Managing the Etownian’s website and social media for the past three years as the online editor has been my passion project. Entering college, I knew I wanted to get involved in student journalism, but I definitely didn’t anticipate becoming so familiar with the digital and promotional side of things. I’m so glad I did.
I’ve been fascinated with journalism since I joined my high school newspaper, “The Lancer Ledger.” When a new issue came out, I’d march down the halls with my manilla envelope stuffed with fresh newspapers. We sold them for $1 and included a free cookie, but sometimes people only bought them for the cookie. I was just happy there was a newspaper in their hands.
This excitement for sharing news became even more prominent in my life after I became the online editor my second year of college. I wasn’t entirely sure what I was getting into, but the editors trusted me enough to become the official glorified password keeper of the newspaper.
Just kidding – being the online editor involves a lot more than updating passwords, although many people don’t know what I actually do. A more explanatory title for my position would be website administrator and social media manager.
Starting off, I knew nothing about overseeing a website, let alone WordPress. But over the years, WordPress and I have become close frenemies. I distinctly remember the website crashed during my first few weeks without me doing anything to it, and I was terrified it would never return. Fortunately, it did!
But despite the learning curve I’ve had with WordPress, I’m happy with how comfortable I’ve gotten with the basics. Updating our website each week with new articles, adding new authors, updating our staff page and choosing featured stories for our carousel makes me feel good that anyone can access our news easily online.
Managing our social media came a little more naturally to me, but I had a hard time knowing where to start. Our Instagram and Facebook pages were established, but they lacked a strong, consistent brand identity that users could identify with. If you scroll through our Instagram profile, you can literally see our branding evolve as I experimented with different graphic design styles until I created one that was just right. From ads to staff posts to silly reels, I’ve thoroughly enjoyed designing, writing, scheduling and sharing posts to help promote our journalism.
As I wrote this article, I reviewed some of our analytics to see just how far we’ve come in three years. Since 2021, our website has had nearly 186,000 visitors! To think that so many people have viewed our work is astounding. We’ve gained about 460 new Instagram followers which is a 104 percent increase! Over 2,600 people have clicked the link to our website from our Instagram. And on Facebook, we now have over 1,060 people who follow our page. These numbers help demonstrate just how far our staff’s journalistic work has extended.
I’m so appreciative of all my Etownian friends I’ve made over the years. Thank you for putting up with my photo specifications, participating in my goofy Instagram Reels and including me in brainstorm meetings as I managed our digital little world! It’s been a pleasure.
