Here are some helpful, fun and engaging graduation ideas

Graduation season is here and it’s a great time for media companies to create helpful content and showcase these major moments of life in their community.

In today’s newsletter, I’m going to walk you through a handful of graduation ideas that can work for newspapers, magazines, TV stations and digital-only publishers, regardless of size.

Here’s the list:

• Graduation Map: Most schools can share the schools or at least states that students will be going to college in. Create a digital or print map showcasing that information. If you can branch that out to cover other categories like military or trade school, that would be a nice addition.
• Ask for photos and shout outs: Invite parents on social media to share photos or do a shout out for their senior. Shout outs are lots of fun and for TV, this could turn into a nice on-air segment where you could run a scrolling list of them over several days.

Extra Tip: Consider turning to Instagram to feature the shout outs, using their slideshow function to feature several callouts across a single post over several days.

• Advice to Grads: Gather short tips of advice from local business owners, educators, and alumni for a “Words of Wisdom” feature and turn it into a big list with photos of all of those advice givers. Think of this as a way to take that popular 90s Sunscreen song to a list.
• Run graduation speeches: Ask your school district if they would share speeches from the valedictorians and salutatorians. Based on the number of schools you cover, you could run these over several days.

Extra Tip: See if the speech is online somewhere that you can use. If you are a TV station and streaming this, just clip the speech with the story.

Top Graduation Party Stores and Catering Ideas: There are several lists that could be helpful for your audience:

• Top restaurants to take your grad to after the ceremony
• Top catering services and party stores
• Top places to find graduate gifts in your town

Where are they now? Share stories of past local graduates who went on to do big things and what advice they have for this year’s grads. Often this is a sports feature, but why not look to see who you profiled, 5, 10 and 20 years ago and see where they are now.

A guide for parents in transition: Go to a local expert who could offer advice for parents who need help navigating this transition with tips on letting go, financial support and preparing for college.

What parents and students need to know before summer: Offer a practical checklist for parents and grads covering dorm shopping, FAFSA deadlines, health insurance, and summer job tips.

Little kids are graduating, too: It’s graduation season for kindergartners, 5th and 8th graders, so do consider ways to feature their special days as well, with any of these ideas above. In fact, some of these transition stories for parents are relevant here as well for those grade levels.

List honors award winners: Many schools have honor award nights where they recognize scholarship winners and top academic performers. Ask your school district if you can get a list of all of those students and create a story or stories highlighting all of those local names. This is one of the reasons that people continue to pick up their local newspaper.

We can help you with your audience strategy

Let us help you grow your audience through creative ideas like these. Email me at david@davidarkinconsulting.com or call/text me today at 832 407 0188

Graduation season is here and it’s a great time for media companies to create helpful content and showcase these major moments of life in their community.

In today’s newsletter, I’m going to walk you through a handful of graduation ideas that can work for newspapers, magazines, TV stations and digital-only publishers, regardless of size.

Here’s the list:

• Graduation Map: Most schools can share the schools or at least states that students will be going to college in. Create a digital or print map showcasing that information. If you can branch that out to cover other categories like military or trade school, that would be a nice addition.
• Ask for photos and shout outs: Invite parents on social media to share photos or do a shout out for their senior. Shout outs are lots of fun and for TV, this could turn into a nice on-air segment where you could run a scrolling list of them over several days.

Extra Tip: Consider turning to Instagram to feature the shout outs, using their slideshow function to feature several callouts across a single post over several days.

• Advice to Grads: Gather short tips of advice from local business owners, educators, and alumni for a “Words of Wisdom” feature and turn it into a big list with photos of all of those advice givers. Think of this as a way to take that popular 90s Sunscreen song to a list.
• Run graduation speeches: Ask your school district if they would share speeches from the valedictorians and salutatorians. Based on the number of schools you cover, you could run these over several days.

Extra Tip: See if the speech is online somewhere that you can use. If you are a TV station and streaming this, just clip the speech with the story.

Top Graduation Party Stores and Catering Ideas: There are several lists that could be helpful for your audience:

• Top restaurants to take your grad to after the ceremony
• Top catering services and party stores
• Top places to find graduate gifts in your town

Where are they now? Share stories of past local graduates who went on to do big things and what advice they have for this year’s grads. Often this is a sports feature, but why not look to see who you profiled, 5, 10 and 20 years ago and see where they are now.

A guide for parents in transition: Go to a local expert who could offer advice for parents who need help navigating this transition with tips on letting go, financial support and preparing for college.

What parents and students need to know before summer: Offer a practical checklist for parents and grads covering dorm shopping, FAFSA deadlines, health insurance, and summer job tips.

Little kids are graduating, too: It’s graduation season for kindergartners, 5th and 8th graders, so do consider ways to feature their special days as well, with any of these ideas above. In fact, some of these transition stories for parents are relevant here as well for those grade levels.

List honors award winners: Many schools have honor award nights where they recognize scholarship winners and top academic performers. Ask your school district if you can get a list of all of those students and create a story or stories highlighting all of those local names. This is one of the reasons that people continue to pick up their local newspaper.

We can help you with your audience strategy

Let us help you grow your audience through creative ideas like these. Email me at david@davidarkinconsulting.com or call/text me today at 832 407 0188