ENTREPRENEURSHIP
I have worked to create more website traffic and an eye-catching layout.
It was my goal to modify the website to give it a clean, modern look.
When people first visit the site, they are greeted with a large image that covers most of the screen. Before, readers would see a collage of several stories. By choosing one that cycles out every few seconds, readers can focus on one story at a time, rather than becoming overwhelmed by several options.
My co-editor and I prioritized news, feature and sports. These stories include interviews, so we put them at the top so that the website is not filled with only opinions. We also added a podcast section, as we wanted to introduce a new form of media to the site. Podcasts are becoming more popular, so we thought it was time to introduce them to Prospective.
I wanted something eye catching. My junior year, my co-editor Emma Goad and I introduced Photo of the Week. This was a way to get photographers excited about their work and also be displayed on the site. Last year it was a sidebar, but this year I made it a large photo that takes up the majority of the page. This way, our pictures grab readers right before our photostories, making readers want to view more pictures.
Visit prospectiveonline.com to view the website in full.
To stay relevant and create more traffic on prospectiveonline.com, I began tweeting every time a story was posted on the website.
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When I first became Online Editor, the website automatically sent out a tweet for every story posted. However, the tweet was so automated that it never caught anyone's attention.
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To make the story more personal, my co-editor and I decided to make the writer tweet out a link to their story. Engagement increased a little, but a significant amount.
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I included a photo, an excerpt from the piece and a link.
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This made it easier for community members to share stories and access our website.
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By linking stories on Twitter, I was able to see how many people visited the link or shared the story. This also helped me see which stories received the most views. Feature stories received the most while reviews often had the least number of views.
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To improve even further, we have started adding the story category at the beginning of each tweet.
