Yesterday, I tried something new. I created a graphic specifically for Facebook. We also created web and print versions, just like we always do. It was an interesting experience, that's for sure.
In Gov. Nixon's State of the State, one of his proposals was cutting from the higher ed budget. Again. I think he's done that every year I've gone to school here. However, this year, the universities and colleges are fighting back. The
UM Board of Curators is thinking about raising tuition by 7.5 percent, plus raising course fees and the information technology fee, all of which is charged per credit hour. For the graphic, we wanted to show how much students would be paying with all of these fees. So, we started with these graphics.
Then, I created the print version, which was a smaller version of the web graphics. But the real excitement came from creating the Facebook version. We were trying to build off the success of
ProPublica's SOPA graphic. I knew that the graphic needed to be simpler, and be not as tall. With the help of the editor on duty, I came up with this. We took the base per credit hour rate, and the schools with the biggest increases in course fees, then showed them for in-state and out-of-state tuition.
As you can see, it's a lot different.
Some things I learned. First of all, there needs to be a healthy balance of chatter in the image and used as the caption on Facebook. The one posted to our Facebook page had a lot of chatter, and it shrunk the image seen in the news feeds. As people shared, and put in less chatter, the image was much larger. I also want to play more with the sizes, and see how that affects how it's seen in news feeds.
Second, I think this is still more detail than is best for Facebook. However, how much you pay for school here is complicated, and I had a hard time reconciling the need for simplicity and the complexity of the topic. It's something to think about in the future.
Third, I like that we used the logo. I think it helps with branding and making sure the paper always gets credit for the work we did.
Also, know when people are looking at Facebook. I finished the Facebook version at 11 p.m. We suspected more people would see it if we waited to post in the morning. So that's what we did.
I think this was a great idea, and I'm glad we did it. As a friend was telling me this morning, people are more likely to click a photo in Facebook than a link. We included a link to the story in the caption, so if people want more they can get it. I'll be sure and keep you posted about we learn as we continue to go along. What are your thoughts?
I'm back on track for going through the book Creative Workshop, which is one of my New Year's Resolutions. I'm not caught up (yet), but making progress. Today's challenge was to create a magazine cover for a magazine focused around something to do with the color blue. It could be anything. In fact, one of the examples given was a magazine that focused on literature surrounding depression. The image above is my end result.
