Social Media & Audience Engagement
Social media is a HUGE part of our publication, with more than 2,000 followers, most of whom are students and teachers. In addition to promoting our articles, this platform plays an integral role in helping educate and inform the community.
With the rise of social media, journalism has undeniably evolved exponentially. This ability to share information with hundreds of people at the click of a button has put us in a unique position to be a trusted news source for so much of the student body and even the town - and, in turn, is a responsibility we take seriously.
2024 Town News/Budget Coverage
From snow day announcements to policy changes, social media has always been one of our primary methods of sharing information with students. However, as our town faced a $6-8 million deficit last year, threatening hundreds of cuts, our use of social media increased exponentially. It became extremely important to me that we fill the knowledge gap between students and the town politics, especially with these decisions directly affecting students. In addition to articles, I created social media graphics after each school committee/finance board/select board meeting I covered. Posts like these often became some of our most viewed/liked posts as students appreciated the information and were unaware of many developments prior. We also held a successful online "Q&A" with students on our Instagram story to engage more with our audience, answering nearly a dozen questions in-depth related to the budget and its consequences.
Swipe through the gallery below for an excerpt of the Q&A! I created the front graphic and coordinated with 2 other editors, Elitsa and Saanvi, to divide up all the questions and answer them. The ones featured in the slideshow below are the ones I answered specifically.
The period of uncertainty in the months leading up to the override vote was extremely emotional. Teacher jobs were threatened, clubs & classes that people had invested years with were on the brink of being cut, and so many interventionist resources were challenged. With all the information overload, our publication needed to be a constant, providing reliable and factual information, clearing up misconceptions, and engaging with student voices. While yes, we continued to write in-depth news articles about the budget, we also realized that this effort would not truly make a difference if our audience didn't see it. It's also no secret that most students and even adults don't have the time or attention span to read these long articles, no matter how informative. And, that's where social media came into play. When we made simplified, yet thorough, budget graphics, we received hundreds of likes and reposts, and dozens of comments - likely more engagement than we'd seen in all the prior months combined - and became a go-to source for budget news.
Below is an example of a graphic I am proud of making after a particularly dense Select Board meeting. Although it meant staying up till nearly 1 AM the night of the meeting, it was fully worth it.
Below is a glimpse into more posts that I used spread the word and make the content more accessible. *Note: The first 2 row of posts, I worked with my co-EIC, Elitsa, to create.
With all this coverage, I think the most fulfilling part was hearing, the next day, so many students talking about the graphics and even asking their teachers questions. It was amazing to me that we, just a few high schoolers on a newspaper, were able to create so much buzz around the school. Another great moment was when I overheard students discussing the budget, one pulled up our social media posts to fact-check their information. Just a few months ago, I found out that the third row of graphics helped a student I know decide to speak up during the town meeting. Knowing that our work inspires real conversations and impact is undeniably the best part of our coverage.
Some Audience Engagement Statistics
Instagram Engagement: last 90 days
661K VIEWS
8,259 INTERACTIONS
187 GAINED FOLLOWERS
Website Engagement: last 90 days
29,262 PAGE VIEWS
6,939 UNIQUE USERS
WA GRADS!!!
WA Grads is our school's official senior shout-out page on Instagram, created and managed by our publication. Each year, we design hundreds of posts and train younger staff to be involved as well. I have worked on this since freshman year, officially "leading" it during my sophomore year and partially during my junior year. This meant creating forms, organizing data collection, and of course, ensuring posts went out every day. Especially as an underclassman, I have distinct memories of creating posts when no one else could, even if it meant working on them during a birthday party (...in hindsight, I may have taken it a bit too seriously, but it was still fun).
We get a LOT of engagement on this account and it is a great way for younger staff to gain experience on social media. Despite the engagement, we have, however, decided to disable "like count" on each post, as we do not want the shout-outs to contribute to social media's toxic tendency for comparison. Each post also goes through an editing process to make minor design changes or catch any errors, which really tests our attention to detail. Although, as a senior, I am not working on this year's WA Grads, I'm super excited about our new layout for it this year!
Our color coded spreadsheet for data collection
