Keep Readers From Leaving Your Site Web

7 tips for your publication Connect to your audience Develop a smart layout and navigation Keep them clicking Provide content for your readers Include interactive elements (polls!) Add slideshows and GIFs Incorporate infographics and multimedia

What does the audience want? New, great content as often as possible Stories relevant to them Content that addresses their needs

Who is your audience? Have students brainstorm this question. Collect a list of ideas through a think-pair- share. Make sure the answers on the following slide are included. CORI Middle School Reading / John Guthrie / http://www.corilearning.com/ CC BY-SA 3.0

Who is your audience? Students Parents Staff Alumni Community CORI Middle School Reading / John Guthrie / http://www.corilearning.com/ CC BY-SA 3.0

How do they consume content? Think-pair-share and collect answers before next slide. Person Holding White Smartphone / Kote Baeza / CC0

How do they consume content? Mobile Social Person Holding White Smartphone / Kote Baeza / CC0

How do you deliver content? Don’t just post articles and hope readers find them.

Get social Facebook Twitter Instagram Snapchat

Twitter and Facebook Writers should send out their work keep it active keep it short keep it relevant tweet more than just article links

Don’t stop at one tweet/share Tweet your articles a minimum of three times, and make sure to change your tweet.

Instagram and Snapchat less serious have fun show behind-the-scenes promote your brand These media are not for direct link promotion, but they can help keep people engaged with your brand.

Keep them on your site Have a clean, intuitive layout and navigation. Engage your audience.

Layout and navigation Make sure your navigation makes sense. You may have a special name for a feature on your website, but your readers may not understand what that means. If the name of a page isn’t obvious, put some text at the top of that page that describes what readers are looking at.

Navigation: Related Stories at the bottom You can often find wordpress plugins or a theme that will allow you to easily add this.

Navigation: Other Stories at the bottom You can have a plugin automatically add these. Give a reason for readers to click on the next story.

Embed links Every time you post an article, there should be at least three links – to other great content you’ve written on the topic or to great content elsewhere on the web. Link your important sources.

Headlines generate clicks

Titles vs. headlines Titles: Headlines: Universe Nails and Spa Boys varsity lacrosse Senior Night Headlines: Universe Nails and Spa offers otherworldly service Emotions run high as boys lose on lacrosse Senior Night Make sure your headlines are click-worthy. Use active voice!

What does your audience want? Think pair share and collect ideas on what TYPES of stories people want.

What does your audience want? Sports? Campus Events? Local News? Review your analytics — see what category generates the most traffic.

Go beyond beats Veronika Dvorakova / Scot Scoop News Columns, features, etc. Develop great stories that offer more than just 250 words on something happening. Veronika Dvorakova / Scot Scoop News

Have a voice — make sure your web has an editorial, just as your print publication does.

Polls and comments Again, WordPress plugins can be used to set up online polls. Comments can be enabled, but you probably want to moderate them. Develop a comment policy before a problem occurs.

Slideshows Ivy Nguyen / Scot Scoop News Don’t post 20 photos take from the exact same spot with the exact same zoom level on the camera. Make sure you’re posting a variety of wide, medium and close-up shots. Ivy Nguyen / Scot Scoop News

Slideshows Ivy Nguyen / Scot Scoop News Don’t post 20 photos take from the exact same spot with the exact same zoom level on the camera. Make sure you’re posting a variety of wide, medium and close-up shots. Ivy Nguyen / Scot Scoop News

Slideshows Ivy Nguyen / Scot Scoop News Don’t post 20 photos take from the exact same spot with the exact same zoom level on the camera. Make sure you’re posting a variety of wide, medium and close-up shots. Ivy Nguyen / Scot Scoop News

Slideshows Ivy Nguyen / Scot Scoop News Don’t post 20 photos take from the exact same spot with the exact same zoom level on the camera. Make sure you’re posting a variety of wide, medium and close-up shots. Ivy Nguyen / Scot Scoop News

Easy multimedia Easel.ly Giphy StorymapJS Storify

Easel.ly

Easel.ly Multi-purpose infographics - not just for statistics Simple - can be made in less than 5 minutes

Giphy: Select the option to upload

Giphy: Click “Browse”

Giphy: Upload your video file. Select and open

Giphy: Copy the embed code for posting

StoryMapJS

StoryMapJS Tell stories with large photographs, maps and other image files. Lily Bakour / Scot Scoop News

KnightLab tools for visual storytelling https://knightlab.northwestern.edu/projects/

Storify You can use this to collect a series of tweets or other social media elements that can then be embedded as multimedia in a story.

Storify Good after big game/event Events storified can immediately go on Twitter Can embed onto web for visual storytelling benefits

Questions and Discussion