Last Tuesday I went to Ed’s How to Go From Print to Web Panel. It was packed full of great information from editors working at some of the top magazines’ websites. But don’t worry guys, I took notes so I could share the love.
Keeping Up With the Industry
Make sure you’re always reading sites like MediaWeek, Ad Age, and Mediabistro – it’s important to know what’s going on in the industry and with the major players, not just your own publication.
Skills to Have
Someone in the audience asked what skills they suggest we have already if we’re applying to web jobs. I’m sure you guys know most of these already, but just to recap, it’s good to know at least this much when applying:
• Basic HTML
• Blogging so that you have an understanding of CMS
• SEO
• Basic photo editing skills
• Photoshop is a plus
• And if you're feeling extra ambitious, they said Google Analytics is a good site to play around with. It monitors website traffic and teaches you the keywords like page reviews, unique visitors, and time spent.
Play around to teach yourself anything that you don’t already know. You can learn a lot once you get the job, but the window is closing when you can learn as you go because a lot of people are coming in with those skills. Worried about the fact that I didn’t take any classes on this stuff and therefore would be teaching myself basics about a lot of it, I asked one of the editors if it would hurt my chances of getting a job. But she was very enthusiastic about saying that while it is nice to have someone who has a lot of knowledge about it already, they love to see people take the initiative to teach themselves something that will make them more valuable.
Also, before you go into a interview, have in mind some websites you like and you read regularly – and know exactly what you like about them (some of the editors said they like to ask this question). And definitely go to the website you are interviewing for and have some positive feedback. It’s also okay to have criticism.
Online and Social Media
I know everyone says this all the time, but be careful with what you’re putting online. Don’t do diary blogs. If you’re going to have a blog, it should be unique and have a focus and an appeal to other readers. It doesn’t have to relate to the area you’re applying for, as long as you’re interested in it and can keep up with it. Putting multimedia on it will also make it stand out more.
HR departments and editors are definitely Googling your name and looking at your Facebook profiles. Clean them up if you haven’t already.
Obviously, social media is HUGE right now. Don’t just create a Twitter account and let it sit. Get followers and learn how to use it. Follow magazines and publications to see how it’s used well by others. It’s better to have a few active, well-done social media profiles and sites than a ton that are never used.
At the end of the day, though, they still want to see published articles, web or print, to show you know how to write (for those of us in editorial). Tweets and short blog posts are not enough.
Online Writing
Keys to effectively writing for the web:
• Be concise.
• Do your own fact checking and editing, and do it well.
• Be accurate.
• Write good headlines that speak to SEO and sell the story at the beginning (more like those used for hard news stories than the fun, pun headlines that print can use).
• Put personality and entertainment into the writing.
I hope you guys found all that as useful as I did. And I hope everyone had great summers and learned a lot at their internships. I know that the semester is getting ready to start up again, and honestly, I’m a little jealous of everyone that gets to go back. Good luck!
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