Hold the Front Page! How to Get Noticed on Tremr
It's quick, easy and fun to start posting on Tremr. If you haven't read it yet, check out our guide to the basics: https://support.tremr.com/article/5-posting-on-tremr
Exploring the process of creating a post in a bit more depth will pay dividends though, improving your content and encouraging more people to engage with it. Here are our 'power posting' tips...
1. Add a header image
Adding a header image to your Tremr post is optional, but we strongly encourage it. We've found that posts with header images tend to get more engagement (and they also look pretty!)
You have four options for your header image: upload an image from your computer (or phone or tablet), add a link to a web page, add a link to an online video, or a link to a tweet.
Image Upload: When uploading an image, you should use a large, high resolution image if possible.
Web Link: If your post is riffing off an article on another website, you can post a link into your header and we will automatically pull in an image and information about the link.
Video Link: Simply post a link to a YouTube or Vimeo video and the video will be embedded into your header. Be sure to use the regular web URL here, not the embed code which you would use if adding the video to your own website.
Tweet: If your post is a response to or discussion around something someone has said on Twitter, you can embed the tweet here.
IMPORTANT: You should always respect copyright and include attribution details for all embedded media. You can include attribution details in the caption field beneath an image or video.
Wikimedia Commons is a good source of free-to-use images: http://commons.wikimedia.org
2. Choose a punchy title
Assuming that your post isn't just a short reply, you should treat the title of your post like a newspaper headline. You have up to 280 characters, but you don't need to use them all! Punchy, engaging and relevant are the keys here. Also bear in mind that people may find your post through a search - on Tremr itself or through a search engine like Google - so the more relevant your title is to the content of your post the better.
3. Watch your Length
Writing for an online audience is different to writing for a print audience. One of the differences is in length. People reading online tend to prefer shorter articles. We've found that 1000 words tends to be the point of reader engagement drop-off. Some people will read more of course, especially if you have them hooked, but engagement tends to decline after this point. If you have lots of embedded media in your article, then the sweet spot seems to be around 600 words.
Of course, these are just suggestions. The guiding principle of Tremr is "Write whatever you want, however you want", so feel free to ignore this and publish your 100,000 word magnum opus here!
If you do have a very long article, one technique is to split it up into shorter posts, and add "Part 1", "Part 2" etc at the end of the title.
4. Use Journalistic Style and Structure
A common metaphor used by journalists when structuring stories is the Inverted Pyramid. This means putting the most substantial, interesting and important information at the top of your post. This is then followed by content that 'fills out' the story but is less critical, in descending order of importance. The headline is absolutely part of this structure. A great headline should provide the reader with the very bare bones of what you're trying to get across.
Another style tip is to break up your content into lots of shorter paragraphs. This is especially relevant when writing for the web. Long, unbroken chunks of text can be hard to read online. The paragraph length in this article is a good guide.
5. Embed Media
As well as embedding an image, link or video as the header of your post, you can do the same thing anywhere in the body of the post too. Between each paragraph of text or image you will see an icon to the right that looks like a plus sign surrounded by a circle. Simply click this to pull up the embedding menu.
The embedding options are text, image, link, video and tweet. These add interest to your post as well as breaking up large tracts of text in longer pieces.
6. Add Tags and a Summary
Tags are optional but will help your post gain exposure in multiple ways. Many readers browse Tremr by clicking on tags, so the more relevant tags you add to your post the better. Also, people can follow tags on Tremr, so anyone following a tag that you use will be alerted to your post as soon as you publish it. Finally tags help inform Tremr search and external search engines, meaning more people will find your stuff. Adding a summary to a post gives people more information on the post contents.
7. Read After Posting!
This one is very important. You'd be surprised how easy it is for errors to creep into your posts. After posting your article, go back and read it again carefully from the start. Typos and formatting problems that you didn't notice when writing will often jump out at you.
You can make any changes needed by clicking the 'Extras' icon with the three dots, on your post page:
This will bring up the post menu, including the Edit Post option:
Click the Edit Post option to open your post in edit mode. Then simply make any tweaks needed and click the Post button to publish the changes.