10 lessons in mobile content
DESCRIPTION
By Steve Vosloo, Project Leader for Yoza Cellphone Stories, and Louise McCann, Editor in Chief. Presented at the Cape Town Content Strategy meetup on 24 August 2011.TRANSCRIPT
10 Lessons in Mobile Content
Steve Vosloo, Project LeaderLouise McCann, Editor in Chief
“It's great ... for me it really hard to pick up a book to start readin but i don mind readin on my phone”dotty1
What our users commented
Background
The Yoza Project
• Yoza enables reading, writing and engagement via mobile phones
• South African project launched August 2009, initially funded by the Shuttleworth Foundation
• Through Yoza, short stories, poems and classic literature are published on mobile phones (MXit and on a mobisite -- a website for mobiles)
• Highly interactive: users can comment, vote, enter writing competitions and review stories
Why?
• 51% of South African households own no leisure books
• 7% of public schools in South Africa have functional libraries of any kind
• High uptake of phones – up to 90% amongst urban youth
• South Africa has excellent mobile infrastructure and coverage
• Relatively low charges for mobile data (but expensive voice and SMS charges)
• Most digital reading and writing happens on phones
• A common complaint: “teens don't read and write enough, teens love their mobile phones” -- so make phones part of the solution!
Early story on MXit (2009)
Yoza today
Yoza today
“If friar's plan wrks, then romeo wil b able 2 cum nd take juliet wit hm 2 liv hapily 2geda at mantua bt if it fails, sumbdy's gna b dead. Lol!”Elsie
“I loved the book, wish it didnt have an ending. Shakespear please bring another one like this one. IT WAS MWAAAH!!”Blessed1
Yoza Cellphone Stories: Basics
• A growing library of titles: 28 m-novels, 11 poems, 5 Shakespeare plays
• Genres include teen issues, romance, soccer, adventure, “classics”, poetry
• Some stories are serialised (a chapter a day) and every chapter of every story has a comment prompt or vote prompt
• Chapters around 400 words (some stories 200 words)
• Total length: 4000 to 10000 words
• Stories in English, Afrikaans and isiXhosa
• Stories are free but costs for mobile data (about 7c per chapter)
• On MXit all comments are moderated before going live
• Available in South Africa and Kenya on Mxit
What users thought of Yoza stories
What our Facebook friends have to say ...
Yoza stats (one year)
• Complete reads: 300,000
• No. of comments: 40,000
• No. of unique visitors: >145,000
• No. of MXit subscribers to Yoza: >69,000
• No. of page views: >5,400,000
• No. of votes: >44,000
(Period: August 2010 to August 2011)
More comments than War and Peace
“T z a vry !ntstng stry,really attrtz da a attns f da reader.k!p t up”L!hle
User demographics
• Mostly 18-25 years old, then 13-17
• Slightly more female
• Mostly Black
• Mostly in urban centres, but also spread throughout country
• Estimate LSM 3-7
“Aha” moment:
Mobile phones are a viable distribution platform for longer form content and for enabling user participation
“It kwl an nyc nt boring. And siyafundisa” [we are learning]Thule
“A gud st0ri alth0ugh vewi sh0rt id lyk 2 c m0re 0n mxit bk0z it enc0uragez readin!”Lesleigh(F)
Lessons
Lesson 1: Research content and user interface with teens
Lesson 1: Research content and user interface with teens
Tip: For best results, feed them
“Waiting for the next chapters kills me!”Suzi*
Lesson 2: Mobile is a content monster
Solution: have lots of content ready to publish
Lesson 3: Mobile is “always on”
Solution: moderate constantly
“I alwayz (H)ur stories guyz and i alwayz learn smthing new”Sisipho
Lesson 4: Marketing matters
Ads run on these days -- see the traffic spikes
Solution: budget for marketing
Lesson 5: Users know what they want
• Yoza users have told us they want:
• Content that entertains, inspires and educates
• Content about issues (pregnancy, drugs, careers, money), romance and adventure
• Real life stories
• See http://yozaproject.com/2010/12/04/what-do-you-want-from-yoza-the-yoza-community-responds/
Solution: ask, listen and respond
“Ag!BORING. . .:-z”Thandi
Lesson 6: Always prompt (and be provocative)
Lesson 7: Adapt
The Awesomes chapters rewritten (pre-publication) based on comments received in earlier chapters
Streetskillz stories changed (post-publication) from third to first person narrative to pick up the pace, make interaction more direct
Solution: watch and respond
Lesson 8: Show don’t tell
Keep the pace up, keep down screenfuls of telling
First person narrative
Main characters: minimum 1 and max 4
Short chapters
Write for “snacky” reading
Can’t easily flip back on mobile
See Yoza Manifesto for morewww.tinyurl.com/yozamanifesto
Lesson 9: Leverage existing networks and meet readers where they are
MXitMobisite
Lesson 10: There will be drop-off …
Lesson 10: … But fans are loyal
“Yoza i love your stuff your flava is hot”(Anon)
“The stories r interesting nd fun 2 read, they kip ma englsh gng”Hlengiwe gulube
How to access Yoza and contact details
Browser: www.yoza.mobi
MXit: Add a contact (MXit Services) called yoza
Facebook: www.facebook.com/yozacellphonestories
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Louise McCann
www.thecontentstudio.co.za
Steve Vosloo
www.yozaproject.com