This article describes the asset follow feature, and explains how it works and how to use it to surface content for your users in the most effective way.

Read on, or use the links below to jump to a specific topic:

• What is the follow feature?
• How the follow feature works
• Viewing the following page
• Removing (and re-adding) followed assets
• Setting the maximum number of followed items
• Adding a following sub-menu item
• Making the most of the follow feature

 

What is the follow feature?

Fans are passionate. They want to know what’s going on with the things they care about. They could be a sports fan keeping track of their favorite team, or a movie aficionado wanting to know more about a director whose work they admire.

The follow feature lets your users personalize their experience by selecting the assets they’re interested in within their app. This allows you to serve them with existing and newly-added content about those assets - as well as related assets - so they don’t have to go searching for it.

How the follow feature works

Following an asset

Both team and persona assets can be followed. To follow an asset, users select the heart-shaped follow icon when viewing the asset in their app. Followed assets are added to a following list in the user’s profile.

To unfollow an asset, a user re-selects the filled heart icon, and it's removed from the profile following list.

	A hollow icon indicates that the user is not yet following the asset.
	A filled icon shows that this is an asset the user is following.

 

Managing followed assets

Viewing the following page

The following page allows users to view and remove assets from their following list. The page is found in the user’s account profile area.

All assets followed by the profile are shown on the page, grouped by asset type.

If a 1:1 image exists for the asset this will be displayed, otherwise a logo is shown if one is available. If neither a 1:1 image nor a logo is available for the asset, then only the asset title will be displayed. A check mark indicates that the asset is followed.

Removing (and re-adding) followed assets

Selecting a followed asset on this page removes the check mark, and the asset is unfollowed.

Selecting it again will re-add it as a followed asset.

Unfollowed assets will still be visible until the user exits the page.

If the user isn’t following any assets, they'll see the message below when they navigate to this page:

You aren’t following anyone yet. When you do, they’ll be listed here.

Setting the maximum number of followed items

A maximum of 50 followed assets per profile is set by default. You can change this limit by going to Admin → System → Profile and setting the Max Followed per Profile field to the required value.

If a user reaches the following maximum, they’ll see a notification displayed when they try to follow another asset, as seen in the example below.

The presentation of the message will differ slightly depending on the user’s app.

Adding a following sub-menu item

Configuring a following sub-menu item provides users with a quick entry point to the following page. This menu item is set up by default, appearing below the Bookmarks sub-menu item.

To configure the sub-menu:

• Navigate to Display → Menus → Account.

• Add a new following sub-menu item with /account/profiles/following as the destination.

• Drag the item using the reorder icon to change the order in which users see it in the menu.

Read our article on sub-menus to learn more about these navigation items and how to configure them.

Making the most of the follow feature

The follow feature allows you to understand your users’ interests so that you can serve them with relevant content. You can also gain insights into your users’ interactions with the feature through analytics.

List rules let you dynamically curate content to keep your page lists refreshed. Using list rules together with asset relations provides a powerful tool for showing users more of what they like, as well as related content that they may also be interested in.

The Has Relation list filter lets you define a rule that will update the list with assets related to an asset the user follows.

For example, if a user follows Team A, and an asset relation exists between your team and competition asset types, list rules allow you to automatically populate your list with the competitions that Team A is participating in.