Platform Magazine Marketing Report

Table of Contents
Table of Contents.........................................................pg 2
Overview ..................................................................pg 3
Understan 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 17
Conclusion ...............................................................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.
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.
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
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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
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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
theRoad”and“SpanningSocialMedia.”
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)
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and second highest percentage of new
visits (77.39 percent).
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.
receiveditslowestamountofvisits(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.
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
FollowsFacebook’sAdLead”and“Three
Tips to Avoid Twitter Controversies.” The
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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.
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.
10

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 Research
Summary
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 Media
In 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 Reach
In 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 Reach
The 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 Facebook
This 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.
14

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 Breakdown
During 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.
15

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 Pinterest
The 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 Breakdown
Platform’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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