Brand your publication and engage your audience

During yearbook camp, my staff discussed how to start branding our student publications. Last year, the staff started referring to itself as RBP instead of RB Publications. RBP is known for producing the yearbook and occasionally posting on Instagram and Snapchat, but we need to start developing a plan to engage the school community.  

After attending CSJ 2019, I will be able to share some great ideas from Tasha Stewart and Kevin Necessary from WCPO. I liked their examples of showing their human sides on social media. I can see how our publications can improve the school climate by showing the human side of students, faculty and staff. They will also be super excited to use GIPHY and connect with more students on different platforms.

Instagram will probably become the main social media site for our publications. They continue to add features to interact with users.  I also found an interesting article about PBS Newshour Student Reporting Labs program recently collaborated with Instagram News Partnership to that taught best practices in an Instagram Story School. 

The staff will need to brainstorm some recurring coverage that will be found on Instagram. Some of the stories should be informative, while other stories can be more fun. But the biggest takeaway is that when students apply strong storytelling skills with social media, they can reach a bigger audience and be able to tell more stories about the school community.