tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-79588466743910921222024-03-05T16:38:06.388-08:00Eye on The OrionA blog for the staff of the student newspaper at California State University, Chico, by adviser Mark Plenkemrplenkehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00527947903200356351noreply@blogger.comBlogger323125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7958846674391092122.post-85486981405306428772018-05-20T11:37:00.003-07:002018-05-20T11:37:56.016-07:00Spring 2018 staff photo<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfeDYImRwHAvO2hcahsovd5YBM90qF9coFRjWZ-mehTTp2CWiBCJfvMjrI366QDAgQ92p3M8T7dchJwxPnemAbqErNOoocl6-IMcswt5xFJwqh8twSnOVk6xuf4yVvfQnnWZCpIg-um2Tt/s1600/orionstaffS2018web.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="239" data-original-width="800" height="118" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfeDYImRwHAvO2hcahsovd5YBM90qF9coFRjWZ-mehTTp2CWiBCJfvMjrI366QDAgQ92p3M8T7dchJwxPnemAbqErNOoocl6-IMcswt5xFJwqh8twSnOVk6xuf4yVvfQnnWZCpIg-um2Tt/s400/orionstaffS2018web.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Orion staff group photo -- May 16, 2018 -- Kendall Hall. Photo by Caitlyn Young. (Click to see a larger image.)</td></tr>
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<div style="text-align: center;">
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mrplenkehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00527947903200356351noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7958846674391092122.post-6343466812007695092018-05-19T09:51:00.000-07:002018-05-19T09:51:06.440-07:00Website traffic rebounds spring semester<br />
<iframe frameborder="0" height="606" scrolling="no" src="https://create.piktochart.com/embed/30483619-new-piktochart" style="overflow-y: hidden;" width="400"></iframe>
<br />
It's hard to tease out what might be happening to <b>app traffic</b>. Some possibilities:<br />
• theorion.com works better on mobile devices than it did a couple of years ago, so viewers going to the website<br />
• the staff did a better job of sending push notices from the app early on, which brought more people to the platform<br />
• early adapters who were enthusiastic users have now graduated and don't use the app<br />
• adding new users isn't keeping up with the loss of old users<br />
• the recent redesign isn't as easy to use or useful as the original.<br />
<br />
Whatever the reason, it would be a good idea to take a close look at the app to see how it could be improved and promoted next year.<br />
<br />
<b>Web traffic</b> as a whole lacks the big viral stories that pushed traffic so high last spring. You can't dictate breaking news, which is usually the big driver of Orion views, but stepping up the paper's social media game (poor all semester) would be one way to drive more traffic.<br />
<br />
This semester's <b>bounce rate</b> -- the percentage of visitors who view a single website page and then navigate away from the site -- got slightly worse. They were much worse than last spring but vastly better than Spring 2016.<br />
<br />
Spring 2018 - 28.88 percent<br />
Fall 2017 - 25.25 percent<br />
Spring 2017 - 18.13 percent<br />
Spring 2016 -- 80.41 percent<br />
<br />
How does that compare to other news sites?<br />
<br />
According to <a href="http://conversionvoodoo.comhttp//www.conversionvoodoo.com/blog/">conversionvoodoo.com</a>, a blog that focuses on web traffic strategies, theorion.com is doing an outstanding job of keeping viewers once they navigate to the website compared to other news sites. I have no idea what "minimum bounce rate" means. Maybe it's what the best sites report.<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; color: #404040; font-family: Merriweather, serif; font-size: 16px; margin-bottom: 1.5em;">
<i>This includes websites that have an affiliate news station and those simply reporting news online.</i><br />
<ul style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; color: #404040; font-family: Merriweather, serif; font-size: 16px; list-style-image: initial; list-style-position: initial; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em 3em;">
<li style="box-sizing: inherit;"><i>Minimum Bounce Rate – 25%</i></li>
</ul>
<ul style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; color: #404040; font-family: Merriweather, serif; font-size: 16px; list-style-image: initial; list-style-position: initial; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em 3em;">
<li style="box-sizing: inherit;"><i>Maximum Bounce Rate – 81.4%</i></li>
</ul>
<ul style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; color: #404040; font-family: Merriweather, serif; font-size: 16px; list-style-image: initial; list-style-position: initial; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em 3em;">
<li style="box-sizing: inherit;"><i>Average Bounce Rate – 55.56%</i></li>
</ul>
<i>So, why do news and media sites have such high bounce rates? Many people will take a look at the headlines, decide they don’t want or need to look any further, and leave the page. To lower the bounce rates on these pages, you need to ensure that your headlines are interesting and will pull the reader into the story.</i></blockquote>
<a href="http://everwas.com/2016/06/bounce-rates-on-news-sites/">Here's a more detailed discussion</a> about bounce rates on news sites and what to keep in mind when you compare numbers.mrplenkehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00527947903200356351noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7958846674391092122.post-33370175441423028282018-05-17T18:42:00.001-07:002018-05-18T13:36:59.217-07:00Orion Awards - Spring 2018<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><span style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><a href="https://photos.app.goo.gl/QBuDjdnjYsNptvIy1"><img alt="" border="0" data-original-height="1143" data-original-width="1600" height="285" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhPLaNnKMVjW3BqnoshlyXL7_XhWhT3w6eJiMcWurDNvqXFuopPHX97TuUg4irhS-4Nceac0umzn1KUS7580i-1DFFcHFZAHKF_zxHJZMZjbwZi61sQgDp1q0CPiPW5lhDHXLKxigHtVBmO/s400/IMG_6092.jpg" title="" width="400" /></a></span></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Orion editors announce winners of spring semester's Orion Awards Wednesday evening at Selvester's Cafe on campus. <a href="https://photos.app.goo.gl/QBuDjdnjYsNptvIy1">(Click to see a slideshow)</a></td></tr>
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<span style="font-size: 15px;">The winners of the Spring 2018 Orion Awards are:</span><br />
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Copy Editor: Robin Cripe<br />
Sports Reporter: Andrew Baumgartner </div>
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Arts Writer: Ulises Duenas</div>
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News Reporter Mat Miranda</div>
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Breaking News Reporter: Josh Cozine</div>
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Opinion Writer: Karen Limones</div>
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Multimedia Journalist: Kate Angeles</div>
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PR Practitioner: Erien Matsueda</div>
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Section Editor: Alex Grant<br />
Rookie of the Semester: Austin Schreiber</div>
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Sunshine Award: Jaime Munoz<br />
Orion Award: Josh Cozine<br />
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Congratulations everyone!</div>
mrplenkehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00527947903200356351noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7958846674391092122.post-77517684260791047672018-05-17T07:45:00.004-07:002018-05-17T07:45:55.861-07:00Here's this semester's Orion T-shirt<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjT7iZIU4Bj8LfmsSZBzpCdTqyhJKw-ZZADCj3yxoDbPI0fksHaerDgJZfNVsglqZ_6gwqoDCX6xJCspcNqUksJspaFUMXRox8hkXWPtahFN30btOC4U3_PIoI7XaMxAZ_Fovl904qc5DzZ/s1600/tshirt.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="483" data-original-width="477" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjT7iZIU4Bj8LfmsSZBzpCdTqyhJKw-ZZADCj3yxoDbPI0fksHaerDgJZfNVsglqZ_6gwqoDCX6xJCspcNqUksJspaFUMXRox8hkXWPtahFN30btOC4U3_PIoI7XaMxAZ_Fovl904qc5DzZ/s400/tshirt.JPG" width="395" /></a></div>
<br />mrplenkehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00527947903200356351noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7958846674391092122.post-60423434634866909422018-05-11T13:35:00.000-07:002018-05-11T13:35:00.660-07:00Fall 2018 Editorial Board Named<div style="background-color: white; color: #212121; font-family: wf_segoe-ui_normal, "Segoe UI", "Segoe WP", Tahoma, Arial, sans-serif, serif, EmojiFont; font-size: 15px;">
Orion Editor-in-Chief Julia Maldonado has named her editorial board for fall semester.<br />
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Managing Editor: Alex Grant</div>
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Breaking News Editor: Josh Cozine</div>
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Enterprise News Editor: Mathew Miranda</div>
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Arts and Entertainment Editor: Natalie Hanson</div>
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Opinion Editor: Karen Limones</div>
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Sports Editor: Andrew Baumgartner</div>
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Multimedia Editor: Caitlyn Young</div>
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Chief Copy Editor: Katya Villegas</div>
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Social Media Director: Nicole Camarda</div>
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Art Director: Sergio Delgado</div>
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<br />
Congratulations!</div>
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mrplenkehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00527947903200356351noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7958846674391092122.post-32369444471648935462018-05-01T07:07:00.000-07:002018-05-01T07:09:54.399-07:00April traffic was way up<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjBKAKZa9KFZUZByD6OXpdGuu3N7EzbetSoWBCzgMXRKK2HiFknSFgXJ8S0hDILA8-LRpxSpbX4iLi05IG8rjaiaOMyfY7bdKR1lXJeYE1ssiLT1Lft3yBSLp_3xGI5l4kkXrYKUorkcAT6/s1600/april2018analytics.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="384" data-original-width="800" height="191" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjBKAKZa9KFZUZByD6OXpdGuu3N7EzbetSoWBCzgMXRKK2HiFknSFgXJ8S0hDILA8-LRpxSpbX4iLi05IG8rjaiaOMyfY7bdKR1lXJeYE1ssiLT1Lft3yBSLp_3xGI5l4kkXrYKUorkcAT6/s400/april2018analytics.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Source: Google Analytics</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Traffic on <a href="http://theorion.com/">theorion.com</a> continued to recover in April behind a strong news effort and visits generated by Google searches for Andre the Giant, Coachella and gay men's bodies.<br />
<br />
The number of times someone navigated to the website was up 1,568 visits, and pageviews jumped a whopping 57 percent, from 57,854 in March to 90,824 in April.<br />
<br />
The most encouraging number, though, was the improvement in bounce rate, the percentage of visitors who navigate away from the website after viewing one story. In March, that number was 56 percent. In April, it was down to 5.6 percent. I speculated last month that changing up the homepage design might help improve bounce rate, and this is evidence that's true.<br />
<br />
Numbers are still down from a year ago. This chart compares this month to last month and April of last year.<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEja62in1dJLTDYVCUNx_b8x67EJGM6u2aXWo9-8_qNvR7g5pJGt95WGH4y4XwTtB2NTVeGeh-yxdkjn7L7xq_HyG2oOp6uZxRWyqsiyWnAyuuQH_jqig4PklQ_oNsxQhOGXzm0I-1XYZFcu/s1600/trafficcomparison.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="199" data-original-width="596" height="133" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEja62in1dJLTDYVCUNx_b8x67EJGM6u2aXWo9-8_qNvR7g5pJGt95WGH4y4XwTtB2NTVeGeh-yxdkjn7L7xq_HyG2oOp6uZxRWyqsiyWnAyuuQH_jqig4PklQ_oNsxQhOGXzm0I-1XYZFcu/s400/trafficcomparison.gif" width="400" /></a></div>
<br />
When I dug deeper into Google analytics, I saw that the top 10 stories from April 2017 all had more than 2,000 pageviews. Last month, only half of the top 10 had even 1,000 page views.<br />
<br />
Some of that loss of viewership can be attributed to poor social media performance. A year ago, more than a third of the visits to theorion.com came from a social-media referral, primarily Facebook. Here's the comparison:<br />
April 2017 - 37.7%<br />
April 2018 - 15%<br />
March 2018 - 16%<br />
<br />
Here are the top 10 most viewed stories for April:<br />
Andre the Giant review - 1,845 pageviews<br />
Coachella is not worth it ( a two-year-old column) - 1,394<br />
Student dies unexpectedly - 1,357<br />
Chico State's model U.N. team ranks among the best - 1,058<br />
Honor society email scam preys on the weak (Fall 2017) - 1,029<br />
Proposed fee increases could initially cost students up to $380 a year - 853<br />
Guide to gay men's body types (a three-year-old column) - 789<br />
AS election candidates argue their cases for office - 680<br />
AS 2018 election results announced - 655<br />
President Hutchinson announces voting results on proposed fee increases - 616mrplenkehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00527947903200356351noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7958846674391092122.post-35860916225201537332018-04-13T13:25:00.000-07:002018-04-13T13:25:07.320-07:00Paper, website are both CNPA awards finalists<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhpKavJSeh69YcGlynay_06cwoHNwreTK1FHVxHWeYZBj01d0APZU82PABhJUQ361rT1xp8oi5he-nCROuxsbb2bAipM3KmZqma3YhyG0Bagz8Xkojtx2gHt9ZQdRnigA_QWcApp-VBMLO3/s1600/generalexcellence.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="433" data-original-width="708" height="243" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhpKavJSeh69YcGlynay_06cwoHNwreTK1FHVxHWeYZBj01d0APZU82PABhJUQ361rT1xp8oi5he-nCROuxsbb2bAipM3KmZqma3YhyG0Bagz8Xkojtx2gHt9ZQdRnigA_QWcApp-VBMLO3/s400/generalexcellence.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">The Orion has been named a finalist for both newspaper and online general excellence among four-year universities in this year's California News Publishers Association annual contest. There are four finalists in each category. </span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Only the UCLA Bruin was also a finalist in both categories. </span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Congratulations, Orionites!</span>mrplenkehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00527947903200356351noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7958846674391092122.post-8621929395762525402018-04-11T11:01:00.000-07:002018-04-11T17:12:54.789-07:00Maldonado, Fitzgerald named to lead The Orion next fall<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgMNMYJ1UQ7jW-c5V3kRq1oVtIZMyH2vbbGHmQQDWc5pc-bsL4QZUjtCB1YscdFAbw0oawBlqo9fkfh7bU1F0ihyphenhyphenWfXu2eqQu_Yc344JHlE_C87sufHFY2UgIh7sO8DiBQt_hyGrXup3jrM/s1600/juliamaldonado.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1446" data-original-width="1600" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgMNMYJ1UQ7jW-c5V3kRq1oVtIZMyH2vbbGHmQQDWc5pc-bsL4QZUjtCB1YscdFAbw0oawBlqo9fkfh7bU1F0ihyphenhyphenWfXu2eqQu_Yc344JHlE_C87sufHFY2UgIh7sO8DiBQt_hyGrXup3jrM/s200/juliamaldonado.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Julia Maldonado</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Current Managing Editor Julia Maldonado will be next fall's Orion editor-in-chief, and current EIC Kayla Fitzgerald will move over to become the paper's business manager.<br />
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Maldonado, a junior Journalism and Public Relations major from Citrus Heights, has worked three semesters at The Orion, first as an arts and entertainment writer, then arts section editor and managing editor. </div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Outside the paper, Julia served as president of Tiger Beat magazine's teen advisory board. She is also a member of Alpha Omicron Pi sorority, which she serves as chapter reporter. </div>
<div>
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjsmC6ln2n7i0XewqMvle4cXjzi6voL8jZUc4BXm_KZ7oyOpmpaSy-Re1hkNoN6o_BWP_wIFhxwpnXpcrI0xD-GRdQyDChDJpJVDd5Z-fmKuzdQHNdvLmUjsuktGXg1TPH1UaC_rJOze7f6/s1600/Editors_Kayla_Web+%25281%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="630" data-original-width="945" height="133" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjsmC6ln2n7i0XewqMvle4cXjzi6voL8jZUc4BXm_KZ7oyOpmpaSy-Re1hkNoN6o_BWP_wIFhxwpnXpcrI0xD-GRdQyDChDJpJVDd5Z-fmKuzdQHNdvLmUjsuktGXg1TPH1UaC_rJOze7f6/s200/Editors_Kayla_Web+%25281%2529.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Kayla Fitzgerald</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div>
Fitzgerald, a senior J&PR major from Livermore, has been on the paper five semesters. She worked as a news and sports reporter, breaking news editor and managing editor before becoming editor-in-chief this spring.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Maldonado will now begin interviewing potential editorial board members. Once those editors are in place, staff hiring for next fall will begin. </div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Congratulations Julia and Kayla!</div>
mrplenkehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00527947903200356351noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7958846674391092122.post-84277214645770549232018-04-01T11:05:00.002-07:002018-04-01T11:05:58.789-07:00Traffic improves in March, still down from a year ago<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjYaAUUqV4lzkzDgMTNqQ-EDyTJxtmHFE9QsHc2M_BcahFb6mBDQCKodyeyPSK1AojT2KCas6oY2GKtpZ8SXIu-i1AbRy1wb49XtPv1kHDEGbAyBrzukXg0W3SQqbLxO5NepYbST3beL2mG/s1600/march2018overview.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="575" data-original-width="909" height="252" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjYaAUUqV4lzkzDgMTNqQ-EDyTJxtmHFE9QsHc2M_BcahFb6mBDQCKodyeyPSK1AojT2KCas6oY2GKtpZ8SXIu-i1AbRy1wb49XtPv1kHDEGbAyBrzukXg0W3SQqbLxO5NepYbST3beL2mG/s400/march2018overview.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<br />
Good stories and lots of them from the news section helped <a href="http://theorion.com/">theorion.com</a> post solid traffic gains in March despite the expected fall-off during spring break. Still, the website numbers are running behind Google analytics from a year ago. <br />
<br />
Here's a traffic comparison. Sessions are the number of visits. Users are the number of visits from a single IP address. Bounce rate is the percentage of visitors who read one page and leave.<br />
<br class="Apple-interchange-newline" /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWKmw6o2e6kxiog98wduVJtchaFchAlKHVL8Zvc0rL57IGxGj6Hek7ytkoBwoIPXkv8byb6m76YF8KUiPnBqwOQqZxfNkicD-McOIBu7Li95XEWOnbcN_Vf3I29kMbsyHTlf4_wft2NcTB/s1600/March18trafficchart.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="196" data-original-width="507" height="153" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWKmw6o2e6kxiog98wduVJtchaFchAlKHVL8Zvc0rL57IGxGj6Hek7ytkoBwoIPXkv8byb6m76YF8KUiPnBqwOQqZxfNkicD-McOIBu7Li95XEWOnbcN_Vf3I29kMbsyHTlf4_wft2NcTB/s400/March18trafficchart.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<br />
Seven of the top 10 stories were news reports, and an eighth story -- a feature -- was written by Kelsi Sibert from the enterprise news team.<br />
<br />
A better social-media effort probably contributed to the monthly increase. In March, 4,315 people arrived on an orion.com story after clicking on a social-media link, 757 more than the month before.<br />
<br />
Compared to a year ago, though, the amount of traffic generated by social media posts is poor. In March 2017, just over 40 percent of sessions started with a Facebook or Twitter post (13,960). Last month, not quite 16 percent of visits (4,315) arrived via social media.<br />
<br />
Because campus news is the primary reason people navigate to the website, what's being covered also affects traffic. The top stories for each of the months compared above looked like this:<br /><b>March 2017</b> - RA's fired over alcohol allegations -- about 23,000 pageviews<br /><b>March 2018</b> - Student falls to his death at Butte Hall, candlelight vigil -- 4,153 views<br /><b>February 2018</b> - Rugby success story and a "Resident Evil" game review - 1,073 views<br />
<br />
Here are the top 10 stories for March in terms of traffic:<br />1. One dead after falling from Butte Hall stairwell - 2,700 pageviews<br />2. Candlelight vigil held for death of student - 1,453<br />3. Student dies unexpectedly - 961<br />
4. Head-on collision involving CalFire vehicle leaves on dead - 911<br />5. Longtime Chico High School teacher pleads guilty to molesting charges - 751<br />6. Cesar Chavez Day versus Chico State party culture - 714<br />7. Honor society email scam preys on the weak - 646<br />
8. Two-week-long carnival kicks off at Chico Mall - 498<br />9. Local students organize walkout protest - 436<br />10. Chico State professor researches zebra fish in hopes of creating artificial blood - 419<br />
<br />
It will be interesting to see if The Orion's updated homepage design increases the number of people who click through to read more stories. The bounce rate for last month was 56 percent, quite a bit higher than recent months.mrplenkehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00527947903200356351noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7958846674391092122.post-26925934063134798972018-03-15T07:56:00.002-07:002018-03-15T12:59:49.190-07:00How to use Twitter video in website storiesThe Orion had wonderful Twitter video coverage of the student walkout Wednesday. Here's how to get Twitter videos into stories posted to your website.<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJDKhgQ7Wg4SdcsPD6937kY9Nzs5PZorjjXN6Zw9KyQ8AVy2AFG6i1mjcjeWR2PGBKNzfzBqd7_3_E-I309lsGS1j1rGSQuusKnf49TzjhbwP8Fr3xX9UNFPyPxRyK7i5CAk9mEvM958TH/s1600/embedlink.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="888" data-original-width="784" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJDKhgQ7Wg4SdcsPD6937kY9Nzs5PZorjjXN6Zw9KyQ8AVy2AFG6i1mjcjeWR2PGBKNzfzBqd7_3_E-I309lsGS1j1rGSQuusKnf49TzjhbwP8Fr3xX9UNFPyPxRyK7i5CAk9mEvM958TH/s400/embedlink.jpg" width="352" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Pull down the three-dot menu next to the heart and select Embed this Tweet.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Copy the code that starts <blockquote class... and paste it into the html of the web page.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-zAhvLQxqp3VugyjTjCUplfRzAte7q5hhUfAvMQkCt4ZhA9oRmqX3XEGebgqVK06T3bDjrv2l7GK1h3ohzr0fGMQH45VJZR_oayC1TcfL6-LvzDFBeKiFLSNzJu6jeWnLM7Ye758_fZzI/s1600/embed.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="681" data-original-width="565" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-zAhvLQxqp3VugyjTjCUplfRzAte7q5hhUfAvMQkCt4ZhA9oRmqX3XEGebgqVK06T3bDjrv2l7GK1h3ohzr0fGMQH45VJZR_oayC1TcfL6-LvzDFBeKiFLSNzJu6jeWnLM7Ye758_fZzI/s400/embed.jpg" width="331" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
I've posted that code on this blog page. Here's what it looks like:<br />
<br />
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-partner="tweetdeck">
<div dir="ltr" lang="en">
Students from Chico High School join the downtown plaza protest <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/NoMoreSilence?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#NoMoreSilence</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/theorion_news?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@theorion_news</a> <a href="https://t.co/gUyH4gb5lh">pic.twitter.com/gUyH4gb5lh</a></div>
— Natalie Hanson (@NatalieH_Orion) <a href="https://twitter.com/NatalieH_Orion/status/973977412185702400?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 14, 2018</a></blockquote>
<script async="" charset="utf-8" src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script>
mrplenkehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00527947903200356351noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7958846674391092122.post-46953284792924153642018-03-14T09:52:00.002-07:002018-03-14T09:52:34.908-07:00How important is Facebook traffic? An experiment<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhytgSdJP3ZIXSYndBYx72r_4XMP80udc28319pEvEmE778TrX7Jkny9PW3IcGJp0qrA-MAVRWaORbhk3it2e-H0Hs39MJlN3P5QLunKfrqZLWaERb5sX2_eNCvnQlZeRJhIoi9RgY7IZ1w/s1600/social-v-all.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="358" data-original-width="985" height="145" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhytgSdJP3ZIXSYndBYx72r_4XMP80udc28319pEvEmE778TrX7Jkny9PW3IcGJp0qrA-MAVRWaORbhk3it2e-H0Hs39MJlN3P5QLunKfrqZLWaERb5sX2_eNCvnQlZeRJhIoi9RgY7IZ1w/s400/social-v-all.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Orion.com traffic from social media and overall for March 7-13 (click to make this bigger)</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
I asked Orionites to help with a little audience experiment last week, asking them to post their work to Facebook with a tag to The Orion Facebook page to see what would happen to overall site traffic.<br />
<br />
The short answer: It probably increased traffic. The number of times someone arrived on theorion.com website last week was 6,488. The week of Feb. 21-18, that number was 5,148. I wrote "probably" because lots of factors affect traffic, including reader interest in particular stories. The content of the website could have been 26% more interesting.<br />
<br />
Here's why I think it really did increase traffic. As the chart above shows, traffic on <a href="http://theorion.com/">theorion.com</a> has a baseline of regular visitors and traffic goes up and down fairly dependably as social media referrals go up and down.<br />
<br />
But how much affect does it have on individual stories?<br />
<br />
Here are the numbers from Google Analytics for the top three stories in terms of traffic in the past week:<br />
Fatal traffic accident - 791 pageviews, 305 referred from Facebook, 29 from Twitter = 42% from social media<br />
Molester arrested - 570 pageviews, 88 referred from Facebook, 58 from Twitter = 25% from social media<br />
Off-campus housing - 238 pageviews, 14 referred from Facebook, 44 from Twitter = 24% from social media<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0S0ywxwLROUI9q6wZdqpnctRB03DBPe_7UH-1FpvDfVIEL_QlE0MmvTvDve7eolhjO7DNs8gX7k5pVdp_sMxgxImCq9HModjmsd1_lrUmzOsdP_XbsWI7AWA5PvULUgnVfVb47quwqAUO/s1600/comparisonsource.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="275" data-original-width="815" height="133" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0S0ywxwLROUI9q6wZdqpnctRB03DBPe_7UH-1FpvDfVIEL_QlE0MmvTvDve7eolhjO7DNs8gX7k5pVdp_sMxgxImCq9HModjmsd1_lrUmzOsdP_XbsWI7AWA5PvULUgnVfVb47quwqAUO/s400/comparisonsource.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Where visitors to theorion.com came from three weeks ago and last week (click to make this bigger)</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Just how important is social media to website traffic? This chart shows referrals from Facebook and Twitter make up about 16 percent of arrivals (16.25% three weeks ago, 15.9% last week). More important were web searches and visits that started with someone typing in theorion.com in the URL bar. Still, it's clear that a better social media effort last week was responsible for increasing traffic in proportion to overall traffic.<br />
<br />
The increase also coincides with a PR team effort to write more engaging headlines for Facebook. I think it's important take a look at how that might have affected traffic and at whether the Facebook page had more engagement from visitors there.mrplenkehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00527947903200356351noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7958846674391092122.post-81058454432803031632018-03-06T07:15:00.001-08:002018-03-06T07:19:00.146-08:00February traffic down from a year ago<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-MjVGvtESo6VAGbwne6AQZfDprLy4YMc2KNwRyLNE5sEYWKQXRnqrC2-STM5brf2oTDe8SKbw8e5r_IZtLiFmIh1XfBLymkLqqdRLIHE8fJQBPigSg_kaOWdxQqM_6NGjBON1SloDsjZ1/s1600/quillfeb2018.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="403" data-original-width="596" height="270" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-MjVGvtESo6VAGbwne6AQZfDprLy4YMc2KNwRyLNE5sEYWKQXRnqrC2-STM5brf2oTDe8SKbw8e5r_IZtLiFmIh1XfBLymkLqqdRLIHE8fJQBPigSg_kaOWdxQqM_6NGjBON1SloDsjZ1/s400/quillfeb2018.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Traffic at <a href="http://theorion.com/">theorion.com</a> started to climb in February, but it still ran well behind sessions and page views from a year ago.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="background-color: white;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="background-color: white;">Here are the overall numbers for February:<br />Pageviews: 53,336<br />Sessions (visits): 19,073<br />Pages per session: 2.8<br />Bounce rate (percentage of visitors who view one page and leave): 31.44 percent</span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">QuillEngage, a service that summarizes web traffic, showed declines from a year ago on all platforms:</span><br />
<br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "open sans" , sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">Month-over-month, your site's desktop sessions rose 47% to 9,094 sessions; however, there was a 24% drop in traffic (from 11,930 sessions) relative to the year before. Climbing to 9,028 sessions, mobile traffic was up 51% month-over-month. Relative to the year before, however, traffic decreased 47% from 17,090 sessions. Month-over-month, your site's tablet sessions rose 51% to 951 sessions; however, there was a 37% drop in traffic (from 1,499 sessions) relative to the year before.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "open sans" , sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">The month-over-month numbers mean compared to January, when students are only on campus the last 10 days or so, so traffic <i>should</i> have improved in February.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">Finding the reasons for the decline in year-to-year traffic, of course, is more difficult than describing the symptoms. </span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">• QuillEngage pointed out that the bounce rate for the home page was higher than any other page on the website, meaning people who typed in theorion.com took a look and left. One of three things is going on: you're not covering what people want to view, people don't see anything new and leave, or your web design is not putting your best foot forward (maybe you need a new homepage design).</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">• It looks as if referrals from social media got better at the end of the month, but that's still running behind what was coming from Facebook and Twitter a year ago. This February, 3,558 of 19,073 visits (18.6 percent) started with a social media post. The same month last year, the numbers were 7,705 of 30,519 (25.25 percent).</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">• Content could be another reason. A year ago, the Oroville Dam story pushed traffic to more than 80,000 pageviews. We've known for a long time that news and breaking news are what readers want more than anything else, and this February didn't have a comparable big story. In fact, the top three pages for traffic last month were the homepage, the news section front and the opinion front, which probably means most people stopped to look for something interesting and didn't find it.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">Here are the top 10 most-viewed stories for February:</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">1. Women's rugby rising to top of the nation - 570 pageviews<br />2. Resident Evil ushers in a new era of terror - 503</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">3. Getting Kray-ze for opioid alternatives - 455<br />4. Woman reports assault in her own home - 434<br />5. Nutrition professor dies suddenly - 423<br />6. Police blotter - 398<br />7. Third-party candidate answers Berners call for political action - 395<br />8. New physical science building to use fossil fuels, students criticize - 368<br />9. President Hutchinson responds to student concerns over fee increases - 312<br />10. New Wildcat statue funded exclusively from donations - 311</span>mrplenkehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00527947903200356351noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7958846674391092122.post-20226142751377490532018-03-05T16:44:00.002-08:002018-03-05T16:44:26.328-08:00Judges say The Orion is California's best big-school newspaper<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">For the second year in a row, The Orion placed first among large schools (10,000+ enrollment) in the California College Media Association contest's Best Newspaper category. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">The paper also took home eight other awards in the contest, results of which were announced Saturday night at a ceremony in Long Beach. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span>
<b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">First Place - Best Newspaper</span></b><br />
<span style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif;">Judge's comment: </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif;">If I wanted to know what's going on in this community, the Orion would be the paper to go to. Very newsy and accessible. Useful. Nice designs and packaging. And the volume of reporting is impressive.</span><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8X5eafKt3RxiJddSh5BvE48FSHoVERh-RH9OTlMkPuWgG_jsXlSwcYbz6mj_9Xq4lEr2WHbv07LQ7rhUivzoFhzQ82Q9T3r_psjS547vY5g5K_bTX9B04y0130JU4gn_6e0rr2OMWBwD7/s1600/excelence.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="389" data-original-width="404" height="385" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8X5eafKt3RxiJddSh5BvE48FSHoVERh-RH9OTlMkPuWgG_jsXlSwcYbz6mj_9Xq4lEr2WHbv07LQ7rhUivzoFhzQ82Q9T3r_psjS547vY5g5K_bTX9B04y0130JU4gn_6e0rr2OMWBwD7/s400/excelence.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b>First Place - Best Overall Newspaper Design</b></span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333;">Judge's comment: </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333;">This publication was a true standout. Excellent use of photos and graphics. Very engaging. Strong editorial content and hot topics that hit the heart of social interest. The designers know how to bring all the elements together on the pages for true journalistic harmony. Excellent work!</span></span></span><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgg6_9Xn8e3Oj2PjqM38VKhKCAOjZFIj-XLKTBnOgtdbz4x6EYBokJZ5P5Kkcz6mgPOSvx41xsiZRVEkv0Kalgb0fHXtuvetRmGQrvknNBgeTa8feygDfsodiPXwyeUnDhJ3man88sEIgUg/s1600/overall-design.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="379" data-original-width="802" height="188" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgg6_9Xn8e3Oj2PjqM38VKhKCAOjZFIj-XLKTBnOgtdbz4x6EYBokJZ5P5Kkcz6mgPOSvx41xsiZRVEkv0Kalgb0fHXtuvetRmGQrvknNBgeTa8feygDfsodiPXwyeUnDhJ3man88sEIgUg/s400/overall-design.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></span>
<b style="color: #333333; font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif;">First Place - Best Newspaper Inside Page/Spread Design</b><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333;">Sean Martens - Creepin' It Real</span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="background-color: white;"><b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif;">First Place - Best Sales Promotion</b></span></span><br />
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Amar Rama and Danny Wright - <a href="https://the-orion.myshopify.com/">The Orion Ad Shop</a></span></span></span><br />
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="background-color: white;">Judge's comment: </span></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">Concise, to the point and easy to read.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b>Third Place - Best Infographic</b><br />Connor Gehrke - How to Spot a Phish</span></span></div>
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<b style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">Third Place - Best Social Media for a Single Event</b><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Kayla Fitzgerald, George Johnston, Staff - </span></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"><a href="http://theorion.com/62127/news/breaking-news/breaking-updates-on-oroville-spillway-damage-and-evacuations/">BREAKING: Updates on Oroville Spillway damage and evacuations </a></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJyKHZu4bV7A3o36eRR-UTFJiEBowNsD2Ov3Hvt38UAmS4u2gFUBryo_gZdzE3AhDMNC6vbYGwZI8fIfjnU_rC17gFdjVJLEviOfwWmfiwIoMs-pPSs-tQID8otd_ZmFaG87j-N961ivqU/s1600/storify.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="585" data-original-width="674" height="346" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJyKHZu4bV7A3o36eRR-UTFJiEBowNsD2Ov3Hvt38UAmS4u2gFUBryo_gZdzE3AhDMNC6vbYGwZI8fIfjnU_rC17gFdjVJLEviOfwWmfiwIoMs-pPSs-tQID8otd_ZmFaG87j-N961ivqU/s400/storify.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333;"><b>Honorable Mention - Best Newspaper Column</b><br />Grayson Boyer - </span></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><a href="http://theorion.com/66874/opinion/judicial-affairs-preys-on-students-ignorance/">Judicial affairs preys on students ignorance</a></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333;">Judge's comment: </span></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">A timely warning to students and indictment of university policy that can put students in legal peril.</span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"><b>Honorable Mention - Best Interactive Graphic</b></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">Jacqueline Morales - </span><a href="http://theorion.com/67963/news/crime-map-reports-chicoween-incidents/" style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">Chicoween Crime Map</a><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">Judge's comment: </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">This was a creative way to round up a weekend of spooky mayhem. Plus, it demonstrated to readers that Orion reporters were hitting the streets to bring them the news in real-time.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333;"><b>Honorable Mention: Best Color Advertisement</b><br />Alan Ramirez - Paper won't fit in your jeans?</span></span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7doskx4soXI33i_810xveA2HmdZgwocdai6GXXm1ZVtTpetf3JFNiUuzPgoVBsI_dRqs1ToKb3I4RA1q-GVvmDb0NEkTacQTZB-gbI8Kb0ZtGJtP6nlmhwpI7UJk7JmBaPTq2tlchSnci/s1600/colorad.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="390" data-original-width="390" height="398" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7doskx4soXI33i_810xveA2HmdZgwocdai6GXXm1ZVtTpetf3JFNiUuzPgoVBsI_dRqs1ToKb3I4RA1q-GVvmDb0NEkTacQTZB-gbI8Kb0ZtGJtP6nlmhwpI7UJk7JmBaPTq2tlchSnci/s400/colorad.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Congratulations everyone!</span></span></div>
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mrplenkehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00527947903200356351noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7958846674391092122.post-47755931807534745552018-02-16T13:42:00.000-08:002018-02-16T13:42:13.591-08:00Some ideas for better Facebook postsI've written a few times recently about the importance of social media in generating website traffic for <a href="http://theorion.com/">theorion.com</a>. What I haven't said is that what's posted and how it's posted make a difference.<br />
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While there is value to The Orion and its audience in the posts themselves (they are good ways to deliver news and information), it's more important to the success of the paper to use social media to lead readers to the website, where they can get a full story or video and then stick around to view more content.<br />
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I think each social medium has its strengths.<br />
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• Twitter is best at getting news to the audience quickly and providing a link to more information as soon as it's posted online. That's why it makes sense for reporters to post information about stories while they develop and link to finished stories when they're posted online.<br />
• Snapchat and Instagram are good for self-promotion, but not so great at delivering traffic to a website.<br />
• Facebook, for my money, is the best tool for engaging readers and getting them more involved in website content. But Facebook posts need to be carefully constructed to do that, and social-media managers need to actively manage their Facebook feed for engagement to be effective.<br />
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Here are some examples of posts I created from recent Orion content that might help improve paper's Facebook effort.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGtBkYq-4XpJIR3-PNuLhStdpBjUlJsHvQWaqjSIpAQ7-mb1Pw3HzX_FPpj8ssbjhpNbFUdJplxciGj2kMw9djvUcklSTwRTb46pAHupH9auURozYNePnVwU9w57kX7iRRoP9p3x-fixpu/s1600/comment2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="434" data-original-width="564" height="307" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGtBkYq-4XpJIR3-PNuLhStdpBjUlJsHvQWaqjSIpAQ7-mb1Pw3HzX_FPpj8ssbjhpNbFUdJplxciGj2kMw9djvUcklSTwRTb46pAHupH9auURozYNePnVwU9w57kX7iRRoP9p3x-fixpu/s400/comment2.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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This is an actual post from Jan. 30 in which a reader is asking a question about the way the website works (or doesn't work). It should have received a response as soon as the PR team or other manager saw the query but didn't. I added what would have been an appropriate comment. This is what I mean when I say managers need to actively manage the Facebook page.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8dWXmRwIixpl_bxCZK0wVK3efZCpJv428rCBPwjjr23h6BXj_StB5xqfKINBshGQsnG0gQZS9Exi11rPosPShpguZ1NUxKbvWV87tzXYVRzGtZ7iRCw9jQ3RjV9rzKCrNUkubCoFbrMr4/s1600/oriontemplate.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="523" data-original-width="536" height="390" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8dWXmRwIixpl_bxCZK0wVK3efZCpJv428rCBPwjjr23h6BXj_StB5xqfKINBshGQsnG0gQZS9Exi11rPosPShpguZ1NUxKbvWV87tzXYVRzGtZ7iRCw9jQ3RjV9rzKCrNUkubCoFbrMr4/s400/oriontemplate.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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My idea here is to get readers thinking about their own Valentine's experiences and then give them a place to react to either the Facebook post or the column. In either case, they're more likely to click through to the column with this prompt than just the Facebook-provided description of the original piece.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6961hGRi2UYMJEOeHyyR5gyFbGgqWdHPpbPHBK5EUMf0G6eXVWvgVAJzljq1_igfcjalGxXhpzaUjUP7N55ddU5T825XttmWU7t7NCpphuudJtE3Oml_au0MaWjo87DMjR1TALxx14TM4/s1600/booksigning.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="523" data-original-width="536" height="390" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6961hGRi2UYMJEOeHyyR5gyFbGgqWdHPpbPHBK5EUMf0G6eXVWvgVAJzljq1_igfcjalGxXhpzaUjUP7N55ddU5T825XttmWU7t7NCpphuudJtE3Oml_au0MaWjo87DMjR1TALxx14TM4/s400/booksigning.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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Andrew Baumgartner wrote a really nice piece about a book-signing event. The readers most interested in the book will probably be fans of Coach Greg Clink and the players on that 2015-16 team. By asking for their memories, this post lets them know about the book but also gives them an opportunity to share their experiences. </div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiBrZG81Q0aVJYBQ1ZdVcmYh9g4b-L0s8_4vmhCj3q6-ZWRN8by4bA2euDodHh3-nWaUjImnMCkrHfty5jiomNWiCJe4p1Zdh_1s5NZzA19uw_RE-p55xiUVIZ1bjxtfkDh6aAhYQgfDTJ2/s1600/concert.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="523" data-original-width="536" height="390" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiBrZG81Q0aVJYBQ1ZdVcmYh9g4b-L0s8_4vmhCj3q6-ZWRN8by4bA2euDodHh3-nWaUjImnMCkrHfty5jiomNWiCJe4p1Zdh_1s5NZzA19uw_RE-p55xiUVIZ1bjxtfkDh6aAhYQgfDTJ2/s400/concert.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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Asking Facebook visitors about their experience at the concert actually extends the story about the BMU's experiment with live programming. Students who read the comments will have a better idea than the story could convey about whether BMU concerts are a good idea and will have more information about whether it's something they might want to do. Taking text out of the bottom third of the original story to emphasize the volunteer aspect engages students who might read more to find out how to volunteer.</div>
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These types of posts take a little more time than just letting Facebook pick up images and text from a URL, but they have a higher probability of being read, getting people to click through to the original stories and inspiring readers to share the content with their friends.</div>
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<br />mrplenkehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00527947903200356351noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7958846674391092122.post-33731175614618886942018-02-07T07:45:00.002-08:002018-02-07T07:48:33.358-08:003 ideas for making your home page betterWeb-news experts downplay the role of the home page in a news ecosystem where social-media referrals are so important, but analytics show lots of <a href="http://theorion.com/">theorion.com</a> readers start with the home page and navigate to stories from there.<br />
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So, I took a look at the current page and came up with three suggestions to make it more useful and appealing.</div>
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<b>1. Standardize photo size and make the play image horizontal</b></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgR0ffs0vuMPBNK47adCAx8ELc1r_sv5kgJ8-RAt3I87O3uPa3g3c-Gj1bafEpE4gebMFrmeA-GOk4l_M5VR0E9WV_bH0dqeg7IK8cV-kkK1mikKqfA0z5D4NrLUw8V_DVbKRjCG09Ml2AA/s1600/horizvert.gif" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="640" data-original-width="375" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgR0ffs0vuMPBNK47adCAx8ELc1r_sv5kgJ8-RAt3I87O3uPa3g3c-Gj1bafEpE4gebMFrmeA-GOk4l_M5VR0E9WV_bH0dqeg7IK8cV-kkK1mikKqfA0z5D4NrLUw8V_DVbKRjCG09Ml2AA/s200/horizvert.gif" width="116" /></a></div>
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Wordpress templates don't adjust themselves to get rid of unnecessary white space, which means the home page can look messy if photos aren't cropped with an eye toward making the space around them work well. Solutions:<br />
- In the carousel or rotator that is the dominant art element at the top of the page, make sure the photos are all horizontal and that they're cropped to the same size. If you don't, the whole page will jump up and down as the template adjusts to each new photo depth.<br />
- For all stories teased on the home page, make the photos horizontal. If you don't, the coding will create chunks of trapped white space. To the right is an example of how a vertical and a horizontal photo at the top of two sections affect the space. The vertical photo creates an empty space.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj0OE3lvDgGKuGCvXDeJBxaLCTWWxVKM2sb983l8E1PtFBnARqD2WetvNb4cHRVPS1R30gG3ogtOqF0Q7GHz8cFGYbxf4Dqg6MNnOBg5HBQO8NguWulECWt1zdi6XvJuTpzhaJLlSCopEtL/s1600/orionhompage.gif" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="469" data-original-width="100" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj0OE3lvDgGKuGCvXDeJBxaLCTWWxVKM2sb983l8E1PtFBnARqD2WetvNb4cHRVPS1R30gG3ogtOqF0Q7GHz8cFGYbxf4Dqg6MNnOBg5HBQO8NguWulECWt1zdi6XvJuTpzhaJLlSCopEtL/s320/orionhompage.gif" width="68" /></a></div>
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<b>2. Replace the sidebar calendar with a list and move it to the top of the sidebar</b></div>
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Now that The Orion has a calendar editor, have that person pick three things of interest that are happening on campus or in the community each day and put them in a module at the top of the right column. </div>
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The list could be titled "What's Happening Today" or something like it and be taken from events that are already in the calendar. It should be changed every day, adding one more fresh element to the home page and training readers to come back to The Orion every morning. Topping it with a small photo would make it more appealing.</div>
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You should end the list with an invitation to see what's on the rest of the online calendar page. </div>
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<b>3. Use the template better by emphasizing photojournalism</b></div>
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When the editors chose the FLEX Wordpress theme, I'm sure they liked the bold look of having a photo carousel stretch the width of the page. That's great, but it doesn't play to the strength of The Orion, which at the moment is hard news coverage. I was going to suggest that the paper look at a different template that plays to strengths instead of a weakness (see <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/">The New York Times homepage</a> for a template that focuses on news), but a better idea would be to improve your photos. </div>
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Having a photo of the day consistently is a good first step, but in the web world it's essential to have <strike>good</strike> great visuals to attract readers. There are talented shooters on the staff this semester, so that should be easier than it has been in the past. But good editing is essential:<br />
- Only include stories with great art in the carousel.<br />
- Be sure the images are sharp and have enough resolution so they aren't pixelated or fuzzy in a large size.<br />
- Be ruthless with crops. You want stunning images that are composed well as your invitation to readers.<br />
- No more signs or logos in the carousel! </div>
mrplenkehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00527947903200356351noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7958846674391092122.post-21473848823266043552018-02-02T10:15:00.001-08:002018-02-02T10:15:07.445-08:00January traffic shows importance of social media<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi3MTRxQnbl7wxMiVDu3AEluw0W0WdgmbotizfEG_B9fQ4OhX9kqtUybiCeyi8b1U7JkGuh-5OygRO08nvgovSiD5guD4EBL-hzeuGcE2wbl2ay6vtjbhbeLro6Bux1IxyQvNAXeaD8hZyx/s1600/jantrafficcomparison.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="623" data-original-width="1031" height="241" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi3MTRxQnbl7wxMiVDu3AEluw0W0WdgmbotizfEG_B9fQ4OhX9kqtUybiCeyi8b1U7JkGuh-5OygRO08nvgovSiD5guD4EBL-hzeuGcE2wbl2ay6vtjbhbeLro6Bux1IxyQvNAXeaD8hZyx/s400/jantrafficcomparison.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Traffic for thorion.com January 2017 and January 2018 (click to see a larger image)</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
The beginning of a semester is typically a slow time for traffic at <a href="http://theorion.com/">theorion.com</a>, so the low numbers for the past two weeks aren't a surprise. A close look at the Google analytics <i><b>does</b></i> provide an insight into how important social media is to a the website.<br />
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I set up a traffic comparison between January 2017 and last January 2018. That's the graph at the top of this post.<br />
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Why the difference? Well, the flow of news is different from day to day and week to week, but my impression is that this semester started out really well on the news side. I thought that would show up in the traffic numbers. Also, news reporters and editors had tweeted up a storm as they covered a women's march and two political events, so I expected a bigger audience.<br />
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What I found when I dug deeper into the analytics was the opposite. And while there are other factors at work, I think I also found the reason for the slower traffic.<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiWqcZh-2Ux7v34TqxtF_XjByIMXUJRSnvPgchOlg-D5X7rhEsHzqV4QTr9p9Ch9eTWysJ5ZCVL3vIrj44P9FrEL6EMylZIAlWvWnS8XDQ9MFWx6WwPSmvuh5bVu8_rtj1QhEMoYaR9RXOV/s1600/socialcomparison.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="577" data-original-width="743" height="310" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiWqcZh-2Ux7v34TqxtF_XjByIMXUJRSnvPgchOlg-D5X7rhEsHzqV4QTr9p9Ch9eTWysJ5ZCVL3vIrj44P9FrEL6EMylZIAlWvWnS8XDQ9MFWx6WwPSmvuh5bVu8_rtj1QhEMoYaR9RXOV/s400/socialcomparison.gif" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Social media acquisition comparison, January 2017-January 2018 (click to see a larger image)</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Traffic driven by the tweets <i><b>was</b></i> responsible for driving more readers to theorion.com last month (a 158 percent increase), but a poor effort on Facebook more than matched it and was responsible for 76 percent decline in Facebook referrals -- that's more than 1,100 fewer visitors! Referrals from Google search and visits from people who typed in "theorion.com," were about the same in the two months, so this turned out to be an almost perfect experiment in the importance of social media.<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEil0G2Gj-IcOed_ZUyxTazI94g3pUpMJyNjBjjDqwJmRPLS_zeppr6Bd2JzPJyc_lsbmVE9OCCNINEUro92vSR26V1EQx5hzB40oIa4sGk3LkIxfrdF7yYwfJAqycCHj7n1Za_Y293_MCGA/s1600/goodbarberjan2018.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="649" data-original-width="1110" height="233" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEil0G2Gj-IcOed_ZUyxTazI94g3pUpMJyNjBjjDqwJmRPLS_zeppr6Bd2JzPJyc_lsbmVE9OCCNINEUro92vSR26V1EQx5hzB40oIa4sGk3LkIxfrdF7yYwfJAqycCHj7n1Za_Y293_MCGA/s400/goodbarberjan2018.gif" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Mobile app downloads and traffic for January 2018 (click to see a larger image)</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
The numbers for The Orion's mobile app were comparable. One bit of good news: Downloads made a big jump during the first week of classes. I'm going to guess that's because staff members at the first critique of the semester added the app to their smartphones.<br />
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Here are the most-read stories from the first two weeks of the semester. Note that eight of the 10 were written by reporters or editors from the two news sections.<br /><br />1. Chico State sisters die in fatal car crash - 445 pageviews<br />2. Gas tax proposal endorsed by local representatives fuels unrest in Chico - 408<br />3. Commercial cannabis legal in California yet still banned in Chico - 211<br />4. Memorial planned for Frace sisters - 207<br />5. Michael Bethea: a journey - 201<br />6. LaMalfa speaks against gas tax, attacks protesters - 157<br />7. Congressional candidates speak out at town hall - 145<br />8. Domestic dispute leads to lockdown of two local schools - 121<br />9. Wildcat of the Week - Claire Wayne - 119<br />10. New director of Gateway Science Museum - 118<br />
<br />
Here are the basic traffic numbers for Jan. 21-Feb. 1.<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhlZ8MuaNzd46TUibNvGLrzCUIpEWuqx-NubOW2DvXuqnf9DYuBNaTwREgiK3bgJ3yFWMG4quSGVm4TzRvUkO9KtiMjAHz3_OdPqG1Fe-vJT0MlE6Ooh1Id5EVPjXrnJ2N0JkzI-YbwCDSC/s1600/analyticsjan2018.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="611" data-original-width="989" height="246" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhlZ8MuaNzd46TUibNvGLrzCUIpEWuqx-NubOW2DvXuqnf9DYuBNaTwREgiK3bgJ3yFWMG4quSGVm4TzRvUkO9KtiMjAHz3_OdPqG1Fe-vJT0MlE6Ooh1Id5EVPjXrnJ2N0JkzI-YbwCDSC/s400/analyticsjan2018.gif" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">From Google Analytics. Click to see a larger image</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
mrplenkehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00527947903200356351noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7958846674391092122.post-35625132041251150732018-01-23T07:36:00.000-08:002018-01-23T07:37:07.332-08:00A few words about video framingIt was great to see so much multimedia in The Orion reports this first week of the semester! News did a great job of <a href="https://theorion.com/68835/news/women-march-on-chico-to-create-change-2/">documenting the women's march</a> on Saturday, and sports decided to make Wildcat of the Week more than just a print feature by <a href="https://youtu.be/NuLXlEXCOIg">producing a video</a> of the regular Q&A.<br />
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I did notice a big difference in the way the news reporter (Kendall George) placed her interview subjects in the video frame and how the sports reporter framed softball player Claire Wayne. See if you can spot it.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhRuX81HN7ijevGHft9bXSAEbQWKPyCNDZkBsYEw-mUNSiYY0W33SmfxDk5BpDS0cEkgWdLBd72szbPALatzPh45_ROuBH08JYM2LZWhfe2lXdiUGJy0BEZxjsCNdSPo_H9gCz3YND9Pvds/s1600/image2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="338" data-original-width="600" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhRuX81HN7ijevGHft9bXSAEbQWKPyCNDZkBsYEw-mUNSiYY0W33SmfxDk5BpDS0cEkgWdLBd72szbPALatzPh45_ROuBH08JYM2LZWhfe2lXdiUGJy0BEZxjsCNdSPo_H9gCz3YND9Pvds/s400/image2.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhUhJNQLLlRn4Jz_AFdF89V8ZaMcPW_FUtQxV-75pPwQ_383RMfVhaXv5gir-8PGwWwP0okDPlfzCo54wIbCyKCL8o0Zt286NyTurwhrtYVQLUChnhkM3AW0r-DUwM6P4l6UK5jikxV2aF0/s1600/image1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="338" data-original-width="600" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhUhJNQLLlRn4Jz_AFdF89V8ZaMcPW_FUtQxV-75pPwQ_383RMfVhaXv5gir-8PGwWwP0okDPlfzCo54wIbCyKCL8o0Zt286NyTurwhrtYVQLUChnhkM3AW0r-DUwM6P4l6UK5jikxV2aF0/s400/image1.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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Did you see how Kendall put her subject to one side of the frame and how the woman almost fills the frame from top to bottom? While both shots show the viewer information in the background to help tell the story, the sports shot has more background than it needs.<br />
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Most cameras will let the videographer turn on a feature called "rule of thirds" to help with this positioning. Here's how Kendall's shot looks with the thirds highlighted. She positions the woman's at a place where the lines cross.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgtLbpItwKIIsnEbMVT0wIJb6gFOtnBnTaer8kXtD2F4l9FPL451I730DOo2RxgHp3zuccJlvX8YVxtH9_1YnkSKwm2lXvDnvdhgKQtQlUzubkFqGYrq998LEaqdE8_PN_SRsF51UUIGEBt/s1600/image1tictactoe.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="338" data-original-width="600" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgtLbpItwKIIsnEbMVT0wIJb6gFOtnBnTaer8kXtD2F4l9FPL451I730DOo2RxgHp3zuccJlvX8YVxtH9_1YnkSKwm2lXvDnvdhgKQtQlUzubkFqGYrq998LEaqdE8_PN_SRsF51UUIGEBt/s400/image1tictactoe.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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Filling the frame the way Kendall did is even more important for readers who are watching video on their phones because the screen is so much smaller.<br />
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Kendall also did a good job of using a microphone for her interviews (you can see the lavalier mic clipped to the woman's top). This really helps limit background noise and produces clearer, cleaner interview sound.<br />
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In another interview, though, she did one thing I don't recommend.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEit_xlWIoIIT96tc5FYWPwgri2jIYCkOsqvqAiKUFFYPemHTV6ZQsgBANN7TLmY45A3XGanOGIqk6tzIXp7tBX_4fFxpaBsFNA_iTjzbReZZNXOqtwlbcA1a9bHEdW0wgFMUTkJCPF2By9G/s1600/image3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="340" data-original-width="600" height="226" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEit_xlWIoIIT96tc5FYWPwgri2jIYCkOsqvqAiKUFFYPemHTV6ZQsgBANN7TLmY45A3XGanOGIqk6tzIXp7tBX_4fFxpaBsFNA_iTjzbReZZNXOqtwlbcA1a9bHEdW0wgFMUTkJCPF2By9G/s400/image3.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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Framing is pretty good here. If you <a href="https://youtu.be/HCxE0qgWIbg?t=1m6s">watch the video</a>, though, you'll hear that the sound is distorted because the woman has the mic in her hand and is talking directly into it. This type of mic isn't built for that use, and the mic in her face is distracting. Make interview subjects <u>wear</u> the mic, not hold it.mrplenkehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00527947903200356351noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7958846674391092122.post-56209510955480682332017-12-18T10:48:00.000-08:002017-12-18T10:49:55.293-08:00After a strong start, web traffic fizzles<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjsWME-hYbvRrOf8to2piirvDDClbk-lq_h62Yqw3MsRjF2_A_MjVlMX4c9H_klCWP0ZjADO3pXkcKbhnbONyqDhYM7bvOBm6PvO3YcDjtVaUQXV2Mc4wBCzHO5zwRRdSjQwc6_Ko2lljc1/s1600/fall2017anaylytics.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="408" data-original-width="658" height="247" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjsWME-hYbvRrOf8to2piirvDDClbk-lq_h62Yqw3MsRjF2_A_MjVlMX4c9H_klCWP0ZjADO3pXkcKbhnbONyqDhYM7bvOBm6PvO3YcDjtVaUQXV2Mc4wBCzHO5zwRRdSjQwc6_Ko2lljc1/s400/fall2017anaylytics.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Fall Semester 2017 Web Traffic from Google Analytics.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Traffic on <a href="http://theorion.com/">theorion.com</a> slowed way down in the last half of this semester but still managed to outpace Fall 2016 by 24,000 page views. Last spring semester, though, was three times as busy (678,035 pageviews) as either one.<br />
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The numbers did contain one bit of good news, though. The bounce rate (the percentage of visitors who stayed to read just one page) was the best it's been in three semesters: 25 percent. Fall 2016 was 66 percent; Spring 2017 was 36 percent.<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjM2HFim7Fd_3Lyv5LTevLWWX9nL81XLi5bmykjvNZpqFmhEc8acsR6QR56B6dUnVkd8GD4h5k1kMPXFBMElbRvvu-NaPVjkh7wS5PdXcys83owsIWHWa8n-rTNhcyej_xIoKDtTdqoDd8G/s1600/goodbarberfall2017.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="556" data-original-width="1078" height="206" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjM2HFim7Fd_3Lyv5LTevLWWX9nL81XLi5bmykjvNZpqFmhEc8acsR6QR56B6dUnVkd8GD4h5k1kMPXFBMElbRvvu-NaPVjkh7wS5PdXcys83owsIWHWa8n-rTNhcyej_xIoKDtTdqoDd8G/s400/goodbarberfall2017.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Fall 2917 mobile app analytics from GoodBarber.</td></tr>
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Traffic on The Orion mobile app was also down from spring -- 15,691 views versus 23,787 last fall -- but downloads crossed the 2,000 threshold as 142 people put it on their phones.<br />
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In all, it was a pretty dismal showing after a strong start.<br />
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I think my diagnosis of the problem from earlier in the semester is still valid: A poor social media effort kept the number of visits and views low. That's something that HAS to be addressed next semester.<br />
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Silver lining: The Orion home page continues of get strong and consistent traffic: 31,324 visits this semester and 32,266 during Fall 2016. That means visitors are using theorion.com much as they use a regular newspaper to browse what's new and important on campus. That same behavior shows up for section fronts, too. Here are the pages with the most traffic on the site from Aug. 21 to Dec. 15.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjC-OEuSoIGU9P_6wIdZjgqJ1VYE5ha2_3Hol4Rq9dQjXfUAOQs8TfW9SpbLnhivJGLTVt5Z5bZB40s65ARys45nXPnYc87f0jGfh6d9-RROM1F3_59-vfAETSWqhiqR3-Zf444J0IwRT25/s1600/topstoriesfall2017.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="552" data-original-width="355" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjC-OEuSoIGU9P_6wIdZjgqJ1VYE5ha2_3Hol4Rq9dQjXfUAOQs8TfW9SpbLnhivJGLTVt5Z5bZB40s65ARys45nXPnYc87f0jGfh6d9-RROM1F3_59-vfAETSWqhiqR3-Zf444J0IwRT25/s640/topstoriesfall2017.jpg" width="410" /></a></div>
mrplenkehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00527947903200356351noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7958846674391092122.post-49609291549815320492017-12-13T22:03:00.001-08:002017-12-14T11:28:54.542-08:00Fall 2017 Orion Awards<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="300" mozallowfullscreen="" src="https://player.vimeo.com/video/247268116" webkitallowfullscreen="" width="400"></iframe><br />
The Orion staff got together at Selvester's Cafe on campus Wednesday night to celebrate the end of the semester and recognize exceptional work by their peers.<br />
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Here are the award-winners for Fall 2017:<br />
Sports: Noah Enns<br />
Opinon: Kendall George<br />
Arts & Entertainment: Caitlyn Young<br />
Breaking News: Natalie Hanson<br />
Enterprise News: Alex Grant<br />
Copy Editing: Josh Staton<br />
Design: Connor Gehrke<br />
PR: Andrea Gonzalez<br />
Best Editor: Julia Maldonado<br />
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Sunshine Award: Christian Solis<br />
Rookie of the Year: Alex Grant<br />
The Orion Award: Justin Couchot<br />
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Congratulations everyone!mrplenkehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00527947903200356351noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7958846674391092122.post-88219114094316734582017-12-02T08:55:00.000-08:002017-12-02T08:55:06.877-08:00Ed board for spring semester named<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgsPxeWIWHjNyyzyMh_pSoSK5_GgfLuH9Hi9V-gxfTFuwLoGu89XVDeS8gI7lxHxvo-P2ryCvBxPJ7SzDmMkPQIlsdAZ6MmmPakBeDHptOWYRDNaYWuqghEaF6IrD_ZLKiHAiEcskZ81PqE/s1600/juliamaldonado.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1446" data-original-width="1600" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgsPxeWIWHjNyyzyMh_pSoSK5_GgfLuH9Hi9V-gxfTFuwLoGu89XVDeS8gI7lxHxvo-P2ryCvBxPJ7SzDmMkPQIlsdAZ6MmmPakBeDHptOWYRDNaYWuqghEaF6IrD_ZLKiHAiEcskZ81PqE/s200/juliamaldonado.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Julia Maldonado</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Incoming Editor-in-Chief Kayla Fitzgerald has announced her Orion editorial board hires for spring semester 2018.<br />
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Julia Maldonado, a junior Journalism and Public Relations major, is the new managing editor. She has worked two semesters at the newspaper as an arts and entertainment writer and editor of the arts and entertainment section.<br />
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Here are the other editors named this week:<br />
<br />Art Director - Connor Gehrke<br />Chief Copy Editor- Piper Loring<br />Assistant Copy Chief - Ruby Larson<br />Breaking News- Natalie Hanson<br />Enterprise News - Alex Grant <br />Arts and Entertainment - Nicole Henson<br />Opinion- Jackie Morales<br />Sports - Justin Couchot<br />Multimedia Editor - Caitlyn Young <br />Calendar Editor - Kendall George <br />Web Editor - Amar Rama<br /><br />Congratulations and best of luck in your new positions!<br />mrplenkehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00527947903200356351noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7958846674391092122.post-23222263873535996832017-12-01T11:37:00.003-08:002017-12-01T11:37:45.167-08:00November traffic takes a serious dip<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9_YhM8NsPkc3EYyIVlRRzAqA7ETMMP9CP9nnW0ahHM603t89wyoQ3QaiBSDL2tv1qAx1Zkul__xLaf44yXtYQltbeh6JEj-tDhbvzAkdaNpTXXLbdUHiCsXRX4Rgaobh_2A9qhfffZMPU/s1600/pageviewsnov2017.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="601" data-original-width="899" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9_YhM8NsPkc3EYyIVlRRzAqA7ETMMP9CP9nnW0ahHM603t89wyoQ3QaiBSDL2tv1qAx1Zkul__xLaf44yXtYQltbeh6JEj-tDhbvzAkdaNpTXXLbdUHiCsXRX4Rgaobh_2A9qhfffZMPU/s400/pageviewsnov2017.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Chart from Google Analytics</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Pageviews on <a href="http://theorion.com/">theorion.com</a> were down significantly in November -- about a quarter of the traffic from the month before and half the pageviews of November 2016.<br />
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A dip from October is expected. Students and most faculty aren't on campus for a week. Still, compared to the same month a year before, these numbers are dismal.<br />
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As I mentioned last month, social media and especially Facebook are becoming more and more important as a way to attract readers to the website. In November, only 13 items were posted to The Orion's Facebook page. Here's what Google Analytics had to say about how that affected traffic:<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4dCHHcWCW_cOlYgG9QK-kGr04XkXhxlDCY0TyRKyhtNlI6zigLzHXmoDKtegx22OVOA3eEhdl1eTAny9QtOJNSvhbqUpWe0llkY4ord5DxYWpquSdihUBMMOlHF1y9VRZ7s6L2XNgHyZN/s1600/socialnov2017.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="589" data-original-width="623" height="377" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4dCHHcWCW_cOlYgG9QK-kGr04XkXhxlDCY0TyRKyhtNlI6zigLzHXmoDKtegx22OVOA3eEhdl1eTAny9QtOJNSvhbqUpWe0llkY4ord5DxYWpquSdihUBMMOlHF1y9VRZ7s6L2XNgHyZN/s400/socialnov2017.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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That's means just 11.3 percent of site visitors got to the website from a Facebook post. Here's what the social media numbers looked like the same month a year ago. (Click to see a larger image.)<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgM7Ox44XBhymZkMrXYJZR8A9CenQCbpBmz1sPlYc12iKulKNUPgFJAZXrhG7yEjsJUSBIoihc-MHnNRuL4F8InXabCMCdcANCV2EL76yZHG2un5oxCzktmsbr3aJYzX8cABJDcGDrcjs0h/s1600/socialnov2016.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="606" data-original-width="633" height="382" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgM7Ox44XBhymZkMrXYJZR8A9CenQCbpBmz1sPlYc12iKulKNUPgFJAZXrhG7yEjsJUSBIoihc-MHnNRuL4F8InXabCMCdcANCV2EL76yZHG2un5oxCzktmsbr3aJYzX8cABJDcGDrcjs0h/s400/socialnov2016.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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So, while visits (sessions) were down almost 30 percent, social media referrals were down 61 percent. Because the number of visitors who stick around and view more pages after they get to a page on theorion.com is traditionally pretty high, that spelled double trouble for pageviews.<br />
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Twitter isn't a big traffic driver for the website, but numbers there were down, too. Here's a scary chart from Twitter analytics. The down arrows show a comparison to the month before.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhMQkespBSC3vb_zUbTKp3oUYMxQmM6NelJFM1ZIEhoDbm4V26VF0L5AJlOlMeHWmN4srWGvDo63knIZ9-yVD8q0E5GmeAtEXUf_zkXQoodHS-qvVziCIWqB4ts4cupL467rnDiy0kCGlaK/s1600/twitternov2017.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="197" data-original-width="938" height="83" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhMQkespBSC3vb_zUbTKp3oUYMxQmM6NelJFM1ZIEhoDbm4V26VF0L5AJlOlMeHWmN4srWGvDo63knIZ9-yVD8q0E5GmeAtEXUf_zkXQoodHS-qvVziCIWqB4ts4cupL467rnDiy0kCGlaK/s400/twitternov2017.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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The silver lining in these numbers is that the number of Twitter followers is way up. So, the breaking news and sports teams' efforts to live tweet seem to be paying off, but failing to Tweet links to stories drove Twitter-supplied traffic way down. If reporters and editors start tweeting about stories when they're published, those numbers and overall visits will improve.<br />
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I don't want to ignore the overall picture, though. There are reasons sessions were down significantly besides the poor social media effort. Overall, the website took a big step back.<br />
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One reason I've pointed out in the past couple of weekly critiques is editors circumventing the automatic publishing function of Camayak so stories don't instantly appear on the website when they've been edited. Instead, editors focused on the print edition are putting them in the paper first and only later uploading them to the web (or not uploading them at all). With the majority of the target audience reading The Orion online, that's a losing strategy.<br />
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Another reasonable explanation is that content wasn't as compelling. It's important to understand that a lot of visitors still use theorion.com like a newspaper. They visit the home page and then section pages to browse headlines. That's usually reflected in an amazingly low bounce rate (the percentage of visitors who read a single story and leave). Visitors who don't see anything new (because there are old stories in the home page photo carousel, for example) or see headlines that interest them won't stick around to read more. October's bounce rate was 5.7 percent. November's was a painful 73 percent.<br />
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A list of the top 10 stories based on pageviews shows very few garnering strong traffic. An O-Face column about different sexual appetites was the most viewed post with 706 pageviews. Last month, 10 stories attracted more views. Three of the most-viewed stories for November weren't even published last month.<br />
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Here are this month's top stories in terms of traffic:<br />
1. College students and sex interests - 706 pageviews<br />2. Two Chico State students arrested by police go viral (from Aug. 30, 2016) - 545 views<br />3. Naughty gifts for people on your nice list (O-Face) - 541<br />4. First-year Chico State student died - 269<br />5. Chico police identify victim of Cherry Street homicide - 268<br />6. Mass Effect Andromeda defines wasted potential - 244<br />7. Crime map reports Chicoween incidents - 240<br />8. College athletes struggle with finances (Nov. 12, 2013) - 226<br />9. Shooting at Halloween party near Chico State - 226<br />10. Guide to gay men's body types (Feb. 7, 2015) - 204<br />
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One positive for the month was the number of Orion app downloads. Here are the November numbers from app host GoodBarber.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2KlhbnmgorSrDAfXqxI6YjyDahYFP5zg60V0W5DbwwpuKmuupxoOrF9l6kQMNewxX4cCX7v-_AQpghTjpDc5upWp-j1dgvFBXabA3ehAodUjyzn5QcMPHYMrpW1gWmhKJ8kyArC_l0LwI/s1600/goodbarbernov2017.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="654" data-original-width="1011" height="258" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2KlhbnmgorSrDAfXqxI6YjyDahYFP5zg60V0W5DbwwpuKmuupxoOrF9l6kQMNewxX4cCX7v-_AQpghTjpDc5upWp-j1dgvFBXabA3ehAodUjyzn5QcMPHYMrpW1gWmhKJ8kyArC_l0LwI/s400/goodbarbernov2017.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<br />mrplenkehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00527947903200356351noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7958846674391092122.post-75392897491998997912017-11-16T06:36:00.001-08:002017-11-16T06:36:41.797-08:00Kayla Fitzgerald will lead The Orion next semester<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgquD7pc5kXgUPgllf4c0SgRDBCKlQrVgg1ppeyUvVhcjL87G-FK5VkGfbPaR5kHVFkd9WWMDNH-sLtGKPHwTmWSwIk8zirF3PM9K3qeHR3lck1nKwzlKD9u5s4kMSYjI2pm9g1Qf8jkdKm/s1600/Editors_Kayla_Web+%25281%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="630" data-original-width="945" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgquD7pc5kXgUPgllf4c0SgRDBCKlQrVgg1ppeyUvVhcjL87G-FK5VkGfbPaR5kHVFkd9WWMDNH-sLtGKPHwTmWSwIk8zirF3PM9K3qeHR3lck1nKwzlKD9u5s4kMSYjI2pm9g1Qf8jkdKm/s320/Editors_Kayla_Web+%25281%2529.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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Kayla Fitzgerald, a senior Journalism & PR major from Livermore, has been named The Orion editor-in-chief for Spring 2018.
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Kayla is this semester's managing editor and has been on the staff for four semesters. She has also worked as a news reporter, a sports reporter and breaking news editor.<br />
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Congratulations, Kayla!mrplenkehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00527947903200356351noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7958846674391092122.post-78731904325203827492017-11-03T10:39:00.001-07:002017-11-03T10:40:26.717-07:00Traffic tops 84,000 pageviews in October<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhtN9kmlzYn1hVnosxZ2XKXpi4mweE-ebtTjHjNmwJ2FFbG_zZTulQmfcz2IUep2Ei1YaqgfLCQJ2yKl6V4XQERb1GhQKPW3y4egBSNrQkltdrJw1DqCxTWWQmmXnhwI3PA6vqA1Vi_1JUe/s1600/quillchart.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="382" data-original-width="651" height="233" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhtN9kmlzYn1hVnosxZ2XKXpi4mweE-ebtTjHjNmwJ2FFbG_zZTulQmfcz2IUep2Ei1YaqgfLCQJ2yKl6V4XQERb1GhQKPW3y4egBSNrQkltdrJw1DqCxTWWQmmXnhwI3PA6vqA1Vi_1JUe/s400/quillchart.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Traffic numbers from QuillEngage are based on Google analytics</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Even without a blockbuster news story, traffic for <a href="http://theorion.com/">theorion.com</a> made substantial gains in October, indicating more and more people are using The Orion's website and mobile app to get their campus news.<br />
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Here are the numbers from Google Analytics:<br />
Pageviews: 84,177<br />
Sessions: 26,284<br />
Pages per session: 3.2<br />
Unique visitors: 21,559<br />
Bounce rate (the percentage of visitors who left the website after reading only one story): 5.75%<br />
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All are up quite a bit from September and are higher than October 2016.<br />
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Here's what The Orion app traffic looked like for this October. Downloads now exceed 2,000.<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjvuKUmQJTtRiPZivCyByiULMHwzsmWNrL7flcO7xcdNn4sv1uc-TBWEogQShTelUrlZj0gZiIAGV0KockSOfdVcG8HcES_ohzWzLE6ZCuJae0HP1a-YHgoDxbCtAokpiYyYkfiQxEsrQH/s1600/goodbarberoct17.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="655" data-original-width="1055" height="247" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjvuKUmQJTtRiPZivCyByiULMHwzsmWNrL7flcO7xcdNn4sv1uc-TBWEogQShTelUrlZj0gZiIAGV0KockSOfdVcG8HcES_ohzWzLE6ZCuJae0HP1a-YHgoDxbCtAokpiYyYkfiQxEsrQH/s400/goodbarberoct17.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Click to see a larger version.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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A couple of surprises were buried in the Google Analytics data for theorion.com.<br />
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Chicoween coverage only attracted a few hundred readers for most stories. That could be because readers were following live reports on Twitter. The exception was an opinion piece asking out-of-towners to stay away from Chico on Halloween. That was the most read story of the month with 6,889 pageviews, about 8 percent of all traffic.<br />
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The other surprise was in referrals. A link from the San Francisco Chronicle's online sites to the story about a Chico State frat vandalizing a national forest campground sent more than 1,000 readers to theorion.com.<br />
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The top stories for traffic in October were:<br />
1. Out-of-towners are not welcome - 6,990 pageviews<br />
2. Four steps to being drunk in class - 3,540<br />
3. Fraternity being investigated for trashing website - 2,548<br />
4. Wildfires force evacuations in Butte County - 1,864<br />
5. First-year Chico State student died - 1,323<br />
6. Immediate evacuations due to Honey Run fire - 1,285<br />
7. Female DJ Rossi desires to inspire - 984<br />
8. Drunk sex: Let's get it up, literally - 850<br />
9. Chico State students take initiative to help wildfire victims - 849<br />
10. Homicide is reported near the Chico State neighborhood - 807<br />
11. Pi Kappa Alpha pleads guilty to vandalism charges - 652<br />
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It's interesting that overall traffic was up and stronger than last October despite a weak social media effort. That, and the bounce rate and average number of stories each visitor reads, confirms my hypothesis that readers are gradually replacing their weekly print use of The Orion with more frequent visits to theorion.com.<br />
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My suspicion is also confirmed by the overall traffic numbers from Google Analytics since website traffic started being tracked in December 2015. Here's that that looks like:<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjliugLCztwOWbxS8UFFfCVROscc2XM-lgia3IVizgxbRHwpiqiUh7jD_41PY9LxhN0jzBJ_GUZyFBNvYmhO9iQRxuWkyVaRZdBEWhPyGUKv1nVV9xYebYIm1VNTdSeEPhLGlXfTsyocuXu/s1600/trafficalltime.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="399" data-original-width="836" height="190" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjliugLCztwOWbxS8UFFfCVROscc2XM-lgia3IVizgxbRHwpiqiUh7jD_41PY9LxhN0jzBJ_GUZyFBNvYmhO9iQRxuWkyVaRZdBEWhPyGUKv1nVV9xYebYIm1VNTdSeEPhLGlXfTsyocuXu/s400/trafficalltime.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Click to see a larger version.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
mrplenkehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00527947903200356351noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7958846674391092122.post-523596284368316412017-10-28T12:13:00.000-07:002017-10-28T12:18:19.350-07:00You Need More Facebook, Friends<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjaVgmJHPZzZ9nGk8Cwl5zG8JIOJHhlDZNtb4o_tbVf4UzIgMO7cVbAUSPjn49PLZaey1tlXZKvkugOVH5fy0BgIBELhrvQDiXmxwK9m5QMvuOKXGydFkdieOhOEGxKIDVohyphenhyphenEamKqO7k1h/s1600/facebookscreenshot.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="564" data-original-width="1116" height="201" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjaVgmJHPZzZ9nGk8Cwl5zG8JIOJHhlDZNtb4o_tbVf4UzIgMO7cVbAUSPjn49PLZaey1tlXZKvkugOVH5fy0BgIBELhrvQDiXmxwK9m5QMvuOKXGydFkdieOhOEGxKIDVohyphenhyphenEamKqO7k1h/s400/facebookscreenshot.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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I was reading through the comments on <a href="https://www.facebook.com/TheOrionNews/">The Orion's Facebook page</a> this morning and noticed a reader (a former copy chief) had pointed out how few posts about stories had appeared on the feed. Taking a closer look, I saw the paper had mostly promoted the print edition of the paper up to that point (Sept. 19, almost a month into the school year).<br />
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The posts change after that. They promote specific stories and articles, but news mostly takes a backseat to opinion and arts and entertainment articles. That's better than general posts about the paper but not the most effective way to attract an audience because traffic statistics consistently show that news is the most read content on <a href="http://theorion.com/">theorion.com</a>.<br />
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It wasn't until this week that the Facebook page had a post every day. Still, the most popular Orion article of the week, an opinion piece about out-of-towners spoiling Halloween, wasn't one of the stories promoted.<br />
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That slow start for social media has had consequences for site traffic. Here are the analytics for the first 10 weeks of Spring Semester 2017 and the first 10 weeks of the current semester (click to see a larger version of each).<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCJey9r2LPpN8ljDlWaaKEBduLgyMgOsNXCrju-z_R1Duvnq9WUqs2BWRoCQOSBbL04-YG2lc2v4yO3P7uIDGGM5knjUXiWfgFEgd5Zd5zK4KmdpO3T7HL-OeeCTf5onkZICCdU1ZoCATJ/s1600/socialspring2017.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="619" data-original-width="953" height="258" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCJey9r2LPpN8ljDlWaaKEBduLgyMgOsNXCrju-z_R1Duvnq9WUqs2BWRoCQOSBbL04-YG2lc2v4yO3P7uIDGGM5knjUXiWfgFEgd5Zd5zK4KmdpO3T7HL-OeeCTf5onkZICCdU1ZoCATJ/s400/socialspring2017.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjxepVzW-B0XvAvyIv93VN5qUw4Lq4uVigC6gEd1CET11k9v9j9-bFxYtr4Jgtr0lGTERCPsgjJHcZTkg2TE4hKiT01yn8M66UsNhMH0ZJZU5Gf24XuGp95ur3oybIBjNWrcsDl_0C4L20p/s1600/socialfall2017.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="624" data-original-width="952" height="261" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjxepVzW-B0XvAvyIv93VN5qUw4Lq4uVigC6gEd1CET11k9v9j9-bFxYtr4Jgtr0lGTERCPsgjJHcZTkg2TE4hKiT01yn8M66UsNhMH0ZJZU5Gf24XuGp95ur3oybIBjNWrcsDl_0C4L20p/s400/socialfall2017.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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Last spring, the number of visits to theorion.com was 72,838. About a third of those visits started in a social media app, and 86 percent of those were from Facebook.</div>
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This fall, the number of total visits was just 50,034, 31 percent less than the spring numbers. Social referrals accounted for 10,045 of those, down <u>57 percent</u> from last spring. Traffic that started on Facebook was 7,706 visits compared to 20,299 last spring. That difference accounts for <u>more than half</u> of the decline in traffic overall.</div>
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The PR team has now started using <a href="https://hootsuite.com/">Hootsuite</a>, an online social media management tool, so I hope posting will become more effective and consistent. It's up to reporters and section editors, though, to make sure stories and articles are posted to social media much more often. </div>
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That's just part of the the job now for journalists. </div>
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<br />mrplenkehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00527947903200356351noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7958846674391092122.post-1341242560997555542017-10-01T14:15:00.002-07:002017-10-01T14:26:01.626-07:00Yes, social media does make a difference<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiaKzC9v2LhLFVXQkgKjp8GOgwtnvp9SLtHkhGYU0qX1H3sw2qZJNkMP81u9dmuRi7APPFo-gNv18NGr9B9skW-D4a_KasZM2U42_UPPr05PJiG5gXxGKRWcoQMvFBhb1gWH_IhSzkoBU7p/s1600/traffictable.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="526" data-original-width="1242" height="168" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiaKzC9v2LhLFVXQkgKjp8GOgwtnvp9SLtHkhGYU0qX1H3sw2qZJNkMP81u9dmuRi7APPFo-gNv18NGr9B9skW-D4a_KasZM2U42_UPPr05PJiG5gXxGKRWcoQMvFBhb1gWH_IhSzkoBU7p/s400/traffictable.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">September traffic for theorion.com - Google Analytics</td></tr>
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The September traffic numbers for<a href="http://theorion.com/"> theorion.com</a> delivered good news and bad news.<br />
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About 5,000 fewer people found their way to the website during last month than during the same month a year ago, which translated into about 8,000 fewer web sessions. Those numbers made me think the lack of promotional activity on the part of the PR staff and the failure to use social media on the part of reporters and editors had real consequences. So I looked at the analytics. (Click to make the chart larger.)<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQJpnvGTHqEQryIwoS72mC5xGf4i_s2Hw4Tab-GyHNEFg0FAmP-du6wPztSqD_lBc5ty636_tMS4hR6xcQdvVNKn0EBF6a1xZPYecPQI6BXnVzaY30QsnxcfTuS-Y_OQSHS9NTcDItbb-W/s1600/socialcomparison.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="401" data-original-width="828" height="192" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQJpnvGTHqEQryIwoS72mC5xGf4i_s2Hw4Tab-GyHNEFg0FAmP-du6wPztSqD_lBc5ty636_tMS4hR6xcQdvVNKn0EBF6a1xZPYecPQI6BXnVzaY30QsnxcfTuS-Y_OQSHS9NTcDItbb-W/s400/socialcomparison.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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Last spring, social was a big driver of Orion traffic. This fall, not so much. In fact, social media traffic accounted for seven-eights of the difference in the number of web sessions between the two months.<br />
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Fortunately, users who did show up were big consumers of Orion content.<br />
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Pageviews for September 2017 were 67,091. Views for September 2016 were about 15,000 fewer. That shows up in the pages per session -- an industry-typical 1.86 pps a year ago, a very good 3.38 pps this year -- and in the bounce rate: just 5 percent last month, which is unbelievably good. That means 95 percent of visitors to theorion.com stuck around to read at least one more story.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhC48TKB_WZ5joQtzuBxcAUFhnId64WVKvdDshMQdxuduMqOAQkVaTYjkwPntLscQ9XiStdRYvgZsGp6bL_H54PO0W2GP3lgELr2T6ojwhq-0TTEwFwIYGRKNpCB-bJq9cMSEmdsFri0dbr/s1600/sept2017analytics.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="607" data-original-width="974" height="248" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhC48TKB_WZ5joQtzuBxcAUFhnId64WVKvdDshMQdxuduMqOAQkVaTYjkwPntLscQ9XiStdRYvgZsGp6bL_H54PO0W2GP3lgELr2T6ojwhq-0TTEwFwIYGRKNpCB-bJq9cMSEmdsFri0dbr/s400/sept2017analytics.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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When I saw the bump at the end of this chart for September 2017 web traffic, I thought it might be attributable to the kerfuffle over Gray Boyer's satirical look at drinking, and that was a factor, but it only accounted for about 4 percent of the pageviews. The list of top stories shows readers were interested in a variety of topics.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgovufaMXudeCseuONF_66Ix8UomKU2ujaSywCQdTcsZ3U4FnyMk8GOyO6izbUMofgP6Vpzd3BT0RnU9CziiDEuu4sbVlvxoOG3xgDIavZyZvTcTQliIHWRpFk4M0eWoaPHhvgKLmNbLX7g/s1600/top19pagessept2017.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="609" data-original-width="971" height="250" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgovufaMXudeCseuONF_66Ix8UomKU2ujaSywCQdTcsZ3U4FnyMk8GOyO6izbUMofgP6Vpzd3BT0RnU9CziiDEuu4sbVlvxoOG3xgDIavZyZvTcTQliIHWRpFk4M0eWoaPHhvgKLmNbLX7g/s400/top19pagessept2017.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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Taken together with the pages-per-session statistics for the month, the number of visits to the home page and three of the section pages tell me The Orion is attracting an audience of people who visit the website to find out what's happening on campus and in the community. And that's a very good thing. Add a better social media effort and theorion.com can look forward to a record-setting semester.<br />
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Mobile app traffic was consistent with the other numbers for September, except no surge at the end of the month:<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgBa1FSK0ljlbClZJI88pW8KPkStBgxvgPmDpmHe0kVLmZjciKEOpGAeWezt-iKwCm4HRA-q67R8i0mB0Lxp6JwjqpelhNF6hcjSGbzss1go884tZzLNwYZ6EhOQv3EL5Q0qlMUaiMrpWcO/s1600/gbsept2017.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="606" data-original-width="1070" height="226" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgBa1FSK0ljlbClZJI88pW8KPkStBgxvgPmDpmHe0kVLmZjciKEOpGAeWezt-iKwCm4HRA-q67R8i0mB0Lxp6JwjqpelhNF6hcjSGbzss1go884tZzLNwYZ6EhOQv3EL5Q0qlMUaiMrpWcO/s400/gbsept2017.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Analytics for The Orion mobile app from GoodBarber</td></tr>
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mrplenkehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00527947903200356351noreply@blogger.com0