Marketing and audience engagement

There are a lot of initiatives the Bark could take in regards to marketing, but in terms of reaching our student demographic, we need to double down on our social media efforts. For reference, Redwood Bark's social media account has about 1500 followers. And while this is a good amount, some individual Barkies have more than 1500 followers individually. Hence, I think emphasizing for Barkies to repost and highlight Bark's posts and stories would help our content reach more viewers. 

Moreover, the implementation of tiktok could prove to be invaluable. Majority of Redwood students have tiktok, or have instagram which often recycles tiktok reels, so this makes it a great medium for the Bark to share news. Posting on tiktok could be a simple requirement, like a snapshot or a 24 hr. Students could post reels, game highlights or any other types of digital journalism. Tiktok posting is also more intuitive and friendly than filming a full-length video for a typical Bark story; hence, it may prove a lot more approachable for newer Barkies/nonfiction students and help them get introduced to digitized visual  forms of journalism.

Unfortunately, the general trend of people, and students in particular, is gravitating towards shorter attention spans and an increased need for stimulation. And while traditional news outlets might view this as a challenge, for the Bark, this is an opportunity to capitalize on. The world is changing, and thus, so should our coverage. Fortuitously for us, our demographic is young people who are coming into Bark with firsthand knowledge of how to operate and navigate social media platforms.