy access to all the professional enrichment features of Calaméo’s digital publishing solution—absolutely free.