Marketing and Audience Engagement
Marketing "The Hawk Eye"
When you're a part of any program in high school, the "big picture" can become a little hard to comprehend. Before you can even begin to think about anything bigger than the handful of years your on staff, you have to learn how to be on staff. You must learn how to pitch, interview, write, report, edit and lead --- only then can you turn your attention toward something like marketing.
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I was fortunate enough to start my scholastic journalism my freshman year, and to be flung head-first into an editing position the next semester. Learning to lead came along with learning every other aspect of reporting. I might never have quite hit "perfect" but my focuses transferred to what I thought at the time to be "the big picture." I was halfway through my sophomore year; I still had what felt like my whole life in scholastic journalism ahead of me, and thinking of how I could make "The Hawk Eye" grow as a publication, printed newspaper and program was all I could think about.
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That "whole life in scholastic journalism" flew by faster than I thought, but I tried to keep up with every curveball thrown at me. In large part, that's been asking mentors and past editors how they tried to work on certain aspects of the publication and create new ideas. One thing no one could quite get right was marketing.
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Below, I've drafted out the main approaches "The Hawk Eye" has been taking to market itself as a program and publication within my last four years as a part of it, specifically the years I've been lucky enough to lead it, along with my own approaches.
Social Media
Like any program, social media is one of the easiest ways "The Hawk Eye" markets itself. It just makes the most sense; students are our target audience and the best way to reach them is through social media.
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We've tried a variety of ways to get and retain the attention of students. The overall goal is to draw more viewers to our website, which means posting every story we write on social media with the link. ​However, the handful of students who find joy in scrolling through article after article on social media are already on staff; trying to more students to follow us comes with new approaches.
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My freshman year, the social media manager made a TikTok page for "The Hawk Eye." Over the next two years, it was a talking point at every editor meeting I attended. We wanted to reach out to students, but finding trends to capitalize on without sacrificing our professionalism as a publication became a hard balance. To put it simply: we didn't know what to do.
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When I became managing editor, this was a high point of discussion between my editor-in-chief and I. The two of us took it into our own hands, coming up with ideas and sending each other social media trends we could replicate. Not every idea came to fruition, but we were in a constant state of creativity. It all spiraled from there: when we distributed any print edition, we made a TikTok. When we won any awards, we posted the achievement to Twitter. When we went to staff bonding or on trips, we posted on Instagram.
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We continue to post every story we write on our social media, but we've expanded. Connecting with students means more than just telling them what stories we've posted to the website --- it means trying to get across the value of our publication through a variety of means.
Word of Mouth
I never shut up.
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I inherited this trait from my dad, but it gets more apparent when it comes to something I'm passionate about. That's why the words "The Hawk Eye" are always on the tip of my tongue.
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This trait has become useful over the last few years. Though it might be the most "old fashioned" way there is, word of mouth is one of the ways I make sure I'm always promoting "The Hawk Eye." We post every story we write on social media and try to capitalize on trends, but all of that means very little if no one follows our social media or knows we exist.
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Therefore, I never shut up.
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Word of mouth doesn't mean shouting about "The Hawk Eye" from the rooftops, but it does mean that we should always be looking to promote it. I try my best to do this, looking for any way that I can talk about it.
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For a class assignment, I referenced "The Hawk Eye" as a place to learn more about LISD's budget deficit. Whenever someone asks me a question about a new theater show, I tell them to look at the article on "The Hawk Eye." If I ever hear someone mention a piece of media we've reviewed, I show them the article.
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It may be overbearing, but it is a way to get "The Hawk Eye" to be a common thing to think about, rather than something confined to the walls of Room 1315.
Marketing Our Program
As important as it might be to market the publication itself, it is also imperative to get high school students excited about journalism. This is no easy feat. For the majority of my time on staff, we have been struggling with getting freshmen into journalism. Half of this is due to the counseling department, as they schedule seniors in the introductory journalism course before the underclassmen who do request the class. The other half is the problem comes from middle school students already having interests.
Students coming into high school, for the most part, hope to continue what they did in middle schools. Members of middle school band join the high school band. Middle school theater students join high school theater. The middle school varsity football team winds up becoming the freshman or JV team.
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And journalism? Our middle schools have a yearbook class, yes, but those students don't wind up joining our broadcast or newspaper staffs, if the counselors even let them in the introductory course to begin with.
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That's why we've worked so hard to market our program now. We're making up for lost time. Though one middle school began its own newspaper in the wake of all middle school English classes being knocked from a double-blocked period down to just one, we still do not have a large base at the middle schools. So we've worked closely with the students on that newspaper and visited different yearbook classes feeding into Hebron, trying to promote our period.
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This is not something horribly new, either, even though we're starting it with students much younger than normal. Since my freshman year, I have gone to events talking to journalism students, eighth graders and freshmen, trying to get as many people interested as possible. There's a wide array of things to promote, and I could talk for hours about the benefits of joining "The Hawk Eye" staff, but I try to keep it to the top few, which I listed below.
What Points Do I Highlight?
Our community is one of my favorite parts of being on "The Hawk Eye" staff. The people I've met on staff have been mentors, people to laugh with and shoulders to cry on if ever needed. High school can be a lonely place for those not involved in many extracurriculars, and not only does "The Hawk Eye" help as a way to meet fellow reporters, but it gives any staff member a chance to join the community.
Community
Getting Involved in the School
This is the basic thing every parent will say about extracurriculars, but it truly is something I've become grateful for. Being a part of "The Hawk Eye" has given me the ability to meet a variety of students and teachers, some of whom I've built relationships with due to how many times I've needed to interview them. I might not be in "the big clubs" --- such as band or sports --- but I cover them enough to be a little bit involved with it all.
More Chances to Write
The most obvious reason to join a newspaper staff is, of course, to write more. As I've mentioned time and time again throughout this website, I have always loved writing. Besides English classes, there are very few opportunities for students who like to write. That's why we try to draw them to us; it might not be fictional, but there is creative writing in journalism all the same.
Leadership Opportunities
While this goes hand-in-hand with a resume, leadership opportunities are something I especially make sure to highlight. I have always loved being in leadership positions, mostly because I like knowing that I am making as much of a difference in something I care about as I can. This is why I try to market that part of "The Hawk Eye" --- we need people who want to be leaders in the journalism field.
Trips
Everyone loves going on trips. It's a simple fact. Going somewhere with a group of your friends means an exciting trip 90% of the time. We're always a little wary to market this one, as the publication means so much more than going on trips, but it draws in the attention of teenagers, so I always mention it.
Resume
I'm going to be blunt: I joined "The Hawk Eye" to add to my resume. Of course, the publication became so much more to me, but the resume has been a tremendous boost that's helped me secure internships, jobs and promotions. I always market this as a reason before almost anything, because it's what drew me in and it draws in those who want to do a good job.
How has this helped?
Our program, like any high school program, has its ups and downs. However, within the last four years of my time on staff, I have seen "The Hawk Eye" staff grow and grow. We're more known as a program, and have more outreach with middle schools and underclassmen. I might not be there to see how the program continues to grow after this year, but if "The Hawk Eye" continues this trajectory, then I know I've done my part.
Audience Engagement
Despite being a part of "The Hawk Eye" target audience, engaging with my own community can be challenging. I'm a nerd, from a long line of nerds, and I tend to grow closest with like-minded people. Therefore, I have a better understanding on what a nerd might want to see from the high school newspaper; what's interesting to that demographic is easier to ask for and largely lines up with my own interests. Trying to figure out what the other demographics at Hebron want, however, is a much bigger pickle.
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The best way to see what the school wants is to start by listening to my staff. While the newspaper might attract fairly similar people, the differences in interests waver enough that everyone is a part of something unique. This allows the publication to get some sort of variety in what we cover and appeal to a wider variety of people, rather than just my nerds and I. Then, we look at how our audience is engaging with our stories and reach out to make that bond stronger. Here's how I make sure the communication between "The Hawk Eye" and its audience is double-sided.
Tracking Analytics
To make sure a publication's audience remains engaged, the leader must look at what has worked in the past. This is why I take such great care at looking at the analytics of our website and social media pages. Stories about playoff games get the most reposts, whereas random stories throughout a season get a handful; therefore, we try to avoid posting frivolous stories about games in the middle of a season that don't present a big challenge or a turning point for the Hawks. We can also see what types of reviews captivate our audience; movie reviews about TV shows often do better than those about movies, unless that movie is a huge blockbuster. Tracking these analytics allows me to pay closer attention to what our audience wants, and to better cater toward them.
Polls
The easiest way to engage with our audience is to create polls through social media. Sometimes, the polls are basic questions regarding upcoming events, such as: "Are you going to prom?" Other times, the questions pertain to new stories we have coming out. We ask students how often they drink caffeine or their opinions on a new show a reporter will review. Regardless what type of story it is or the fact that we'll never use these polls as data in our stories, it's important to get students engaged in the topics we'll cover.
Interactives and Competitions
One thing we've tried to get the student body to do is get involved with our publication, outside of being on staff or a quote in a story. The ways we've managed to do that are simple: get students to interact through interactives. Since we got the print edition to be a consistent thing, they've become the star of our show. The stories we want read the most are the ones that end up in the edition. ​​
This means that the edition is also one of the best ways to get interaction with the student body.
Since our second edition, we've been adding interactives. Sometimes, they're a quick quiz to see what member of staff you are. Other times, they're a Connect-The-Dots that I spent hours hand-crafting. It might take one of our 16 pages --- something invaluable when you're trying to put your best stories from nine weeks --- but it's worth it to see the completed pages scattered around teacher's rooms.
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We've tried taking the interactives even further, creating a competition throughout one of our editions to see how much interaction we could get from students.
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We instructed students to find the bolded blue letters throughout the issue, one per page. When they got all the letters, they could put it together on one of the pages and post the phrase "Happy Holidays" on social media and tag our account. The first ten posts could come to room 1315 the next day and get a cookie. It cost one page out of 16 and $5, but the response we got on social media made it worth it.
