Social Media and Branding

Instagram is currently our only active social media that we directly publish to as This is York/York-hi. Other factions of York media use Twitter and Youtube, but for our digital publication we post through an Instagram that is also connected to a Facebook account.

At the end of 2023, we decided to use post guidelines in order to make a more cohesive Instagram grid. We would still post using alternative guides for magazine announcements, video newspackages, and occasional PSAs; however, we set up design parameters for story posts.

We post on our social media immediately after we publish a story to direct people to our website. We use Canva to accomplish this and there are two distinct formats as shown below.  The purpose of this shift was to create a more professional flow for our media page. We took inspiration from the Instagram's of the Chicago Tribune and Washington Post, both publications that promote their stories in a consistent format.

Although it was not an initial intention behind establishing guidelines, having specific expectations for posts makes teaching the process much more straightforward. While I encourage creativity when editing stories and leading pitch meetings, I find that logistical tasks like making posts, is much more manageable when clear expectations are set and communicated.