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Marketing and Audience Engagement
1. Marketing reach-outs
2. Spheres of influence
3. Award story branding
4. CMS/BHL ambassador
5. Note from a reader
6. LTTE
7. OMG presentation
8. Thank-you note
Table of contents
As the Managing Editor I play a major part in audience engagement and community outreach. I did a similar job as the Diversity and Representation Editor and Viewpoints Editor, and I have always taken marketing seriously.
MARKETing EXPERIENCE
At the ODYSSEY we all participate in a marketing project to gain subscriptions and raise money for the program. In my first year I had both the most sales, my second year was good but not as good as the first year. I am determined to top my first-year numbers.
Marketing reach out email example
Left: In this image is a text message I sent to one of my mother's friends to market an ODYSSEY subscription. In my experience with marketing, depending on the person I am selling to, I need to change my tone. Mrs. Deborah is someone I know sort of well, but not well enough to drop a formal tone. Along with this message was a direct link to the ordering website and a video of me going through the entire purchase process to help users. When marketing, I have to be willing to meet people where they are, and I am excellent at that.
Marketing communication examples
Left: Here is the email I sent to Sheila Coffeen, who is the principal of my middle school. In this email, I changed a small portion to personalize it while keeping the majority of the information.
Right: Here is an image that shows the communication I had with Sheila Coffeen who is the principal of my middle school. After sending an email that asked for them to purchase a subscription she replied with a yes. From there the image just shows how we communicated back and forth. I kept my professionalism but I did add more more personal details to engage with her and let her know I cared and appreciated her purchase.
Above: Here, the picture shows what we call the Spheres of Influence in the ODYSSEY. This document has a list of people and contacts for marketing. I used this spreadsheet to track whom I had reached out to and brainstorm all of my marketing attempts. To properly market our magazine, everyone on staff does this, but mine was noted as among the most in-depth. This should showcase my understanding of marketing and what it means to have branding influence.
Spheres of Influence
ODYSSEY awards branding
Left: This button and photo are linked to a story I wrote to cover when the ODYSSEY earned a Gold Medal honor from the Columbia Scholastic Press Association. I wrote this story to not only highlight a big success for us, but also deliver on the brand we have put forth. Branding comes in a lot of different forms, and for the ODYSSEY writing announcement, like stories are a part of that. While not technically difficult, I did have to get it done extremely quickly to make the announcement timely.
Ambassador at CMS
Right: In these pictures are two separate times I went to one of our feeder middle schools, Clarke Middle School, as an ambassador for ODYSSEY. The image on top was for CMS' literacy night, which welcomes parents and families to meet the library and other groups. During this event, I ran the ODYSSEY side of the OMG table and talked to families about the ODYSSEY. I used my public speech skills and confidence as a leader in the ODYSSEY to communicate with the community members who attended. The image at the bottom was from when I went to CMS to give a presentation on the ODYSSEY to 8th graders for recruitment. On January 16th and 17th, I led a group of ODYSSEY and iliad representatives to present to the eighth graders at CMS about our program. I enjoyed speaking to the next generation of gladiators, and it taught me a lot about the core heart of ODYSSEY: community. It felt great to connect with more CCSD community members and speak about my experience.
Ambassador at BHL
Right: Here is a photo that shows several peers and me from both the ODYSSEY Media Group and the Iliad Literary-Art Magazine at the other feeder middle school, Burney Harris-Lyons. As the person fully in charge of outreach last year, I found it extremely important that I always make time for both middle schools. Even though this school is farther away and only about half of the kids would go to my school, I still made an effort. While there were several kids who came up to me to ask questions about the program, which of course I answered. I inspired several kids to apply for our freshman class, that I got to later accept into the program come later in the year.
ENGAGInG AUDIENCEs
Above: In these two images is a note that a substitute I had for my production ODYSSEY class, named Mr. V., handed me. The story he is referring to was my podcast on my experience growing up with religion (you can find it on my writing page). He connected to what I wrote very deeply, and it meant so much to me that he took the time to give me this note. As a writer and journalist, the awards are nice, but personally, it is the handwritten notes or spoken words that mean the most. I still keep this note in my backpack.
On the right of this text box is a typed-up version of the note.
Feedback on my story, it means a lot
Peter,
This is Mr. V, your guest teacher for Mr. Ragsdale today. I've been the one sitting up here superquiet - (because) I didn't know this class was both self-directed and has a UGA student teacher. Anyway: my point is -> I came across your religion article last night while I was just trying to see what classes I had today. I thought your article was a beautifully written expression of the struggle involved for people that are indoctrinated into a belief system, only to then start having big doubts. I have the same thing. Lastly, I wanted to recommend you a song (if you don't already know it) ->Hot Mulligan's "John 'The Rock' Cena, Can You Smell What the Undertaker"-> very similar themes -> peep the lyrics.
"
"
I have always been very open to feedback and the editing process. I often submit something I just wanted to try even when at times they don't work. Instead of just following the rules I like to break or bend them and just see what feedback I get.
Letters To The Editor 1
Left: In this image are three submissions for one of the things I was responsible for when I was the Viewpoints editor called Letters To The Editor. I would find someone from each grade and a faculty member to write a 4-6 sentence review of an article in the last issue of the ODYSSEY. This is our main means of finding that feedback from our audience. on the stories we write.
Right: Here are some more LTTE submissions I had to seek out. These were gathered this year, even though I wasn't the Viewpoints Editor anymore. Still, I had the experience and could step in to properly gather the feedback from our audience that we needed. Given that I have better senior connections now than I did as a sophomore, I took on finding the senior LTTE for issues 1 and 2 this year. Overall, I find audience feedback huge, especially from my peers, when often students are not as engaged in the news as they should be.
Letters To The Editor 2
OMG presentation 1
OMG presentation 2
OMG presentation 5
OMG presentation 1
1/5
Presenting OMG as a brand
Left: In this gallery, the slider is several example slides from the presentation I led to explain ODYSSEY to new recruits over the last two years. I have presented this many times to 8th graders and fellow high schoolers who are interested in joining. The ODYSSEY is a brand, and when I present this, I am selling new staffers on why they should join. I focus on the positives while balancing honesty, while also highlighting cool projects and videos. In presenting this, I have even added little scripted parts that help engage my student audience. Overall, I wanted to include this here to highlight both marketing the brand of ODYSSEY, but also engaging with our community and audience.
Thank-you notes
Right: In this gallery photo, a thank-you note is for a recent stakeholder I interviewed for a column I am writing. As a part of the ODYSSEY procedure, after every interview, we write a thank-you note. This way, our stakeholders and audience know we care and value them. As a senior leader, I often make announcements to remind the staff to complete their thank-you notes. This is part of our brand and the way our stakeholders remember us. It's simple math that if a stakeholder feels well appreciated, they will be willing to work with us again in the future.
Final Thoughts
Audience engagement is critical; without our audience, our work would float off into the void. By engaging with our audience, we can build a bond between writer and reader. I have found it to always be refreshing to hear what others have to say, especially when the newsroom can feel like an echo chamber sometimes.
On the marketing side, it is really fun, but I don't get many opportunities to really get into it. We have a project at the beginning of the year to sell subscriptions, and I have performed very well in the past three years.
It has felt great to be able to raise money for my program and further represent the brand through discussions with our audience.
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