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Nadia Knoblauch

Web and Social Media

To Social Media

Website

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Although our publication still distributes printed newspapers, our online website, hhsblueprint.com, is also a big responsibility. Last year, we were named an All-Florida online publication and the first Student Newspapers Online distinguished site in the nation, and this year, we have been recognized by SNO and NSPA as an Online Pacemaker Finalist. The main reason for these accomplishments is our organized posting calendar, which keeps us on track to post at least one story every day. Through online media, I have been able to incorporate interactive elements into my stories and teach other staffers how to make a story appealing online. Multimedia packages, infographics, and other forms of coverage have expanded my journalistic skills and knowledge, and I hope our website can expand our viewers' interests and knowledge as well.

Multimedia Packages

As seen in the Broadcast Journalism section, I have been making videos for our online publication over my past three years on staff. One of the best, and most frequent, ways I have incorporated multiple forms of coverage on our website has been through multimedia packages. By having both a written piece and video covering a topic, the viewer is open to more information and can gain more interest. Whether I am covering a Black Student Union showcase or reviewing local food trucks, pairing video with writing leads to some of our most popular stories.

See some of my multimedia packages below.

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Meals on wheels: Food Truck Thursday

This was one of my favorite videos that I have ever made. I got to work on this last year with my then editor-in-chief, Skyler. We attended our city's weekly Food Truck Thursday event to review the different trucks available. In the grid template, we were able to showcase each review on a single page while maintaining a clean look. Using SNO templates to better organize stories makes them easier to read and follow along with.

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First pep rally tests new permission forms

After new bills required parent forms for our pep rally, I wrote a story and made a video focused on how parent permission slips affected the rally attendance. In this story, I worked with the yearbook staff photographers to create a photo gallery of crowd shots from the pep rally. With multiple forms of media, along with a related stories sidebar, this post made it easy for viewers to learn more about the development.

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Omicron brings challenges to students, staff

Also shown in the Broadcast Journalism section, I created this video to go along with a story on a COVID spread across campus my sophomore year. This package won a Best of SNO and an All-Florida Multimedia Package award as the addition of videography heightened the story and reporting.

Students prepare for Rhapsody debut

I made this video to go along with a story on our band's annual Rhapsody performance. Through the video, viewers could not only see, but hear the pieces prepared for the performance.

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First Black History Month showcase makes

Paired with a story on our Black Student Union's inaugural student showcase, I created a montage video of the performances seen throughout the night. Unlike my other videos, I kept the focus on the students' performances rather than information and voice overs.

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Running out of options

In my sophomore year, I found difficulties in schedule selections for multiple course areas as language and math courses were limited. In my opinion piece, I included a podcast with one of our guidance counselors where we discussed the changes in course options and how this could affect students. Including this podcast made my story more well-rounded by prodviding both my opinion and reliable advice.

Posting Process

When running an online publication, it is not only the quality of stories that matter, but the quality of the appearance of the posts themselves. Our website is run on the program Adobe Wordpress, so over the past three years, I've become proficient in this program and its applications. Seen in Editing, Leadership and Team Building, my staffers are required to share the link to their story's website draft on their rough copies, allowing me and my online editor to view the story on our website before it is published.

To help teach my staffers, and others, how to operate our website, I created short YouTube video tutorials that demonstrate simple fixes that I often make to our website.

Click to view some of the common fixes I make on our website.

Story Templates & SNO Elements

Another way to keep our website diverse and versatile is through the story templates provided by Student Newspapers Online. Long-form chapter stories, infoboxes, and immersive photo templates amplify our in-depth reports, whether it be news, features, or opinions. Other SNO elements, such as pull-quotes and related stories side-bars, allow posts to be dynamic and connect to more sources and information.

Click to view some of my different story templates and SNO elements in action.

Interactive Elements

Interactive elements and infographics are tools commonly added to our website with in-depth reports. For the past three years, our staff has used sites such as Genially to create interactive graphics to pair with our online stories. Timelines, Q&A's, and quizzes are a few of the features we implement into our posts, and these help our viewers further understand a topic and visit our website.

Click to view the interactive element story packages.

5 questions about vaping

At the end of my first year on staff, I wrote a feature story on our campus' vaping epidemic. I wanted to include an infographic on what the dangers of vaping are that would be easy to navigate and read. I worked with our staff illustrator to create the smoke question mark, which I think made the graphic visually interesting and clear on what the graphic aimed to do, answer common questions on vaping.

What could honor societies do to make applying easier?

In one of my first opinion stories, I explored the complicated processes of applying to honor societies. After having my own difficulties in accessing application forms, I wanted to hear from other students on what had been difficult to them. I put together this infographic to show not just complaints, but suggestions for what these groups could do to increase membership and interest.

Photo galleries

Photo galleries are often used in our online posts, especially when covering large events or topics. With staff photographers in combination with our yearbook, we often feature photos throughout our stories, making them more visually stimulating and interesting.

Click to view some of the photo galleries paired with my stories.

Daily Website Posts

To keep our reporting consistent, our stories timely, and our website fresh, our staff has a policy of posting at least one story or multimedia element every school day. As seen in the Editing, Leadership, and Team Building section, we keep a post calendar and master list of stories to schedule our website uploads at the beginning of each quarter, labeling the story topic, section, and writer. Along with daily posts, we aim to update each section (news, opinions, features, sports, and multimedia) each week. This calendar allows us to plan posts to get them up on time while still following our editing process.

View our posting calendar below.

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Social Media

During my time on The BluePrint staff, we have shared our social media accounts with our yearbook, posting all social media content under or handles @hagertyjourn. However, our paper and website weren't as highlighted on these platforms. This year, I focused on building our paper's social media presence, promoting online stories on Instagram through feed and story posts, creating Instagram highlights for columns and multimedia content, sharing awards and recognition, and promoting our printed issues on distribution days.

And it has worked. At the beginning of the year, we had 1,348 followers, and now we have over 1,800.

In addition to Instagram, our staff posts our daily stories on X (Twitter), our videos on YouTube, and podcasts on SoundCloud and Spotify. By using multiple platforms, we expand our audience and impact.

Story Showcases and Guides

As seen in Marketing and Audience Engagement, this year I began to create social media posts to highlight stories on our website, hhsblueprint.com, on our Instagram. When creating these posts, I wanted to maintain a clean and consistent look with our website and paper. So, I created a template on Canva for my staffers to use when making their own Instagram posts. Though the rest of my staff didn't embrace Instagram posting as quickly as I hoped, with continued pushing, it is finally gaining traction.

When making Instagram posts, I try to make the photo unique to that shown on the website. Often, I will split the photo so followers can swipe to see the rest of the image, allowing for both a teaser headline and a quote.

Included in these posts is a teaser to the story in the caption, giving viewers a snippet of the story that may hook them in. All of our feed posts are also promoted on our Instagram story with a link to the story, making it easy for viewers to be directed to the website.

See some of my Instagram packages below.

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Instagram Highlights

Also seen in Marketing and Audience Engagement, I implemented Instagram's highlight feature this year on our staff's Instagram page. On our website, we have a wide range of recurring content created by our staffers. From book reviews, music podcasts, pop culture crazes, and political columns, we use highlights to organize our content on Instagram.

When adding this element to our Instagram page, I wanted to ensure it, again, fit the style of our website and print. So, I enlisted Digital Design students, and myself, to create logos in our official font style, "Arboria," and hex code colors. This gave our social media page a heightened look and more efficient organization so followers could explore specific topics or interests.

See some examples of our Instagram highlights below.

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Recognition and Publicity

In addition to using Instagram to showcase our website posts, I also began to design social media posts on Canva to share all of our staff's awards, including those of our yearbook. Sharing our Best of SNO published stories and awards from NSPA and CSPA are great ways to not only gain more interest in our website, as shown in Marketing and Audience Engagement, but to boost my staff's morale. In addition to sharing awards, I also create posts to advertise our print issues on distribution days. Both our Best of SNOs and distribution posts are included in our highlights, shining more light on our print and dedication.

See some of the awards and recognition posts I've created below.

YouTube Uploads

As seen in the Website section, our staff regularly uploads video coverage to our website from our staff YouTube channel. Using YouTube allows us to easily use the embed code feature on WordPress to add video into our online stories.

Click to see our YouTube channel.

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Daily X (Twitter) Posts

Posting stories on our website is difficult, but remembering to tweet may be more painful. I find myself sending countless reminders to my staff of "Don't forget to tweet!" and "Have you tweeted yet?" After getting a story up on the website, I understand why my staffers may forget to write a short hook to put up on X, but it is beneficial to our stories on program to be active on multiple social media platforms. By posting daily on X, we can share our stories to another audience---more parents and adults are active on X over Instagram. Now, X posts are counted as part of our staff's story grades, further encouraging us share our stories on the platform.

Click the photos to view our X page.

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