I’m a seasoned digital media professional with over 16 years of experience managing and growing social media for The Grand Island Independent, serving a community of 50,000. I launched the newspaper’s first social media program in 2007 and went on to manage 40+ accounts across newsroom, classifieds, and circulation teams, growing engagement and driving new revenue.
Alongside this work, I’ve consulted for local businesses and nonprofits, providing strategic guidance on social media marketing and delivering training that helped teams use digital tools effectively. My expertise includes content creation, video and audio production (Premiere, Audition, Avid, Photoshop), and CMS platforms like TownNews/BLOX.
I specialize in building strong digital strategies, creating multimedia content, and training teams to use social media and storytelling to foster meaningful audience connections. With over two decades in digital communications, I bring a proven track record of driving engagement, streamlining operations, and strengthening community presence.
Social Media samples:
* TheIndependent.com
* @theindependent – I beat London’s newspaper, The Independent, to this username in 2007 when I saw Twitter was going to be the way people get their quick news updates.
* facebook.com/GIIndependent/ – I did not beat them to a Facebook page 🙂
* instagram.com/theindependent/ – This is The Independent’s first Instagram page, curated by me. When I left the paper, they used a different username.
Writing samples:
* Maggie Mobley, The Independent’s first publisher – Moved this feature piece to Medium. Written for The Independent online.
* SWAT training in Grand Island – I wrote many stories for our website over the years, and covered them on social media. Unfortunately, The Independent is a paywalled site as are most newspapers.
* Column: The Daily Cool – One of my regular columns I wrote daily for online content.
Stephanie In the Media:
* Omaha World Herald, 2020: A site to behold: Gitwisters.com provides well-rounded look into ‘The Real Night of the Twisters’
* Poynter: Publishers turn to digital business services to offset declining ad revenue
* Inland Press: Newspapers interact with readers through Twitter