Social Media Strategy

with Executive Summary

for

Gonzaga University
English Department

Chris Kirn, Zack Rosse

Brooke Smith, Mac Wiper

May 11, 2017

Dr. Chase Bollig

Table of Contents

Executive
Summary......................................................................................................................
...................................................2

Introduction..................................................................................................................
......................................................................5

Social Media
Objectives....................................................................................................................
..............................................6

Benchmarks.................................................................................................................
.......................................................................7

Target
Audience......................................................................................................................
..........................................................8

Guidelines for
Content........................................................................................................................
............................................9

Guidelines for
Timing..........................................................................................................................
.........................................12

Recommendations for Evaluating Social Media

Performance..................................................................................13
Executive Summary

The Gonzaga University English Departments (GUEDs) social media and

website presence is severely lacking in up-to-date, relatable content, making it
extremely unreliable. For the GUED to be successful in alerting students about
important upcoming events and activities, it needs to become an active member on
Facebook. Facebook is widely used and easy to manage, making it the perfect basis
from which to grow a social media presence. This will make it far easier for the
department to reach the masses of the Gonzaga Community and will encourage
current and potential English students to be involved in on-campus activities and
courses.

The objectives are simple: The GUED should always convey up-to-date, clear,
and relevant information about upcoming events and deadlines online, and should
engage students and community members of all backgrounds. Once these
objectives are implemented, the department's audience should expand beyond its
current size. The goals addressed here for the social media presence should
constantly align with the goals of the department, ensuring reliability and constant
up-to-date information.

Content posted for the GUED should always fall into two categories:
informative and interesting. Informative posts are those that consists of important
information like event places/dates and times, deadlines, requirements, as well as
other crucial information. The most critical information should be posted on the
GUEDs website, and all other relevant information can be found through a hyperlink
to the English Department's Facebook page or event page. Events hosted by the
English Department should always have individual event pages so users can easily
find important details, as well as to promote interactivity. To ensure the greatest
possible organization strategy, the GUEDs web page link should be also be clearly
pinned at the top of the Facebook page.

Interesting posts should not be pinned, since they lapse as time passes, but
users can always scroll through the page to access the posts. These interesting
posts should be things that English majors and those pursuing English can relate
to, e.g. photos from past events, bios of students/alumni and community members
in the area as well as their works and achievements, articles, memes, videos, and
current events on campus. These types of posts are interactive and encourage
students to attend more English Department events.

When posting on social media, GUED should only post when there is
something to say. Never post content that is irrelevant, uninteresting, or out-of-date.
The right amount of posts is key, since posting too often can lead people to see the
GUED page as a nuisance, but insufficient posting may lead people to unfollow.
Event attendance is a great way to evaluate the success of posts on the Facebook
page.

Ideally, the GUED should host a live event once a month, to keep people
involved with each other. If this isnt possible, then another option would be to host
online events, which should be posted in the same way as real events. All events
should be posted at least 1-2 weeks prior to the event to ensure an adequate period
to market the event. If an event is posted earlier than this, GUED should post of the
page to regularly remind attendees that the event is coming up.

To evaluate the success of the Facebook page, the GUED should refer back to
the goals to be informative and interesting in order to produce higher attendance at
events. Using a public page on Facebook allows for full set of actionable data, such
as reach, engagement, clicks, and reactions to paint clear trends within the
department page. Though insight data offers a lot of information, its not the only
hard metric to look to. Since one of the primary purposes of the GUED page is to
promote and record events, a simple place to look for success of these events is
attendance. Pairing the insight data with overall attendance can help reveal what
posting styles or combinations word best to yield a high attendance rate.

For the GUED, target markets include current students, prospective students,
and Gonzaga faculty and alumnia great depth to reach with an online presence.
GUEDs social media presence is primarily meant to be an informative resource
while promoting department activities at large. Though community members and
prospective students want as much information as possible, current students want
the bottom line of information. A solution for this problem is to post a bottom line of
information on the GUED website, which can be found through search engines, and
hyperlink to the Facbeook page. The Facebook page should be very diverse to serve
a multitude of interests such as student/alumni/facility work, news stories, Poet
Laureate introductions, blog links, and community culture content.

Representing the Gonzaga English Department, we must always be aware of

who we are communicating with and what they expect from us. We must always
present ourselves in an intelligent, coherent, and intentional form to communicate
clearly. With prospective students and involved community members, we should
engage on a personal level, and show off as much as we can. At the same time,
GUED should communicate with students/colleagues as subscribed customers to
serve important information in a professional yet fun way.
Introduction

The GUEDs current online media presence is severely lacking/nonexistent.

The information found on the departments website, a subpage within the
universitys main site, is often outdated and too static to be considered reliable.
Events are listed without a year, and are long expired. Analysis of the
departments audience found some students would rather see posters on campus
than attempt to use the website to find current information; we need to change
that.

The department will need to keep their website updated as well as be an

active member in social media communities, primarily Facebook, to have a
successful online presence. Facebook will serve as a strong basis to begin a social
media campaign due to its large user base and ability to be managed. While
Instagram and Twitter are also viable options, Facebook will be easier for a single
person to manage and can be used as a hub for later forays into other platforms. It
will be far easier for the department to reach the masses of the Gonzaga
community with the implementation of a successful social media strategy. Doing so
will provide a powerful outlet to convey information and appeal to the personal
interests of students, ultimately getting them more involved on campus and with
the GUED.

In the digital world there are many options to adapt to very particular
markets. Even within the GUED, we must be aware of who we are communicating
with and what they expect to see from us. Starting at the brand level we must
present ourselves as intelligent, coherent, intentional to communicate clearly. From
there, we look at market expectations. With prospective students and fans, we
should engage on a personal level, and show off as much as we can. But while
communicating with students/colleagues we must consider them as subscribed
customers to whom we serve information.
Social Media Objectives

The ultimate goal of the GUED is to have more involved majors and minors. To
achieve this, the social media presence of the Gonzaga English Department should:

Convey up-to-date, clear, relevant information about upcoming events and

deadlines.

Engage students and community members of all backgrounds, not only English
majors.

Expand the departments audience beyond its current size.

Increase student interest in department events and activities.

Consistently align its goals with those of the department as a whole.

Benchmarks

Acquire 200 likes on the community Facebook page by the end of the academic
year. This accounts for half of undergraduate English majors and minors as well as
100+ community members and alumni.

Reach 1% engagement on average for all media posts. While this may be low,
engagement shows high levels of interest and promotes a further reach.

Total page reach of 1K. This would rely on our followers engagement with the
posts, and would continue to grow our following.

These benchmarks offer a starting point for goal-setting; they can be modified as
expectations for the page evolve.
Target Audience

There are several defining target markets available to the GUED for impression:

The most involved, current students. Current students are easily the
most engaged in the work of the GUED, as they pay to be a part of it and
expect access to event information.
Prospective students. In a very competitive attention economy and a
shrinking target market, prospective students offer the most lifetime value as
consumers.
An all-encompassing market, the post-Gonzaga community (i.e.
alumni, faculty, community partners). These entities offer credibility in
the world outside of Gonzaga.

With these markets in mind, the GUED has great depth to reach with an online
presence. Keeping in mind the expectations of brand, relevant information, and
community engagement GUED can offer a valuable online resource to their target
markets.
Guidelines for Content

Content posted for the Gonzaga English Department should fall into two categories:

1) Informative 2) Interesting

Informative posts allow people to participate in the community,

and interesting posts draw people in.

Informative

Informative posts are those that consist of important information like:

Event places, dates and times

Deadlines
o Registration (priority and regular)
o Gurian Writing Awards
o Student Publications
Requirements
Other crucial information as required

Each of these types of informative posts should keep in mind target

audiences: current students, prospective students, and other community members
(alumni, faculty, etc.). For instance, registration will be targeted to current and
incoming students. Events like visiting writers may be open to a wider audience.

While our community members and prospective students want as

much information as possible (offered by the GUED Facebook page),
current students want the bottom line of information. Users will primarily be
visiting the GUED Facebook and website for this kind of information, so it should be
clear and accessible. The best way to achieve this is to post only the most critical
information on the English Department webpage (Gonzaga.edu URL, News & Events
tab). While it may appear to be cumbersome or redundant to run the Facebook and
website, this solution can serve two separated parts of the Gonzaga attention
economy while using the same information.

The website should be for our current students who want hard
information, as well as other visitors who find GUED through search
engines or the GU website. Running out of the Gonzaga University domain, the
GUED content manager should regularly update the event and course information
relevant to all English majors and minors. Each post should be a short piece of
writing (date, time and place of events), relevant media (flyers or pictures), and a
distinct tag to categorize the information, linked back to the GUED Facebook page.

The webpage should be kept up-to-date with any pending details, and it
should link to the Facebook page. In addition, the GUED Webpage link should
be clearly pinned to the top of the Facebook page. There is a function on Facebook
that allows pages to pin a certain post to the top of the feed to make it always
appear first, until unpinned.
If details for an upcoming event, for example, are posted on the department
webpage, only the immediate details of the event should be posted, including:

Name of the event

Date (including the year, to show that our web page is up-to-date)
Time
Place
A very brief description

All other information about events can be accessed through a hyperlink to

the GUED Facebook page or the event page. Events should always have
individual event pages so that users can easily find the details they are looking for,
as well as to promote interactivity and a quick, easy way to perform important
functions, including:

Changing details (date, place, etc.)

o Attendees and guest list will be notified of important changes
automatically.
Making important announcements
o Things can be posted on the event page to remind people what to
bring, where to park, etc.
Answering frequently asked questions
o Anyone can post on the event page, so a guest may ask a question
that is helpful to other invitees. (e.g. Is the event formal? Will there be
food?)
Viewing RSVP (an important factor in evaluating performance, below)
o Guests often like to see if their friends are going to an event, and GUED
needs to know how many to expect.

Interesting

Interesting posts should not be pinned. They should lapse as time passes, but
continue to be accessible.

Facebook tips tells us: Posts that are short, visual and created for the right
audience tend to get more likes, comments and shares...You can create an offer or
an event post, or just publish a quick update on your Page to stay connected with
people. The GUED should create posts that will be interesting to all audiences as
well as alternating between posts that target current students, prospective students
and community members (alumni, faculty, etc.). The line between these audiences
for interesting posts is less clear than it is for informative posts, but it is still
important. For instance, a current student will be more interested in the bio of a
professor than alumni might be, and alumni might be more interested in events
going on around Spokane than a prospective student from Maine might be. The
interns best judgment should be used to evaluate the audience for individual posts,
as it is impossible to identify the best audience for posts that do not yet exist.

Interesting posts should be things that English majors and those who are pursuing
English can relate to (target audience), complying with the target audience listed
above. Interesting posts could also include any Zag-related material, to encourage
all majors to attend events and follow the page. Examples of interesting posts could
be:

Photos from past events (with students tagged if possible)

o Album posted on the GUED page, not the event page.
Bios of students, alumni and community members in the area (e.g. Gurien
Award winning student, new tenure staff, Spokane public library)
o A picture and introduction, presenting the real faces of the GUED.
Encourages strong community within the English department, and gets
people excited to get involved because it creates a potential for
individuals to get featured.
Works and achievements of the above-listed
o Can be from student publications, or requested from the author. (e.g.
poems, non-fiction, stories and other works, Poet Laureate blogs)
Article
o Newspapers and websites often have articles that might interest GUED
followers (e.g. The Inlander, Spokesman Review)
Memes
o An easy visual way to make English-related jokes to gain engagement.
Videos
o Interviews with our favorite authors, GUED videos, etc.
Current events on campus
o Does not have to be English related, just something that English
majors might like to get involved in. Be selective in posting these,
because student have several outlets for accessing campus events.

The Harvard English Department posted Five myths about Frederick Douglass by
Professors John Stauffer and Henry Louis Gates Jr. with an image of Frederick
Douglass that links to the Washington Post. This is an excellent example of an
interesting post that might draw users to follow the GUED Facebook page and visit
often. It generated interactivity with users who saw it, and encouraged people to
participate with the online community that is Harvard English Department. These
types of posts draw users into the Informative post, and encourage them to
attend English Department events. (see figure 1)

Figure 1
Guidelines for Timing

When posting on social media, only post when there is something to

say. Gather canned content (content that is pre-prepared; off the shelf) to post
when there are no current events to post about, and also keep tabs on things like
the Frederick Douglass article in online sources, but do not post content that is
irrelevant, uninteresting, or out-of-date. Posts that are live or current are most
interesting because they show that the English Department is active. For instance, it
would not be as effective to post the Frederick Douglass article if it was published
two years ago.

Events

Ideally, the Gonzaga English Department should host a live event

once a month. These could include, but are not limited to, themed workshops
(poetry, fiction, nonfiction, etc.), cookie socials, meet and greets with professors,
visiting writers, and trivia nights. These help to connect the GUED community and
encourage participation. If live events are not possible, another option is to host
online events like chatrooms, digital workshops, and Facebook Live feeds from
professors or students. Online events should be posted in the same way IRL
events would be.

Events should be posted at least 1-2 weeks prior to the event. If the
event is posted earlier than this, the host should post on the event page regularly
(1-2 times per week) to remind attendees that it is coming up. This doesnt just
include explicit dont forget! posts, but can also be things like update posts about
who will be catering, who will be speaking, what to bring, etc. This is a great
platform for guests to ask questions publicly, serving as a FAQ for other visitors.

All events should have a detailed event page hosted by GUED, where
a brief description, event photo, and invite list can be found. Attendees and hosts
can also post updates, comments and more details in the event feed anytime. This
should be an organic stream, where guests can post on the event page and GUED
can respond as needed. See above section for more information about event
content.

Regular Posting

Informative and interesting things should be posted on a regular

basis, i.e. 1-4 times per week. Depending on response levels and utility, this
timing should be adjusted. There is no way to predict how users will respond, so
some trial and error may be necessary. Ultimately the page must be active and
engaging for all target audiences, but posting too often can drive people to see the
department as a nuisance and unfollow the Facebook page.

The GUED should decide whether to post more or less often based on
likes, shares, and comments. If engagement is low (i.e. no likes or comments on
most posts, or a decline in number of followers), start by increasing post frequency.
Recommendations for evaluating social media performance

For page evaluation, consider the goals of the page, to be informative and
promotional of the GUED. This means to feature moments within GUEDs world and
encourage engagement online and in real life.

Facebook Insights

The ultimate goal of the Facebook page is to have a more involved

English Department by achieving the individual objectives outlined at the
beginning of the document. These include acquiring 200 likes on the page by
the end of the academic year, reaching 1% engagement on all posts, and achieving
a reach of 1K. The purpose of the objectives is to set a reasonable goal, and they
may need to be adjusted for the next academic year as needed.

Using a public page on Facebook allows access to full sets of actionable data.
With data such as reach, engagement, clicks, and reactions, clear trends present
themselves. While this data varies post to post, it offers a good benchmark for what
each post is meant to do, whether it is just to promote an event or idea on campus
or yield a high engagement rate with likes and shares (informative vs. interesting).
It also works well to show how posts work in conjunction together (i.e. interesting
posts to promote an event on the main GUED page).

An event post can be analyzed alone, offering a limited data set, but if it is
analyzed alongside commentary posts there is a lot more to be discovered. The
insights offered can be used to understand best practices for posts. Based on the
timing, location, content type, and voice, the insights for each point in the direction
of a more successful post.

For example, an event is posted about with a promotional picture and text,
while that post might have a low engagement rate if there is a live feed and a photo
album posted after the event, those posts might be a better indication of event
impact, while the first post might show promotion activity and where improvements
are needed.

Attendance as Data

One of the primary purposes of the GUED page is to promote and

record events. A simple place to look for success of these events is in attendance.
Pairing the insight data with the attendance can help reveal what posting styles or
combinations work best to yield a high attendance rate.

The ultimate goal here is to start with the regular attendees and
increase attendance. If numbers begin to fall, strategy will need to be
reevaluated and altered. There is not a particular type of post that will always be
successful or a single data set that will reveal trends, but taken in combination,
hosts of the GUED Facebook page can achieve the primary goal: a more involved
English Department.