Writing for the Web

WRITING FOR THE Caleb Gardner  The Axelson Center   for Nonproﬁt Management  WEB November 6, 2009 

ABOUT Caleb Gardner  •  Founder / Principal at Flrrsh  •  Co‐founder / CEO of SavetheCups.com  •  MarkeKng & Public RelaKons Manager at North Park University  Web: calebgardner.com  Voice: 773.649.1652  Email: me@calebgardner.com  Twi>er: @calebgardner  Google: caleblgardner  Skype: caleblgardner 

INTRODUCTIONS •  Introduce self/organizaKon  •  What web role do you play?  •  What do you hope to get out of this workshop? 

AGENDA •  The Web Today  •  Website CopywriKng  –  IntegraKng your strategy  –  Visual emphasis  –  Style  –  WriKng for SEO  •  Blogging  –  Style  –  Headlines  –  CreaKng value for your readers  –  CulKvaKng a community  •  Social Media  –  The art of the status update 

THE WEB TODAY Overall:  79% of adults online  ‐up from 14% in 1995   ‐46% in 2000  “State of the Internet 2009”  Pew Internet & American Life Project  Oct. 2, 2009 

GENERATIONAL USES OF THE WEB “Genera>ons Online in 2009”  Jan. 28, 2009 

TIME SPENT ONLINE IN SEPTEMBER

WEBSITE COPYWRITING 

WHAT DOES THIS MEAN FOR YOU? It means your web copy should be…  •  Keyword‐opKmized  •  Linked like crazy  •  Visually appealing  •  Scannable  •  Short and direct  •  Clear and concise  •  Front‐loaded  •  InteresKng and engaging  •  Audience‐centric  •  Use the words “you” and “because” 

STEP 1: INTEGRATE YOUR STRATEGY •  Know your objecKve  •  Emphasis your unique selling point and call to acKon  •  Know your target audience  –  Resist the temptaKon to write to your organizaKon 

SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION •  Keywords should be part of your overall strategy  •  Visual cues  –  <h1>, <h2> and <h3> headings  –  Page Ktles  •  Pay ahenKon to words that appear near the top of paragraphs and pages  •  Also, always remember:  –  The alternate (“alt”) text of all content images  –  The <meta> tags, descripKon and keywords  –  The words in the html ﬁle names 

VISUAL EMPHASIS •  Think of how your page looks visually  –  The most relevant informaKon should stand out  –  Make your copy as visually interesKng and as simple as possible  •  Use the inverted pyramid  –  Load your most relevant copy in the front with supporKng copy following  –  Only 50% of people will scroll  –  People will read the beginning and end before the middle  •  Use levels of descripKon  –  Give people conKnually in depth info about your organizaKon and how to get involved 

STYLE •  Never use a long word when a short one will do  •  If it is possible to cut a word out, cut it out  •  Avoid using metaphors and similes like in print  •  Use the acKve voice as opposed to the passive voice  •  Write in the second person (“you” and “your”)  •  Avoid jargon 

LONG OR SHORT? It depends.  •  Keep visual breaks, strong headlines and intro paragraphs in mind  •  Then write what is necessary and what works 

VISUAL EMPHASIS

EXAMPLES

EXERCISE •  Get out the copy from your own website  •  Grab a partner for some feedback 

KEEP IN MIND Your web copy should be…  •  Keyword‐opKmized  •  Linked like crazy  •  Visually appealing  •  Scannable  •  Short and direct  •  Front‐loaded  •  InteresKng and engaging  •  Audience‐centric 

BLOGGING 

WHAT IS A BLOG? Short for weblog, blogs are characterized by:  •  Regular entries of commentary, descripKons of events or other material  such as graphics or video  •  Entries that are commonly displayed in reverse chronological order  •  Entries that are shorter than newspaper arKcles or op‐eds 

WHO’S READING BLOGS? •  Almost half of users between the ages of 12‐32  •  Nearly 100 million Americans read blogs at least once a month*  •  TechnorarK tracks 900,000 blog posts a day*  *“New Media & Social Change”  The Hatcher Group  Fall 2009 

SHOULD YOU HAVE A BLOG? It depends. 

WRITING ON A BLOG Your wriKng should be…  •  Keyword‐opKmized  •  Linked like crazy  •  Visually appealing  •  Scannable  •  Short and direct  •  Clear and concise  •  Front‐loaded  •  InteresKng and engaging  •  Audience‐centric  The diﬀerence?  •  Even more authenKc and personable  •  Even more focused on providing value 

THE 50/50 RULE Half of the Kme you spend wriKng  should be focused on the  headline.  It’s that important. 

STRONG HEADLINES •  Direct  Problems with Health Care Reform  •  Indirect  Prescrip>on for Change (when talking about health care)  •  News  Nonproﬁt X Rallies for Health Care Reform  •  How to  5 Ways to Bring About Health Care Reform  •  Reason why  3 Reasons Why Our Health Care System Needs Reform  •  QuesKon  Are You Sa>sﬁed With the State of Health Care in America?  •  Command  Volunteer to Change Our Health Care System 

LONG OR SHORT? It depends.  •  Keep visual breaks, strong headlines and intro paragraphs in mind  •  Then write what is necessary and what works 

FORGET WHAT YOU LEARNED IN ENGLISH CLASS •  Don’t write long paragraphs  •  Don’t sound like a dead person  •  Don’t stay detached  •  Don’t avoid controversy  •  Don’t lean too heavily upon sources 

CREATE VALUE If you want people to come  back, be useful. 

DON’T NEGLECT YOUR COMMENTS •  Blogging is a social medium.  •  Make sure your community knows that you appreciate them. 

EXAMPLES

EXERCISE •  Write a headline for a potenKal blog post. Remember the types:  Direct  Indirect  News  How to  Reasons why  Ques>on  Command  •  Keep it anonymous  •  Pass it in when done 

BEING  SOCIAL 

WEB 2.0 CULTURE A change in the way the web is used: from one‐way communicaKon to  interacKvity  •  The rise of “social”  •  Power shiqed to the user  •  Increasingly your website is not the hub of your communicaKons 

FORMS OF SOCIAL MEDIA CommunicaKve  •  Blogs and “micro‐blogs”  •  Social networks (Facebook, LinkedIn, MySpace)  •  “Life‐streaming” (Twiher, FriendFeed)  CollaboraKve  •  Wikis  •  Social bookmarking (Delicious, StumbleUpon)  •  News (Digg, Mixx, Reddit)  •  Opinion (Yelp)  MulKmedia  •  Photo sharing (Flickr, Picasa)  •  Video sharing (YouTube, Vimeo)  •  Audio/music sharing (Last.fm, Pandora)  For our purposes, we’ll focus on the two biggies: Facebook and Twiher. 

FACEBOOK •  200 million registered users  –  Half sign in every day  –  20 million update their status at least once a day  •  People 35 and older are the fastest growing demographic  •  Started out just for college students; now less than 1/3 of the users  •  More than 4 million become “fans” of pages every day 

HOW NONPROFITS ARE USING FACEBOOK

PAGES VS. GROUPS Pages  Groups  •  Publicly available  •  Messages can be sent to group  •  Can add applicaKons  members  •  Can see page staKsKcs  •  Easier to set up and manage  •  More “oﬃcial”  •  Cannot have applicaKons  •  Sends “updates” to fans  •  Only visible to Facebook members  –  Can send targeted updates 

TWITTER •  Grew by 752% in 2008  •  72.5% of all users joined during the ﬁrst 5 months of 2009  •  35% of users live in urban areas  •  Median age is 31  •  Chicago is one of the biggest “tweeKng” ciKes, behind London and Los  Angeles. 

HOW NONPROFITS ARE USING TWITTER

SHOULD I BE ON? Probably.  •  Depends on your audience, your mission, your goals, etc.  •  Don’t jump into anything without a clear strategy 

WRITING FOR STATUS UPDATES •  Be a person  •  Be authenKc  •  Share and share alike  •  Share before you share your own content  •  Then share your content  –  This is where a catchy headline really comes in handy  •  Give credit where credit is due  •  Ask quesKons  •  Answer quesKons  •  Give people a reason to follow/fan you 

BETTER UPDATING •  Avoid slang  •  Have a call to acKon  •  Include a link whenever possible  •  If something’s important, it’s OK to send it more than once – just don’t  spam 

EXAMPLES

EXERCISE •  Using the headlines you wrote earlier for a lihle experiment… 

BOTTOM LINE Be interesKng.  (Remember: you only have 57 seconds.) 

AGENDA •  The Web Today  •  Website CopywriKng  –  IntegraKng your strategy  –  Visual emphasis  –  Style  –  WriKng for SEO  •  Blogging  –  Style  –  Headlines  –  CreaKng value for your readers  –  CulKvaKng a community  •  Social Media  –  The art of the status update 

THANK  YOU 

Writing for the Web

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