Christy Robinson is the digital coordinator at public media station KERA in North Texas. Before that, she worked in digital for Computer Task Group and The Dallas Morning News. Robinson specializes in growing audiences, improving user experience, communicating analytics, coaching colleagues, organic and paid social media strategy, web copy writing and editing, testing and conversion and SEO. @christyrobinson

1. Smart Mobile
Storytelling
Christy Robinson
Digital coordinator, KERA
Twitter: @christyrobinson
Email: crobinson@kera.org
Slides, handouts:
bit.ly/dennewstrain
Hashtag: #denvernewstrain
Help mobile users digest
and discover your work

2. More U.S. adults now say they
often get news on a mobile device
(58 percent) than those who often
get news on a
desktop or laptop
(39 percent).
(Pew, July 2018)

3. Mobile traffic for KERA News
2018 traffic: Jan.1-July 31
138 percent increase since 2013:

4. 7 TIPS
for better mobile stories

5. WHAT THESE 7 TIPS WILL DO
>> Earn mobile users' trust and
loyalty
>> Increase click-throughs from
social and search
>> Encourage users to stay and
explore

6. 1. Summarize

7. Kick off with a
summary

8. 2. Break up
all that text

9. 2. Break up
all that text
✓ Lists
✓ Headings
✓ Bullet points
✓ Social embeds

10. Lists

11. Headings

12. Bullet points

13. Social embeds

14. 3. Go for the
“what we know / what we
don’t know” format

15. What we
know /
don’t know

16. 4. Explain

17. 4. Explain
✓Tooltips
✓Annotation

18. EXPLAIN
Tooltips

19. Annotation

20. 5. Show, don’t (just) tell

21. 5. Show, don’t (just) tell
✓ Timelines
✓ Maps
✓ Charts + graphics
✓ 360 images/panorama

22. Timelines
timeline.knightlab.com

23. Animated
map

24. Story
Map
Play around:
storymap.
knightlab.
com

25. Charts and
graphics

26. 360-degree
visuals /
panorama

27. BONUS!
360 tips
• Experiment using your smartphone
camera’s pano setting
• Embed your pano image into a story: use
360player, Roundme, or try the WP-
VR-view plugin for WordPress
• On Facebook: groups/WomenInVR and
groups/360.video.professionals

28. BONUS!
360+ tools
Try
✓ Google Story Spheres
✓ Thinglink
✓ Google Tour Creator
✓ Beta: Knight Lab’s Scene
tool
✓ Fyuse app

29. 6. Tell the story differently

30. 6. Tell the story differently
✓Quizzes and games
✓Newsletters
✓Audio

31. Quizzes
and
games

32. MORE TOOLS!
Create quizzes + games:
✓ Twine (twinery.org) for simple
(or complex) games and other
interactive, nonlinear stories.
Open source.
✓ Qzzr.com for quizzes.
$25/month after 14-day free trial.
✓ 4screens.net +
SurveyMonkey for quizzes.
Free or paid.

33. “What do you do first each day
on your smartphone?”
ReportLinker survey of 536 respondents, January 2017

34. Newsletters
“Here's what newsrooms get
wrong all the time: taking a
story and plopping it into an
email. It doesn’t work like
that.”
— Roy Schwartz, Axios president,
ONA18

35. Newsletters
✓ Pick a goal: A traditional,
linky launchpad?
Standalone storytelling
product? Both?
✓ Write in your human
voice
✓ Create a launch process
✓ Consider pop-up emails

36. Audio storytelling
Serial is “the podcast which
introduced many people to the
power of audio storytelling.”
— Damian Radcliffe, journo prof, U, of
Oregon, on Medium
✓ Experiment with podcasting
using the Anchor app
✓ For clips, try
soundcite.knightlab.com

37. Let’s exercise!
1. Go to your website (on your phone!)
2. Choose a story. What would you change to
make it friendlier for mobile? What would you
add? How would you tell it differently? For example:
• Bullet points
• A map
• Podcast/audio clips
• Annotation
• Social embeds
• List
• Newsletter series
• Chart or infographic

38. Last, lucky #7!
Optimize your stories
for search + social

39. Pre-publishing checklist:
✓ Headlines (plural!)
✓ Internal links within the body
✓ At least one image with alt-text copy
✓ One heading or so for short stories,
more for longer stories

40. Headlines

41. Headlines
Good headline writing for search/social:
✓ I.D. the story’s main keyword or phrase and
include it in the headline.
✓ Place it as close to the beginning of the headline as
naturally possible.
✓ Aim for 60-63 characters for your search and
social headlines (charactercountonline.com).
.

42. Internal links
✓ Linking offers readers
deeper exploration
✓ Provides clear paths
for search bots
✓ Creates a tight-knit
network of pages on
your site
Linking to other stories
on your website
strengthens its search
value overall.

43. Internal links
A (General) Guide!
✓ Short- to average-
length stories: 2 or
3 links total
✓ Longer stories: A
link every 2 to 3
swipes
The related-stories widget
at the bottom doesn’t
count!

44. Photo + alt text
AKA alternative text, alt attributes, alt tags

45. Photo + alt text
What alt text does:
✓ Provides better image context to our little
buddies, the search-engine crawlers
✓ Describes the image to visually
impaired users

46. Headings
✓ For search-engine
spiders, headings
organize your story
and make it easier to
understand.
2 reasons why putting
headings in your story
is GREAT:
✓ For users, they are like buoys in a ocean of text,
navigating eyes down the page, making your story
scan-friendly.

47. Headings
1. IF it’s natural, include
your story’s main
keyword or phrase in
the heading.
3 tips for
supercharged
headings:
2. One heading for “short” stories, more for
longer
3. Format your headings with the H2, H3 or H4
heading tag.

48. Let’s exercise!
1. Google this on your phone:
site:[your website’s URL]
Example — site:denverpost.com
2. Tap the News section.
3. Find two headlines that are cut off because of
length. Write a second, shorter version for each.

49. What do you
want to try first?
How can I help?
Christy Robinson
Digital coordinator, KERA
Email: crobinson@kera.org
Twitter: @christyrobinson
Slides, handouts: bit.ly/dennewstrain