2. Overview
I became involved with an upcoming event on campus called Crossing
Boundaries in early August of this year. As I began to work with Dr. Nadine Bean to help
promote the information brought forward, I saw how vital a social media presence would
be. The goal of the Crossing Boundaries event was to promote resiliency, recovery, and
to promote an integrated healthcare system. Prior to the event I knew that it was
important to explain the different terms, project our goals, and gain an audience who
would be interested in the days’ events. So, with permission, I went ahead and created a
Facebook and Twitter page for the group. On October 1st, the symposium took place in
Sykes Student Union on West Chester University’s campus. The day brought together
various mental health professionals to explain the vital need for an integrated health care
system and curriculum. This day brought the awareness and gave us the support needed
to achieve our upcoming goals. In the following document I will explain how I created
the pages, the performance on social media, the goals I had and presently have, the
various strategies I use for the sites to keep users engaged, and my analytics plan. I also
will be briefing over the next step for the groups online presence through the creation of a
webpage separate from a social media platform.
Current Situation on Social Media
Initially, the pages were created as a way for people to communicate about the
event on October 1st and inform individuals who weren’t present. Leading up to this day I
generated posts that told people that they could stay updated through Facebook and
Twitter. It was prior to the event also when we informed the public of the days hash-tag
being #CrossingBounds. This was a way that we could have a live Twitter feed
throughout the various speakers and a collected place where we, along with followers,
could see all the tweets from the day. This worked great throughout the day and created
an interaction with individuals who we may not have had the chance to react with
otherwise. The speakers felt even more appreciated when people were quoting them and
giving them shout-outs. It was exciting to many of the people who never used social
media in this way before. It showed us how beneficial it would be to implement in future
events and campaigns. We currently have a mere eighty-two likes on the Facebook page
and ninety-two followers on Twitter.
Future Goals
Now that the event has passed and the WCU curriculum for Master of Social
Work has been updated, the next move for Crossing Boundaries is ideally to open an
Integrated Health Center in the area. Needing funding and grants to do so, it is imperative
that we keep the public updated with what’s going on. Fortunately, we are expecting to
receive the funding to do so come spring. So, the current goals for social media are to
launch the website, spread the news through blog posts, and attract people to the site
through Facebook and Twitter while simultaneously increasing likes and followers
substantially. Doing so will allow us to gain more credibility and users. We also have
plans to hold more events on campus, so another goal would be to gain more followers
from that and boost the tweets and posts. Overall, I feel like we’re moving at a slower
3. pace than I would have expected by now, but the following strategy will hopefully help
that.
Platform Strategy
As the PR and Social Media chair, I decided to only create a Facebook and
Twitter, at least for now. I felt that out of all the various social media sites, these two are
the most popular and useful when it comes to promoting and gaining interest for an
organization such as ours. I came to this conclusion by analyzing the average ages
associated with both sites and where the majority of starting organizations are located
online. We use our Facebook for more formal and longer posts. It is here where we have
posts that keep people updated. The addition of the website will allow us to direct people
there where they can gain a clearer understanding in a more organized format. So, until
the site is launched and we gain a strong presence on there, Facebook will continue to be
used as place where we generate long posts to alert people. The overall audience on
Facebook up until now has been primarily middle-aged professionals working to help
promote the ideas. We also have received likes from fellow WCU student’s who support
the goal of the group and the University as a whole.
Alternatively, our Twitter is used to expose ourselves to related groups,
companies, and individuals. We can use related hashtags and trending users in the fields
of mental health, depression, mental illness, health, wellness, and so on. It is here where
we tweet inspirational quotes, pictures, and re-tweet related articles. We can re-tweet
posts from individuals involved in the group and they will do the same. Like Facebook,
our audience has been many professionals already working in the field. However, we are
aiming to target these people, along with students in order to keep gaining support. We
really want to become engaged with both young and older people who are passionate and
supportive about the topics our group deals with.
The website, though currently still in development, will hopefully work in a
mutually beneficial way to pull people to our social media sites, and alternatively the
social media platforms directing people to the site once it’s live. The site will be broken
into the following categories: Home, MSW Curriculum, Our Inspirations, Events, Blog
and Contact. The following are examples of posts from the Facebook, Twitter, and the
websites layout currently.
Facebook
5. Website
Content Strategy
As we have seen time and time again, it is imperative that an organization closely
monitor what content goes on sites. Currently being the only person involved with the
groups social media content, the current strategy for posting and monitoring content
cause gone off of what my instincts tell me. Having been exposed to many cases where
this is not effective, I am currently looking to add another person onto the team. This
individual can serve as a way to have a second opinion on posts and monitoring the sites.
The only engagement with users up until now has been with re-posting, re-tweeting, and
giving them shout-outs. I have steered away from a lot of engagement because of the risk
of controversy. In working with another individual we will determine together how to go
about answering questions on the sites and other types of engagement.
Analytics Plan
The exact company we use to view the analytics of the sites is determined by
what we can afford as an organization. Currently we examine Facebook and Twitters
results when it comes to our users. Ideally, I’d love to pay to have a company such as
Google Analytics or Word Press observe and retrieve our user results. Word Press would
be the ideal option because of their feature to see how users reached a website and
external links they visit from our page. Using this company would verify that our goals
are being reach and help us to adjust where it is needed. By implementing all the
previously listed actions along with the addition of a new group member, I have the
highest of hopes for the future of this organization.
