Platform Magazine Marketing Report

Platformmagazine

Table of ContentsTable of Contents ........................................................pg 2Overview .................................................................pg 3Understan ding Our Audience ..................................pg 4 Monthly Google Analytics .........................................................pg 4

Platform Magazine Overall Analytics .......................................pg 9

Professor Research .....................................................................pg 11

Future of Understanding the Target Audience .......................pg13

Social Media ..............................................................pg 13 Facebook ....................................................................................pg 13

Twitter ..........................................................................................pg 15

Pinterest .......................................................................................pg 15

Fundraiser ...............................................................pg 17Conclusion ..............................................................pg 18

Overview The Spring 2014 Platform Magazine marketing team dedicated the entire

semester to understanding how to effectively communicate Platform’s content and

message to its target audience. Also, the team was tasked to host events to help

ensure Platform’s financial situation for the semester and, hopefully, the semester

following. To ensure the success of its vision, the marketing team created three goals

to accomplish by the end of the semester:

Goals To increase the understanding of

Platform Magazine’s target audience

To better utilize Platform

Magazine’s social media presence To raise funds for

Platform Magazine

The 2014 Spring Platform Magazine Marketing Report was created to

understand how the team accomplished these goals and ultimately how Platform

Magazine will continue with this team’s efforts.

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Understanding Our Audience In order to understand out audience, the marketing team looked into the

consumers website habits and conducted primary research. This section will go in

details about monthly Google analytics from the Platform Magazine website, the

website’s overall analytics, the marketing team’s primary research with The University

of Alabama professors, and how future marketing teams can ensure the growth of

this understanding.

Montly Google Analytics

December 2013 During the week of Dec. 1 to Dec.

7, 2013, the Platform website received

a normal amount of visits (1,499), even

during finals week. Pageviews, on the

other hand, was very high at 19,439 –

12,000 more than the week before. The

articles “Communicating Obamacare”

and “The Life of a Never Ending Intern”

were published on December 2nd and

received nine click-throughs via Twitter.

During the week of Dec. 8 to Dec.


a number of regular visits (1,556), a

decline from last week. Pageviews also

remained high, most likely because of

students reviewing for finals through the

AP Style Quizzes offered by Platform

Magazine. Also, the #RockTheFirm series

spotlight on Anderson University’s Fifth

Street Communications reached six

times the amount of people via Twitter.

During the week of Dec. 15 to Dec.


a good ratio of unique visitors (835) to

regular visits (968) at 86 percent unique.

The bounce rate this week was high at

1.24 percent. The blog during this week

called “Don’t Kick the Kicker When He’s

Down” may have led to the statistics.

During the week of Dec. 22 to

Dec. 28, 2013, the Platform website visits

decreased to 475, but that would be

expected without any new posts during

the winter break. Pageviews dropped

drastically from 13,228 to 2,931. The site

witnessed low amounts of unique visitors

(1,499) compared to the other weeks in

the semester due to winter break and

finals week. The site also experienced

the second lowest amount of pageviews

(16,421) and visits (1,253). However,

the site only published two new blogs

and no articles. The blogs were “Spam

and Its Effectiveness (or Lack Thereof)”

and “Airplane Ads to the Ad-Weary

Americans?” The lack of published

articles may have caused the month’s

low numbers.

January 2014 During the week of Dec. 29,

2013, to Jan. 4, 2014, the Platform

website received its highest amount of

visits (1,535) but the lowest page views

(4,047) and percentage of new visits to 4

the site (79.63 percent). However, there

was only one blog post during this week.

It was “Rob Ford’s PR Nightmare,” of

which did not witness a lot of individual

visits. The lack of articles or more blogs

along with the New Year holiday and

school being out may have contributed

to the month’s lowest analytics.

During the week of Jan. to Jan. 11,

2014, the Platform website received it

lowest amount of visits (1,075) compared

to other weeks in January. There were

two articles published this week. One

was an industry article, “DiamondPR

is Destination’s Best Friend,” and the

second was a trend article, “Making

the Switch.” The amount of pageviews

(11,231) increased a lot this week in

comparison to the first week of January.

However that was decrease in the

percentage of new visits (77.77 percent).

During the week of Jan. 12 to Jan.


1,228 visits, which was an increase from

the week before. Platform published

three blogs this week: “Golden Global

Perception,” “How to Engage Millenials,

From Ruzzle to QuizUp,” and “Twitter

Response Matter.” The amount of page

views (12,671) and percentage of

new visits (78.83 percent) were a slight

increase from the previous week.

During the week of Jan. 19 to Jan.


1,252 visits, 13,092 page views, and

76.68 percentage of new visits. These

statistics were all less than those of the

previous weeks, but that is most likely

due to only one article being published

during this week. The article published

was, “Marshawn Lynch vs. NFL and the

Media.”

During the week of Jan. 26 to Feb.


it’s second highest amount of visits

(1,433), and the month’s highest amount

of page views (15,313) compared to

the other weeks in January. This was a

little shocking since there were only two

blogs and one article published during

this week. The two blogs published

were “Post-Graduation: What in the

World Comes Next?” and “The Grammy

Revolution.” The article published

during this week was “Pam Edstrom: A

Passionate Risk-Taker” may have led

to the high numbers since it was about

Waggener Edstrom’s co-founder, Pam

Edstrom. This week’s multiple posts as

well as the variety of topics may have

lead to the month’s highest overall

statistics.

February 2014 During the week of Feb. 1 to Feb.

7, 2014, the Platform website witnessed

its highest amount of visits, unique visitors

and pageviews during the month of

February. During this first week of the

month, the website received 1,809

visits, 1,523 unique visitors and 24,103

pageviews. The second most publishing

took place this week with three blog

posts and two articles. The three blog

posts included “#BrandBowl, “Just a

Table for Two” and “Candy Hearts and 5

Pink Corks.” Articles published this week

were “Communication Graduates

Prosper in Teach For America” and

“Branding Lessons From a License Plate.”

The high numbers across the board in

visits, unique visitors and pageviews are

a result of the high density of posts and

captivating content. However, this week

experienced the lowest number of new

visitors (74.8 percent) during the month

of February.

The week of Feb. 8 to Feb. 14, 2014

ranked second in the highest amount

of visits (1,788), unique visitors (1,515)

and pageviews (20,675) for the month

of February. Two blogs were published,

including “J.C. Penney’s Tweeting With

Mittens — Dazzling or Daft?” by San

Diego State guest Contributor, Dustin

Winn. It is possible that the publication of

a guest blog brought additional traffic

to the website. However, this week

ranked third out of four weeks in new

visitors (75.2 percent). Articles published

this week were “Recapturing the Law

School Audience” and “Betsy Stories

Are Legendary,” both of which had high

views.

The week of Feb. 15 to Feb. 21,

2014 brought in the least amount of

visits (1,575), unique visitors (1,340) and

pageviews (13,072) during the month.

There was only one blog posted and

two articles. The articles published were

“Fast-Casual Dining” and “Partnership

With a Purpose.” With only three total

publications for the week, it makes sense

that this week received the least amount

of views. However, this week ranked

second in the highest percentage of

new visitors (75.4 percent).

During the week of Feb. 22 to Feb.

28, 2014, the Platform website published

the most content, yet ranked third in

visits (1,607), unique visitors (1,370) and

pageviews (16,537). Three blogs and

three articles were published during this

week. Articles published were “Women

Entrepreneurs Talk Public Relations and

Marketing,” “Out Of the Classroom, On

the Road” and “Spanning Social Media.”

This week had the highest percentage

of new visitors (77.4 percent), at least

two percent higher than the previous

three weeks of the month. Morgan

Daniels’ “Spanning Social Media” was

re-tweeted eight times and favorited

by 13 people on Twitter alone. It is likely

that this article about the well-known

James Spann brought in new visitors to

the Platform Website.

March 2014 During the week of March 2 to

March 8, 2014, the Platform website

received a rather normal amount of visits

(1,579) and page views (13,033). There

were four blogs published: “Claiming

Mardi Gras,” “The Texas Brand,” “Chick-

fil-A: 45 Years and Counting” and “Photos

Worth a Thousand Lives.” There was one

article published: “Patience Salgado

—Living Out Creative Kindness.” The

variety of content and topics may have

been the reason this week had the

highest amount of unique visits (1,369) 6

and second highest percentage of new

visits (77.39 percent).

During the week of March 9 to


published five articles: “Global Firms

Reap Benefits Multilingual Employees,”

“Butter Doesn’t Always Make It Better,”

“Small Town, Big Money,” “Top Five

Reasons to Know About The Plank

Center” and “A+ for Average;” and

one blog: “Upholding Free Speech

at Rutgers.” This amount of content

published resulted in 1,561 visits and

15,406 page views. This week received

the highest amount of pages per visit

(9.87). This specific statistic is likely due

to the amount of content published,

which is the highest amount of articles

and blogs published in one week for the

site thus far.



received its lowest amount of visits (1,397)

and page views (10,446) for the month.

It received the lowest percentage

of new visits (76.88 percent) as well.

Despite these statistics, three blogs and

two articles were published. The articles

published this week were “Signs of

Success” and “A Brand Linking PR and

Passion.” The blogs published were “Why

Cats Need Better PR,” “Boozin’’ to a Bad

Reputation” and “Betsy’s Life Through a

Lens.”


the end of the month, March 31, 2014,

the Platform website received it’s most

amount of visits (1,801), roughly 300 more

than the other weeks average visits.

There were no posts this week because

of Spring Break. On the following week,

the last day of March, there was one

blog “Tesla Talks Back” published. In

these weeks combined, there were

16,324 pages views and 82.07 percent

of new visits; both of which were the

highest for the month of March.

April 2014 During the week of April 1 to April

8, 2014, Platform received a total of

2,003 visits and 15,083 pages views. There

were three articles published: “Content

Marketing: An Umbrella of Tactics”,

“Rick Loosier: Stories Worth Telling” and

“Raising the Bar”. There were three

blogs: “No Nice Southern Girl Should be

Involved with Public Relations,” “FiLIP or

Flop?” and “Taco Bell Clowns Around

with the McDonalds.” This week we had

79.82 percent of new readers. Many of

these views came from the Rick Looser

piece.

During the week of April 9 to April


2,265 visits and had 17,614 page views.

Again, we have seen an increase in both

numbers since the following week. The

two articles published were: “Discerning

Credible News Sources” and “MWW,

Ethisphere Institute Partner to Promote

Ethical Practices.” There were four blogs

this week: “Comcast Comes in Last,

Again,” “Angelic Branding,” “Twitter

Follows Facebook’s Ad Lead” and “Three

Tips to Avoid Twitter Controversies.” The 7

Twitter blogs seemed to keep readers

interested this week. Social media is

always making improvements and

it is important that we keep up with

these developments. There were 81.80

percent of new readers this week.

During the week of April 17 to April


1,121 visits and 11,426 page views. These

numbers are not based off the complete

week since the semester ended;

therefore, it is a lower amount than

usual. There were three articles so far this

week: “Public Relations as an Art Form:

Anthony Mora’s Story,” “Honeymaid:

Haters Gonna Hate,” and “To Work or

Not to Work.” The two blogs from this

week were: “Southwest Airlines Flies with

DISH” and “Commute-Case: Innovation

That Transforms.” The percentage of

new page visits is currently at (78.08

percent). These numbers are subject to

change as the week progresses.

Conclusion After looking at this data, there were a few trends that we see. First, it is great

to note that more content does not equal more traffic (ex. Feb. 22-28 and March 16-

22). In those two weeks, the team noticed that more than five posts were launched

but had the lowest views and visits for the month.

Another takeaway is that the best weeks of performance were of Feb. 1 to

Feb. 14, 2014. During these dates, Platform witnessed its highest pageviews and

visits. This may have been due to the fact that during these weeks, current event

blogs and articles were being published, a good portion being revolved around the

Super Bowl. Furthermore, the month of February did witness the highest social media

interaction (see Social Media, pg 13).

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Platform Magazine Overall Analytics

Vistor Flow The graphic above represents the visitor flow from Jan. 1 to April 22, 2014.

It shows us the number of visitors from the top five countries visiting the Platform

Magazine website. From there, it breaks down the sections in which the visitors view

first and so forth. Each box represents a grouping of links that have accumulated

a number of visitors. The most popular landing page is the AP Style Quizzes. The

second biggest group is not what the team expected. The second biggest landing

pages are articles published from 2009 to 2010. The biggest article in this group was

“Food Fight: Quiznos versus Subway” published in Spring 2008. The more impressive

statistic on this chart marks that one of the biggest traffic driver for the website

is one link alone. This one link has its own group, which is unusual. The blog title is

“The Importance of Accepting Diversity Within the Workplace” by Leighton Brown in

Fall 2012. The biggest driver of traffic from this semester’s content was “Rick Looser:

Stories Worth Telling” by Molly Moore.

The cause of these phenomena might have been due to two reasons. First

being that since it has been around longer, the SEO for each article might have

been more developed thus driving traffic to the website. The second being that it is

an older article; therefore, the chances of people reading it increases.

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Top Key Words The picture on the right represents

the top 10 key words used to find the

Platform Magazine website. (For this

section, the team has disregarded the

“(not provided)” statistic since it is not

providing any data.) There has been an

improvement since the Fall 2013 Marketing

Report that should be noted. Last year,

the biggest key word driving traffic to the

website was “ap style quiz;” however, this

year, the biggest driver to the website is

“platform magazine” and “ap style quiz”

coming in second, thus showing that

the readers are mostly coming to the

site because they are wanting to inquire

more about the magazine. The third highest keyword is “skittles,” which is most likely

caused by the blog “Skittles’ Catch 22” published in Spring 2012. The next notable

key term is “xxxi honor society,” which is a prestigious women-only honor society at

The University of Alabama. This is most likely caused by the high inquiry of students

searching to learn more about the organization. Several past Platform Magazine

alumni put the society in their bios.

It is also worth noting that Leighton Brown’s blog “Importance of Diversity in

the Workplace” is still driving traffic to the website. Finally, a good note to end this

section, readers are coming to the website by the keyword “international public

relations definition” thus showing the potential rise of credibility of Platform Magazine

in the industry.

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Traffic The picture on the right represents

the links that have generated the most

traffic for the website. The first being a

Google search and second being a

direct input of the Platform Magazine

website. The third highest link is Twitter,

which is worth noting. This reveals that

Twitter is the main social media platform

that Platform Magazine should focus

on. The next social media platform and

major traffic driver is Facebook then

Facebook mobile. Since mobile usage is

a key player in traffic, Platform Magazine

should consider adapting a mobile

version of the website as well.

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Professor ResearchSummary For the Spring 2014 Semester, the marketing teams decided to begin primary

research on more ways Platform Online Magazine can reach public relations

educators and professionals. The marketing team conducted 12 interviews with

various public relations/advertising professors in the College of Communiciation

and Information Sciences at The University of Alabama as the initial start to finding

more ways Platform Online Magazine can reach public relations educators and

professionals. The following were the suggested questions for the interviews.

1. Do you use online articles during your lessons for your students? How else do you use online articles?

2. What makes for a “teachable” article? 3. What online publications do you read/utilize the most? 4. Would you ever consider Platform Magazine when you’re looking for the

most current news? Why or why not? 5. What could Platform Magazine do to benefit educators more

However, many members of the Marketing Team noted asking further

questions or rewording them due to the flow of the interview.

Evaluation After the interview process was completed, the marketing team composed

a summary of results, which are the following.

Question 1: Do you use Platform Magazine during your lessons for your students? The majority of answers were “no”.

The professors did not use articles

from Platform Magazine for their class

lessons. However, all responses but one

noted that they did mention Platform

Magazine to their students during the

course of the semester.

Question 2: What makes for a “teachable” article? The most consistent answer for this

question was that teachable articles

were those that took current event

situations and issues and had input from

a professional or leader in the profession.

Dr. Lewis also discusses how organization

is key when finding an article.

Question 3: What online publications do you read?Most responses discussed how they

checked Ad Age, PRWeek, NY Times

and scholarly journals.

Question 4: Would you ever consider Platform Magazine when looking for current events? Professors said that Platform is not a site

they use to look for when looking for

current news; however, most did reveal

that the reason is because of the lack of

communication. They are just not being

notified of new articles that involve

current events.

Question 5: What could Platform Magazine do to benefit educators more? Most professors agree that more articles

about best practices and such would be

beneficial to educators. Also, potentially

create a section to highlight resources

for students.

Conclusion In the end, professors mostly want to see leadership opinions on current events

and best practices for the industry. Future Platform writers should consider writing

more current event articles. Also, the team must begin to promote new Platform

content through a subscription button or a weekly email blast. Most professors see

the potential of Platform Magazine, but communication is key to getting Platform’s

message across educators.12

Social MediaIn this section, the report will go into an in-depth discussion on the Facebook

analytics. From the post reach to overall reach and even an in-depth view

of the best time to post on Facebook.

Future of Understanding the Target Audience This year’s marketing team only scratched the surface of understanding the

target audience. To further understand this target audience, it is highly suggested

that future Platform Magazine teams continue on with this primary research and

begin reaching out to professors outside of The University of Alabama. It is also

suggested that a similar research plan should be conducted for the student body.

Also, when it comes to content, it is suggested that Platform editors be wary

of what articles and blogs are receiving views. If it is not receiving much interaction,

the topic should be strayed; therefore, more articles of better audience interest can

use up the limited slots of articles and blogs published per semester.

Facebook Post ReachIn this chart, it reveals that posts in the month of April were the most receptive of

any other posts. This is due to the increase usage of Facebook throughout the

semester. In the beginning of the semester, the Facebook fan page was not the

only active Platform Magazine page. After taking the other page down, there is a

surge of the posts reach on the Facebook page.

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Facebook Total ReachThe difference between this set of data and the last is that this one is the overall

reach of any Facebook activity including posts, posts by others, events and so

forth. The highest reach was in the last part of February. This is most likely due to

the Bear Trap fundraiser hosted in the end of February. The primary promotion of

the event was Facebook.

When to Post on FacebookThis data breaks down the best time of the week to post in order the get attention

of the target audience. This valuable set of data reveals that the best time to post

is around 1 pm on Sunday ,Thursday and Friday; and 3 pm on Saturday.

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In this section, the report will go into an in-depth discussion on Twitter

analytics. The goal of twitter was to understand how to reach to the target

audience. The conclusion is that Twitter should become more interactive

with the target audience. Tweets should be more of a variety and past

successful posts such as Leighton Brown’s blog should be repromoted to drive traffic

back to Platform Magazine.

Twitter BreakdownDuring the month of January, the Platform Magazine twitter handle tweeted 19

times, had 28 retweets, five favorites, and one reply. This is an average of 1.79

interactions per tweet.

During the month of February, Platform tweeted 35 times and had 27 favorites, 73

retweets and eight replies. That is an average of 3.09 interactions per tweet.

During the month of March, the Platform Magazine twitter handle tweeted 32 times,

had 48 retweets, 29 favorites, and four replies. This is an average of 2.53 interactions

per tweet.

So far this April, Platform has tweeted 34 times with 19 favorites, 35 retweets and

three replies. This is an average of 1.68 interactions per tweet.

In this section, the report will go into a discussion of its newest venture in

social media, Pinterest. This report will go into a summary of the Pinterest

strategy, results and analytical breakdown.

Pinterest Summary In fall 2013, Platform Magazine’s Pinterest page saw a complete overhaul,

with the addition of several new boards better tailored to reach the desired target

audience. These new boards included: All Things Social, Career Paths, Design

Time, Inspiring Words, PR Writing, In the Know, Our Industry and Dressing to Impress.

However, three of these boards were still “secret boards”, which means the board

is unseen by other users until it is ready. Once the board has a substantial amount

of pins and an accurate, interesting description, it is converted from a secret board

to a normal board. This spring, the initial work on three of these secret boards was

completed, and the boards were made public.

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In addition to the completion of three existing boards, one new board was

created: Work Life. The Work Life board has potential to be a miscellaneous board

for any pin relating to professional life that does not fit in another category. This also

presents an opportunity to pin recipes for food, which is a Pinterest staple. While this

board is a challenging one to find content for, it has much potential to be relevant

to the audience on Pinterest.

This semester, the Pinterest was also linked to Platform’s Facebook page.

When pinning a new pin, there is the option to also post the pin to Facebook. This

presents an opportunity to create interaction with Platform’s Facebook fans, but

only outstanding pins should be pinned occasionally.

Future of PinterestThe Pinterest is well on its way to becoming a vibrant part of the Platform Magazine

brand. The next design team can do several things to continue this precedent:

• Create interaction with other pinners by commenting on and repinning their

pins

• Continue growing the number of pins by consistently pinning throughout the

semester

• Link to the Pinterest via other forms of social media under the Platform name

• Write blogs pointing to the Pinterest page

• Create new boards, such as a crisis board or current events board

Pinterest BreakdownPlatform’s Pinterest now has 88 followers, 11 board and 284 pins. See the chart below

for a detailed breakdown of the number of pins for each individual board.

• All Things Social, 61 Pins

• Career Paths, 22 Pins

• Design Time, 25 Pins

• Inspiring Words, 31 Pins

• PR Writing, 28 Pins

• In the Known, 30 Pins

• Our Industry, 24 Pins

• Designing to Impress, 29 Pins

• Platform’s Own, 7 Pins

• Getting the Job, 18 Pins

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Fundraiser

When the marketing team first met, the team decided that the best fundraiser to

have was a bar night. This year, the team hosted its fundraiser at the Bear Trap.

This bar was chosen over others due to its proximity to campus and its offered

deal proposed to the team.

First, the fundraiser is located in the Bear Trap, which is located on the strip

on top of Buffalo Phil’s. The proximity of the location made it very ideal for several

students to attend the event. The second reason why the team chose this venue

was because of the deal. The Bear Trap offered to have us sell red solo cups at

the front door where participants could get $1 refills if they paid for a $5 cup. All

proceeds went to Platform Magazine. With that, the team raised over $300.

Summary

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Conclusion The Spring 2014 Marketing Team found some interesting information to

continue on to the future. From the breakdown of which content attracts the best

viewers to when to post on Facebook, the Spring 2014 Marketing Report has it all.

After collecting all of this data, the team has a few suggestions for future Platform

members:

• More content does not mean more traffic. Find what content the target audience wants to read.

• Revisit old articles and blogs that are still successful to this day. It will increase traffic.

• Learn more about target audience by doing primary research. Extend the research to faculty outside of The University of Alabama, and extend the research to students.

• Generate more content regarding best practices, current events and professional opinions to attract educators.

• Post on social media between noon and 3 pm. • Do more than one fundraiser to increase funds.

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Documents

Platform Magazine Marketing Report