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Audience Engagement & Marketing
Photo of the Day
@uhswarrior on Instagram
In the beginning of my sophomore year, my adviser approached me with the idea of promoting the yearbook on Instagram using my photography skills. This idea is what started the Photo of the Day series, where I post a photo every single school day to give students a sneak peek of the amazing photography that they would find in that year's yearbook.
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Not only did I post my own photos, but I encouraged other photographers and students to send in their own photos to be featured. This project brought in quite the following on the @uhswarrior page, going from 223 followers at the beginning of the series (yes, I kept track) to 1,131 currently. Since the first post, I have posted 446 (as of March 8, 2024) and plan to surpass 500 by the end of the year.
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Choosing Photo of the Day is the last thing I do at night and posting it is the first thing I do in the morning before I even get out of bed. This isn't just a dedication to posting every day, it's a dedication to consistently attending a variety to get current photos of what's happening in our community.
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The series is a beloved part of journalism at Utica High School. Students aren't the only ones who look forward to seeing if their friends, club, sport, or other activity is featured that day, but parents and other members of the community also look forward to the daily posts.
Understanding Audience Engagement
First Post: September 20, 2021
54 likes
Top Post: September 12, 2023
Likes: 317
A big part of audience engagement and marketing is understanding it. To the right, I've screenshotted our recent insights over the past 90 days.
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Through the insight feature, I'm able to see what people interact with the most so I know what to post. Over the years, I've noticed that sports photos, specifically football and basketball, tend to do the best. While I take that into consideration, I also do my best to make sure all activities and events are represented.
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When looking at these insights, the green is what we like to see! Over the years I've watches the series gain traction, but seeing the numbers over ranges of time (a week, a month, 90 days) really gives me a better idea of just how much we've grown.
To increase our reach, I occasionally like to post crowd shots so more people will repost and send to their friends and family. Obviously I like to limit it because the idea of the project is to showcase everyone, and there's not always a big crowd and those aren't always the most meaningful moments.
Check out the next section to see my most recent posts!
Insights as of March 9, 2024
Tom Lietz, former principal and MIPA Administrator of the Year 2017
“The Photo of the Day Series was such an incredible idea. It put into practice a goal of the publications department to ensure that all students in the school felt seen and honored. Natalie and her team did an exceptional job of ensuring diversity and representation of kids, activities and everything Utica High was represented. Two years after leaving it’s still a highlight of my morning routine. They capture joy and passion of kids and that’s incredible."
David Hinkle, Utica High Varsity Boys Basketball Coach
"Natalie is always at our games and does a great job of capturing the moments of this amazing (undefeated) run by these young men. She is highly dedicated to attending all of the boys basketball games. She is very responsible, respectful and professional while attending each game. Natalie does an outstanding job of capturing the key moments throughout each of the games, which results in the high-quality photos that she produces."
Gabriela Boskovich, Utica High senior
"The photo of the day has added a new excitement to my school day because I get to see all the new activities that have occurred. Natalie has created an amazing atmosphere with the photo of the day and the amazing captions that describe the photo perfectly. Being the President of Student Council, I love knowing what is going on in our school and being able to highlight students for their achievements. The photo of the day account has given me just that and I have Natalie to thank for that."
As Social Media Manager for @uhswarrior and a contributor for the @uhs_arrow, I was also tasked with creating graphics to promote ad sales, club photo day, senior portraits, and more!
Click the photo to view the post
In our book, seniors are allowed to send in their own proessional portrait (that meets our guidelines of course) and they/their families are able to puchase senior recognition ads for them. Both parents and students tend to miss our deadlines, so I decided to design a post to let them know of the upcoming deadlines while also fitting into our theme graphics for this year.
Published on @uhswarrior
This year we switched from LifeTouch to Strawbridge and, upon learning that they had not given us any promotional content, I grabbed some photos from their website to make these graphics (and more) to post on our Instagram. It informed students about the option to get their senior photos taken by professionals at Utica.
Published on @uhswarrior
I also use the @uhswarrior page to promote stories and content for the Arrow newspaper because its following is over double.
Published on @uhswarrior
Can't forget our stories! I've utilized the many functions of Instagram stories to conduct polls and interviews. It often helps us find out who is best to interview for certain topics, like the lions on the right.
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As you can see in the first post, we also use stories to increase audience engagement by having students vote on the photo on the parting page. This is something I just came up with this year because I thought it would be a fun way to get everyone involved. Obviously they chose from pre-approved photos, but it gave students a say in the book they were spending over $100 on.
Published on @uhswarrior
In-Person Marketing
As you could probably tell, social media is our largest form of marketing because it's a platform that can be accessed from any location at any time (granted you have wifi). Knowing that, I created the flyer you see to the right when I first started the Photo of the Day series. Looking at it now, I think it really shows how much I've grown as a designer and how the series has grown.
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Deadlines are often announced during the morning announcements, and posters are hung around the school with QR codes to buy yearbooks. I am currently in the process of creating posters featuring photos of our own students to hang around the school, but time is a bit tight during deadline season.
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Each year our Chieftain Connect (school store) hosts a shopping night. The photo you see on the bottom left is a small flyer that I created to hand out and leave sitting on the counter for parents and students to remind them to buy their yearbooks.
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We also handed out flyers seen on the bottom right, which told students the deadline and where to get their book. By hand-delivering to students, it made sure they were aware that they did not have an order placed, as many students don't know if their parents purchased a book yet.