City of Morgan Hill Communications Assessment

allows the MHDA to submit event information for the City’s Event Calendar and, in the past, has given the MHDA free advertising space in the Recreation Activity Guide. Anecdotally, the MHDA Board Chair and MHDA Office Manager feel “word of mouth” is their most powerful communication tactic, followed by its Constant Contact newsletter, its Facebook Page and subsequent sharing of Posts, its website and search engine queries, then print publications. The Morgan Hill Life and Morgan Hill Times publications are reliable allies when it comes to sharing MHDA messaging; Board member Kathleen Sullivan has the ability to post one article per month in the Life. The MHDA also submits event information to the Life and Times for inclusion in their respective Event Calendars. The MHDA utilizes a combination of a website, social media, and Constant Contact emails to communicate with its 70 members (businesses) and its community that extends beyond the City and County. One part-time employee manages Communications for the MHDA with oversight from the MHDA Board Chair and MHDA Office Manager. The organization aims to send approximately one email per week to its Constant Contact database, which has over 4,275 unique subscribers; their Open Rate typically ranges from 29-35%. Their Facebook Page also has an impressive penetration rate among Morgan Hill residents. Out of its 3,607 total Facebook Page Fans, 1,757 identify as living in Morgan Hill: in other words, 48.7% of its Page Fans are residents. That ratio is very similar to the City’s own Facebook Page demographics where nearly 1,300 of its 2,550 fans identify as living in Morgan Hill (50.6%). The Downtown Association has been going through a number of Staff and Board member changes, which has stalled their Communications and social media presence. Morgan Hill Unified School District “The Morgan Hill Unified School District encompasses 296 square miles and serves the ethnically diverse population of Morgan Hill, San Martin, a small portion of south San Jose, and areas of Santa Clara County from Bernal Road in San Jose south to Church Street in San Martin. The Morgan Hill Unified School District serves approximately 8,700 students across 14 schools: 6 Elementary Schools (K-5), 2 Elementary/Middle School (K-8), 2 Middle Schools (6-8), 2 Comprehensive High Schools (9-12), 1 Continuation High School (10-12), and 1 Community Adult School.” 25 On average, approximately 40% of the District’s students are part of the reduced/free lunch program. During our on-site visit, Tripepi Smith met with Morgan Hill Unified School District’s Communications Coordinator, Kimberly Beare. Kimberly oversees all communications that come from the District, including Press Releases, media inquiries, social media sites, and the District’s Blackboard Connect direct messaging system. The District’s website’s monthly visitor count ranges from 22,000 to 100,000, depending on factors such as seasonality and the end of grading periods. The website is also the portal to the District’s Aeries grading system, which can account for a large portion of traffic. Google Translate has been enabled on the site, with easy options to translate the website into Spanish, Chinese, French and Arabic.

25 http://mhusd.org/about-mhusd

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