Marketing and Audience Engagement

My previous experience in marketing and social media has given me insights into effective social media engagement strategies. Our target audience is young people, who tend to be active in social media, and therefore, expanding our social media presence allows us to reach more potential readers. I work and communicate with our social media team to create engaging and informative content for our social media platforms like Instagram and consistently post articles, updates, writer and section spotlights and behind-the-scenes glimpses.

 

I see The MoCo Student as an integral member of the journalistic community of Montgomery County. We strive for opportunities to collaborate with other local news channels/websites so they can republish some of our writers’ work and help our writers network with other journalists in the county. For example, through our partnership with The Sentinel, the Maryland state newspaper, many of our articles have been reprinted on their website. Also, when our articles are related to a certain community group or government agency, we reach out to them and request them to share our article with their audience through announcements, newsletters, etc., expanding our readership and making more contributions to the improvement of our community. 

 

On The Pitch, I work with our team to establish a strong brand and presence in school through word-of-mouth strategies, social media and various school events. We fundraise through concessions and working with our school Booster Club, to whom we have given presentations each year on The Pitch and our activities. I explore opportunities to generate revenue and secure funding for our student media outlet. For example, in each print issue, we sell advertising space in our publication. We engage in our community by reporting on relevant school events and people and distributing our print issues every month and a half. 

 

Here is a photo of The Pitch staff members and me talking to new students and families at the club fair about joining our publication.

 

We also set up stands at elective fairs to encourage students to take the Journalism 1 class (a prerequisite for The Pitch).

 

 

 

 

 

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We also use social media on The Pitch to engage with audiences and have live coverage of school events. For instance, we had live coverage on our Instagram stories of the end-of-year art fair exhibiting the talent and creative works of art class students, including sculptures, paintings and photography.