Marketing & Audience Engagement
While on staff, I've never challenged myself in the design realm as much until this year. I asked our designers if I could create the center spread for our next issue of Eagle Nation Times. Since then, I'm so glad that I've contributed more to ENT designing, as well as to our social media and our website. I have challenged myself more through design and hope to continue growing in this area.
Site Analytics
Since we started posting more often on social media, I've noticed an increase in our analytics. Another time when our analytics spike is when we release our Eagle Nation Times print issue at the beginning of the year. Keeping up with social media and different platforms brings in more viewers to our site.
Site visits Aug. 13 – Feb. 12
Here's the analytics from this school year so far. At the start of the school year, we had a spike after releasing our first print issue of the year, which was a 'Welcome to Prosper' guide. We had an average of 500 views each day, and since then, for the last few months, it's been going up and down consistently. After one of our junior reporters – Trisha Panicker, published her editorial on UT Austin's decisions, our views went up significantly, with over 2,000 visits.
Site visits Jan. 7 – Feb. 12
Since the second semester started, our analytics have been pretty consistent for the last month, and then, toward the middle of February, our site visits started to go up. I noticed that this has been the most consistent we've been since we published print because usually, we don't get over 2,000 visitors in one day without posting a reel or publishing ENT. The increase in views reflects the power of the articles published, and that means I want the newspaper and I to keep publishing quality work while still engaging with our social media to keep our site visits consistent.
Site visits Aug. 13 – Dec. 19
Going back to the beginning of the year, our analytics were honestly very inconsistent. My goal this semester is to keep our views constant and minimize significant drops. Making more reels and being active on social media will help us attract more viewers, and keep up our story views as well.
Social Media Analytics
I started contributing to social media a lot more during my junior year. The leadership team that year showed me more about what content to post, how to get more views, and tips on increasing views and engagement. Since then, I've worked with other staff members to create reels and graphics and post our achievements on Instagram. I've noticed that posting interactive reels has brought more views to our Instagram, and it has also increased our following. Although we are also active on Twitter and Facebook, our biggest following is on Instagram.
Instagram reels
Instagram reels are one of the most popular forms of content for students at Prosper. Whether being in the reels or watching their friends in our mini interview reels, many students like to watch them, and they do very well on Instagram. Below, I have included the analytics of some of our most successful videos. Some of these kept getting likes and views months after we posted them and increased our analytics.
Overall engagement
Overall, our engagement on social media stays consistent throughout the week. I aim to continue growing our social media presence while growing our other social media accounts. Even though we post on Instagram weekly, I want to engage on Facebook and Twitter more often.
Donations & Sponsors
This year, our newspaper has seen an increase in donations, thanks to the continued support of our community and the impactful work we publish daily. We've been able to raise more funds than in the last few years, and this success has allowed us to further expand our reach and continue to publish our print issue – Eagle Nation Times.
Our staff has been working hard to offer advertising options that not only highlight local businesses but also build a connection within our community.
Looking ahead, we are eager to announce that we will be selling senior ads as part of fundraising for our program and to publish our next print issue of ENT. These ads will serve as a unique way for families to celebrate their graduating seniors while also supporting the newspaper. Our CEO, Jake Radcliffe, is in charge of the sales process for these ads. With Jake’s leadership, we’re confident that this will succeed the next few months.
Student Expo night
To bring in new members to our newspaper, for the last 4 years, I've run the newspaper table during expo night for incoming freshmen. Through this event, we received significant interest from students and parents. It proved an excellent opportunity to introduce the newspaper program to incoming freshmen—whether they decide to join the class or keep up with our paper as readers.
