Create news item
Table of contents
- How to create a news item
- What can you enter and what does it mean
- What kind of news items do or don't we allow on RouteYou
- Where will your news item be displayed
- Inform us to upgrade/promote your news
- Guidelines for creating a news item
How to create a news item
- First log in
- Go to the main menu and then 'News'
- Select the 'Add a news item' option
What can you enter and what does it mean
The meta data
- Name: Give a title to your news item here. Don't make the title too long.
- Release date: The date indicates when it will be published. Don't put it too early in case it is linked to a specific date, because it might get pushed away by other news items.
- Expire date: here you indicate when the news is no longer relevant
The news item itself
In the text editor at 'description', you can write your entire message with the desired formatting options. Some advice...
- Structure your news in bullet-points
- Brighten it up with a photo or a logo of your event/organization
- Add a link for more information to routes, locations, other news on RouteYou and links to your website, Facebook page, ...
- Also link from Facebook and Twitter to this information (the more linking the more search engines will find your info).
Button effect
In a news release, it is useful to add a clear Call to action or CTA. To highlight it properly, it's best to make it a button like this :
How to create such a button? You can only do that if you have a PREMIUM account or higher, as this is part of the advanced editing options.
- Create a clickable link:
- In the text editor menu you will find this URL-link button:
- Enter as display text there, for example. "Click this button."
- Enter as URL the website link where people will go if they click on it
- In the text editor menu you will find this URL-link button:
- Select the text of the clickable link and select "Style" in the menu.
- If it is a URL (only in this case!) then you will see the style option "Button".
What kind of news items do or don't we allow on RouteYou
Read here what we consider as SPAM.
Where will your news item be displayed
- In the RouteYou news carousel
- On your public user page (under construction)
- In case we "upgrade it" to general news:
- On the home page
- On every private user page (when a user logs in)
- In our news letter we sent by email
Inform us to upgrade/promote your news
We are happy to promote your news item in case it is for a charity, for example, or some other topic that we find it very relevant. If we promote it then your post will not only appear in our news carousel but also in the newsletter and/or social media.
Also read our info on Sponsoring and on our News Promo Pack
For an overview of the functionalities on RouteYou by account type: check out the RouteYou Functionalities Overview by Account Type.
Guidelines for creating a news item
Here we give some guidelines in terms of form and style, but the easiest way is if you look at some examples:
- Short message with 1 photo and 1 Call To Action: https://www.routeyou.com/news/view/8796
- Medium message: https://www.routeyou.com/news/view/8136
- Long post with multiple links + structure elements:
Picture guidelines
- For your picture, please use a width to height ratio of 3 wide:2 high (or close to that).
- Take as absolute minimum a photo with as width 1200 pxls (but preferably min. 2400 pxls). Even though the photo is resized to fit the screen and you will rarely use that 1200 pixels, a user can click on the photo and then the largest possible version will be displayed. There is no maximum, but the photo certainly does not have to be more than 5000 pxls wide.
- If you add multiple photos, they will appear below each other. Take approximately the same size each time.
- We recommend a maximum of 3 photos but there is no technical problem if you want to add more than one. It gets a bit long on a smartphone to scroll through more than 3 photos first.
- Only the first photo is shown in miniature in the news carousel.
- We do not recommend placing photos in the text as this rarely has a good effect when reading on desktop and tablet and smartphone.
Text guidelines
- Keep text limited in length (aim for 500 characters/characters), but there is no problem technically making it much longer.
- If you make text longer than 500 characters; provide structure (§, highlighted items, etc.). Check out this example. .
- Don't forget a clear CTA (call to action). What should a user do after this post/with this message?
- Your CTA
- can be a button
- Can be a highlighted descriptive action
- If you do have multiple CTAs, make sure you always place the most important one first with clear graphical visibility and the less important ones further down with graphically less visibility.
We also offer different style options for this:
Button Secundary buttonTertiary button
- Your CTA