Entrepreneurship
When I first joined the ranks of Ka Mōʻī during my junior year, the analytics for readership was horrible. We were barely managing to have over 20 people read our articles daily and most students and teachers didnʻt know where to get our monthly editions. During my junior year, I spent a lot of time trying to find the root problem as to why our readership was so low. The answer would be one that is simple yet complex: no one knew about us. Having taken a business and economics class, I knew that we needed to give students and teachers an incentive to read our newspaper. This would be a long and lengthy process that wouldnʻt happen overnight or event this school year, but it would start the process for future classes to benefit from. When I took over as the Technology and Website Director for Ka Mōʻī during the 2019-2020 school year, I immediately began a campaign to revive Ka Mōʻī. I had set up social media platforms, created flyers, utilized our daily bulletin, ran advertisements in our schoolʻs morning broadcast, princialʻs messages, etc. Due to these efforts, our analytics have jumped up 900 percent compared to last year's averages.
Website Analytics
Comparing the website analytics from last year to where it is currently, traffic has increased 900% from 30 views a day average to just around 270 view average. Although these numbers may seem small, I am trying to take baby steps in increasing readership. My goal is not only to make this year one of the most successful years for Ka Mōʻī, but to also set the foundation for future classes. Where they have a mobile app they can build off of. A website that has received 3 SNO awards for best website, best story page layout, and continuous coverage. This mission to increase readership is a multi-stage plan that is spread out over years. My job in this process is to lay the foundation that is needed to increase readership for many years to come.
Social Media
Social media is a main part of todayʻs society and is a very effective platform to advertise and get the word out to a broader and bigger audience. We currently utilize Instagram, Twitter, Youtube, Anchor, and SoundCloud. My social media director created and maintains the Instagram account. I created all of the other accounts listed above and I maintain them as necessary. I have set up auto posters for our Instagram and our Twitter to get the message out to our followers about new stories. All of our social media accounts were created this year as the passwords for the accounts from previous years were lost. We currently have a combined total of 300 followers and our Instagram receives around 3,800 impressions a week. Our twitter receives 11,800 impressions a month. After we started using social media we noticed a 100 percent increase in story views from less than 50 views to a stable 125 views a day.
Flyers
I have also gone around my campus and posted flyers in the hallways and common areas as a way to promote the newspaper. I made one poster for the beginning of the year and have since then assigned the poster designing to our graphic designer. I help with giving general points that need to be covered and I do most of the distribution across campus. Due to our flyer campaign, more and more students have said that they now know where we distribute our newspapers because of the posted flyers.
Daily Bulletin
Every weekday, my school sends out the bulletin for the next day in the early evening hours. This bulletin includes any announcements, activities occurring, schedule for the next day, and links to our lunch menu, school store, etc. One of the first things that I did for this school year was to contact the person in charge of the daily bulletin and have our link included in the bulletin. It took about a month to receive the approvals needed and for it to be implemented. I have also utilized the daily bulletin to announce activities or events going on. I typically make a bulletin announcement 3 days prior to an event and have the announcement run until the day of the event to maximize the reach of our advertisement.
School Broadcast
Due to the collaboration between Ka Mōʻī and Puka Mai Ka Lā, we are able to have our own segments when needed on the morning broadcast. I had set up a segment for a morning broadcast when we were having the launch party for our mobile app. I gave a member of my staff, who happened to also be on the broadcast team, a script with all the important information students and teachers needed to know. The morning broadcast along with the daily bulletin announcement allowed for 600 students show up to our booth to download the app and receive a brownie for free
Mobile App Launch
On Feb. 4th, I hosted the biggest event for Ka Mōʻī. The occasion at hand was the release of the mobile app that I have been working on for months. For this event, I utilized every advertising medium possible to me such as the daily bulletin, morning broadcast, flyers, etc. This event alone generated over 600 page views and downloads for the app. This event was the first time that many students have heard about Ka Mōʻī.
