By Emily Harwood, J-Lab Intern
In just under one year of operation, All Princeton has secured its place amid other Princeton news outlets by developing a steady stream of content, engaging in outreach to attract followers and encouraging community participation.
“The All Princeton website [has become] a stable source of community news and events, with its hybrid presentation of original, collective, and aggregated content,” reports Donna Liu, founder of AllPrinceton.com.
Not only has the site established a “steady flow of content,” but by using social media and mobile outreach tools, the site has also been developing a small, but established, readership. As of June 2011, it counted 200 unique visitors a day and 190 Facebook followers
The use of social media has paid off. Liu reports that Facebook and Twitter have allowed the site’s following to grow. AllPrinceton.com even devoted a small portion of its budget to Facebook advertising.
The site’s most thriving features are news articles, town talk, and events, the three areas that are incorporated in the iPhone app, Facebook page, and Twitter feed, and are “most reliably updated.”
The site has also successfully furthered its relationship with the local community by holding community news workshops, recruiting community bloggers, and creating partnerships with the local educational system.
“All Princeton has come to the attention of some of the more Web-literate members of the community. Thanks to a series of workshops at Princeton Community TV and the Public Library, we coaxed some early adopters to contribute to the ‘Town Talk’ section of the site. The most enthusiastic supporters tended to be people associated with community-based NGOs,” says Liu.
Liu has found that community members are eager to contribute to All Princeton’s efforts. The site’s success in establishing working relationships with the local community will culminate this fall with “a week-long intensive Digital Media Bootcamp at Princeton University,” says Liu.
As All Princeton enters its second year of existence, Liu hopes to advance the site by concentrating on newsgathering, community training and sustainability.
