Web and Social Media
Social Media
Following the social media critique assignment, my Co-EIC and I worked closely with the Web Managing Editor to create a rotational calendar for social media staffers to refer to for their weekly assignments. In addition to story promotions for both web and print, we have included outfit of the week posts, student and teacher spotlights, and more. With this new course of action, our uploads have been much more frequent and we have taken elements that we noticed in the other accounts and incorporated them into our most recent posts.
My Co-EIC and I sought to improve how The Muse navigates social media, specifically Instagram since we have over 2,000 followers on that platform alone. We also wanted to improve the consistency and regularity of our uploads each week. To improve in this regard, we helped to create a social media critique assignment where staffers looked at other publication’s social media accounts including The Alligator, Washington Square News, The New York Times, and Hilite News. We compared these Instagram accounts to our own. Then, my Co-EIC and I led class-wide discussions with the staff to talk about our takeaways and how we can apply what we thought was effective in the other accounts to our account.
Research
To further my knowledge of social media and my pursuit to find new techniques and strategies we can use for The Muse's social media platforms, I attended an NSPA virtual masterclass on building a better social media brand. I included my notes from the masterclass. I also took notes on a KnightLab article that went into further suggestions for social media strategies.
Breaking News
Since The Muse is one of the only student-news sources on campus, we often produce and upload breaking news posts or live updates on our Instagram and website. Breaking news opportunities are communicated about on the respective channel on Slack. These posts are notified about and published within a very brief time period. This year, one member on staff wrote a live updates story on hurricane Nicole. I edited each update of the story throughout the two day period.
Web
As Coverage Editor for The Muse during my junior year, I channeled my efforts toward ensuring there was a diversity of types of coverage, story types, and sources for both web and print content. My fellow Coverage Editors and I updated the beat report form that staffers completed on a bi-weekly basis to find story ideas across all areas of the campus community. After receiving the responses, we sifted through and organized them to make sure there were coverage ideas for all story types including news, sports, arts, culture, and opinion.
As an intern for South Florida Insider, I have had the opportunity to format and upload weekly press releases on WordPress. Now that I am knowledgeable about how to navigate the platform, I helped train other interns to bolster their skills and familiarity with the program.
