Delve into the world of push alerts with examples, best practices and other tips. What's better: broadcast or personalization? Predictive alerts or user-prescribed? We will share some examples and you can help decide what works and what doesn't. From a presentation at the 2014 Online News Association Conference in Chicago featuring Etan Horowitz of CNN, Alyssa Merritt of Urban Airship, Cory Bergman of Breaking News and Deepesh Banerji of CBS Interactive. Full session description and video at http://bit.ly/ONApushalerts

1. PUSH ALERTS:
THE GOOD, THE BAD,
THE UGLY
#pushalerts14 September 25, 2014

2. The Panel
Etan Horowitz
CNN
@etanowitz
Deepesh
Banerji
CBSSports.co
m
@deepeshbane
rji
Cory Bergman
Breaking News
@corybe
Alyssa Meritt
Urban Airship
@urbanairship
#pushalerts14

3. Ground Rules
Nothing is personal
We’re all learning together
Let’s all be friends
#pushalerts14

4. #pushalerts14
“It’s hard to over-hype the power of mobile
push notifications. For the first time in human
history, you can tap almost two billion people
on the shoulder.”
Ariel Seidman, founder of Gigwalk

5. #pushalerts14
“With great power comes great responsibility.”
Uncle Ben from Spiderman (citing Voltaire)

6. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7qwt-
QC6Axs
#pushalerts14
Video: That’s Not Breaking News

7. Your app matters
 Apps beat web
browsers
 7 out of every 8
minutes of media
consumption is on
mobile devices
#pushalerts14
Source: Comscore 2014 US Mobile App Report
http://www.comscore.com/Insights/Presentations-and-Whitepapers/2014/The-US-Mobile-App-Report

8. #pushalerts14
There are winners and losers…
Push notification opt-in rate by
industry
Source: Urban Airship’s 2013 Good Push Index. Data from more than 2,400 apps and 500 million push
notifications.

9. Push helps retain users
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Media retention (% of users who opened the app)
Source: Urban Airship’s 2013 Good Push Index. Data from more than 2,400 apps and 500 million push
notifications.

10. Push 101
Standard
push
Badgin
g
Inbox
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11. Push & Pull
Interactive Notifications Widgets
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12. The Good
Ask for the
opt-in. And
be
transparent.
The
Guardian.
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13. The Good
Make it easy
to share.
ABC News
social share.
iOS 8 Interactive
Notification –
Swipe left to
expose button(s)
Initiate social
sharing by
tapping on
“Share” button
Choose your
adventure –
select “Share”
Choosing
share
launches
share
dialog–
choose how
to share e.g.
Message
#pushalerts14
Prepopulated
share message
that can be
customized

14. The Good
Don’t Tease
too much.
The alert
should stand
on its own.
It’s OK for
users to
read the
alert and not
open your
app
#pushalerts14

15. The Good
Follow up
alerts with
corrections
or essential
updates
#pushalerts14

16. The Good
Link alerts to
an actual
piece of
content in
the app
#pushalerts14

17. The Bad
One
person’s
news is
another’s
person’s
spam.
Curate and
respect
preferences.
#pushalerts14

18. The Bad
Don’t overdo it!
Think carefully
about sending
multiple alerts on
the same topic in a
short amount of
time.
Especially if you
don’t offer
personalization.
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19. The Good
Avoid
spoilers
Bleacher
Report Team
Stream
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20. The Good
Keep it
relevant with
preferences.
Breaking
News and
USA Today
Topic Alerts
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21. The Good
Customize
content
streams.
Breaking
News Editor
Alerts
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22. The Good
Target with
relevant
local content
Breaking
News
Proximity
Alerts
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23. The Ugly:
http://thatsnotbreakingnews.com
Add value
with each
push.
Be VERY
careful when
testing
alerts. Use
real alert
content if
possible.
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24. Discussion Time!
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25. What’s your alerts workflow?
• Staffing
• Who sends the alert?
• CMS & Tools
• Levels of alerts
• How do you decide
when to send an alert?
• Automated alerts?
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26. Discussion
How do you measure the success of a push
aHleorwt? do metrics influence your alerts strategy?

27. Should news organizations send
non-breaking news push alerts?

28. What about alerts that prompt
you to watch live video or live
TV?

29. What’s the best wording for
alerts?
“BREAKING
?”
“Open the
app to…”
“WATCH
LIVE?”
#pushalerts14

30. Discussion
#pushalerts14
What’s the next big thing in mobile alerts?

31. Thank you!