Newspapers and social media — a powerful combination
When a Campton Hills teenager went missing this summer, people helped by spreading the news.
When a dog named Wrigley was lost in Algonquin in August, the community came together to find him.
Did they pick up the phone and call their neighbors? Did they search from house to house on foot? Did they hang posters on grocery store bulletin boards?
Maybe. Maybe a few hundred did that to help find the missing girl or dog.
Do you know what thousands of them did? They shared a Daily Herald story on social media.
Thousands of shares and likes on one Daily Herald story reached tens of thousands of people — with one story posted on one Facebook page. With one story tweeted on Twitter.
This is the power of social media. And harnessing this power to help people in our communities is something the Daily Herald does on a daily basis.
We take pride in being a conduit for connecting the people in need with those who want to help.
We use social media for good, sharing ways people can help families who have lost a loved one, like the family of Fox Lake's Lt. Charles Joseph Gliniewicz.
We engage with members of the community and ask them what they see out their windows. Are people hurt or are homes damaged from severe weather?
We share their pictures and stories — a lost dog poster, a fundraiser for tornado victims, or a story about an influential teacher helping students in the local school district.
It's a common goal for us and our readers — making our communities a better place to live, work and play.
And when something as powerful and influential as social media is literally at our fingertips, nothing is more rewarding than channeling that power and using it to bring out the best in people and the communities in which we live.
National Newspaper Week 2015
This is the 75th anniversary of National Newspaper Week. The theme of the Oct. 4-10 week is underscoring the impact of newspapers to communities large and small.
This article is a part of that series. For more stories on the Daily Herald, see <a href="http://www.dailyherald.com/topics/Daily-Herald-Media-Group/">http://www.dailyherald.com/topics/Daily-Herald-Media-Group/</a>
Follow stories from other newspapers on Twitter with #nnw15