Writing For The Web!! 7 Ways To Keep Your Audience Engaged!!

For journalists, writing and producing for broadcast or print can come somewhat naturally. Writing for the web however, is a whole new game. The online audience is constantly growing and more people are engaging in the online world nowadays, leading journalists to analyze these new trends and formulate a set of rules and guidelines to follow in order to keep their audience engaged in the content displayed on the web. Studies have shown that most internet users are consuming content while between tasks at work, rather than during their leisure time. In knowing this, it becomes extremely important to engage your reader immediately to guarantee they get the satisfaction they were looking for while visiting your site in a very short amount of time. I came up with the following 7 techniques that should be used by journalists to support audience engagement.

1. Journalists now need to make sure that they grab the reader’s attention with the first sentence on content. The opening of your story has to be much like a good broadcast lead, a good online lead jumps out at users and makes them want to read more. Using headlines like “How To” or “Why” always seem to be effective at grabbing attention online, especially when your directly address the reader. Use comments like “Check our current list for your hometown” to grab a reader’s attention and keep them involved in your site.    

      

2. Journalists need to make sure that they use present or future tense in the opening line, whenever possible. This technique will tell readers what’s happening right now. It’s important in order to engage an audience and secure the chances of them revisiting the site to update information as it changes, stay on top of a story and add/remove references as they become outdated or available. When doing this, make sure you promise your audience information will be updated as it is made available to the public. Exclusivity is also something that always grabs attention and keeps audiences engaged. Add additional unique content to your site that can’t be found anywhere else and make sure your readers are aware of that.

3. Journalists need to be relevant when it comes to online journalism. Make sure that you’re explaining why the story is relevant to the general audience. After the lead sentence it’s important to explain why the story matters, the goal here is to capitalize on the webs immediacy.  If your content isn’t relevant the reader refuses to be engaged and will not revisit your site.

4. Make sure the text is concise and conversational. To keep readers engaged journalists need to use short, declarative sentences and avoid clauses and passive writing. Readers want to get to the content quickly and conversational writing makes the content easier to absorb.

5. Journalists need to remember to write for the “scanners”.  Online readers skim content and look for information that grabs their attention. Make sure your giving readers lots of points of entry in your articles; places to jump in and start reading easily. This allows the reader to be engaged in part of the story or article that interest him/her instead of being automatically turned away by long continuous extensive reading. By using sub-headlines, bullets and frequent paragraph breaks, readers are easily able to find what interests them.

6. Most importantly, you need to keep your online site interactive. Ask questions, respond to comments and share your opinion. You should give your readers the option to customize your site. By allowing the option to enter or select information relevant to what their interested in and receive customized responses based off of that information, you’re increasing their interest to be engaged and constantly involved in your site.

7. Along with keeping audiences engaged on modern sites, it’s also important to make sure your directing people to your site. You can’t engage an audience if they can’t find your site. In order to make sure users are going to read your content instead of someone else’s you have to do everything you can to increase your search engine optimization (SEO). Think about the words someone would be using if they were searching for a story on your site, then put those words in your headlines, sub-headlines or in the first sentence of the story. In doing this, people will be more likely to engage in your story and/or site.