BETA TumblrAccountA marketing campaign designed to introduce BETA PR to Alverno through a new social media site called Tumblr.

Created by Alverno students:Anjelica FindleyStephanie LewisAmanda Lynn

Crystal Roe

ContentsContents.....................................................................................................................................................2

The Client: Alverno College BETA Committee.....................................................................................3

Introducing Tumblr:...................................................................................................................................4

Tumblr’s Need at Alverno:.......................................................................................................................5

If You Create It, They Will Come............................................................................................................6

Part 1: The Research Section.................................................................................................................7

Knowing Competition.............................................................................................................................12

Part 2: Campaign Theme.......................................................................................................................14

Part 4: The Public Relations Program..................................................................................................15

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The Client: Alverno College BETA Committee

Alverno College, one of the nation’s largest Catholic women’s colleges, has been changing the lives of many individuals since their opening in 1887. At Alverno, a student is gaining much more than a diploma. Alverno emphasizes the importance of experiences that go beyond the classroom, which not only engages the student but it also connects the student to the world around them. The experiences Alverno offers focuses on each student’s goals and encourage her to dream big.

The College’s motto, In Sanctitate et Doctrina, meaning “in holiness and learning,” is used to inspire every student that walks through Alverno’s doors -- body, mind and heart. Currently, Alverno has over 2,600 students, both traditional weekday and non-traditional weekend students, with countless people around the world supporting their mission.

With a growing community, it is important to connect everyone that Alverno has shaped and transformed - past, present, and future. Recognizing the need to bridge the gap, Alverno wants to connect all individuals together under an up and coming social media site, Tumblr, with the goal being to integrate its followers together under one website.

The Audience: Past, Present, and Future

Even though Alverno College is a smaller campus compared to Division One schools like UW-Madison or Marquette University, Alverno’s phenomenal reputation as an institution is known all over the world. <insert example or citation> With that being said, the target audience for this campaign are current females, who are current students attending the college, alumnae, faculty, family members, community members,  and any potential students seeking an education at Alverno.

The Theme: Alverno Alignment: Body, Mind, and Heart

Keeping Alverno’s motto, In Sanctitate et Doctrina, which means “in holiness and learning,” in mind, we wanted to create a theme that would tie or “align” the three parts of that phrase together: body, mind, and heart. The Alverno Alignment name serves a dual purpose. First, the campaign theme incorporates the motto while also aligning everyone who cares and believes in what Alverno’s mission. With the proposed campaign, the entire student body of Alverno can come together on one page to get the latest updates Alverno and its community has to offer.   

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Introducing Tumblr:

Tumblr is a microblogging website that lets you effortlessly share anything from posts, quotes, links, music, videos, and pictures. You can also customize everything from colors, themes, and text. It also lets you connect with other people who are into similar things you’re into.

Figure 1.0Tumblr’s home page

Figure 1.1Tumblr’s users by sex and age

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Tumblr’s Need at Alverno:

Tumblr is useful for the purposes of branding/marketing Alverno and bringing awareness about the college and the community within and beyond the college walls; it enables people to connect with another by pairing their thoughts and interests. This media site is the way of the future. In order to reach out to its growing body, Alverno must implement Tumblr into its normal everyday social media routine. Alverno students need a site that they can visit that incorporates everything that happens on campus, not just sports, or art shows. With this Tumblr account, students will have everything that happens on campus at their fingertips. Tumblr is needed for many reasons at Alverno, but the most important reason is to bridge the gaps that Alverno has with made media, knowledge, and on as well as off campus involvement with environment. This is a great source to have the students and the staff connect, socialize and network. It is also a good form of branding that is cost effective while still offering a high quality source of entertainment.

Now is the opportunity for all teams and committees at Alverno to come together and merge their thoughts and ideas and communicate those ideas with the community at Alverno by focusing attention on:

Branding and Marketingo A cost effective way to reach out to all demographics

Awareness of college, community, and opportunityo Any events hosted by Alverno, awards received, or any other important

news happening in and outside of Alverno can now be seen as a whole campus, and all at once.

Bridging the gap between all members - past, present, and the future - of Alverno.

o On Tumblr, we can come together on one page and focus on everything Alverno has to offer.

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If You Create It, They Will Come

Our team proposes a visually appealing infographic that summarizes the effectiveness of Tumblr in how its target audience currently uses it. As a component of the proposed campaign, the infographic will be utilized to showcase the online site to promote the Alverno Alignment BetaTumblr account.

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Figure: 1.3Alverno Infographic

Part 1: The Research Section

Social Media is Key

In order for the Alverno Alignment Tumblr account to be effective, the Alverno staff needs to familiarize themselves with various forms of social media (Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, and Twitter). Being an active user on those forms of media is tantamount to the success or failure of Tumblr. Here’s why social media is needed as part of the proposed campaign:

1. Increase Alverno’s public exposure 2. Showcase the brand3. Through social media, you can hear what people have to say4. You can generate leads (endorsements) through the accounts5. Social media has the potential to attract more students 6. Allows school to make connections that create a lasting relationship7. Interaction with other schools, organizations, people 8. Reinforce positive behavior/habits 9. Rank higher 10.Minimize marketing costs without sacrificing quality  

With over 1.6 billion active members on Facebook, 300 million users on LinkedIn, 200 million on Instagram and 23 million on Twitter, the proposed campaign will enable Alverno to showcase the new Tumblr Beta account, which would open doors for the account and expand the awareness of the college.

Depicted below are the various forms of media and their description discussed above that our team deems most useful for the school to maintain and use.

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Instagram:

Description: “Instagram is an online mobile photo and video sharing and social networking service that allows its users to take pictures and videos, and share them on several social networking platforms, such as Facebook, Twitter, and Tumblr. Instagram was created in October of 2010 by founders Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger initially introduced as a free mobile app. Instagram was acquired by Facebook in April 2012 with over 100 million followers at that time.

Alverno’s use of Instagram is sharing campus moments via photos with others to gain a social awareness of what the College has going on within the community. Students share personal experiences they faced with Alverno recommending others to join. The hashtags #AlvernoStrong and #LovetheChallenge allows others to view similarities they have shared with the college.

Figure 1.4An illustration of Alverno’s use of the social media app, Instagram.

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LinkedIn:

Description: LinkedIn is a free networking tool used by employees and employers. It is another form of social media used specifically for the business community. The premise of LinkedIn is to allow its members to network on a professional level. LinkedIn lets the user connect with various businesses around the world. A typical profile page is an online resume which emphasizes the user's job history, education, awards, etc. After forming a profile the user can connect with other people or organizations to not only keep in contact, but to market themselves for any potential opportunity such as a new job.

Alverno’s Involvement: The picture provided below is a picture of the Alverno Alumnae organization through LinkedIn. Currently, there are roughly 758 members who follow Alverno or a possible 758 opportunities Alverno can reach through its media. This is a great opportunity for Alverno to connect the alumni with current events that are taking place throughout Alverno.  

Figure 1.4Alverno’s Alumnae Association user page on LinkedIn

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Twitter:

Description: Twitter is a social media site that allows users to virtually follow people from around the world or in one’s own neighborhood. Simply using a hashtag “#” or a pound sign will enable different categories to be chosen or even people. Twitter gives you real time updates of what’s going on with your favorite people, shows, movies, or theories. As long as you have an account, you can use this site, and tweet all day.

Alverno’s Involvement: Alverno has a Twitter account that is updated daily. @AlvernoCollege is the name for the account, and entering the symbol mentioned above allows a person to send things to their page. This symbol will also be advertised on our Alverno Alignment account in order to reach the audience already using the Alverno’s twitter page. A person can follow the page, to stay updated, and add pictures or messages to stay connected. Alverno’s Twitter page was created in February of 2010, and has daily tweets from students, faculty, and staff.

Connecting Twitter with Tumblr: All of the hash-tagged posts made on Twitter will be advertised on all of the social media sites to spread the word of the Alverno Alignment Beta Tumblr account. The posts may include:

Any dinners or events held on campus Any career fairs or gatherings for students looking for jobs Sports events, fundraisers, or student events held on campus

Figure 1.5

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Alverno’s Twitter Account

Facebook:

Facebook is a social media site originally designed for college students to stay connected to one another. Now, anyone can have a Facebook page, including businesses and colleges. According to the Facebook “About” page, “Founded in 2004, Facebook’s mission is to give people the power to share and make the world more open and connected. People use Facebook to stay connected with friends and family, to discover what’s going on in the world, and to share and express what matters to them.”

Alverno College has a Facebook page that is updated to keep viewers in the know about things happening on campus, give updates on sports teams, and explain to the world Alverno College’s mission. There are a few other Facebook pages connected to Alverno, but these pages are not the school’s official site. To name a few, there is a site connecting students to buy and sell textbooks, Alverno class of 2015, and department sites.

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Figure 1.6Alverno’s Facebook page

Knowing the Competition

Tumblr is the newest form of social media. In order to fully grasp how it’s being utilized in the market, it is important to have an awareness and understanding of what other colleges are doing to gauge their audience. Below are two universities that Alverno competes with in the area: Cardinal Stritch and Marquette University. We choose these campuses specifically to get an idea of the amount of exposure (good and bad) these campuses are creating using their online site. Currently, Marquette has over 8,400 undergraduate students and Cardinal Stritch has over 3,100 undergraduate students compared to Alverno’s 2,600 undergraduate students all of which could be potential Tumblr users.  

Cardinal Stritch University

Cardinal Stritch has been using Tumblr since 2013. Since their creation they have only posted 23 pictures/articles (an average of 7.3 posts per year) highlighting their campus activities. The picture featured below is Cardinal Stritch’s home page for their Tumblr account. Immediately as a viewer, my eyes focus on two things: Cardinal Stritch’s name and logo and the many pictures they have on their page. By clicking on one of the pictures, I can see what the school is featuring, the date it was published, and how many people “liked,” “commented,” or “re-posted” the picture. Spending some time actively looking and analyzing Cardinal Stritch’s Tumblr account, we can assume not many users are following their Tumblr account. Here are the two main reasons:

1. Cardinal Stritch isn’t an active member for their own website, which is a huge constraint. They

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are not doing an effective job of keeping events, awards, and activities current. As a result, they do not have a following. Most of their posts are dated.

2. By clicking on the photos featured on their website, most of the photos do not contain comments, likes, or reposts, which likely means their student body and staff are not engaged with their commentary.

http://stritchu.tumblr.com/

Figure 1.7 Cardinal Stritch’s Tumblr

Marquette University

Marquette University has been an active Tumblr member since 2011. Since the establishment of the Tumblr account (also known as the Marquette Digest), Marquette has shared hundreds of posts which have been viewed, reposted, commented on, and liked from all over the world. On a daily basis, Marquette updates their online account, which highlights various things going on throughout the campus whether it’s what’s for lunch, sports events, keynote speakers, even what their campus’ Father is thinking. The sky's the limit for Marquette.  Marquette also does an effective job of posting their articles to other forms of social media, which has only aided in their success.

http://marquetteu.tumblr.com/

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Figure 1.8Marquette’s Tumblr Account

Part 2: Campaign Theme

“Alverno Alignment: Everyone on One Page”

As current students at Alverno College, we see a need to merge what is happening outside of the school with what’s happening inside the school. There’s a definite gap that needs to be resolved. The gap would be the separation that has been created between students, faculty, and staff at Alverno College. The fact that there isn’t one site or source that all of the Alverno community can go to and hae the same information. The Alverno Alignment Tumblr account is the solution. We believe by using the

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proposed campaign, the Beta Tumblr will create unity among faculty, students, alumni, and any other potential students on one page. In so doing, the body of Alverno will be able to share similar interests, hobbies, and passions, which will create a stronger foundation of a college campus, and have everyone informed and hopefully involved.

Part 3: Public Relations Goals and Objectives

Goals1.)  Relationship Management: With this campaign, we aim to help the BETA Tumblr account foster connections in order for everyone involved with the Alverno community feels important and relevant 2.)  Reputation Management: We are trying to enhance the image of Alverno College by bringing everyone on “one page”.

Objectives

1. To have an effect on the awareness of the BETA Tumblr Account (50% of students create a user account and like the Alverno Tumblr page within the first 6 months).

2. To have an effect on the action of target audience (5% of each branch of target audience, staff, students, alumnae, posts at least 5 times each month.)

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Part 4: The Public Relations Program

1. January 1st, 2016: Alverno staff involvement

Activity: Mass email to all departments and students asking for feature pieces to be included on the site. Whether it be an event schedule from the Student Activities Department, or art projects students are working on in the Art department.

Objective: In order to have an effect on action, every department will respond to the email with at least one feature piece that can be added to BETA..This activity is not like all other activities. It is specific to the committee, because if there people are not posting to Beta , the committee can tap into their resources and post some of the feature pieces that are sent to them.

Measurement: This activity can be measured by the amount of feature pieces that are sent in, and if at least 500 students submit feature pieces that will be a good indication of how many people will be reached from the activity of the page.

FacebookInstagramTwitterLinkedIn

2. February 29, 2016: Use of four social media sites to broadcast the launch of the Alverno Beta Facebook: Link to the account with a screenshot of the Alverno Alignment logoInstagram: Picture of logo with linkTwitter: #AlvernoAlignment #EveryoneOnOnePage #AlvernoCollegeLinkedIn: “Hello alumni. Come see what’s happening at Alverno, or showcase your accomplishments. Follow the link to the Alverno Alignment Tumblr Account.”

Activity: Post on all four social media sites and include links to Alverno Tumblr page.

Objective: We want to broadcast our Alverno Tumblr page to all of the followers on the other Alverno social media pages. This will ensure we have a strong following, and they are able to stay connected with Alverno on any page.By posting on all of the media sites, the marketing team can see if we, the committee, are being successful. This activity is focused on awareness, and educating users on other sites to utilize the Tumblr page.

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Measurement: This can be measured by the number of followers we gain from other social media sites. We can compare numbers, names, and the activities that are being done such as posts, shares, and likes.

3. March 3rd, 2016:  Post on social media sites

Facebook: “Come visit the commons and when you like our Tumblr get a free piece of cake. Limited to the first 100 students or faculty/staff.”Instagram: Photo of logo with comments “Come visit the commons and when you like our Betaget a free piece of cake. Limited to the first 100 students or faculty/staff.”Twitter: “Come visit the commons and when you like our Tumblr get a free piece of cake. Limited to the first 100 students or faculty/staff.”

Activity: Post another update/status about the Alverno Tumblr page.

Objective: We want to ensure that our message is being noticed and understood. Posting a second time on the three listed above of the social media sites ensures that exposure. This activity is focused on action, and the idea that we want our audience being engaged with the page, not just scrolling through it.

Measurement: This will be measured by the amount of likes, shares, comments and reposts the BETA account receives from community members, donors, and alumnae.

4. March 10th, 2016: Host Cake Day (We will utilize $100 budget to purchase sheet cake and print fliers)

Activity: Sliced cake will be given out to those who join Alverno’s Tumblr account and like the page.

Objective: The activity will promote and bring awareness to Alverno’s use of the social media account Tumblr. This will also allow for those who follow the account to share it with other social media accounts, bringing attention to the page with the help of others sources, family and friends.

The activity is used solely to attract those involved with the Alverno community, faculty, and students and whoever may be on campus on March 10th. It will be a first come first served basis due to the limited amount of cake that can be given.

Measurement: The activity will be measured by the amount of cake given and the new addition of followers the Tumblr account achieves to determine if it is a successful event.

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5. March 22nd, 2016: Post the same flier to E.T.C. newspaper to the faculty and staff at Alverno

6. April 1st, 2016- set up timeline of any events within the next month: Make announcement at all Alum, Donor, and Scholarship meetings about the account

Activity: Making announcements at all donor, scholarship, or alum events on campus about the new Tumblr page and having them engage at that time.

Objective: By making announcements at the donor events, and meetings with any alumnae, we will have a better chance of reaching the other branch of our target audience: alum. We want to let alumnae know about the page, as well as engage on the page. With these announcements, we will have more opportunities to reach the people who have made a difference for our school, not just the ones that are enrolled now, or in the future. This activity is focusing on the awareness, and letting the alums and community members know about the page.

Measurement: This activity will be measured by how many alums actually like the page based upon the presentations given by our BETA committee at the events. We will give the alums a chance to engage that night, by inviting them to like the Tumblr page at that time, and also post within the next week.

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7. June 1st, 2016 a schedule will be made for orientations with the next month: As part of all new student orientations, students will spend time signing up for the Alverno Alignment Account.

Activity: Enrollment Sign-up

Objective: The enrollment sign up is for new and transfer students. On orientation day, students create a Tumblr, (if one is not already established.) If so, logging in and liking the page will be required for the students do as they are given their credentials for the use of the Alverno College website.

This will allow for incoming students to be apart of what’s going on in and around the college. Allowing them to become familiar with the community, faculty, and staff. They will also be able to share their college experience with followers and potential new students.

Measurement: The activity will be measured by how many new students we are able to get involved with the Tumblr account and spread the message of everyone on one page.

The program plan definitely has some strengths. The logo is creative. I love it and it fits nicely with the campaign theme. I’d even encourage your team to develop this idea of a “puzzle” and “alignment” more specifically, probably in the first component of the document. There are some creative activities and the team has definitely done their research. The campaign theme is catchy and makes sense with the justification given. There are a few opportunities for improvement and I have mentioned these throughout my feedback in margin comments as well as track changes. First, there are way too many proofreading errors and inconsistencies to be deemed acceptable for a final version. The team has to give more attention to detail or the team’s credibility will suffer. If I were the Beta Committee, I would not choose this campaign plan

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because of the inconsistencies. I’d love the idea and think it has great potential, but be skeptical to implement it because there are so many errors in the final details. The team must fix these errors before turning in the program as a finalized version. I will not offer feedback on the program plan again unless all of these errors are fixed beforehand. Please, please, please go through the program plan with a keen eye for mistakes and attention to detail. I’d hate for this program plan to be unsatisfactory because a lack of proofreading. The ideas are so strong that I want those ideas to shine through not to get buried in the easily remedied mistakes. Second, I suggest moving the social media/competition piece to the program plan. How your team decides to incorporate that section will be your team’s decision. Right now, the social media piece seems to be disconnected from the social media activity, yet it directly relates to the activity so it needs to be in closer proximity to it. Third, the infographic is great except that the font is fuzzy and the old logo is used rather than the new one. Fourth, read carefully through my margin comments and be sure to incorporate the track changes. I’ve made a lot of fixes to wording, grammar issues, etc.

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