Effective Content Techniques for Online Media

Cindy Royal, Ph.D

Associate Professor

Texas State University

School of Journalism and Mass Communication

croyal@txstate.edu

www.cindyroyal.com

www.onthatnote.com

tech.cindyroyal.net

twitter.com/cindyroyal

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linkedin.com/in/cindyroyal

Basic habits for writing for the Web• Utilize features of the Web

• Hyperlinking

• Multimedia

• Interactivity

• All posts should have links and visual media (photos, video, graphics)

• Share via social media

• Comments? Decide on a policy for handling comments, but do what you can to encourage interaction. If it's not happening on your site, it's happening somewhere else.

• Experiment – try basic news stories, longer form journalism, bloggers as columnists, user-generated content, multimedia packages, live streams, data-driven graphics – lots of opportunities

New opportunities for storytelling

http://blip.tv/jorge-sanhueza-lyon/marathon-stories-684683

Reporter or Anchor Driven

Character Driven

Think story, not tools

• Writing is still key • Tell engaging stories• A People Torn, Minneapolis Star Tribunehttp://www.startribune.com/local/11608761.html

Focus on visual, sound

• Maximize use of photos, audio, video where appropriate

• Detroit Free Press – Motwoan at 50http://www.freep.com/article/99999999/SPECIAL03/110225024/Motown-50

Make it interactive

• Involve the user

• User as contributor

• Use data

• Use free tools• Google Maps; Charts and Visualizations; Fusion Tables

• Wordle; Chartle

• NY Times - Rent vs. Buyhttp://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/10/business/2007_BUYRENT_GRAPHIC.html

Integrate media

• Don’t fixate on one medium; seamlessly integrate text, audio, video, photos, interactivity, graphics

• Be comfortable working in teams• Washington Post - Being a Black Man• http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/metro/interactives/blackmen/blackmen.html

Have a broad base of skills

• Pick the right tool for the job• http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2009/03/30/business/economy/2009-economy-

words.html?ref=multimedia

Pool your resources

• Combine existing work on the same topic into a cohesive package

• Las Vegas Sun – History of Las Vegashttp://www.lasvegassun.com/history/

Be creative

• Get ideas from other industries: advertising, technology, social networking.

• Seek best practices

Provide resources

• Age of Uncertainty – Roanoke Timeshttp://blogs.roanoke.com/ageofuncertainty/

Search Engine Optimization

• Most important thing – get others to link to you• Google Page Rank algorithm• Link to others, they are more likely to link to you• Participate on comments, forums – tactfully include links to your content• Write meaningful headlines – different than print• Write strong teasers – not necessarily your lead• Use phrases (keywords) frequently that you think people will be using to

search for relevant content• Fresh content – update regularly and often• Use keywords in URLs• Consistently use alt tags for images and videos; put content on

video/slideshow pages• Pages should have meaningful titles• Use social media to spread your content, allow users to share• Monitor your search standings and traffic – Google Analytics or other

services