Social Media Campaign Proposals

Agnes Scott College Social Media Campaign Proposal

Commencement Ceremony 2019

By: Chasity Wingard 

Benchmark: 

I researched the top women colleges in the country, and then narrowed the selection down by choosing universities who had similar views as Agnes Scott. The two colleges I chose were Barnard College and Wellesley College.  I decided to take this route because both colleges have a similar audience, which is alumni, current, and prospective students. 

After analyzing the Barnard Instagram page, I found the page was similar to our page. Barnard’s Instagram receives the most interaction when reposting events. They did not run a specific commencement campaign last season, however they received a lot of engagement with their photos during the actual event. 

On Barnards Facebook, the college post, news related articles, and has an average of 2 shares between them. The most shares of 27, were received by posting a Birthday post of their founder. On Twitter, they post a lot of retweets, mentions of events, and post highlights of students. The site averages with 2 retweets with 14.1k followers. Each of their platforms provide community and information about the college. If they were to promote more interaction on the site, through hashtags and videos, they would have more engagement. 

Wellesley College has a nice Instagram, and is also similar to Agnes Scott. The college reaches some engagement during the daily basis. The college did not promote a commencement campaign on Instagram. The site encourages unity and tradition. The students are encouraged to post their journeys from freshman year. Also the page shows quotes from current students to show their impact at Wellesley College.

On the Twitter page, Wellesley College receives a lot of interaction. They interact with their followers by mentioning and retweeting. They also post interactive videos which gain a lot of likes. The main basis of the page is to tell what’s happening. Similar to their Twitter and Instagram, Wellesley College’s Facebook, promotes unity and tradition. The content between the Twitter and Facebook accounts are the same. However, both sites receive engagement. Posting throwbacks and promoting interactions were the basis of their content. 

The two colleges have a lot of similarity with Agnes Scott, as do other colleges around the country. Each college only post what they believe is interesting to their followers. Promoting unity, tradition, and interaction can bring a community together. Also creating a statetrigic campaign for events will set us apart from “competitors”. 

Summary:

The goal of the proposed social media marketing plan is to create awareness for our Agnes Scott 2019 Commencement Ceremony. I suggest running a campaign that encourages people to create written, video, or testimonials about Agnes Scott.  For the social media campaign, I propose using Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Each platform can continue to reach our broad audience. Each social channel should be approached strategically. The goal for each will remain the same, however how to reach our goal will be different. Utilizing specific hashtags on each social handle will increase awareness and increase engagement.

The potential audience for the campaign are Agnes Scott’s, alumni, current, and prospective students. Certain tactics, like running giveaways, hashtags, and encouraging interaction will improve the awareness of the 2019 Commencement program. To prove the campaign is working properly or needs adjustment, I suggest using analytics from the actual social channel. Scholars suggest understanding the algorithm for a social network will increase content engagement. The budget for the proposed campaign will include equipment, production talent, advertisements, and locations. 

Proposal: 

The main goal of the proposed campaign is to grow the awareness of the 2019 commencement ceremony. To complete this goal, four objectives should be taken in consideration. We need to increase awareness along with engagement, conversions, and retention rates. 

To increase awareness, the content should be focused on likes and shares. To fulfill that goal, I  propose posting giveaways and advertisements focused on the commencement. The main reasoning behind conducting a small giveaway will create a relationship between our followers and brand. To begin, we will need to discover a giveaway theme. The theme proposed for this social media campaign will be a mystery. During this giveaway, I propose we tell our followers to like our posts and leave comments to win a prize. This will be considered a short giveaway, so the prize can be small. 

To gain more awareness we need to increase engagement. Increasing comments, likes, and mentions will lead to more engagement. To encourage more interaction, the page should promote unity and tradition. This will encourage alumni and current students to reminisce. For example, an Agnes Scott tradition is the giving of the  sophomore ring. Many Scottie’s relate and are more likely to share something they can relate too.

I also propose driving others to the website to learn more about the commencement ceremony. This will give an idea of how important the ceremony is to our followers. To reach this goal, I propose using the hashtag #GuessScottiesSpeaker. Since Agnes Scott has not released the 2019 commencement speaker, followers will be asked to “Guess the Speaker”. Utilizing the hashtags #GuessScottiesSpeaker should encourage followers to see if they could guess the speaker correctly. This will bring awareness to the ceremony and increase engagement on social platforms. The advertisements that will be generated should be short commercials,  detailing the dates and times of the expected ceremony, and sending prospects to the main website. 

Lastly we want our current followers to keep coming back and checking for updates. A way to reach this goal is to use hashtags, like  the hashtag #WhyIBecameAScottie. This will connect the propose audience because their either an alumni, current or prospective student. Each will have their own experience to tell, and encourage to show unity. 

Social Channels: 

I propose we use Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter to gain the awareness of the ceremony. Instagram is used as a photo sharing application. It’s mostly known for their filters and square image formats. Now Instagram has Instagram story and is generating a lot of reach through advertisements. According to Pew Research, 42% of instagram's users are college graduates. Those followers have similar interests to our audience, because they have either graduated or plan to. 

Our current Instagram page promotes the Agnes Scott mission, traditions, and unity. The only proposed suggestion is to increase awareness so more people can see the content. According to Instagram, “What shows up first in your feed is determined by what posts and accounts you engage with the most, as well as other contributing factors such as the timeliness of posts, how often you use Instagram, how many people you follow, etc.” To improve our algorithm, I propose encouraging likes and comments from followers. 

The next application I suggest to use is Facebook.  Facebook is known as a powerful way to communicate with followers and potential followers. Tagging other alumni in photos and videos will increase engagement, since people in their community will see those images. Our Facebook is informational and promotes unity. Alumni of Agnes Scott interact the most between the facebook page. As stated for Instagram, I suggest encouraging participation though content. In 2018

Facebook announced their algorithm is centered around friends and family. This information let’s me know, similarly to Instagram, to increase awareness, more people will have to interact. Facebook hopes to disconnect from business spams and push towards a more friendlier environment. 

The last suggestion to promote the ceremony will be to post on Twitter. Twitter is used primarily to tell “what’s happening”. Agnes Scott’s Twitter currently has engagement and we should increase it during the campaign. I propose to continue to promote unity and tradition. Like Facebook and Instagram, Twitter wants to show what they believe the user would like to see. On twitter, keywords and hashtags will be important to use to increase engagement.

To ensure the proposed campaign will be effective I suggest testing throughout the launch. So Instead of using A/B testing with Facebook's advertisements, posting for two weeks and see the changes of reach will give an idea of how followers feel about our content. After seeing the success of each proposed idea, we will know how to incorporate the ideas for the remainder length of the campaign. 

Metrics:

The metrics we will be studying are awareness, engagement, conversions, and audience retention rate. Facebook analytics allows marketers to understand why people are taking action and understanding our demographics. According to Facebook, the features include “funnels to measure cohorts to measure behavior over time, and demographics and segments to better understand particular audience”. (2018)

Understanding these analytics will allow us to know what we’re doing wrong and how we can change the outcome.

Since Facebook has bought Instagram some of the analytics features are the same. Some features you can checkout are impressions, interactions, reach, profile visit , 

and mentions. Instagram analytics will tell us if we’re gaining interaction with our target audience. Also checking out how people react to our content will tell us if we should continue using it. Overall, Instagram analytics is an effective way to see if our content is reaching our audience. 

According to Twitter, “Twitter’s analytics help you understand how the content you share on Twitter grows your business.”  Pertaining this campaign, we will understand our followers, and know how to build awareness. On Twitter you can start a campaign and track your results. Other features include, online conversion tracking, and tips on creating better tweets. Knowing how to use each system is just as important as understanding the demographic. 

For another review of our metrics, I suggest we follow marketing company Hubspot’s guide. 

Use the formula: Post interactions ÷ total follower count ✕ 100 to track engagement. 

The example by HUBspot: 

“Let’s say you have 2,000 followers, and your latest post got 300 likes, 50 saves, 10 comments, and 18 shares—378 engagements total.” (2018)

Ultimately, We want to combine the post interactions by dividing that number by the total number of followers, then we multiply by 100 to track our engagement. 

Grow Awareness of Graduation Increase Followers & Shares Awareness: Giveaways, Promotional Advertisements Increase interaction Increase comments, likes, and mentions . Engagement: Posting Unity & Tradition, Reposting of interactions. #tagafriendDrive graduation attendeesIncrease Website and emails  Conversions: Promote information of the graduation, form a mystery about who the speaker will be, promoting to visit the website. #GuessScottiesSpeaker Improve profile view/ Retention RateConsumer: College testimonials promoting through social hashtags. #WhyIBecameAScottieSuccess of Metrics: Facebook, Instagram, & Twitter Analytics. 

Data:

• Giveaways 

I propose doing giveaways on Instagram and Twitter. Giveaways will connect with our demographic by creating relationships . Social media Examiner journalist, Jen Herman, said “contests are a great way to grow your audience and expand your reach on Instagram.” She also notes that using “tag a friend” in comments will promote more engagement. As stated, the Instagram will use the #GuessTheSpeaker hashtag. People will be able to produce their own opinion on who the next Agnes Scott speaker will be. To win, participants will need to tag their friends and receive the most likes on their post. The give away will begin two weeks after the start of the campaign. The giveaway will end when Agnes Scott announces the speaker. The prize of the campaign could be an Agnes Scott T-Shirt. To evaluate the campaign, I suggest looking at the metrics.

• Posting Photos/Videos 

According to the marketing company Crello, humans grasps images and meanings quickly. Posting Agnes Scott tradition and community will create a memorable moment. In 2015, to receive 2.3 times more engagement, we would need to only need to create memorable photos. Today, Social Media Examiner suggest videos can create more engagement. Connecting our community through the hashtags #WhyIbecameAScottie will join the community to share their stories and open an opportunity for networking between colleagues. (2019)

Budget: 

Equipment: Price: Schools Camera Camera to take pictures of the events pertaining to traditions and unity. Locations:. Price: Onsite EventsVisiting Events Advertisements: Price: $50Creating more engagement for the social media platform. Production Talent: Price: $20 Hourly Wage each. Content Writer, Photographer, Editor, and content designer. 

Proposed Posting Timeline:

Dates: Twitter:Instagram: Facebook: Links:4-1-2019Create Give Away Flyer Create Commencement flyers Create flyer on instructions on how to use #WhyIBecameAScottie4-2-2019Post Flyer of detailed commencement 4-3-20194-4-2019Post Give Away Flyer Post Unity and Tradition PostPost Flyer of #WhyI becameA Scottie4-5-2019Post Give away Post Giveaway #ad4-6-2019post Unity & tradition post GiveawayPost Flyer of #Why I became A Scottie4-7-2019Post Past commencement EventPost Students Participating #ad 4-8-2019Retweet Post people suggest on giveawayPost Flyer of #Why I became A ScottiePost Flyer of #Why I became A Scottie4-9-2019Commencement Flyer #Ad4-10-20194-11-2019Unity & Tradition Post Post Past EventPost Commercial4-12-2019Giveaway Giveaway EVALUATE CONTENT 

After evaluating content,  adjust the time and day of when posting content. Pay attention to what content is creating the most engagement and generate that content into advertisements through the platforms.  Plan to create content weeks ahead so production talent will have time to create content. Creating a story within every post will engage our audience, so that should be the goal when creating content. Don’t forget to interact with our followers by retweeting, liking, and sharing things that are similar to the mission of Agnes Scott College. Each design should be consistent with the original tone of the page, so followers are not confused. 

Citations:

Get Started.” Facebook Analytics: Drive Growth to Web, Mobile & More, analytics.facebook.com/get-started/Facebook#fq.

Herman, Jenn. “How to Do an Instagram Giveaway: Ideas and Tips.” Social Media Examiner Main Page,www.socialmediaexaminer.com/instagram-giveaway-ideas-tips/.

“How to Use Twitter Analytics.” Twitter, Twitter, business.twitter.com/en/analytics.html.

Lore, Jordan. “How to Run An Instagram Giveaway: 5-Step Guide.” Wishpond, Wishpond, 14 Feb. 2017, blog.wishpond.com/post/115675437116/how-to-run-an-instagram-giveaway

Shleyner, Eddie. “19 Social Media Metrics That Really Matter-And How to Track Them.” Hootsuite Social Media Management, 16 Oct. 2018, blog.hootsuite.com/social-media-metrics/

“Who Uses Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn and Twitter.” Pew Research Center: Internet, Science & Tech, Pew Research Center: Internet, Science & Tech, 11 Jan. 2017, www.pewinternet.org/chart/who-uses-facebook-instagram-linkedin-and-twitter/.

Medium – a Place to Read and Write Big Ideas and Important Stories, 

link.medium.com/Ja5FmeKSIU.