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Marketing and Audience Engagement
Promotional
The Muse attends multiple events in order to reach parents an adults. have interacted with parents informing them about our publication, encouraging them to purchase a subscription, sponsorship, or ad, or just handing out issues. Some specific events where I have done this include prospective student open house, open house, freshmen invasion, communications department beginning of the year meeting, lunch parties, etc.
We aim to promote our other platforms in our issue. I designed these two ads and incorporated QR codes to pull our audiences attention. I included images of some of our most recent content to inform the student body about upcoming events and current things happening.
The Muse also focused on increasing our presence on campus by organizing various engagement activities. For instance, we introduced a crossword puzzle in the first issue, which not only increased readership but also encouraged students to engage with the content more actively. The winner of the crossword was given an Amazon gift card, which motivated more students to participate and try their luck.
In addition to these initiatives, The Muse also made a conscious effort to amplify the voices of those who are often overlooked or unheard. One of the challenges we faced was the diverse nature of our school. With the prominent separation of different art areas, we wanted to cover everyone appropriately. To bridge this gap, The Muse set up a print committee, which was tasked with ensuring that they covered all the different art areas and provided a comprehensive view of the school's cultural landscape. We partnered with our school’s National English Honor Society chapter, and they offered an hour to each selected participant which boosted sign ups. We used a Google Form to gauge interest in the committee and posted the interest form on various Google Classroom pages. Members were selected based on their interests, grades, genders, and ethnicities, among other factors to ensure that the committee represented diverse perspectives of the student body, which would enable them to come up with unique and innovative ideas that could be included in our print issue. Overall, by leveraging the power of mobile applications and organizing various events and initiatives, we have succeeded in connecting with more students than before and providing them with a platform to voice their opinions.
My co Editor-in-Chief and I also went on the morning announcements to increase our presence on campus. This "takeover" was to excite students about our Issue 1 distribution party. The news is something everyone in our school watches each morning so it reached a wide audience. We wanted to put a face behind The Muse. While a lot of our student body knows about our publication our goal was for them to associate The Muse with the faces behind it.
This is me at our Issue 2 distribution which was very sucessful. The last issue had a crossword built in, but for this issue my co-EIC and I decided to have a crossword that had a QR code to submit for an amazon gift card and a QR code to view the issue online. Staffers and editors handed this out all over campus ouutside the cafeteria. Inside the cafeteria anyone was welcome to pick up an issue and spin our wheel for candy or other prizes. As EIC I have learned how to interact with various people and maintain a positive attitude so that people are encouraged to come see what we are about.
Business
In order to print, post on our website, enter contests, and have fun activities for the staff we have to fundraise. This year we came in with lower funds than years past since there was not a business editor last year who would manage funds and purchases. Because of that, we set our goal to raise $30,000 as a staff. While this is ambitious, we are almost halfway to it.
I keep constant communication with our business staff and set their deadlines alongside my co-EIC. We have multiple spreadsheets that our staff uses to track what we earn.
^This is an example of our business point system. Each cycle (month) staffers are required to bring in 100 business points. Each dollar is worth 1 point. This doesn't mean that a staffer has to make 100 dollars each cycle. While we encourage that, there are other ways to get points such as from pitching to business, making mock ads, and just for proving that they tried.
I also spend time selling to local businesses and selling subscriptions and sponsorships to family and friends. This year alone I have sold a half page advertisement and multiple subscriptions to family and friends making $689. It is so important that I meet my business points and sell so the staff looks to me as an example and feels motivated to try and make funds.
My co-EIC and I have created incentives alongside our business team to push people to want to make funds. One example is if everyone makes $600 everyone on the staff will get a sweatshirt. If an individual makes $1000 they will get their FSPA state convention registration paid for them. For this cycle, we are having a competition among the teams. The team that makes the most money from this cycle only will receive a Crumbl cookie party.
Over the summer, the editorial board met to do a training on what to expect when the school year starts. To open that meeting we had everyone work on a business tracker which is now hung up in our classroom. The business team is responsible for updating it. It is shaped as a moose because our staff's mascot is Moostipher Antlerson The Muse moose. At the end of a cycle we celebrate how much we made and try to get everyone excited for the next cycle.
