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Effective Content Techniques for Online Media
Cindy Royal, Ph.D
Associate Professor
Texas State University
School of Journalism and Mass Communication
www.cindyroyal.com
www.onthatnote.com
tech.cindyroyal.net
twitter.com/cindyroyal
facebook.com/cindyroyal
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
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