Everything You Wanted to Know About Dropping Content in Searchie

This week alone, I’ve had two people inquire about dripping content in Searchie so I thought I’d take some time to talk about this feature that’s in private beta right now. But, first, let’s chat about why dripping is important, or why so many people are after it, anyway.

Why drip content? 

Quote: Everything in excess is opposed by nature

-Hippocrates

Maybe think about it like this:

Too much information all at once can make our users feel like a flood coming right at them. They don’t know what to do with it all. Instead of taking it all in, they drive away. 

We don’t want our users thinking

A University of South Australia study showed that if people have more than seven pieces of information to process, they tune it out! “For learning to occur, it's critical that information is transferred from the short term memory to the long term memory, because if we have more than seven pieces of information in our short term memory at one time, we get an overload (referred to as cognitive overload).”

What about Searchie?

So now that we’ve established that overwhelm isn’t our BFF, how can Searchie help us? Before we delve into dripping content, I encourage you to think about your site map and your user experience. This truly is the best way to address overwhelm and make sure that your user is both getting the information they want/need and what you feel they should get.

Now, let’s talk dripping. This is a private beta feature right now which means you need to reach out to the Searchie team to be a part of their testing group. This means you’ll test the feature in your own Hub/s and give them constructive feedback. Of course when something is being tested, it isn’t perfect which means that sometimes things break. You’ve got to be willing to go with the flow! If you’re interested in being a part of the beta, reach out to Paulina on the Searchie team. 

What the Dripping Does

It’s released by playlist. So, if you’re looking to release modules at a time, this dripping feature is for you. An example would be you’ve got a 6-week course and each week you’re going to release a bunch of videos. Perhaps you have modules 1-6 and in each module you’ve got 3-5 videos that are a few minutes long. Week 1, on Tuesday morning at 9am, you schedule module 1 to release with three videos. Week 2, on Tuesday morning at 9am, you schedule 4 videos to release. Week 3, on Tuesday morning at 9am, you schedule another 3 videos to release...and so on, and so on. This takes place with six different playlists, each one scheduled to different times.

What the Dripping Doesn’t Do

If you’re looking to release a video at a time within a module, this isn’t going to work right now.  An example of this would be you’ve got a playlist of videos and you want one video at a time to be released from that playlist—say, each Tuesday at 9am you want to drop a video for 6 weeks. In this use case, this is your course. It’s the only material in your Hub. So it doesn’t make sense to break it out into more than one playlist. The schedule doesn’t allow for any publishing outside of the playlist or per video at this time.

Alternative Work Arounds

If you don’t want to participate in the private beta or you need something to hold you over, here are some alternatives!

Automate with Zapier

Zapier is an integrator. It helps to automate functions with other applications. For example, you could use Convertkit or Active Campaign with Searchie to set up automation with segmentation and sections/tagging inside your Hub. The two will “talk” to each other to tell the segments when to release the sections (based on the tags which are what the apps have in common). 

Show and Hide

Just like when you played hide and seek when you were a kid, this is a far easier method but does mean doing some work by hand. In this case, you’ll utilize the show/hide feature in the sections inside your Hub. You’ll prepare all your material ahead of time...get your media/playlists ready in your sections. Then, instead of showing it to your audience, you’ll toggle off show. Then, when you’re ready to “drip” the material out to your audience, you just go into your Hub and toggle the show button back on.

Move to Folders/Playlists

Similar to the show/hide concept, with this alternative, you’ll create either a folder and/or a playlist with your “original” material and an empty playlist (let’s call this Hub playlist) that will be the one that will be shown in your Hub. If you’re not ready to show the playlist to your audience inside your Hub when your course or membership first begins, you can use the show/hide feature as discussed above. 

When you are ready to show your content to your audience, you with either 1) move the video/s from your folder to your Hub playlist or 2) playlist to the Hub playlist.

If you have more than one playlist, create more than one Hub playlist and use a folder. Then, when you’re ready to show your content, just move the content from the folder to the each of the Hub playlists.

The Good and the Bad

Whether you decide to use the alternatives or do the private beta, dripping content is definitely the way to go! 

Searchie’s dripping functionality may have what you need, it may not. Remember, dripping is in private beta and Searchie as a whole, is still in beta! Sometimes we forget…

If it doesn’t have what you need, I can agree with you, the hard part is waiting for what you want, right? This day in age, we are all a little impatient (I know I dislike waiting more than 24 hours for just about anything these days! I’m spoiled!) 

Here’s the good part. I love that the Searchie team is so open to our feedback. They are sincerely taking all of it in, making adjustments and they will release new features. I’m certain once the dripping feature is out of beta, it will have even more to offer so stay tuned! They never cease to amaze me and the community with their talent and dedication to making the product something truly wonderful for our users.

Your Use Case

If I didn’t mention a use case that you would like to see in dripping, let me know! I’d love to hear about it. I pass feedback along to the Searchie team frequently (so you don’t have to be a part of the beta if you don’t want to). 

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