Web & Social Media

Click on the Photos below to view my most recent digital media

Quote Infographic - Volleyball to State

This was the first ever quote infographic I created. It was a way for us to quickly cover volleyball going to state for the first time in several years as well as make the moment more meaningful by talking to a senior who had worked extremely hard to help the team make it this far. The team had been through a lot that season including injuries which took out vital players, a new coach and endless amounts of practice.

Quote Infographic - Band

When creating this quote graphic, I was highlighting one of the students who had been chosen for the SCKMEA Honor Jazz band. The way he found out was extremely humorous, and I could not resist including it. Who else would have a story like that?

Quote Infographic - Musical

One of my favorite graphics was part of a gallery featuring the fall musical. I knew how much work went into creating the production, so I wanted to give them the opportunity to share with the community.

Sport Infographic

At the beginning of the year, I came up with the idea to post a sports graphic twice a week. One for sports happening Monday-Wednesday and another for sports happening Thursday-Sunday. This prevents us from spamming our social media accounts with different sporting events and helps us stay up-to-date with the events.

Sport Infographic

Creating sport infographics, readers are able to stay up-to-date on any sporting events taking place through any given time. I usually try to incorporate a photo of one of the participating sports to make it more interesting.

Sport Infographic

By far, this is my favorite sport infographic. When I first made it, I actually hated it. A lot. But the more I looked at it, the more I realized how emotional it was. For the first time ever, all of our fall sports had made it to post-season. By making the photos black and white, and by choosing photos that were more representative of teamwork and bonding, I was able to give the tone of seriousness. These teams were all holding their breath to see if they had what it took to be the state champions, and I believe I did a great job of capturing those feelings in this graphic.

Fall Homecoming court

Our social media platforms are used to deliver all kinds of news to our readers. This includes announcements such as the homecoming courts.

Hat Day reminder

Reminders for happenings in the school such as hat days are also included in our social medias. Rather than making a simple post to our Instagram story or Twitter with a sentence explaining the event, we now use those opportunities to make a simple, but interesting graphic that includes the same information.

Dale

Dale is a 37 inch tall stuffed dragon that sits in the newspaper lab and acts as our mascott. We use him as a way to interact with readers. This can be by including him in a social media post, having students pose for pictures with him, and including him in follower contests.

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Pumpkin Decoration Contest

Around Halloween, we held a Pumpkin Decoration Contest for our followers. The winner received a 10 dollar gift card to a place of their choosing. We also sent out a voting sheet after all submissions were entered. Interactions such as this are a good way for us to introduce ourselves to the community and makes our content more well-known.

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Photo Galleries

Whenever something fun or interesting happens around the school, we usually post a photo gallery. The picture above is one of our school librarian Casey Penner and para Andrea Pletcher posing during the first ever Christmas Spirit Week. Our readers were then able to see members of the staff in a quirky, more relatable way that they would not see otherwise.

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Post-graduation Plans

Another way we use our social media is to tell readers when one of our staff members decides what they are doing after graduation. Chadd Brown, one of my senior reporters committed to Hastings college to play golf. These posts can also include when one of the seniors decides where they are going to college or if they take a job for after graduation.

In more recent years, social media has become a large portion of our reporting. We launched an Instagram for the first time last year and also have a Twitter account and online website.

Our social media allows us to interact with our readers quickly in a more personal way.

This year, we began to post quote graphics, which are our way to personalize situations such as a sports team going to state or a performance. These help us to get inside the minds of people at our school and draw in readers who may not care about an event otherwise.

When a student is talking about how hard they have worked to make it to the state championship, the audience becomes empathetic to the situation.

We have fully taken advantage of design apps such as Canva to make visually appealing graphics. Canva allows my staff to work on their social media graphics from their school chromebooks or phones so that they can work on it outside of classtime.

Up Next: Design