MARKETING & AUDIENCE ENGAGEMENT
As a Co-Online-Editor, I carry the responsibility of ensuring we reach our audience and market our publication in the right way and to the right people. Although it took me until my junior year to realize how much analytics impacts viewership, I've put a major emphasis on the statistics this year.
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Google Analytics has been incredibly telling in this process, and I've learned a lot about ways to intrigue the specific age groups and demographics we see on our site often. Here's a look at that process.
TOP DEVICES - ENGAGEMENT IMPROVEMENT
The "What are your top devices?" section of our Google Analytics page shows how people get to our site. Because of this, I realized the need for a big upgrade on our mobile site because almost half our viewership comes from that site.
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With the help of a previous Harbinger editor, we altered our mobile site to be much more user friendly.
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The before/after and a more in depth look at the changes can be found
AGE RANGES - DEMOGRAPHICS MARKETING
Through Google Analytics, I've learned the main age groups that visit our site, which helps me decide which topics to cover and what audience we should market towards. Here are some ways I've applied this knowledge:
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STUDENTS
In the fall of 2020, I reviewed a new boutique in our area called "Clairvaux." Since it included mostly high-end, designer pieces, I went in with the question "How would high school students benefit from visiting a place like this?" After interviewing the owner and an East student, I wrote this story that targets the largest age demographic we have — students. Click the image to view the story.
PARENTS
After COVID-19 struck and school was cancelled, I created this package to feature a few freshmen who got the end of their year taken away. Let's be honest: parents love reading about their kid. So since none of these kids had been featured before, I targeted this story at that middle age demographic — parents. Click the image to view the story.
SOCIAL MEDIA WITH AGE DEMOGRAPHICS
Our Instagram audience is definitely on the younger side, and students are more likely to follow our account on this platform. I ensure stories like a finals schedule update or an album review go up on Instagram so they reach the people we try to target. We also conduct several polls on our Instagram story because students can give us their opinion and engage in our social media. To read more about that, click
Our Facebook audience is mainly in the mid-adult age range, which we can predict is mainly parents. Because of this, I encourage our staff to mainly post stories that would interest parents on our Facebook page like district/school updates or features.
COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT
A huge part of marketing and audience engagement is placing our publication in the public eye. This year, we've been faced with the challenge of accomplishing that while school is virtual. Here are a couple methods we've maintained this year:
DISTRIBUTION
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Since our print publication wasn't passed out at school during virtual learning, the other staffers and I distributed a stack at various businesses around our area.
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PAPER BOX
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We've implemented a newspaper box to set in the front of our school building so anyone who comes in to see a teacher or go to practice can grab their own copy.
