A new way to connect

The higher-ups here have asked me to draft a plan to bring a longstanding sports feature into the future. It's a Q & A with about 85 local high school students, all interviewed individually, about being their school's "best and brightest."

The paper already has a Facebook account, although it's somewhat neglected.

Presuming the students have a FB or other social networking account, I'm thinking we (the paper) could invite these kids to join a "best and brightest" group on our FB site. We'd submit a series of boilerplate questions to the group to answer however they'd like. Easy enough.

But I'm wondering what else we could incorporate. We're going to have staff photogs taking group pictures. There's also discussions about reverse publishing. I was thinking maybe conducting Q & A's via Facebook or Gchat, then having those reverse published into the paper.

Anyone else have other ideas?

Laudably, it's the paper's first attempt to reach younger students online. I'm just hoping we can engage them.

Thanks in advance.

- Casey