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

Facebook

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

thecontentstudio1@gmail.com

www.thecontentstudio.co.za

Steve Vosloo

stevevosloo@gmail.com

www.yozaproject.com