SJMC

SOCIAL MEDIA CAMPAIGN STRATEGY Prepared for the University of Wisconsin School of Journalism and Mass Communication April 2019

CONTENTS 4 Meet Perspective 5 Social Media Strategy 6 Situation Summary 12 Social Media Audits 28 Content Strategy and Analysis 30 Influencers 33 SWOT 34 Key Issues and Opportunities 34 Overall Social Media Plan Goal and Role 35 Audiences

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41 Social Media Objectives and Strategies 42 Strategic Recommendation and Content Distribution Guidelines 46 The "Big Idea" 47 New Social Strategy Proposal 48 New Social Media Strategy Summary 72 Suggestions 73 Sources

MEET PERSPECTIVE

Our digital marketing and social media agency will elevate your brand to new heights, as we strive to be one step ahead of the ever-changing digital media environment.

We look forward to enhancing your perspective.

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Jenna Podgorski

Jordan Gentry

Jiatong Qing

Emily Penn

Leila Ahmad

Alex Young

SOCIAL MEDIA STRATEGY 5

SITUATION SUMMARY UW-MADISON SCHOOL OF JOURNALISM AND MASS COMMUNICATION BRIEF OVERVIEW The School of Journalism and Mass Communication (SJMC) at UW-Madison offers a Master of Arts, doctoral program and an undergraduate degree with two tracks. The undergraduate program consists of degree tracks in strategic communications and reporting, and currently has 507 students according to the UW-Madison Registrar1.

When selecting the undergraduate menu tab, a list of categories within the program pop-up: an undergraduate overview, SJMC track programming information, digital studies certificate information, scholarship applications, senior achievements awards, study abroad programs and student organizations.

The overview consists of a description of the school which serves mostly as a sales pitch or promotional piece. Some statistics below that are shown, such as the school’s world ranking and success of J-School graduates in finding jobs. Below, the different career tracks are briefly explained, with links to the full descriptions. These pages explain SERVICES, OFFERINGS AND BENEFITS the track in-depth, focusing on the skills that will be Aside from the required courses for the major, the developed by the students who choose this track.

SJMC offers services such as career advising and It also explains the different types of careers that networking events for undergraduate students to the track will prepare students for, including typical utilize. These services aim to help undergraduates job duties for specific fields and the relevant skills become more marketable in the realm of commu- needed that the track prepares students for. nications when they are nearing graduation and searching for future internship and employment The next three categories explain the digital studopportunities. ies certificate, scholarships, senior achievement awards and study abroad. The last category is stuANALYSIS OF CURRENT MARKETING AND dent organizations and media, which has descriptions of the various student clubs on campus rePROGRAMMING lated to journalism and communications. It seems likely that students in the SJMC or thinking about Website applying would be more interested in learning The SJMC homepage6 offers a list of menu op- about ways they can get experience in the field tions at the top including (from left to right) under- through campus organizations/activities, so having graduate, graduate, research, admissions, careers, this option above the other three would be preferpeople and an “about” page. Below the menu, able. the homepage features a current event, an alumni profile, undergraduate and graduate program tabs, recent faculty awards, upcoming events and job listings. This is notable considering the job listings and upcoming events sections would likely be of great interest to undergraduate students in the SJMC, but the only way they would see it is if they scroll down the entire homepage. The entire website as a cohesive unit is solid, however, visual aspects like photos and videos will help leverage the content even more.

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Another section of the website that would be of particular interest to undergraduate students is the career services & advising section. This includes a link to make advising appointments, job listings, links to career opportunities, internship opportunities and the alumni network. At the bottom of the page there are numerous tips and examples for cover letters and resumes and links to student and professional organizations on campus. This page consists of important information and assistance for undergraduate students, and featuring it more

on the website would make it easier for students to discover it.

According to Emarketer, Facebook is the format Colleges/Universities use the most to target prospective students. A prominent example of this kind of success with digital ads is Northwestern’s paid advertisements on Facebook. Medill created digitals ads with photos of various students stating “Find your career path at the intersection of the art and science of marketing communications.”8 SJMC’s redesigned marketing campaign can emulate these kinds of advertisements to effectively target prospective students.

Social Media The SJMC has an active Facebook page with 2,554 followers.3 Its posts are mainly about upcoming events, awards, current news related to the school, articles written by faculty and features about alumni. In the “about” tab there is a link to the website and the school’s address and phone number. There are 138 photos on the Facebook page, mostly showcasing various events. These include the speakers, audience members, students and flyers that usually promote upcoming events.

The school has reviews on its Facebook page from only five people, with a four stars out of five rating.

The events tab provides an organized look at past and upcoming events with their dates and location.

There are eight videos showcasing events, and one promotional video. The notes section features stories about the school, although there hasn’t been one added since 2010.

same things as the Facebook page does, although it has only 30 followers. The YouTube account5 has a similar problem in terms of its following; only 20 accounts are currently subscribed to the SJMC YouTube page, and the videos posted usually only receive a couple of views. The videos consist entirely of speakers at SJMC events, and tend to run for around an hour. The site has 64 videos over the course of six years.

The Twitter page2 has 5,163 followers and operates similarly to the Facebook page. It’s tweets also promote future events and update followers on current news related to the school and its members. The main way that the Twitter account differentiates from the Facebook account is through its use of gifs from popular television shows that accommodate many of their announcements.

The SJMC advertises its events for undergraduates through social media and emailing students.

A weekly newsletter called the “L&S, Information and Communication Newsletter” is sent to all undergraduate students each week This highlights upcoming events, jobs/internships, and deadlines.

These events are also promoted through the Facebook and Twitter accounts, though not as consisThe LinkedIn4 page for SJMC essentially posts the tently as the weekly newsletter.

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COMPETITION Tasked with the undergraduate audience, we identified three sectors of competition: national journalism programs, national strategic communication programs and UW-Madison campus programs.

Below features a breakdown of some of the most prominent competitors for our client.

MEDILL SCHOOL OF JOURNALISM, MEDIA AND INTEGRATED MARKETING AT NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY The Medill School of Journalism, Media and Integrated Marketing Communications has consistently been ranked one of the top schools of journalism in the United States.9 Medill alumni include 38 Pulitzer Prize laureates, numerous national correspondents for major networks, and many well-known reporters and columnists.9 A key point of difference between Medill and SJMC between their undergraduate offering is the Certificate in Integrated Marketing Communications.

Developed at Medill, the IMC field includes marketing, strategic communications, advertising, digital strategy, social media and marketing analytics.9 Medill’s high school programs are also extremely beneficial for the program particularly through attracting potential students while they are still in high school. Medill offers programs for high school students who want to learn more about journalism and media, such as Medill Cherubs, Medill Media Teens and High School Journalism Day.9 These programs allow one to explore the field, build key skills, get a better understanding of the journalism atmosphere, network with industry professionals and meet Medill students and faculty.

modern and user friendly website predominantly features alumni in professional media roles around the world, who credit their Medill education for their foundation.9 Their Instagram and Twitter accounts accrue the most reach and engagement online, and these accounts also have the largest followings. Their estimated reach for Twitter is an average of over 250,000 accounts to date.10 Their overarching hashtag #MyMedillStory successfully fosters a tight-knit, online community for those who associate themselves with the program. Tactics employed across Medill socials such as including a visual component with every social media posting, reinforcing posts’ content across their channels and showcasing the work of students and their organizations can be a technique that the SJMC can use to curate more attractive and engaging content for their undergraduate audiences.

GRADY COLLEGE OF JOURNALISM AND MASS COMMUNICATION AT THE UNIVERSITY OF GEORGIA

Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication offers a variety of majors that students can choose from, which include: advertising and public relations, entertainment and media studies and journalism. Students can also choose to pursue a certificate in sports media, new media or public affairs. Grady College has a whole section of their website dedicated to student work that is separated by majors. Their program is also accredited by the Accrediting Council on Education in Journalism and Mass Communications. The school is also home to multiple centers and institutes including the Peabody Awards and the National Press Photographers Association. Lastly, Grady College also has a public service outreach page which includes a High School Discovery program which is Medill’s overall marketing and programming is co- a one-week program that allows rising high school hesive across both their website and social media sophomores to seniors to be immersed in the Mass platforms. Their strong online presence makes Communication field.11 Medill one of the most followed programs in the nation. The majority of their curated content em- Overall, Grady College is the most active on Twitphasizes the program’s global presence and no- ter, Facebook and Instagram. However, they are table alumni achievements. For example, their 8

definitely more focused on their Twitter and Facebook pages given that they have more followers on these platforms. They post daily on these mediums regarding a variety of issues including upcoming events, alumni, student projects and awards.

Grady College has a strong social media presence, but could a find a more effective strategy to reach more people.

University of Illinois (U of I) in 1959.13 The department was created by Charles Sandage, known as the “father of advertising education”.13 The College of Media offers Bachelor of Science degrees in journalism, advertising, media and cinema studies, and agricultural communications.13 A significant point of difference in the undergraduate offerings between UIUC College of Media and UW’s SJMC is their innovative approach to evolving digital society in the form of a computer science and UNIVERSITY OF MISSOURI (MIZZOU) advertising (CS+ADV) major. The College of Media The School of Journalism at the University of Mis- Journalism and Advertising majors are accredited souri offers a bachelor degree in Journalism or by the Accrediting Council on Education in JourStrategic Communication. They also offer courses nalism and Mass Communications (ACEJMC). in the liberal arts and sciences. Students interested in this program can be directly admitted into the The College of Media’s overall marketing programprogram as a high school student or apply once ming is not very consistent across its website and they are on campus. Both paths take prerequisite social media. The website in particular looks slightly courses that are designed to give a taste of the dated, as it does not reflect their relatively modern degree. This program also has a honors program curriculum, as their limited homepage is more difthat includes more rigorous coursework for those ficult to navigate. For example, there is no “underhigh achieving students. Additionally, summer graduates” tab, only tabs separated into Student workshops are also available for high school stu- Services and Degrees.13 However, the College is dents interested in the general field. Students can similar to SJMC in their smaller-scale social media choose from workshops in Advertising and PR, In- following. The College of Media has virtually equivalent followings Twitter and Facebook, but their vestigative Journalism and Urban Journalism.12 Facebook postings receives more consistent enThe school also emphasizes the Missouri Method gagement. While SJMC and College of Media on a which they define as real-world media experience similar situation in regards to their social channels, by combining a strong liberal arts education with a revised strategy for our client can leverage SJMC unique hands-on training in professional media. into a more competitive social media presence.

They use #MissouriMethod across all their social media platforms. In other words, the campus has THE WISCONSIN SCHOOL OF BUSINESS different student organization that give you hands AT THE UNIVERSITY OF on experience. UW- Madison SJMC offers the same WISCONSIN-MADISON service.

The entrepreneurial spirit of the Wisconsin School

COLLEGE OF MEDIA AT THE UNIVERSITY of Business (WSB) stems back to the year 1900, when it was one of the first business programs OF ILLINOIS AT URBANA-CHAMPAIGN

founded in the nation.14 The WSB at the University The College of Media, formerly known College of of Wisconsin-Madison offers 10 undergraduate maCommunications, is one of the leading strategic jors for students to earn a Bachelor in Business Adcommunication programs in the country. The De- ministration (BBA).14 Those majors are as follows: partment of Advertising, the first such academic accounting, actuarial science, finance, investment, department in the country, was established at the and banking, information systems, internation9

al business, management and human resources, marketing, operations and technology management, real estate, and risk management and insurance.14 Aside from the majors, there is a Business Emerging Leaders (BEL) Program, as well as certificate opportunities in business, entrepreneurship, supply chain management and actuarial science.14 With 3,097 undergraduate BBA students, 43,592 Business Badgers in the alumni network, 35 study abroad and global exchange partner programs and a “#BusinessBadger(s)” campaign across social networks, the WSB is certainly upholding their number eight national ranking for undergraduate business programming.14 With the help of WSB Undergraduate BBA Ambassadors, students on campus are exposed to all the benefits, offerings and services that make the WSB unique from other departments or business programming initiatives. A few points of difference from our client are the certificate programs, admission process, study abroad programming and deep-rooted national history of the School. Because of these advantages, they are able to attract more students to their programming.

Lastly, the WSB has BBA Student Ambassadors.

These ambassadors embody what it means to be a Business Badger and promote awareness of WSB on campus and within their interpersonal networks.

This ambassador-based programming could be a great tactic for our client to attract more students to apply for the SJMC and increase awareness among the undergraduate audience demographic.

From an undergraduate-focused perspective, the WSB offers 10 Bachelor in Business Administration (BBA) majors for students to choose from. On campus, there is also a Business Emerging Leaders (BEL) Program designed for students of diverse backgrounds and academic success. If selected, students can receive full, four-year tuition. A few points of difference from our client are the certificate programs, admission process, study abroad programming and deep-rooted national history of the School. Because of these advantages, they are able to attract more students to their programming.

Lastly, the WSB has BBA Student Ambassadors.

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These ambassadors embody what it means to be a Business Badger and promote awareness of WSB on campus and within their interpersonal networks.

This could be a great tactic for our client to use to attract more students to applying for the School of Journalism and Mass Communication.

since there is a lot of depth and material on it. When conducting the competitive audit, our agency was able to successfully gain insight pertaining to the WSB brand and how we can use this information to leverage our client’s social media presence.

According to Klear Influencer Database, the WSB has an influence score of 54 and engages frequently with audience members at an average age of 29 and are women.15 Furthermore, the WSB is heavily talked about in the Badger Herald, which makes sense because it is a Madison-based publication.16 Their sentiment, however, was predominantly negative and there was a major spike in social conversation at the beginning of January.16 When benchmarking the SJMC and WSB against each other, the WSB has a higher interest amongst social media users.17 Lastly, when looking at the @ UWBusiness Twitter account on Twitonomy, their profile has published more than 3,000 tweets since the account’s debut back in 2014.18 Their most commonly used hashtag is #BusinessBadgers, which is how they generate a strong, online community with their Twitter followers.18 Their most successful platform is LinkedIn, where they have well over 25,000 followers within the network.19This is a successful model for what our client could have after developing a sound external social media communications strategy. LinkedIn fosters a community for current, prospective and former students of the WSB. This is beneficial because incoming students can learn more about the programming and opportunities with the School, current students can network with alumni for jobs and internships, and alumni can keep ties with their alma mater. Furthermore, this platform has a large follower count and high levels of engagement.

Aside from LinkedIn, the WSB has a good model for Facebook and Twitter. The only downfall is how the research account is seperate from the general WSB account, which can cause confusion among Twitter followers. The WSB website is similar to most on campus, however, it is difficult to navigate 11

SOCIAL MEDIA AUDITS INTERNAL AND COMPETITIVE SOCIAL MEDIA AUDITS

SJMC

AUDIENCE ANALYSIS

The current role of social media for the SJMC appears to be rather consistent across Twitter and Facebook. The SJMC posts about logistical news updates, announcements about upcoming events and sharing awards and features on professors. The main difference between Twitter and Facebook is that the Twitter page includes random but relatable GIFs for students’ enjoyment.20 These GIFs help give the Twitter page a fun, relatable, and up-to-date brand voice. This type of Tweet tends to do well, but only when used sparingly. When a lot of GIFs are posted in a row, engagement rates drop.20 Here are the top Tweets from November 2018—January 2019.

The SJMC is primarily reaching students and SJMC faculty. On Twitter, the current largest reaching social platform, 66 percent of the followers are women.15 Most of the followers are between 18-34 years old.15 Other followers to the Twitter include competitor journalism and strategic communication programs and local news journalists. Overall, about half of the Twitter followers are working professionals.20 The SJMC Facebook page has about half the followers that the Twitter has, but they do get more overall engagement. This may be due to a lack of promoting the Facebook page to J202 students who are asked to follow the Twitter page during this class. Additionally, less content is published to Facebook, yet 76 percent of the top posts on Twitter and Facebook were from the SJMC Facebook.15 Both the SJMC LinkedIn and YouTube pages have extremely low numbers of followers. This can probably best be explained by the LinkedIn only recently starting to publish content and the YouTube channel inconsistently posting long videos from the past rather than current content.

INTERNAL AUDIT The SJMC has four social platforms: Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and YouTube. However, Twitter and Facebook appear to be the dominant and active platforms whereas the YouTube and LinkedIn accounts are rarely used and lack a consistent strategy and brand voice. The Youtube account has 63 videos and 19 subscribers. These videos are mostly of events like commencements or conferences, and are usually around an hour in length. The LinkedIn account recently began posting weekly content mostly involving features of professors and career-related information. As the content has only recently been published, it makes sense that there are only 24 followers. LinkedIn has a lot of potential for improvement. The SJMC social content is not segregated by the two tracks offered.

INTERNAL AND COMPETITIVE AUDIT

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These top tweets show the varied content that is posted on Twitter. From congratulating students on graduating to sharing a professor’s inclusion in the Washington Post, the SJMC Twitter does a great job of providing varied content. Although the number of tweets for January was very low, the SJMC posts about 25 times per month. January’s low rate could be due to school break. Based on Twitter Analytics data, the level of engagement is very low.

Based on the data from November 2018—January 2019, tweets received an average of 4.8 likes per post.20 The amount of replies to tweets is almost non-existent and the retweet numbers are lower than likes.20

THE WISCONSIN SCHOOL OF BUSINESS In general, engagement with WSB’s Twitter platforms (@UWBusiness/@WSBResearch) is minimal.

Each posts averages around 5-10 likes for (@UWBusiness) and even less for (@WSBResearch). Their posting topics include admissions, holiday, photos and videos of Grainger, MBA projects, guest speakers and lecturers, and workshop information sessions for their main handle (@UWBusiness) and predominantly research based topics for their (@ WSBresarch) handle.21,22 Their brand voice can be described as professional, credible and wellversed for (@WSBreserach) and fun, exciting, upto-date and future-forward for (@UWBusiness).

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This post is short and to the point and relates to all students that attend the Wisconsin Business School. News like this would be a topic that most students would want to know. It includes a graphic that is used well for the purpose of the post.

ILLINOIS Overall, engagement with Illinois’s Twitter (@collegeofmedia) is even less than some of its competitors. Their posts receive 2-8 likes on average with some posts rare posts averaging a little higher. Illinois Twitter includes a variety of content including events with alumni and professors, features of student work, advertising for different classes in the major, general news about class, summer camp for high schoolers, student experiences and different deadlines.24 Their tone is causal tone, but posts are still descriptive and effective in reaching undergraduates. Almost every post includes a visual component, whether it be a video or an image. This post is easy to understand and includes a visual that is clear and does a good job of supplementing the copy. It an event that most students might consider attending.

NORTHWESTERN Engagement with Medill’s Twitter (@MedillSchool) is overall very minimal, with only about 10 likes per post. Their most common posting topics include congratulations to notable alumni for professional achievements, retweets content from relevant clubs and classes as well as admissions information.

Some of their best performing content featured an investigation by students making the news and highlights student’s’ individual achievements.23 Their brand voice on Twitter can be described as precise and professional.

Overall, their Twitter account has the highest average reach among its social media platforms, with each post incorporating some sort of visual component.

Alumni doing well in the field they are currently in is a great way keep students exciting about the education they are receiving. This post is easy to comprehend and provides an adequate visual that pertains to the copy.

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GRADY Engagement with Grady’s Twitter (@UGAGrady) is in general quite minimal. Each post averages around 5-20 likes. However, the platform does receive up to 500 likes on some posts depending on topic and when it is posted. Grady’s Twitter page has a social authority score of 55/100 meaning that their brand has done an average job engaging their users, but could do a better job appealing to their audience and regularly participating in online conversations with a frank approach.25 Their brand voice is overall causal and concise. Some of their posting topics include event, alumni awards, contests, and student profiles.26 This post is a fun way to change up the content usually posted on Twitter pages. Most students would enjoy a post like this. This is something SJMC could implement.

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MIZZOU

iNTERNAL AND COMPETITIVE AUDIT

Engagement with Mizzou’s Twitter (@mujschool) is in general better compared to its competitors who are discussed above. Each post averages 10- 50 likes with some rare posts receiving over 150 likes.

Their posting topics include alumni, Instagram takeovers, student work, events and updates.27 Mizzou’s Twitter has the highest influencer score (60/100) compared to all their social media platforms meaning that they have strong presence on Twitter and are using this to their advantage.15 Lastly, their brand voice can be described as causal and inviting. This post provides a great visual and is also a great way to get students to be proud of some of their classmates in their same program.

TWITTER: INTERNAL AND COMPETITIVE SUMMARY Overall Mizzou has the best engagement compared to its competitors on Twitter. Even though its competitors have more followers, Mizzou’s receives more likes and retweets on average. This is also demonstrated in its Sentiment Score.28 The Missouri School of Journalism has a much higher positive sentiment compared to negative, a promising sign that their audience is connecting with them. However, Mizzou’s competitors are slowly improving their strategies to attract and appeal to their audiences. At the moment, competitors post the same type of content but Mizzou and Medill use better images and copy to engage more users.

One big takeaway from all Twitter platforms is that the best content that performs well is content that is relatable to the majority of one’s audience and includes strong and well-done visuals.

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SJMC The SJMC Facebook content is similar to Twitter, but comes across with a more professional and informative brand voice. According to Klear, an influencer database, the SJMC Facebook influence score is 50. This is a 100 point scale. This score is slightly below the total influence score of the SJMC (which combines Facebook and Twitter), which is 54. Of all of the top Facebook posts in 2018, only about 15 percent were about informing undergraduates about upcoming events.15 All of the content on Facebook includes a picture or video, and most posts have links to articles as well. Here are the top Facebook posts per month from November 2018—January 2019.

As is evident from these posts, the SJMC Facebook has more engagement compared to Twitter, although they have fewer followers. The amount of reach and engagement on Facebook is also much more varied than Twitter. Posts range from reaching 57 people all the way to 43,069 people on a recent February post about Vilas Hall being closed due to the flooding. Likewise, posts range from engaging with no one to 21,092 people. This shows the potential the SJMC Facebook page has to reach and engage with a large audience. Engagement numbers aside, the SJMC never replies to people’s comments or engages with their community on a personal level. Two posts were chosen from January as they both do a great job with their reach and engagement. While posting about professors is a regular occurance for the SJMC, the SJMC should consider adding more posts like their one asking for audience advise on J202. It created a community feel and provided a new type of post for Facebook.

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celebratory way, while reinforcing the program’s central social media branding with the hashtag The Facebook account for the WSB goes hand-in- “BusinessBadgers.” hand with the main WSB Twitter account. Most of the content featured here is also featured on the NORTHWESTERN main Twitter account, as the brand voice and intended audience remain similar. This profile is a Medill’s Facebook profile (@MedillNU) is an importgreat way to share upcoming events and a wide- ant tool for sharing upcoming events and a widerange of content. Their daily posting frequency is range of content. The Twitter and the Facebook matched by a fun, exciting and up-to-date brand accounts post about very similar content. The voice on the platform.Engagement levels depen- posts reinforce each other and are targeted to a dent on content posted; Some posts have high similar audience. The general engagement levels engagement with more than 100 likes, while other resemble those of the Wisconsin School of Busipieces of content have less than 10 likes. A prom- ness dependent on content posted: some posts inent takeaway from this competitors Facebook have high engagement with more than 100 likes, presence more applicable/broad the post, the bet- while other pieces of content have less than 20 ter it performs. likes. A prominent trend is that the more general the post, the better it performs. Their daily posts are presented with a professional and celebratory tone, with their best performing content including a statement of journalistic freedom from dean and a commemorative post about Medill’s 95th anniversary celebration.8

THE WISCONSIN SCHOOL OF BUSINESS

Wisconsin School of Business’ best performing content on this platform includes interview advice, Q&A pieces about the school, guest speakers and lecturers; photo galleries, MBA pieces and university-focused videos. One of their most successful posts from the past year is a video celebrating 25 An interesting Facebook post that was also one years of Grainger Hall. This post celebrates the of the top performing pieces from Medill in the history of the program in a visually appealing and past year was a scenic photo of the campus about 18

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weather for the Homecoming celebration. It contains a picture of spot on campus, rather than a picture of the actual Medill facilities. It still managed to garner a large amount of engagement due to its emotional appeal of past students reconnecting with Medill at Homecoming.This is a good example for SJMC to implement as it faces the challenge of a non-visually appealing exterior.

ILLINOIS The College of Media’s Facebook page (@collegeofmedia) presents a dated, more mundane image for their program. Their graphics for events and seminars are low quality, with the purpose of the page focused solely on event promotion. The page possesses a more casual tone to its post, and this relaxed approach is apparent in its incohesive posting topics. Content ranges from advertising for different classes in the major, general news such as class being cancelled, information about summer camp for high schoolers, and deadlines for students. Their most well-received post is a special year-end video created by students in a Media & Cinema Studies class commemorating a happy new year. Overall, the lack of cohesion produces a scattered and messy portrayal of the modern and well-regarded reputation of the College of Media.29

GRADY The Grady College School of Journalism and Mass Communication’s Facebook page (@ugagrady) is an extremely informative asset for both past and current Grady students. With a score of 122.83 engagements per post30, Grady’s page boasts a high engagement rate compared to influencers with a similar amount of fans. Their content is the most varied in its usage of multimedia formats, including articles, videos, photos, events and even reviews of the programs from past students. In analyzing some of the page’s best performing content, it is evident that many posts are curated with the alumni audience in mind ,rather than targeting the un20

dergraduate audience. Its content also has strong ties with the school’s alumni network Facebook pages, as Grady’s posts often tag these profiles when they create content targeted to the alumni audience. This page is most notable for its professional tone throughout its wide presentation of content in a concise style, while still maintain a cohesive brand image.

MIZZOU The Missouri School of Journalism’s Facebook page (@mujschool) presents a cohesive, professional image for the program with its well-designed and diverse representation of the school’s various assets. Even with a relatively small following, the page does an excellent job of showcasing real-world student success in various professional settings. More specifically, exemplary students are displayed achieving great feats in their particular area of interest, such as school’s chapter of the National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ) being featured on Good Morning America and a student reporting in the Missouri House of Representatives (@mujschool, Facebook).31 The most prominent feature of Mizzou’s Facebook page is its cover “video” (@mujschool, Facebook).

Instead of a traditional cover photo, the page possesses a highlight reel featuring students gaining hands-on experience in professional newsrooms and strategic communication agencies with the #MissouriMethod. The professionally developed video is also one of their best performing pieces of content for the year. This is something the SJMC could emulate in order to present a more dynamic and modern image of the program through its Facebook page.

to appeal to not just undergraduates, but larger audiences of families, alumni and professional networks. Thus, a prominent trend among the top performing Facebook posts of our competitors is that posts generally targeted but possess a strong emotional affiliation to the program garner the highest engagement. Northwestern and Missouri’s pages successfully execute professional and cohesive brand voice that SJMC could implement to better engage the more wider ranging audience on this platform. The curation of videos, whether professionally done or student-made, perform very well as visual representations of each program’s unique assets and strengths. By creating content that curates the sense of community that SJMC is reputable for in a dynamic and diverse way, it can better attract the undergraduate audience.

FACEBOOK: INTERNAL AND COMPETITIVE SUMMARY A challenge presented by the Facebook platform in general as it relates to our competitors is the need 21

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This post is short and to the point and relates to all students that attend the Wisconsin Business

School.

News like this would be a topic that most INTERNAL AND COMPETITIVE AUDITS students would want to know. It includes a graphic that is used well for the purpose of the post. The SJMC Facebook content is similar to Twitter, but comes across with a more professional and informative brand voice. According to Klear, an influencer database, the SJMC Facebook influence score is 50. This is a 100 point scale. This score is slightly below the total influence score of the SJMC (which combines Facebook and Twitter), which is 54. Of all of the top Facebook posts in 2018, only about 15 percent were about informing undergraduates about upcoming events.15 All of the content on Facebook includes a picture or video, and most posts have links to articles as well. Below are the top Facebook posts per month from November 2018—January 2019.

(Sources for Pictures: Facebook Analytics)

SJMC

As is evident from these posts, the SJMC Facebook has more engagement compared to Twitter, although they have fewer followers. The amount of reach and engagement on Facebook is also much more varied than Twitter. Posts range from reaching 57 people all the way to 43,069 people on a recent February post about Vilas Hall being closed due to the flooding. Likewise, posts range from engaging with no one to 21,092 people. This shows the potential the SJMC Facebook page has to reach and engage with a large audience. Engagement numbers aside, the SJMC never replies to people’s comments or engages with their community on a personal level. Two posts were chosen from January as they both do a great job with their reach and engagement. While posting about professors is a regular occurance for the SJMC, the SJMC should consider adding more posts like their one asking for audience advise on J202. It created a community feel and provided a new type of post for Facebook.

Overall, the SJMC Twitter and Facebook accounts do a great job of letting people know about upcoming events, highlighting the expertise of our staff, and sharing quick news. The channels could improve by creating unique identities for each platform and posting more consistently on channels besides their Twitter. Additionally, the Twitter account, @uw_sjmc_jobs has a much smaller following and may be better suited if incorporated into the other SJMC Twitter account. The LinkedIn page will benefit from continued posts and working on increasing follower and engagement rates, while the YouTube will benefit from sharing shorter and more relevant content. Lastly, their YouTube presence can become stronger through categorizing all of their video uploads to cater to the different groups that are using the platform.

THE WISCONSIN SCHOOL OF BUSINESS For Instagram, the Wisconsin School of Business (WSB) does not have an active presence. As for LinkedIn, the engagement levels are dependent

on what content is posted. Some posts have high engagement metrics, with more than 50 engagements per post, while others have no more than 10 engagements per post.32 With a brand voice that is clear, conciser, entrepreneurial and poised, the WSB showcases a variety of content to connect with their audience. Some posting topics include: Awards and achievements, Q&A pieces, profile stories, photo galleries, recent research advancements, historical milestones, MBA student pieces and guest speaker announcements.32 The LinkedIn account for the WSB is a great structure to benchmark against when the SJMC further grows their LinkedIn following. With valuable content and an online community of current, prospective and former students, WSB’s LinkedIn creates a network of successful Badgers..32 These connections can help students get jobs and learn more about the variety of career paths they can take. This post highlights Barry Gerhart of WSB who provides an impactful quote to support how UW-Madison has the greatest number of Fortune 500 CEOs. This type of content would be great for the SJMC to share since it is not directly related to the major, rather the reputable University as a whole, since it was published by Chief Executive.32,33 23

As for YouTube, the WSB posts sparingly – once every two months.34 Their engagement rate has an average of three likes per video and the WSB possesses a committed, celebratory and passionate brand voice that is grounded in achievement.34 Some of the posting topics include celebratory videos, interview segments and MBA programming.34 The YouTube account for the WSB is simply an archive of all the videos they share across social. When linking content, they link the YouTube video as the redirecting website.34 With a lower follower/subscriber amount, people do not usually engage with the videos they upload.34

sistent engagement among their platforms. It is very up to date with alumni achievement and features a saved highlights reel for notable student achievements in the past year.35 This post about an alumna who graduated more than 18 years ago and returned to speak at Medill’s 2018 spring commencement ceremony received 188 likes and two comments.35

testimonials, Medill events, journalism faculty, IMC faculty, awards, Medill memories and Medill Google+ Hangout sessions.37 Medill’s YouTube page is not very active with their posting, but their previous content is informative about the program’s specific course offerings, which is an important tool in reaching current undergraduates and prospective students.

highlight various happenings, such as accolades and campus-related content.38 With a fun and optimistic brand voice, Mizzou brings a fun twist to a newer social platform. Also, Mizzou does a great job with utilizing the new Instagram “story” and “highlight” feature.38 As for LinkedIn, Mizzou’s content does not receive many engagements. 39 Most of the content they share on on LinkedIn is links for various articles, and the brand voice is not defined.39 Overall, their Instagram is not a good model for the SJMC to follow, especially when it comes to developing a strong online community. As for YouTube, Mizzou does not have an account, therefore, there is no data to share for SJMC’s strategy.

GRADY

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NORTHWESTERN

As for LinkedIn, Northwestern’s Medill School, the engagement levels vary greatly depending on the type of content posted.36 Their brand voice for this channel is entrepreneurial, informative and professionally focused.36 Some of Medill’s posting topics include: awards and achievements, profile stories, recent research, milestones and guest speaker announcements.36 This competitor’s LinkedIn page effectively creates a tight-knit online community for past and current students because it effectively balances informative content with engaging posts that encourage student-alumni interaction and connection.

For Instagram, Northwestern’s Medill School has a consistent engagement rate of 125 likes per post.35 Using a celebratory, diversifying and passionate brand voice, Medill possesses a follower count that engages well with the following posting topics: guest speakers and lecturers, individual student achievements, alumni spotlights, welcome class of 2021 and their master’s students orientation.35 The Instagram account has the most con-

As for YouTube, Medill has 723 subscribers and posts a new video every week. 37 Since YouTube is a great place to develop a resourceful video archive, the SJMC can model their YouTube strategy off of Medill’s. Despite Medill’s extremely minimal engagement rate, they use an informative and illustrious brand voice when sharing content.37 Some of their posting topics include: journalism testimonials, integrated marketing communications (IMC)

For Instagram, the Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication posts two to three times per week using a laid-back and casual brand MIZZOU voice.40 Posting topics of various stories, videos and occasions of people in-action, they receive an For Instagram, Mizzou’s engagement fluctuates, as average of 200 likes per post on Instagram.40 For some posts will receive more than 500 likes while example, this post highlights Grady’s affiliations others will receive as low as 40 likes.38 The post- with their successful football program.40 By doing ing topics are primarily event-focused and this, Grady is receiving national recognition and increasing their presence.

As for LinkedIn, Grady has more than 4,000 followers and posts roughly once a month..41 However, the highest number of engagements they have received on a post is 50 likes, which does not reflect 25

the following they have on that platform.41 Using a professional brand voice, Grady has topic postings in the following areas: applications for different programs, staff spotlights, partnerships, events and awards that are more career-focused.41

Another well-performing post was showcasing their “Meet Media” event, which welcomes students who recently declared their major in the college.43

As for YouTube, Grady has a subscriber count of 117.42 However, they have not uploaded a video in over two years, so this account can be considered inactive. Grady generally shares promotional and welcome videos using a cheerful brand voice, and their engagement averages around 1,000 views.42 Overall, their channel still needs some work.

As for LinkedIn, it is evident that the WSB’s profile is one we should model after when developing and refining our current LinkedIn profile. The WSB does a phenomenal job of establishing an online community for networking purposes, which is something many undergraduates would utilize during the internship and job hunt. Furthermore, the content the WSB shares on LinkedIn ties either to the program, the University or the industry as a whole, ultimately providing interesting content for many users to engage with.

This brings attention and recognition to the program within the community while celebrating the decisions of the new College of Media students.43 This kind of event is one that be featured in content across social platforms, and is one that SJMC can easily implement in its revised marketing strategy.

As for LinkedIn, the College of Media does not currently have a public page that can be accessed by the public.44 They only have a private Linkedin page that one has to request access to in order to gain entry into the group.44 This presents an underutilized opportunity for the program on this platform because people outside of the university are unable to view or connect to the page without approval from the page’s administrator.

As for YouTube, the College of Media does not have a visible subscriber count and their posting habits are not consistent.45 Their most successful content is student-produced videos, and some of their other posting topics include promotional and welcome videos, meaning there is no prominent overarching themes.45 The College of Media’s engagement rate and brand voice are both inconsistent, so the SJMC would not benefit from following this model.45

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Given the findings from the internal and competitive audits, there are definitely some competitors we can learn from when improving and creating a presence on Instagram, LinkedIn and YouTube.

For Instagram, Mizzou does a great job utilizing Instagram highlights and stories. The SJMC can showcase student spotlights, events and achievements in a manner that resonates with the undergraduate user demographic on Instagram by using Mizzou’s account as inspiration.

ILLINOIS While the Illinois Instagram account has a smaller scale following and limited engagement, their posts are most successful in highlighting daily student activity rather than alumni accomplishments.43 Their posts are sporadic throughout the week, however, there is no cohesive representation on their account’s page. For example, many of their recent posts include many text-heavy graphics.43 Another challenge that their Instagram presence faces is many similar imitation accounts. They do not seem to have a clearly established brand in this platform, as many accounts with similar usernames and profile images are present. Their most popular posting topics focus on student organization events and professional development seminars.43 The first photo below features an an event connecting alumni in various professional fields in Chicago with current undergraduates.43

INSTAGRAM, LINKEDIN AND YOUTUBE: INTERNAL AND COMPETITIVE SUMMARY

For YouTube, Medill has the strongest overall presence. One strategy they employ which could be beneficial to SJMC is their categorization of videos. By creating specific sections on the channel for videos to filter into, Medill makes it easier on the audience when they are navigating the channel and searching for different content. SJMC should develop a breakdown of all the categories in which their videos can be classified under, which will then lead to a clearer vision of what content is best suited for that channel.

OVERALL COMPETITIVE SUMMARY Overall, SJMC should strive to base their social media strategy on Medill and Mizzou. Medill strength is it cohesive branding across all platforms while Mizzou has the highest engagement and showing the profession development of students. Instagram is still an underdeveloped platforms across all competitors, however some competitors (i.e. Grady College) have started to successfully capitalize on this platform’s unique opportunities as they relate content creation.

In general, the best posts across competitor platforms are ones that are relatable to a the broader subsets of audiences and engages the emotional affiliation one has for their program. Strong and polished visual appeal is paramount to reflect the dynamic and multimedia nature of the curriculum itself.

In addition to strengthening their content on Facebook and Twitter like described above, SJMC should strive to successfully leverage LinkedIn and Instagram as part of their revised social media marketing strategy. Similar to the Wisconsin School of Business and Grady College on their respective platforms, SJMC can implement tailored and engaging content for undergraduate audiences in order to grow a larger online following and generate excitement for the program’s offerings and professional development opportunities.

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CONTENT STRATEGY AND ANALYSIS SJMC SOCIAL MEDIA

help to create a more casual and fun tone, using them more selectively will help to also maintain a The SJMC’s Facebook and Twitter accounts seem professional tone. Additionally, the most successto have a good mix of content that is of interest ful competitors of SJMC don’t use gifs at all. This to their audience and content that promotes the isn’t to say SJMC shouldn’t use them, but doing so school. Most of the promotional content is also of slightly more infrequently will likely improve the interest to their audience; this includes stories of value of them. current and former students, as well as awards and articles of faculty members. This content generally FACEBOOK receives the highest amount of likes and shares.

They appear to follow the 80/20 rule on both On Facebook, there is an opportunity to be more Facebook and Twitter. Very few of their posts are efficient in the way content is distributed. There purely promotional such as mentioning the SJMC’s are some instances where the account will make ranking. However, most of their posts do a good multiple posts in a short time frame about an upjob of painting a picture of the SJMC in their au- coming event. This content usually receives a very dience-centered content that is of the audience’s low amount of interaction. Two of the SJMC’s biggest competitors, Medill8 and the UW Business interest.

School50 both have strategies on Facebook that the SJMC should consider. Medill very rarely posts TWITTER about upcoming events on Facebook, and almost An area that could be improved is the level of in- exclusively shares promotional stories and conteraction from the Twitter followers. Despite Twit- tent. The UW Business School has a list of upcomter having more than double the amount of follow- ing events at the top of their Facebook that allows ers (5.2k)47 than the Facebook page (2.5k)46, the visitors to easily access what is coming up (as can Twitter account has less of an actual reach than the be seen below).

Facebook page by more than 200 people. There is also a lower level of engagement (likes, comments) on tweets than on Facebook posts. SJMC could become more interactive on Twitter to increase engagement. Currently, the SJMC Twitter doesn’t respond to any tweets from students, faculty or other UW-Madison departments that are about the SJMC. A unique aspect of Twitter in general is that it encourages a back-and-forth dialogue between users. Responding to tweets instead of simply retweeting (which is what they currently do) will create a more conversational and personal tone for the SJMC account and will encourage current followers to be more interactive than they currently are. Another suggestion for Twitter is to be more selective in use of gifs and jokes. While they can 28

These accounts have the most followers on Face- COMPETITORS book of all of SJMC’s competitors, and adopting some of these strategies could help grow the Looking at the SJMC competitors can help estabSJMC’s Facebook page. lish guidelines for the SJMC to adopt. The UW-Madison Business school has over 25,000 followers on LINKEDIN LinkedIn including 411 employees48. Their posts are frequent and are mostly about promotional stoThe SJMC LinkedIn page could grow by helping ries of alumni and the Business school. The Grady undergraduates find job opportunities and network School of Journalism at Georgia provides an examwith former SJMC students. Currently the LinkedIn ple of a highly successful Instagram account. They only has 4 employees and 1 alumni as apart of their have over 3,000 followers and post very frequently, LinkedIn page48 compared to 411 employees and with the vast majority of their content being about over 15,000 alumni for the UW Business School.32 past, upcoming and even current events40.

Getting more employees and alumni to follow the LinkedIn will provide valuable opportunities for current and prospective students to connect with them.

INSTAGRAM The way that the Grady Journalism school uses their Instagram is something that the SJMC should emulate. Grady has over 3,000 followers and posts frequently about events involving alumni, current students and faculty.40 This is something that the SJMC already does on Facebook and Twitter, and doing so on Instagram would further expand their social media presence.

YOUTUBE While the SJMC currently has a YouTube account, the videos are not particularly viewer friendly. They are typically speeches that are around an hour in length.49

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INFLUENCERS INFLUENCER RECOMMENDATIONS One untouched potential for the SJMC lies in the use of influencers. Influencers are people that are well-connected and typically specialize in a certain area of interest, such as media gurus or advertising fanatics.51 They are a crucial aspect to campaigns as they have a strong and known voice over their audiences. Influencers also have the power to raise awareness about products or programs such as the SJMC. As influencers range from celebrities to people on social platforms with niche followings of 1,000 people, the below recommendations encompass individuals with different size followings. Regardless of an influencers size, their goal remains the same: to influence a group of people.52 Here are four influencers the SJMC should be utilizing to capture their current and potential undergraduate audience. The first three recommendations are social media influencers. Social media influencers are no different than regular influencers, except they each spread awareness and promote their passions through their social channels.

LAUREN BERGER

KATIE HEPLER PARIS BOSWELL LAUREN BERGER

CAROLINE SULLIVAN 30

the Reporting track, and Lauren Berger can help offer more opportunities.54 The Intern Queen has Lauren Berger, also known as the Intern Queen, a following of about 40,500 followers on Twitter, is a successful career expert whose main goal is 22,500 YouTube subscribers and 21,700 Instagram helping students find internships.15 She also has followers.55, 56, 57 created a “career queen” site as a continuation of her brand which is in the process of being ac- Our rationale for leveraging this social influencer tive.53 Many of these internships are in the media is: Lauren Berger has strong connections to realm, and she has a very strong influence over internship opportunities on the East and people within the 18-24 age demographic. In the West Coasts—incoming students who are SJMC, more than half of current undergraduate not from the Midwest may be nervous to students think that Strategic Communication track choose Wisconsin because of this, but an offers more job and internship opportunities than 31

SWOT influencer like Lauren Berger could help settle those fears.

The opportunity to participate in internships during college years appears to be one of the most important factors for prospective college students as well as their parents, so Lauren Berger could help drive this push for internships. 58

Her diverse background makes her relatable to a vast range of SJMC students Hepler currently resides in Madison, making it likely her influence can be leveraged at on-campus events Hepler worked at many of the top agencies which is most likely attractive to a majority of the current Strategic Communication students to have the chance to hear her speak

Berger is a successful career woman whom students could aspire to be like and she is a public speaker who could potentially speak to the SJMC.53 PARIS BOSWELL

CAROLINE SULLIVAN Caroline Sullivan is “a proud alumna of the University of Wisconsin-Madison” and current marketing manager for the Wisconsin Alumni Association and UW Foundation. Caroline has a micro following on Twitter and Instagram.15

Paris is a lifestyle influencer on both Youtube and Instagram and also a current freshman at UW Madison.15 As an undergraduate is who still undecided about her major, her video content features how she decided on UW Madison in her senior year of high school as well as looks into days in her life as a freshman-vlogging activities such as her J201 class, her social media internship with UW Athletics, studying and social activities on campus.

Our rationale for leveraging this social influencer is: Using a former SJMC student will help es- Her college-specific lifestyle content is attractive to tablish authenticity for Caroline Sullivan as both sides of the undergraduate audience: potenan influencer tial high school seniors who are interested in pursuing journalism and current undergraduates who Sullivan is actively involved with the Univer- are undecided about their major. As someone who sity, allowing her to have a public influence is already involved in media production and social when attending events in the area in addi- media marketing, she is already more inclined to tion to her pre-existing social influence be interested in curriculum that is part of the strategic communications track within the SJMC. Lastly, Sullivan’s Instagram feed is lifestyle-esque Paris is local and accessible for the SJMC to reach and relatable for future students out to and potentially inquire about documenting her SJMC experience for her followers

KATIE HEPLER

These proposed influencers were picked for a variKatie is a School of Journalism and Mass Commu- ety of reasons. In order to paint a full picture of the nication alumni with over a decade of marketing SJMC, we have chosen influencers that will help experience ranging from top agencies in New York highlight different components and inspire various City to her current position as Marketing Director groups of people to learn more about the SJMC’s reputation and offerings. for the Dairy Farmers of Wisconsin.59 Our rationale for leveraging this influencer is: 32

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KEY ISSUES AND OPPORTUNITIES

AUDIENCES TARGET AUDIENCE RESEARCH

cation track.64

DEMOGRAPHICS

Most of current SJMC undergraduate students think the SJMC has a large amount of prestige related to it, and they came to UW-Madison mainly because of the school’s reputation.65

More than 86 percent of the undergraduate SJMC students were females, while only 19 percent were males, and 84 percent of undergraduate students in the SJMC were white. 60 Almost 80 percent of SJMC undergraduate students were from the Midwest.61

Given our findings, our agency believes the top three key issues or opportunities that our client should address are: Gaining current/prospective student awareness of the SJMC through relatable campus and social influencers Capitalize on present strengths like client-based projects, student organizations and variety of course offerings Current and new social media channels can create online communities and foster networking opportunities for undergraduate students within the SJMC

OVERALL SOCIAL MEDIA PLAN GOAL AND ROLE The goal of our agency’s social media plan is to showcase the benefits, experiences and offerings of the UW-Madison School of Journalism and Mass Communication through strategically placing content on current and future platforms. The role of social media will be to provide content that is authentic, real-time and representative of the programing within SJMC. Social media will serve as a hub for current and prospective undergraduate students who are already active social media users through fun and interactive content.

34

The median household income of students from UW-Madison is $95,700, and 40 percent of the students came from the top 20 percent.62

ATTITUDES Students think social media helps them in decision making.63 Most students consider tuition the top most factor, when choosing colleges.58 More than 80 percent of college students choose majors based on their passion and interests.58 Young people think getting a job, acquire new skills and higher pay are the top three motivations, and they expect more diverse experiences and various internship opportunities in college.58 Most SJMC undergraduate students whose majors are undecided don’t think the SJMC has a large amount of prestige.64 Undergraduate students that are not in the SJMC regard Journalism as a relatively easy major. Students think the SJMC mainly focuses on writing, publishing and reporting, and are unaware of the Strategic Communi-

Most SJMC undergraduate students didn’t know that the school offers two tracks before entering the school, but after getting in, they think the Strategic Communication track has more internship opportunities than Reporting.66 SJMC students have positive attitude toward the SJMC’s website, but they expect more information about prominent alumni on different platforms.66

BEHAVIORS Facebook is still the most widely used social media platform in the U.S., but around 80 percent of young individuals nowadays use Snapchat, and more than 70 percent of young people use Instagram, whereas only 45 percent are Twitter users.67 Generally, female undergraduate students is 12 percent more often in social media use than male, and is 8 percent more often in website browsing.68 Young individuals increasingly communicate on social media through memes, instead of traditional ways, and they think this is a better way to engage with each other.

70 For high school students who chose UW-Madison, most of them are ranked in the 85 to 90th percentile in their high school classes, and have an average ACT score of 28.60 35

Students who consider Journalism or Com- while ensuring academic and professional success munication as their future major often love for current students in the SJMC. writing and English, or have experiences in high school magazine, yearbook or news- PRIMARY TARGET AUDIENCE paper.69 For students who take J201, more than 40 percent students take it for Comm B requirement, and they often visit advisor and Major Fairs to consult major information.64 Most current undergraduate students in the SJMC are social media savvy, and have social media accounts on different platforms.66 Students in general use more Facebook and Instagram than Twitter and YouTube, but most of them follow SJMC’s Twitter account because J202 asks to.66 SJMC undergraduate students who use SJMC’s website mainly visit pages about course and job information.66

Undecided undergraduate students Alex grew up in the Midwest and is at his second semester of Freshman year.69 Alex is still undecided about his major and currently taking J201 for Comm B requirement.69 Alex thinks Journalism is relatively an easy subject,69 because he loves writing and has experience in students’ magazine in high school. Marketing major in Wisconsin School of Business is Alex’s first consideration now, since he hopes to gain more practical experiences during college life.58 However, he doesn’t like science and is not good at math, therefore he is struggling because there are a lot of math requirements in the Wisconsin School of Business, but from his understanding, the SJMC focuses more on reporting,69 which provides more limited range of job prospective than Marketing.

Most SJMC undergraduate students have various internship experiences in Mass PRIMARY TARGET AUDIENCE RATIONALE Communication fields, such as PR and Advertising. 74 Behaviors

TARGET AUDIENCE PROPOSALS

Alex loves writing and worked in students’ magazine in high school, so he has higher writing skills and would increase his chance of getting into the SJMC. Moreover, Alex is currently enrolled in J201, therefore, he would be more actively receiving information about the SJMC from faculties since he is in the email list. Additionally, he loves communication and media, and the SJMC provides hands-on trainings on different media, such as video and infographics trainings in J202.73

Based on secondary research, we defined three target audiences. The primary target audience is UW-Madison undergraduate students with undecided majors. Our rationale behind this is that this group actively visits advisors and major fairs, and this demographic has relatively less knowledge about the SJMC’s detailed curriculum and programming. We also have high school students and current SJMC undergraduate students as our secondary and tertiary targets. With these audiences, the SJMC can optimize content strategy through Attitudes targeting different groups, which can ultimately Alex doesn’t like math but prefer Mass Commuattract more prospective students to the program nication, and compared to Business School, the 36

SJMC has no special mathematic requirements and has specialized courses in Public Relations and Social Media in Strategic Communication track.71 Furthermore, it is also an opportunity for the SJMC to target at Alex and students like him, since most of the students undecided are unaware about the Strategic Communication track, informing students about major information as well as the internship opportunities would largely increase the SJMC’s competitiveness on campus.

Enrollment Report from Office of the Registrar at UW-Madison, around 60 percent of all undergraduate students are from Wisconsin.71 Since Lindsey is a junior year high school student with a good grade, she often browses on websites or visits academic advisors to get information about different universities.72 Therefore, she would be more likely to notice and receive information about colleges and majors since she actively looks for it.

Behaviors SECONDARY TARGET AUDIENCE High School Students

Lindsey loves writing and is currently working at students’ magazine and newspaper, so she has a high intention to continue doing related works in college, and the related experience would increase her chance of getting into the SJMC. Moreover, she is fond of social media and also active on different platforms. Therefore, it is easier for the SJMC to target at her on social media, and she would also be willing to learn videos, designs in the future.

Born and grew up in a middle-class family in the Midwest, Lindsey is a high school junior who values family and friends. Lindsey ranks in the 85 to 90th percentile among her classes 69, and is currently working very hard on the ACT. She loves English literature and writing since she was little, which drives her to join her high school magazine and newspaper. With the development of social media, Lindsey dreams Attitudes to have her own website or video channels to SJMC offers practical experiences in coursrecord her everyday life in diverse ways. Within es from 200 level to 400 level as well as diftwo years, Lindsey will be entering college. For ferent newspaper organizations and student her, college is the place where she could conclub, such as The Daily Cardinal and AdClub,73 tinue her passion and interests, with diverse which fit with Lindsey’s expectation of college experiences and various internship opportunilife that has diverse hands-on experiences. Furties.58 Lindsey regards tuition as the top most thermore, Lindsey hopes to graduate within 4 influential factor when selecting college, and years, and due to the systematic course schedshe hopes to gain more skills in college and ules and job post on SJMC’s website, 75 perearn a degree in four years or less. 58 cent of SJMC students graduate within 4 years with various internship experiences.73 SECONDARY TARGET AUDIENCE

RATIONALE Demographics Lindsey lives in the Midwest where UW-Madison is nearby, and since she values family and friends, she would be more likely to go to a college that’s near her home. According to the

TERTIARY TARGET AUDIENCE Current SJMC undergraduate students Sarah is a Junior SJMC student under the Strategic Communication track. She is fond of different social media, and consider them as plat37

TERTIARY TARGET AUDIENCE RATIONALE

learned about the SJMC through class and was curious to learn what the school was all about. 77 percent of non-SJMC students at UW Madison are unaware that the SJMC offers both reporting and strategic communication as options for areas of concentration.66 Step 3: The student headed to the SJMC website to learn more about the programs offered and student organizations affiliated with the School. The student also noticed the job opportunities posted on the job board, which would come in handy for future internships and careers.

Step 4: Excited about all the neat opportunities the SJMC had to offer, the student decided to apply to the undergraduate program.

Sarah is currently a Junior student in SJMC and follows SJMC’s social account and she reads all contents that SJMC posts. Also, since Sarah appreciates the job posting page on SJMC’s Step 5: Once the student gained admission website, it is important to continue improving to the SJMC, they followed all the SJMC sothe page for current undergraduate students cial channels to stay updated on campus to keep the website’s impression. Furthermore, events, program offerings and networking Sarah thinks the SJMC should engage more opportunities. prominent alumni so that current students could have clearer career perspectives, therefore, this could be an opportunity for SJMC to FOR SECONDARY TARGET AUDIENCE... develop a social media alumni network on platStep 1: Due to their love of writing and acforms such as LinkedIn, as well as attract more tive involvement with the student newspapotential SJMC students. per and yearbook committee, the prospective undergraduate SJMC student eagerly CONSUMER JOURNEY searched for the top journalism programs in the nation. Sixty-two percent of reporting FOR PRIMARY TARGET AUDIENCE... students knew they wanted to do reporting before coming to UW-Madison and stuck Step 1: The student has taken at least one with it. 76 semester of classes at UW and stumbled upon J201. Based on primary research, this Step 2: Searched for top Journalism schools student is more inclined to love writing, conand saw a list for top state schools with high sider future economic opportunity, value a rankings and decided to apply to all of them. supportive community within UW Madison Reporting students generally consider highand seek out out a niche within the school.75 ly competitive and reputable journalism schools in their college application process.

Step 2: The J201 undergraduate student 76 38

Step 3: The student ultimately chose UW-Madison for its affordability for in-state students and its world-wide recognition Step 4: After a tough decision process, student chose SJMC and followed the various social media channels to stay updated.

Step 5: On campus student took J201 and then applied to the program.

FOR TERTIARY TARGET AUDIENCE...

Step 1: Student took J202 and was told to follow SJMC’s Twitter page. The largest followed platform among SJMC students is Twitter at 51 percent, but 27 percent of SJMC students don’t follow SJMC on any one their platforms.66 Step 2: Continue to make a strong network on campus and find employment through job postings on social media platforms.

Step 3: Become active alumni on social media through the primary use of LinkedIn.

SOCIAL MEDIA TARGET PERSONA

”

forms to share fun moments spent with families and friends. Sarah is following SJMC’s social account such as Facebook to receive daily news and event updates from the school. She also follows Twitter, but mostly because J202 asked all students to.65 Sarah uses SJMC’s website very often, and she appreciates the job posting page on SJMC’s website since it helps her a lot in getting more internship experiences.65 As a junior student who plans to graduate next year, Sarah wants to know more about prominent alumni to build connections with them and be inspired from their career paths.65

MEET ALEX - An undergraduate student at UW-Madison with an undecided major

I came into college not knowing what I wanted to do. I took a couple math and science classes that didn’t go so well, but then I stumbled upon Journalism 201 to satisfy my Comm-B prerequisite. I thought about applying to the Wisconsin School of Business, but I am not interested in taking Economics and Finance classes. I have always been a creative individual and after hearing about the Strategic Communication track within the School of Journalism and Mass Communication (SJMC), I am going to consider applying to the SJMC.

”

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WHAT I VALUE MOST Having a memorable “Wisconsin Experience” – I want to establish valuable connections with my peers and faculty Using my passions and skills to grow – I want to grow on both a personal and professional level throughout my time at UW-Madison

SOCIAL MEDIA OBJECTIVES AND STRATEGIES

Having a well-rounded skill set – I want to have a lot of job options after graduation

MY SOCIAL BEHAVIOR I have an outgoing and personable personality, so I love communicating with people.

I like to keep updated on current events, try new things and challenge myself.

I am active on social media and has a life outside academic i.e. extracurricular activities.

WHY I AM CONSIDERING THE SJMC The SJMC consistently places high in national rankings.

I have always enjoyed writing, and it would be beneficial to learn how to write better because writing skills are important in any future job.

I love channeling my inner-creativity and being with like-minded people when working on group projects.

I am looking for a tight-knit community within my potential major.

PRI MA RY SEC OND ARY

WHERE AND HOW I CONNECT Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Snapchat and Twitter

WHAT TYPE OF CONTENT I LIKE TO SEE ON SOCIAL MEDIA Current events, breaking news, sports news, comedy and politics

THINGS I LOVE Sports, YouTube, Politics/Current Events, Apple Music, ESPN, Fox Sports, CNN 68

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TER TIA RY

OBJECTIVES - Generate excitement and interest in the major - Increase engagement rates on social media - Showcase prestige of the SJMC in a more efficient way

STRATEGIES - Develop targeted messages at the right place, right time to reach and resonate with our audience - Create a social media policy to govern engagement - Leverage influencers, student ambassadors and alumni to post about the SJMC’s valued reputation

OBJECTIVES - Redirect prospective students to the SJMC website to find out about the offerings - Increase awareness of the small, close-knit SJMC community to pro spective students

STRATEGIES - Utilizing statistics and testimonials from distinguished alumni on social media platforms as a tool to get prospective students on the website - Create more information about class sizes and faculty-student ratio in the SJMC

OBJECTIVES - Grow a community of current SJMC students, faculty and alumni - Demonstrate how the SJMC community lasts longer than your undergraduate years

STRATEGIES - Utilize LinkedIn as a hub for networking and employment opportunities - Give incentive to current students to become strong alumni

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STRATEGIC RECOMMENDATION AND CONTENT DISTRIBUTION GUIDELINES GOALS FOR SJMC Based on the current social media presence of SJMC on Facebook and Twitter, our agency believes the content is at a great starting point. We have developed a breakdown of the content distribution for each platform, as well as what type of content will be consistently shared. Furthermore, we have an example of a weeks worth of content, which includes the following information: date, time, channel, visual, topic, copy and links. Then, that same schedule is integrated in the month-long calendar, which showcases the posting habits for a month across SJMC channels.

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The spreadsheet (above) is a week long breakdown of different content that is scheduled to be published on a specific platform. Each post contains supplementary information, like links, copy and visuals to make sure the post will reach it’s highest performance. The calendar (below) maps the week out.

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The calendars (both above and below) showcase how the color key is used to visualize what posts are going out on what platform. These blocks will align with the spreadsheet (content calendar) to make sure all posts are accounted for and repurposed depending on the medium.

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THE “BIG IDEA” PIERCING INSIGHT With credible faculty that care for their students, and small class sizes that allow students to collaborate and network with peers, the SJMC fosters a lasting connection that embodies the Wisconsin Idea.

BRAND CONNECTION The SJMC provides great leadership and professional opportunities to make students marketable when entering the workforce. With many opportunities to create deliverables for real clients, the SJMC keeps students on their feet with exciting opportunities. Regardless of which track they pursue, SJMC students obtain tangible results to showcase on their portfolio websites and at job interviews.

BIG IDEA The SJMC embodies “connection” in every sense of the word.

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C areers O rganization N etworking N ew friendships E xperience C ollaboration T raining I nternships O pportunities N ationally Acclaimed

NEW SOCIAL STRATEGY PROPOSAL

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NEW SOCIAL MEDIA STRATEGY SUMMARY When thinking of the School of Journalism and Hence, our theme is: Mass Communication (SJMC) at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, connection is an integral component of the program. Regardless of one’s affiliation with the program, it is evident that those within SJMC community are eager to pursue new opportunities and have a passion for learning.

CONNECT. COLLAB. CREATE.

As a nationally acclaimed academic institution, the SJMC and it’s brand voice should remain steady across all social mediums. However, we would like to tweak messaging tactics to best cater information to each audience demographic. That being said, each social medium embodies an unique tone that stems from the overall brand voice. For instance, Twitter is a more laid-back platform so The hashtags that would support this theme it allows for a more conversational tone, whereas include: LinkedIn requires a tone that is more professional.

Although the SJMC’s tone will slightly vary across platforms, the brand voice will remain consistent and align with that of the University.

After preparing strategic social media plans, all three agency groups decided there was plenty of overlap amongst our materials. Through brainstorming and planning, our agency groups found common themes pertaining to connection, collaboration and creativity.

#SJMConnect #SJMCollab #SJMCreate

FACEBOOK Facebook and Youtube still dominate, meaning that U.S. adults use these social media platforms the most compared to others. Even though younger Americans (18-24 years old) tend to use a variety of platforms, they still use Facebook a good amount.1 However, Facebook is losing users each year, especially those who are below the age of 24.2 Yet, people still turn to this medium for general information, especially when it comes to higher education. Facebook is also a great platform to introduce and be a voice for other mediums that have not been introduced to the public or are maybe more low-key and underleveraged.

For our campaign, we want to use Facebook as a hub for all general information pertaining to the SJMC. Facebook is the platform we want to brand as the “universal” medium. Facebook would be a great place for the SJMC to introduce or share posts from other social media platforms that do not have much traffic i.e. LinkedIn. SJMC’s LinkedIn is underleveraged at the moment. Hence, Facebook would be a great place to spread the word about the SJMC’s use of the platform since SJMC’s Facebook as a good number of likes and following at the moment. For instance, a Facebook post could link to SJMC LinkedIn post. Currently, SJMC is doing a good job posting regularly on Facebook, so taking advantage of this fact would be a suitable next step. It’s also important to remember that all post should contain a visual or some sort, especially video content since video posts get more engagement and perform better compared to other posts on Facebook.3 Regarding tone, we want to aim to have a happy medium between laid-back and professional. We want to be able to be comprehensive, but also engage our audience in a fun yet appropriate manner. Our social media influencers would not have a role on this platform since we want their focus to be on Instagram and YouTube primarily.

FACEBOOK WALL:

With respect to the undergraduate student demographic, we discovered that they connect with the School of Journalism and Mass Communication (SJMC) when they are on campus, collaborate with peers within courses and student organizations, and create deliverables for clients, course projects and their portfolios.

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SAMPLE FACEBOOK POSTS

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the news, making it a great place to share information about upcoming events.14 Additionally, Twitter can help reach our objective of showcasing the prestige of the SJMC by posting links to newsworthy stories about professor accolades. The best performing content on Twitter is engaging, interactive or includes a picture.15 The SJMC should use Twitter to better connect with their undergraduate audience though engaging Tweets and replies.

SAMPLE TWEETS

Unlike Facebook and other social platforms, Tweets are displayed chronologically. This makes Twitter a great platform for Tweeting in real-time. By responding to people’s Tweets, the role of Twitter becomes conversational. Here are three hashtags that will help unify content on Twitter: #SJMConnect, #SJMCreate, #SJMCollab These hashtags will be used to distinguish the types of posts on Twitter. For example, #SJMConnect will be great for posts focused about applying to the SJMC and content that connects all 3 audiences of the SJMC. #SJMCreate and #SJMCollab can be used for posts focused on showcasing students working together and their final class projects. Consistently using hashtags will allow for a unified content stream from the SJMC and their audience, but these hashtags do not need to appear on every Tweet.

TWITTER As all undergraduate students are required to create and follow the SJMC on Twitter during J202, Twitter serves as an all encompassing news source for undergraduate students. Seventy-one percent of Twitter users turn to this social medium to read 52

Additionally, a “Work Wednesday” Tweet will be sent out every Wednesday to replace the SJMC job Twitter. This will draw more traffic to the Twitter as well as redirecting people to the SJMC website where they can find a full job listing. In terms of paid functions of Twitter, promoted Tweets could be used at strategic times such as following new acceptances to the SJMC to grow the following.

As for influencers, Twitter will not be a main platform for them. However, some of our influencers are active on Twitter so they should be leveraged for certain events or information that the SJMC feels is relevant to their unique brands.

The brand tone for Twitter should be personable and witty. While keeping a consistent voice with our other platforms that mimics the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s channels, Twitter’s ability to interact with its followers creates a conversational tone of voice.

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The Twitter homepage already has a great look to it. We recommend changing the cover photo seasonally to reflect what is currently happening with the SJMC. This could be as simple as a change in seasonality to different scenery or a photo from graduation.

INSTAGRAM Instagram delivers a unique opportunity to celebrate the personality of the SJMC brand, find their “image” and keep in the minds of our target demographic on a daily basis every day. Our agency decided that an Instagram presence should be developed in addition to the Twitter and Facebook accounts to reach potential students in a more visually engaging way. Instagram also provides the strategic opportunity to optimize on content that SJMC students are already creating, both in and out of the classroom, and repurpose it in a way that advertises that various skills one can receive from an SJMC education. Instagram is a cost-effective way to showcase and reshare user-generated content without creating additional strain to the current marketing efforts.

The role of this medium is to showcase what make the SJMC spectacular is a timely and visual manner. In research recently published as part of a Facebook study on Instagram usage among young adults, the medium serves to foster place where 54

teens and adults go to discover what’s new, what’s next, what their fellow peers are doing.19, 20 Instagram captures the immediacy of the moment, photos and videos in their feeds provide an instant connection to that individual or community. Consequently, the stories feature on this app would be a great tactic for the SJMC to leverage in order to showcase accomplishments of students, faculty, organizations and more effectively and with a more personal tone. In fact, stories are one of the fastest growing tools for brand on this platform, as 500 million users interact with them on a daily basis, doubling from 250 million in 2017.21 Stories can provide immediate visual depictions of what a day in the life of an SJMC student looks like through the lense of a current student. Example events to document with this tactic include awards ceremonies, guest speakers in classes, final presentations and more.

Instagram is particularly pertinent for the SJMC to effectively utilize because the platform has the highest engagement rate per post out for higher education institutions of all the social mediums.22 55

Higher education's engagement rate makes sense given the highly targeted audience, despite them posting less frequently on average than many other industries. Furthermore, Monday has the most engagement for education of the week. This serves as a way to weekly updates for students that is quick, visually engaging and provides call to action mechanisms. Given these guidelines, the SJMC can formulate a preliminary Instagram that receives optimal engagement while strengthening the overall revised social media strategy.

In terms of influencers, our agency has decided that user-generated content creation is the key to success on this medium. While we want to emphasize a professional feel across our entire strategy, it was noted in the preliminary presentation that SJMC’s resources were limited in terms of paid or external production. However, our class determined that content created by students, whether mandated by a class or on their own, is more authentic, and consequently, more relatable to users of this medium. Student influencers can be leveraged to curate in-depth visual still and video pieces for Instagram content, that in turn, can be repurposed for other social mediums. In addition, Instagram stories provide the opportunities to repost content that has been tagged with the various #SJMConnect hashtags, creating a mutually beneficial, authentic relationship between the SJMC brand and user-generated content.

The SJMC brand, like the plethora of people that embody its spirit, often have rich and unique narratives to share. To resonate most vividly with our target audience, the SJMC will want to channel the authentic perspective that only they can offer the world. Instagram optimization can reveal how our program and its participants see the world differently, using their distinct points of view to guide content creation and inspire other people on the platform.

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SAMPLE INSTAGRAM FEED POSTS

SAMPLE INSTAGRAM STORY POSTS

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LINKEDIN Through the use of LinkedIn, the SJMC has great potential and plenty of room for growth. From our initial strategy, our agency identified two objectives that would cater to our tertiary target audience of current SJMC undergraduate students: (1) grow a community of current SJMC students, faculty and alumni, and (2) demonstrate how the SJMC community lasts beyond the undergraduate years. Given these objectives, we have identified that LinkedIn is a hub for professional networking and employment opportunities, as well as a platform to encourage current SJMC students to stay connected with the program as they grow to be strong, successful alumni. The role of LinkedIn is unique from other social mediums because it is geared toward educational, research and professional audiences and allows users to connect with a variety of individuals that share similar interests and roles.

LinkedIn users are college graduates.31 Because of this, LinkedIn would be beneficial for current SJMC students to use because they will be graduating within two or three years of being admitted to the program. Once they graduate, they will align with the college graduate demographic. Leveraging LinkedIn will allow for these former SJMC students to stay connected with the program, as many graduates have a high affinity toward the SJMC program and the University in general.

For example, one way to keep current and former SJMC students connected with the SJMC program is providing opportunities that benefit both parties.

Networking events, guest speakers, panel sessions and professional preparation events are a few ways to increase awareness and knowledge of the SJMC on campus, as well as increase network development and encourage involvement from students and alumni. LinkedIn would be a great medium to showcase or recap events that involve According to secondary research, content that successful alumni returning to campus because performs well on LinkedIn includes: links, images, they are mentoring and inspiring undergraduate videos, PDFs and documents, long- and short-form students on campus, who will eventually become pieces, professional wins and change posts.29 the next generation of communications professionPosts on LinkedIn that include links can generate a als.

45 percent higher follower engagement rate compared to posts without links.30 Given this statistic, A few other pieces of content, specific to LinkedIn, links that redirect to third-party sources, affiliated that would have high performance metrics include: social media accounts or websites would greatly Spotlights (faculty, students and alumni) benefit the SJMC because they are not only generating more engagement, but they are also driving Awards and accolades traffic toward different avenues and mediums to learn more information.

Coursework and in-depth projects For example, the SJMC can send out a weekly post every Wednesday called “Work Wednesday.” The copy for this post will be clear and concise, stating that new job and internship listings are available on the SJMC job board. With an eye-catching visual and a call-to-action of encouraging audience members to click on the link, the SJMC will drive traffic to their website, specifically the job board, and increase overall engagement. This content will be beneficial to the undergraduate audience because students within the 18-22 age demographic are bound to be searching for internship opportunities or entry-level roles to begin post-graduation.

Based off the percentage of adults in the United States that are active LinkedIn users, 50 percent of 60

SJMC Ambassador Applications #WorkWednesday Campus events Guest speakers and networking opportunities For content to successfully reach a target audience, it must be relevant, timely and interesting.

With the SJMC being a business platform, LinkedIn recommends posting once per day.31 Meltwater, a reputable social media monitoring platform,

recommends posting a minimum of three times per week and a maximum of twice per day.32 However, posting more than five times per week can not only be overwhelming for the audience, but cause a significant decrease in the number of clicks and return on investment (ROI).33 Given these recommendations, it is important to determine which days and what times of day attract higher engagement metrics among LinkedIn users.

Tuesday and Wednesday are the best days to post because they have a higher median in combination with 95th% percentile clicks.33 Monday is not an ideal day to post on LinkedIn because people are just getting started with their week and are not actively engaging with content on the platform yet.

Friday is also not an ideal day to post on LinkedIn because people tend to not have work or class on Friday’s, meaning they are less likely to be active on LinkedIn. For the time of day, there is a general decline in clicks past 5:00pm, implying that it is most appropriate to post on LinkedIn during business hours.33 In conclusion, posting Tuesday and Wednesday between 8:00am-5:00pm will help the SJMC drive engagement because students, faculty and alumni are likely to be active on LinkedIn within this timeframe.

The three principles for success pertaining to LinkedIn are (1) consumer demographics and insights, (2) social media strategy development and (3) identification of strong content. By understanding the attitudes, behaviors and overall demographics of the SJMC’s target audience on LinkedIn, the SJMC can determine when the audience is most frequently engaging with content distributed on LinkedIn. This will allow the SJMC to leverage insights and increase their social media metrics. The end goal is to increase organic reach and engagement. When distributing the right content on the right platform at the right time to the right audience, the SJMC brand will organically grow because audience members are actively engaging with the content since it is easy to digest and access.

Although social media influencers are trending and becoming more popular for brands, companies and services to use, we do not foresee social media influencers contributing the SJMC’s presence on LinkedIn. Rather than having distinct influenc-

ers, the SJMC can highlight the success of current and previous SJMC students. For example, if an undergraduate student lands an impressive summer internship or wins a scholarship, the SJMC can either post about it or share the content in which the student posts. By doing this, the SJMC will continue expanding their online LinkedIn community while showcasing the impressive successes of those affiliated with the program, ultimately elevating the reputation, programming and credibility of the SJMC brand.

The brand tone and manner for the SJMC on LinkedIn should be clear-cut, competent and sharp.

With the program being nationally acclaimed, the SJMC’s external presence on social media needs to live up to the reputation and embody a tone and manner that is sophisticated, yet comprehensible.

With this tone and manner, undergraduate students will understand the prestige of the program and know that they will benefit from the program throughout their time as a student and beyond.

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SAMPLE LINKEDIN POSTS

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SAMPLE BLOG POST

BLOGS Based on its unique features, an SJMC blog could provide detailed and in-depth information about the SJMC for our target audiences, as well as help increase the traffic and viewerships for the SJMC’s website. With that being said, the blog should have shorter articles as well to keep the reader’s attention. Our secondary research shows that 53% of total blog population are individuals aged from 21 to 35,40 and 12 million blogs are shared on social media platforms.41 Therefore, instead of establishing an additional blog website, the SJMC could create a new blog tab on the homepage of SJMC’s website, and share blog posts on other social media platforms. In this way, social media users could be directed to SJMC’s website, and learn more information about the school.

Blog posts would add fresh perspectives, as well as redirecting social media users to the main website. Since blog posts are generally more in-depth with longer content, the tone for blog posts should be more polished, organized and professional compared to other platforms. Also, since the blog page is affiliated within the SJMC’s main site, the title, font and pictures should be consistent with the other pages as well as SJMC’s brand image as a whole.

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In terms of the content, the average blog post length of top-ranked content in Google is between 1,140 to 1,285 words,42 but the ideal blog post length depends largely on the topic type. The SJMC’s blog posts should include both short and long posts, and will be shared on other social media platforms. For example, the SJMC could write short blog posts about words of advice for newly admitted SJMC students. As this is a lighter more casual topic, it could be shared on Facebook and as an Instagram story to generate more interactions. For longer posts, the SJMC could publish articles of a current student, faculty or alumni featuring their accomplishments in the SJMC. These more academically-related topics could be shared on LinkedIn, which would further showcase the SJMC’s professional image. In addition, interested students could write for the blog in a weekly column offering advice to their fellow students or professors could share words of wisdom.

Blogs will not be a main source for our influencers, however, certain posts could be linked to other platforms. According to our research, Lauren Berger, commonly known as the “Intern Queen,” has very strong influence on Twitter, YouTube and LinkedIn, especially of topic related to jobs and internships. Therefore, she could repost the SJMC’s career-based blog articles on Twitter and LinkedIn. Additionally Caroline Sullivan, a graduate from 65

UW-Madison could repost blogs related to SJMC general information and application advice, so that on-campus students could gain comprehensive knowledge of both tracks in the SJMC.

Live streaming in general has increased in popularity in recent years. Overall, 48% of internet users watch live streams once a month, including 23% that watch them every day and 47% that say they watch more live streams than they did a year ago.52 Additionally, 50% of all people who say they would be interesting in using live streams are in the 18-34 age range.53

Additionally, there are several existing blogs and influencers that the SJMC could leverage for the social media campaign. To start with, UW-Madison News website could be utilized strategically in this campaign, since UW-Madison News provides campus-wide news and information about events in different schools, and they’ve already covered series of expert spotlight for the SJMC.43 Therefore, this could help attract traffic for the SJMC’s website, as well as to show the academic prestige of the SJMC to our primary target audience.

Live streaming could be used by the SJMC to broadcast events live to followers that can’t be there in person. This could include a variety of SJMC events such as class activities and networking events. This could provide a behind-the-scenes look at the SJMC and showcase events to their followers on social media. This has the potential of giving the events a more personal perspective via interviewing people taking part in or leading the event in real time.

For our secondary target audience - high school students, the SJMC could strategically leverage the influence of higher education blogs, such as Inside Higher ED, which provides higher education news about major, faculty and students, and it also has around 92,000 followers on Facebook and 200,000 followers on Twitter.44, 45 Since high school students often browse blogs and websites for college information, this could help the SJMC to reach out to more high school population. Furthermore, Katie Hepler, one of our influencers could be utilized for blog post to target our tertiary target audience - current SJMC undergraduate student, since Katie graduated from the SJMC with various experiences in Strategic Communication field, and now she also visits the SJMC very often as guest speakers. She is not only active on social media platforms, but also forms close relationships with students offline. Therefore, Katie could repost articles about general advice and careers, which would attract more traffics to SJMC’s website, especially the job posting page.

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Events that would be of interest to alumni and undergraduates would likely be the most beneficial for the SJMC to livestream, considering most of their followers on social media channels are from these two groups. These events could include things such as ceremonies and awards events such as graduation, networking events such as the career fair, speeches from faculty, and classroom events such as the J202 final presentations. Followers of the SJMC on social media will be a part of these events that they otherwise wouldn’t have likely been aware of. This has the potential to inspire an incentive for these people to attend the event the next time it takes place, and in general increases awareness of events within the SJMC.

YOUTUBE

LIVE STREAMING Live streaming is a newer social medium that allows events to be streamed in real time to an online audience. There are apps that are specific to live streaming such as Meekrat and Periscope, but most major social media sites have integrated live streaming on their platforms in recent years.

For the SJMC, YouTube is a new avenue for showcasing SJMC’s prestige, generating viewers’ interests and passion through presenting information on videos, and it also helps the SJMC reach out to a broader range of audiences. According to YouTube’s data, 1.9 billion logged-in users visit YouTube every month.46 Pew Research Center also shows that, 73% of Americans use YouTube in 2018, compared with 68% for Facebook, which made YouTube become the most widely used social media platforms in the United States.47 Therefore, we realized that YouTube is a digital platform where potential and current SJMC members could connect and interact with the community. Based on the unique visual and video feature, YouTube could not only play a role of showcasing a panoramic picture of the SJMC, it could also serve as an categorized archive for various videos, such as interview with distinguished faculties, students’ work from course projects, as well as videos posted on other social media platforms.

The platforms that would be the most ideal for the SJMC to utilize live streaming currently would be Twitter and Facebook, considering their large followings. Facebook Live also has the most monthly users of any social media site, with over 1.86 billion users who use or view a live stream on Facebook monthly. Instagram is second with 600 million and Twitter has 317 million.51 Instagram’s live streaming is incorporated as a part of a user’s story and is deleted after 24 hours. On Facebook, live streams are archived permanently on users’ profiles.

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According to our secondary research, “how-to” videos and vlogs are among the most popular categories, whereas educational and reference contents ranked as less popular.48 Therefore, as a world-class academic institution, the SJMC could include entertaining and professional tones together, showcasing both academic achievement and students’ life via different playlists. For instance, one playlist has longer videos about conferences featuring guest speakers, and another playlist includes students’ life in the SJMC, which could be more toward vlog styles with a student holding camera and walking through lectures and labs.

Three video examples: A 30-second short video of acronyms of “connection.”

Begins with a question showing on screen: “what comes to mind when you think of the SJMC?” through a handwriting style with 2x faster speed.

Ten faculty members and students facing the camera say acronyms of “connection” one by one in a fast pace, with inspirational and sincere tones.

Short clip showing each acronym of “connection” in a vertical way, and a single image showing “CONNECTION” in the middle, with a slight zoom-in.

Lastly, SJMC’s logo with white background.

Some playlists ideas are: Theme color: white and red, to form a simple but bright style, which also resonates with UW-Madison’s cardinal red.

Learn about the SJMC: overall introduction videos to show SJMC’s prestige

Background music: light hearted, fast paced and with rhythm.

Reporting Track: classes in Reporting Track and students’ works Strategic Communication Track: classes in Strategic Communication Track, students’ pitch videos Graduate and Ph.D Faculties Alumni Events and Conferences Life in the SJMC

for the SJMC’s account, different target audiences might result in different posting time. If the SJMC creates a playlist about application tips for our primary target audience - on campus undecided students, it is important to check the data of viewers aged 18 to 20 from Madison area and decide which time works best for them.

In addition to different playlist, there will be another introduction video on the SJMC’s YouTube home page, which generally introduces both Reporting Track and Strategic Communication Track or shows the overall experience of being a member in the community. There will also be a short summary about the video, with the SJMC’s website link attached to it.

In terms of timely posts, research shows that the average viewership for YouTube reaches its peak from Thursday to Sunday,49 but it is better to refer to YouTube Analytics and make a consistent decision based on different accounts.50 Therefore, 68

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A 2-minute student/faculty profile video Begins with title introducing the topic - e.g.: “Meet XXX (student or faculty)” “Editor-in-Chief of XXX(organization)” Series of Interview clips of the student/faculty facing with the camera introducing about themselves, their responsibilities and their thoughts towards certain topics.

Between each clips, insert questions as a way to transit.

At the end of the video, use SJMC’s logo with white background.

Theme color: white and cardinal red.

Background music: cool, light hearted and with rhythm.

SAMPLE YOUTUBE VIDEOS

YouTube is a platform that shows both SJMC’s diversity and prestige through visuals, since it could include different playlists showcasing various aspects.

The style of SJMC’s YouTube account depends on different playlists. For instance, the overall SJMC’s introduction video should be inspirational, welcoming and professional, and the videos of students’ life could be more fun and more creative. Therefore, the combination of different video styles enables audience to understand both the rigorous academics and the sense of connection.

Overall SJMC introduction video (3 minutes maximum) Begins with series of photos or short footages of SJMC’s classrooms, labs and different classroom scenes shown in a fast pace.

Several interview clips of faculties introducing the SJMC’s course setting and benefits students could gain from the SJMC. Several interview clips of students talking about their experiences in the SJMC. SJMC’s logo with white background at the end.

Color: all titles are white.

Music: inspirational, light-hearted and with rhythm.

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SUGGESTIONS

SOURCES

1. Repurpose content from student organizations and courses

- Advertising Club

- Association for Women in Communications

- Association for Women in Sports Media

- Curb Magazine

- PRSSA

- The Badger Herald

- The Badger Report

- The Daily Cardinal

- Wisconsin Union Directorate (WUD)

- WSUM 97.1 FM

SOCIAL MEDIA STRATEGY

2. Work with students and organizations on campus to create new content

- American Institute for Graphic Arts (AIGA) - Freelancers - Wisconsin Photography Club

3. Allow for more opportunities for student involvement

- Hire additional interns

- Freelancing opportunities

- SJMC Student Ambassadors (similar to that of WSB)

- Combine internship/freelance gigs with the Journalism 697

Internship Course so students will receive credit and experience while helping advance the SJMC brand

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1 https://d1hpan0pemm9te.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/sites/36/2018/06/report-gpa-2017-2018spring.pdf 2 https://twitter.com/uw_sjmc 3 https://www.facebook.com/uwmadisonsjmc/?ref=br_ tf&epa=SEARCH_BOX 4 https://www.linkedin.com/company/uw-madison-school-of-journalism-and-mass-communication 5 https://www.youtube.com/user/UWMadisonSJMC/videos 6 https://journalism.wisc.edu 7 http://totalaccess.emarketer.com/chart.aspx?r=217443 8 https://www.facebook.com/MedillNU/ 9 https://www.medill.northwestern.edu/ 10 TweetReach Database 11 http://grady.uga.edu/ 12 https://journalism.missouri.edu/admissions/undergraduate/ 13 https://media.illinois.edu/ 14 https://wsb.wisc.edu 15 Klear Influencer Database 16 Meltwater Database 17 https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?cat=958&date=today%201-m&geo=US&q=%2Fm%2F0407bc5,%2Fm%2F0c020tc 18 http://www.twitonomy.com/profile.php?sn=uwbusiness 19 https://www.linkedin.com/school/wisconsin-school-of-business/ 20 Twitter Analytics. https://analytics.twitter.com/about 21 https://twitter.com/UWBusiness 22 https://twitter.com/WSBresearch 23 https://twitter.com/medillschool?lang=en 24 https://twitter.com/collegeofmedia?lang=en 25 https://followerwonk.com/ 26 https://twitter.com/UGAGrady 27 https://twitter.com/mujschool?lang=en 28 http://www.socialmention.com/search?q=Missouri+School+of+Journalism&t=all&btnG=Search 29 https://www.facebook.com/collegeofmedia/ 30 https://www.facebook.com/ugagrady/ 31 https://www.facebook.com/mujschool/ 32 https://www.linkedin.com/school/wisconsin-school-of-business/ 33 https://chiefexecutive.net/fortune-500-ceos-wisconsin/ 34 https://www.youtube.com/user/WIBusiness 35 https://www.instagram.com/medillschool/ 36 https://www.linkedin.com/company/northwestern-university-medill-school-company/ 37 https://www.youtube.com/user/NUMedill1 38 https://www.instagram.com/mujschool/ 39 https://www.linkedin.com/school/missouri-school-of-journalism/ 40 https://www.instagram.com/ugagrady/ 41 https://www.linkedin.com/school/grady-college-of-journal-

ism-and-mass-communication-university-of-georgia/ 42 https://www.youtube.com/user/UGAGradyCollege 43 https://www.instagram.com/collegeofmedia_/ 44 https://www.linkedin.com/in/college-of-media-at-illinois-33116125/ 45 https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCzaFjZILHXRLM0cXLLWOwMw 46 https://www.facebook.com/uwmadisonsjmc/ 47 https://twitter.com/uw_sjmc 48 https://www.linkedin.com/school/uw-madison-school-of-journalism-and-mass-communication/ 49 https://www.youtube.com/user/UWMadisonSJMC 50 https://www.facebook.com/wisconsinschoolofbusiness/ 51 Huq, N. How To Activate An Influencer Network With Converged Media. Course Reading.

52 Talbot, K. (Nov. 25, 2018). From Nano Influencers to Instagram Entrepreneurs: 3 Hot Trends In Influencer Marketing.

Course Reading.

53 https://www.internqueen.com/content/about-lauren-berger 54 Survey results of primary research on all SJMC students.

(2017).

55 https://twitter.com/InternQueen?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor 56 https://www.youtube.com/channel/UChS8T2GX7XQeaiDreP4rNdQ 57 https://www.instagram.com/internqueen/?hl=en 58 Attitudes towards higher education. (2015). Mintel. Retrieved from: www.mintel.com 59 https://journalism.wisc.edu/staff/hepler-katie/ 60 Folder- Final Undergrad Research & Info, Document- 2015/2016 Demos) 61 BOV Survey 62 Economic diversity and student outcomes at the University of Wisconsin. (2017). The New York Times. Retrieved from: https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/projects/college-mobility/university-of-wisconsin 63 Attitudes to internet and new media marketing, US (2010). Mintel.

64 Non J Schooler Survey Result. 2017 65 Strategic Communication and Reporting students survey result. 2017 66 All SJMC students survey result. 2017 67 Social media use in 2018. (2018). Pew Research Center.

Retrieved from: http://www.pewinternet.org/2018/03/01/social-media-use-in-2018/ 68 Simmons One Review, 2019. Retrieved from: https://oneview.simmonsresearch.com/ 69 Secondary research presentation of undergraduate students, 2017 70 Influencer marketing trends. (2018). WGSN. Retrieved from: https://www.wgsn.com/insight#/home 71 https://registrar.wisc.edu/enrollment-reports/ 72 Interview with High School Counselor Guidance, 2017 73 The School of Journalism and Mass Communication web-

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SOURCES site. Retrieved from: https://journalism.wisc.edu 74 Spring 2017 Internship Survey, 2017 75 Primary research powerpoint. 2017 76 Research on reporting student survey result. 2017

NEW SOCIAL STRATEGY PROPOSAL 1 https://www.pewinternet.org/2018/03/01/social-media-usein-2018/ 2 https://www.investopedia.com/news/aging-facebook-losing-teens-pew-research-survey/ 3 https://buzzsumo.com/blog/facebook-engagement-guide/ 4 https://www.dailycardinal.com/projects/persistence-the-womens-issue/persistence-news 5 https://journalism.wisc.edu/staff/lewis-a-friedland/ 6 https://fox11online.com/news/state/wisconsin-new-yorkgovernors-ask-trump-for-help-on-milk 7 https://observatory.journalism.wisc.edu/ 8 https://news.wisc.edu/uw-madison-student-to-use-prestigious-truman-scholarship-to-further-research-on-arts-education-access/ 9 https://ethics.journalism.wisc.edu/2019-gender-power-ethicaljournalism/ 10 https://journalism.wisc.edu/sports-communication-certificate/ 11 https://wisc.academicworks.com/users/sign_in 12 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gPQiQE3B7jg 13 https://journalism.wisc.edu/2019/04/17/sjmc-senior-stella-porter-wins-eric-miller-pathervision-scholarship/ 14 https://blog.hootsuite.com/twitter-statistics/ 15 https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/twitter-usage-stats 16 https://adclub.journalism.wisc.edu 17 https://www.instagram.com/taylorrshumann/ 18 https://ernstpr.com/what-is-ap-style/ 19 https://socialmediaweek.org/blog/2016/01/how-why-1324-year-olds-use-instagram/ 20 https://www.facebook.com/business/news/insights/growing-up-in-a-visual-world 21 https://www.cision.com/us/resources/white-papers/whatyour-business-needs-to-know-about-instagram 22 https://www.webstrategiesinc.com/blog/which-social-media-sites-get-the-most-engagement 23 https://www.linkedin.com/in/emilie-enke-31490b132/ 24https://www.instagram.com/meganotto6/ 25 https://journalism.wisc.edu/ 26 https://curb.journalism.wisc.edu/ 27 https://www.instagram.com/adclubwisc/ 28 https://www.linkedin.com/in/olivia-jones-403929129/ 29 https://business.linkedin.com/content/dam/me/business/ en-us/marketing-solutions/cx/2018/pdfs/linkedin-organic-paid.pdf 30 https://www.pewinternet.org/fact-sheet/social-media/

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31 www.linkedin.com 32 https://www.meltwater.com/uk/blog/how-often-shouldyou-post-on-social-media/ 33 https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/how-frequentlyshould-i-publish-on-social-media 34 https://www.google.com/search?rls=com.microsoft%3Aen-US%3AIE-Address&biw=1079&bih=581&tbm=isch&sa=1&ei=uK-8XM2uA87ktQXg34uwDw&q=professional+headshot+stock&oq=professional+headshot+stock&gs_l= img.3...1699.2308..2816...0.0..2.579.1554.1j3j5-2......1....1.. gws-wiz-img.......0j0i8i30j0i24.i20lEW-ahZM#imgrc=sksXT4jKFco5BM:&spf=1555869628765 35 https://www.google.com/search?q=lew+friedland+uw&rls=com.microsoft:en-US:IE-Address&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjo6KWJ5eHhAhVPiqwKHUqOBVQQ_AUIECgD&biw=1079&bih=581#imgrc=ZgN81fIQBCPt5M:&spf=1555870447726 36 https://www.google.com/search?q=college+woman+professional+headshot&rls=com.microsoft:en-US:IE-Address&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjB597M6eHhAhUPPq 37 https://journalism.wisc.edu/2019/04/18/sjmc-announces-new-sports-communication-certificate/ 38 https://www.google.com/search?q=uw+madison+career+fair&rls=com.microsoft:en-US:IE-Address&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwj58NG-7-HhAhVJOKwKHTbvAHAQ_AUIDigB&biw=1079&bih=581#imgrc=hS_pnyQ1X6gWLM:&spf=1555873242643 39 https://www.google.com/search?q=domeloz+logo&rls=com.microsoft:en-US:IE-Address&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiS7frE8OHhAhUHLK0KHQ15DZgQ_AUIDigB&biw=1079&bih=581#imgrc=avGVVOtTUjRHwM:&spf=1555873524198 40 https://sysomos.com/reports/blogger-demographics/ 41 https://www.simplemarketingnow.com/content-talks-business-blog/business-blogging-statistics 42 https://www.constant-content.com/content-writing-service/2018/10/blogging-stats/ 43 https://experts.news.wisc.edu/ 44 https://www.insidehighered.com/blogs 45 https://blog.feedspot.com/higher_education_blogs/ 46 https://www.youtube.com/intl/en-GB/yt/about/press/ 47 http://assets.pewresearch.org/wp-content/uploads/ sites/14/2018/03/01105133/PI_2018.03.01_Social-Media_FINAL.pdf 48 http://mediakix.com/2016/02/most-popular-youtube-videos/#gs.51zquv 49 https://www.tubefilter.com/2015/01/12/best-days-times-topost-youtube-videos-yearly-calendar/ 50 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8R3fnm0LxO8 51 https://appadvice.com/post/youtube-live-streaming/737678 52 http://www.emarketer.com/Article/Consumers-Streaming-Periscope-Meerkat/1012562 53 https://www.emarketer.com/Article/Some-Live-Streaming-

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SUPPLEMENTARY CASEBOOK PHOTOS AND DESIGN ELEMENTS 1 persona https://www.theodysseyonline.com/7-things-knowhow-to-do-before-college 2 https://www.google.com/search?q=twitter+white+transparent+logo&rlz=1C1GCEU_enUS821US821&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwi9npiAt-7hAhUDWa0KHSSrDjwQ_AUIDigB&biw=1428&bih=708#imgdii=Xr6ANWuo3LRolM:&imgrc=bhpa-aePPnKsHM: 3 https://www.google.com/search?rlz=1C1GCEU_enUS821US821&tbm=isch&q=white+facebook+circle+transparent+logo&spell=1&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiB6ObP1PDhAhVBiqwKHap9AdsQBQgzKAA&biw=1426&bih=702&dpr=1.1#imgrc=r67PE7li0AgI1M: 4 https://www.google.com/search?rlz=1C1GCEU_enUS821US821&biw=1426&bih=657&tbm=isch&sa=1&ei=cIrEXKv7EMGKtQX415TYDA&q=white+INSTAGRAM+circle+transparent+logo&oq=white+INSTAGRAM+circle+transparent+logo&gs_l=img.3...55642.59411..59695...1.0..0.107.1017.1 0j2......1....1..gws-wiz-img.7mxGkp5zxrs#imgrc=xvvf7QamFhsIqM: 5 https://www.google.com/search?rlz=1C1GCEU_enUS821US821&biw=1426&bih=657&tbm=isch&sa=1&ei=rYrEXO2-E4XIsQXW65eADw&q=white+LINKEDIN+circle+transparent+logo&oq=white+LINKEDIN+circle+transparent+logo&gs_l=img.3...59735.61060..61375...0.0..0.102.68 1.6j2......1....1..gws-wiz-img.vQ_nsZB7lbk#imgrc=FSIEOq5NEt6siM: 6 https://www.google.com/search?rlz=1C1GCEU_enUS821US821&biw=1426&bih=657&tbm=isch&sa=1&ei=7IrEXLGjLcnmsgWM0YO4Cg&q=white+YOUTUBE+circle+transparent+logo&oq=white+YOUTUBE+circle+transparent+logo&gs_l=img.3...0.0..138...0.0..0.0.0.......0......gws-wiz-img.

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