ENTREPRENEURSHIP

Advertising in the Lariat

Because our print is entirely funded through ads, I added the advertising agreement to our website and used Twitter to promote it so we could find potential advertisers who are affiliated with the school. The page (along with the branding and self-promotion we use) is below.

The Lariat on Twitter

While we are still gaining our land legs on social media, we've tried to use the 21st century to our advantage. Given that students are so often on Twitter, we felt that to get people to read our articles, we had to keep up with the times. We do not tweet every article that gets published in print or online, however we tweet the ones we feel will gain the most traction amongst the students. We also try to mix in congratulatory tweets on our students' accomplishments, because we know students are always willing to retweet something about them. We also update with relevant news. (And, for laughs, we try to infuse some professionally funny tweets.) Here are some examples:

Note: I personally tweeted all of these tweets.

This is our Twitter logo and header, which features the staff at FSPA districts. Note the biography, where we take the precaution to note that opinions are not necessarily that of Cooper City High School or the School Board of Broward County. Under that is a tweet from 01/23/16 which announces the superlatives winners, as well as provides a recap of the senior breakfast.

Here is an announcement made on 12/10/16 about the cap and gown rentals for seniors. We felt it was best captured in a tweet instead of an article.

Under that is a tweet to recap the talent show in photos.

Here is a tweet announcing our updated advertising policies, partially in hopes to spread the word about ad space to interested businesses in Cooper City.

Under that is a funny teaser tweet that announces our upcoming print edition of the Lariat.

Here is our most popular string of tweets, where I live tweeted the press conference on the upcoming hurricane earlier this school year. We were the first school organization to announce that school had been closed after the Superintendent first announced it.

After the Florida voter registration deadline was extended due to Hurricane Matthew, we published and tweeted an editorial that spoke about the importance of youth voting.

Our audience

The Lariat aims to be a platform for student expression. As such, our primary audience is students. We discuss issues that are affecting the student body, be it local or national. We have realized that the best method by which to access students is through social media, hence why we rebranded our Twitter this year. Through posting articles that are most relevant to the students, we gain attention and readership. We try to post articles on the Twitter that involve students directly, particularly their accomplishments. Whether it's updates on sports games or congratulating students on their college acceptances, we know that students are likely to retweet an article with their name in it.

Our content does also reach parents and teachers, which we use to our advantage with our advertising strategy. Many companies may be hesitant to advertise to just students, but through the assurance that parents and teachers are also reading our content, many advertisers are more likely to place an ad.

Becoming marketable

The Lariat has not always been a popular newspaper. This year, however, we decided to make it so, through redesigning our image. By creating a professional yet interesting presence on social media, we attracted more followers. On top of that, the redesign of our website (see "Web") made our content more appealing both on mobile and desktop.

We also tried to instill a sense of pride in being a staff member. With Lariat polo shirts, we've been able to have a certain look to our newsroom. By mandating that we have photographers and staff writers present at all large events, we've also been able to create more of a presence in the school. This has been imperative for increasing our readership.

Another big step in our progress has been our collaboration with the broadcast organization and yearbook. Through sharing photos and covering the same events through different media, we've been able to produce a more uniform, recognizable journalism program as opposed to dispersed media outlets.

The Lariat can now be found in every classroom across campus. Some teachers choose to have students read it during down time, and we've gotten a lot of positive feedback on our product.