The Legacy Quarterly  
Q1 2012

 

In This Issue
Pinterest and Beyond
mediaXchange
Updates Coming Soon
Bundled In Memoriam Program
Mobile Site Updates
Legacy Toolkit
Pinterest and Beyond

Legacy.com is now on Pinterest. We're pinning images and stories to boards like Phenomenal Women, Good Advice, The Greatest Generation, and many more.



We're on Google+, too! It's another great outlet for sharing our stories as well as yours.

These new social media pages join our long-standing presence on Facebook and Twitter. We hope you'll join us in pinning, sharing, tweeting and more! 
Visit us at mediaXchange


 

We're excited to be attending this year's mediaXchange, April 2-4 in Washington, DC. Drop by and visit us

at booth #409.


See you in DC!

Facebook Timeline & Your Obituary App

If you are using Legacy's Facebook Obituary App, make it easy for users to find your obituaries.  Set the Obituary App as one of the first four thumbnails to appear on your Facebook Timeline.  To get an idea of how this would look, take a look at the Baltimore Sun's Timeline.

 

 Contact us today to get easy instructions to customize your Facebook Timeline page and highlight your Facebook Obituary App!


 Updates to Enhance User Experience
We are making updates to our Obituary and Guest Book pages over the next few months to accomplish the following:

 

-To provide a more user-friendly, efficient experience to our end users

 

-To provide more focus on Guest Book usage

-To provide more Social Media focus for better sharing and Social Media interaction

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Bundled In Memoriam Program   

 

Our Bundled In Memoriam Program is better than ever! We're proud to offer an improved way for newspapers to help families commemorate the anniversary of their loved one's passing.   

 

 

 

This program generates additional revenue for your newspaper by letting customers purchase an In Memoriam for publication one year later at the same time they place an obituary. With our recent updates, this program becomes hassle-free. You send us a template when you start the program, and an In Memoriams will be automatically generated on the one-year anniversary using that template and the obituary content. Alternately, you can choose to provide unique In Memoriams without using the template.

 

The In Memoriam includes a link to the original obituary, and it shares a Guest Book with the obituary. This easy access to the obituary and Guest Book generates traffic, and the addition of a second touch point strengthens the relationship between the family and your newspaper.

 

With improved reporting and simple setup, the Bundled In Memoriam Program is easier than ever to use. You set the retail price (SRP $25.00) and pay Legacy.com a base price per notice. And there are even more options: you can choose to bundle In Memoriams with all notices (recommended) or offer them as an upsell, and you can choose online-only or both print and online.

 

To learn how to get started, contact your affiliate manager or email [email protected].

 

Mobile Site Updates

Mobile traffic has been growing as a percentage of overall traffic for obituaries and Guest Books, with mobile currently accounting for about 10% of overall traffic - up from 5% six months ago.   

 

We expect this trend to continue. In fact, according to analyst projections, mobile Internet usage will overtake desktop usage by 2014. In preparation we're continuing to develop our mobile product to add additional content and improve usability. Recent enhancements include:

 

 

  • Clear obituary navigation
  • Local and National Spotlight content, including photos
  • New Top Story section highlighting this week's top stories in obituaries
  • Improved search results, including photos and national featured obituaries
  • Better placement for top banner ad, moving it above newspaper's logo
  • My Memorials Mobile Facebook App now available on all obituaries and Guest Books

Are you linking to the mobile obituary site from your newspaper's mobile site? Accessing social networking sites, getting maps and directions, accessing local information and reading news are the top activities currently performed in mobile Web browsers. With today's growing mobile Internet usage, it's more important than ever to have local news such as obituaries easily accessible via a mobile device.

 

Contact us to learn more about the mobile site.


The Obit Report: Human Interest Stories and More


 
A recent story, "Read This to Your Children," struck a powerful chord with readers and quickly became the most-read feature of all time on The Obit Report, the Legacy.com blog that mixes original editorial content and human interest stories drawn from our newspaper affiliates.
 
When we read the remarkable obituary for Spencer Seupel, written by a mother in the wake of her son's suicide, we knew we needed to share it with our readers - both for its heartbreaking beauty and for the powerful message it carries about the danger of alcohol abuse. As the obituary - published in both The Poughkeepsie Journal and The Daily Freeman - gained public attention, we hoped it could change at least one life. 

The obituary has been widely shared: almost 350 shares via email alone, in addition to a viral impact on Facebook and Twitter. And almost 650 people, friends and strangers alike, have signed Spencer's Guest Book to offer their condolences and thank his mother for her eye-opening account of his life.

In addition to human interest pieces, users enjoy reading love stories, like that of NFL linebacker Chris Draft and his late wife LaKeasha. And we can never resist writing about 
the celebrities we love. All-time favorites of Obit Report readers include
Harvey Korman, Dick York and Eva Gabor.

We look forward to providing even more interesting Obit Report content to enhance our offerings.

Legacy Toolkit
Legacy Toolkit
 
Tips on getting the most out of your Legacy.com obits website

 Updated XML Feed

Guest Book URLs are now available in the XML feed provided by Legacy.com! 

 

If you include obituaries into your mobile applications using that feed, be sure to take advantage of this new feature and start linking to the Guest Book from within those applications.