SOCIAL MEDIA | Journalist

Creating campaigns

As the social media coordinator, I spend part of my time planning, creating, organizing, and posting social media content that will help the newspaper engage with our target audience.

Over the last year, I have created campaigns centered around holidays, festivals, events and seasons.

Below are just a few examples of some of the campaigns I have coordinated below.

At the News Journal, I post all Instagram and Twitter content as well as a majority of the Facebook content. All social media and engagement campaigns are created and carried out by me alone.

I use scheduling sites such as Buffer and Hootsuite to help plan and organize content.

Newsy

By far the largest social media and engagement I have ever created, Newsy utilized every medium of publication available to me at the News Journal.

For background, Newsy is an elf from Santa's Department of the Lists. For years, he has asked Santa to visit some of the places that receive toys each year. In 2021, Santa reluctantly agreed and arranged for his elf to stay with the News Journal.

Newsy arrived on Dec. 1 and flew home with Santa on Dec. 24. During his time at the News Journal, Newsy interacted with the community both through the News Journal's print and online platforms as well as through in-person appearances at community events.

He partnered with schools, local leaders and other organizations to ensure that the Tri-County area would make the Nice List.

Each Wednesday, Newsy would publish his report to Santa for the community to read. It included a synopsis of events or experiences he had participated in over the last week, photos of adventures he had, a Naughty or Nice meter to report which list he felt the community was most likely to make and tips for how the community might be able to sway Santa and the elves in order to make the Nice List.

While he would publish a summary each week on Wednesday's, Newsy had a daily presence on the News Journal's social media and website.

Upon arrival, Newsy declared that he wanted to teach children about journalism and the news gathering process. He set out to help students create their very own 'News Journal's' each week by posting content to the News Journal's website that could be used to complete worksheets. Not only did students learn about places they could find factual information, the content was also directly tied to state educational standards. The student 'News Journal's' incorporated reading, writing, math, arts and humanities, and character education into each worksheet.

Some of the other ways Newsy chose to interact with the community included publishing his voicemails from Mr. and Mrs. Claus on the News Journal's social media and website and opening his office at the News Journal's downtown Corbin location to the public. He offered treats for children who came to visit and collected letters for Santa.

Newsy was an all inclusive campaign which incorporated every platform available, including in-person interactions with students and community members.

Each week, the News Journal advertisement representative was able to sell ads to sponsor Newsy's report to Santa which allowed Newsy to not only serve as an engagement campaign, but also a revenue stream for the News Journal.

Newsy

Graphics used in conjunction with educational student 'News Journal' worksheets

Print issue introduction

Educational student 'News Journal' worksheets

Adventure photos posted to social media

Examples of the voicemails from Mr. and Mrs. Claus

This video can be found on the News Journal's Facebook page at: https://www.facebook.com/cwnewsjournal/videos/859460734737006

This images can be found on the News Journal's Facebook page at: https://www.facebook.com/page/218387670056/search/?q=newsy

Having some fun in the snow?

With winter weather quickly overtaking our region in southeastern Kentucky, I chose to put out a social media call for people to send us photos of how they were having fun in the snow.

More than 90 people commented or left photos on the posts.

Using the photos submitted by community members, I created a print graphic for the January 12 issue of the News Journal.

Social media graphic

Print issue graphic

9/11

As the anniversary of the September 11, 2001 terroristic attack on the United States approached, I began brain storming a social media campaign that would attract community input.

For the campaign, I began by posting a call for action, which involved people commenting where they were when the terroristic attack happened.

I followed up by using the News Journal's archives to pull original coverage of the events, and then created graphics to be posted on September 11 that would correspond with the times when each major event happened in 2001.

The call for comments on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram received so many comments that I was unable to include them all in the print issue graphic, so to highlight other people's experiences, I created separate graphics using those comments and posted them in the days prior to the anniversary.

Data extrapolated from the social media campaign was used to create a graphic which was featured on the special section front for the September 8 publication issue.