Final Social Media Campaign

The main objectives included in my campaign plan were to:

A. Create an Instagram
B. Create more content/have more presence on Facebook
C. Do a Giveaway
D. Create an Etsy store

Below are screenshots of these met objectives/accomplished goals that were designed to encourage Likes and Shares.

 

 

The campaign plan absolutely increased traffic on the Facebook page. Before the steps listed in the above campaign plan took place, approximately 80 people were viewing each post with only a couple shares and nearly no activity. By the end of the semester, views and activity had increased drastically!

 

The most effective cross-promotion was joining forces with other businesses for the giveaway! It increased the number of followers the Instagram got and provided advertising.

Overall, the execution of the campaign was very successful. The goals that were established at the beginning of the semester for this campaign were accomplished and provided an awesome foundation for The White Oak to grow and develop further. The giveaway worked really well to increase impressions, as well as the start up of the Instagram post. One thing I would have done differently (had I thought of it earlier on) would be to create a hashtag that customers could use to share photos in their homes of the décor with us! Or, I could have simply posted something that urged customers to tag us in their photos to be featured. I think this would have helped to make the customers feel special and recognized, and created more hype about the product.

Social Media Campaign Plan

Objective 1:
Campaign involves a Facebook page based on a theme and defined communication objectives - the type of business or community page you wish to develop and describes your social media presence, your venture's name and mission.

For my Social Media Campaign, I will be taking over a Facebook page that was originally created by one of my best friends. She currently lives in Salt Lake City and is also in college. She created the page to sell customized handmade signs and décor! The name of her business is The White Oak. The mission is to make a profit by selling the décor. However, she has been insanely busy with work, school, and her personal life since starting The White Oak. She hasn't had time to build the social media aspect of this business as well as she'd like to! The goal is to have a heavy social media presence that is current, classy, and a little bit sassy. She has eagerly agreed to let me use her account to post and make changes as long as she is able to approve the changes. Below are a few examples of the products she is selling-

 

Objective 2:
Your campaign plan posted on your blog includes a minimum of three market personas, people-types you want to target for successful clicking.

Market personas/people types-
1. Middle-aged women (moms who are looking for home décor)
2. College age/young women in their 20's (décor for dorm or first apartment)
3. Husbands looking for gifts for their wives
4. Newly-weds who are decorating their home
5. People who need customized gifts for baby showers, weddings, etc.

Objective 3:
Your campaign plan posted on your blog explains your tactics; how you will reach your audience, including cross-promotion on other social media channels, and how you will make your page compelling.

The plan is to create an Etsy store as well as an Instagram profile for the business. The Etsy store will help to organize orders and display the options for purchase much more efficiently. The Instagram profile will reach a younger audience and create an additional platform for advertisement. To make the page compelling, photos will be posted of the décor in actual homes! There will also be giveaways to keep the page exciting and active.

Automatic Attitudinal Response

As I look back on my OTM assignments, I am definitely able to recognize some flaws in my thinking regarding the various topics I wrote about. The most evident default response I identified was my tendency to place blame on the system, or as I like to call it, 'the machine'. In high school, I had a teacher who required our class to read the short story The Machine Stops by E.M. Forster. For anyone who hasn't read this story- the basic plot is the story of a society in the future that totally crashes and burns. The same teacher encouraged me to read 1984 by George Orwell, another story concerning the concept of 'big brother' and the control of the government. Both of these writings influenced my views and opinions on ethical issues, the government, privacy, society, etc. My background in education has taught me to question everything. I have been encouraged to question the status quo and to ask the simple question WHY. Although this can come off as cynical, my intention is to be a critical thinker. As a result of all of this, my initial instinct when analyzing the OTM broadcasts was to question societal standards and government policy. Although there is always room for improvement in any organization, it's not necessarily the 'set up' that will always be the issue.

In addition, I realize that my negative feelings toward Trump are extremely transparent in my writing. I really should do more research on the topic and provide specific evidence for the reasons why he is to blame rather than jumping on a bandwagon at the first murmur of an error by the Trump administration. I've always had an interest in politics, but it is so overwhelming for me that sometimes I give up on keeping track of it all. This attitude hasn't helped me so far in any way. This class has helped me to understand that the only way to find the most truthful content is to go through multiple sources of it in order to catch the biases. I have a renewed motivation to be aware and involved.

Sustainable Networking Activity

For this group project, my group chose to address the issue of homelessness. Each of us agreed that homelessness is a concept that is often misunderstood. There is a negative stigma that exists within the public's perspective of this issue. Our group worked together to come up with a solution to help shed light on the reality of the situation at hand. As we presented in class, our idea is a website and/or app that brings those willing to volunteer their time and effort to the cause together. It is one resource where people with the common interest of helping the homeless can go to stay connected to one another.

One of the examples we used was students in hair school who would be willing to accumulate their hours by cutting hair for the homeless. Another example would be an employer who is willing to provide a second chance for an individual in poor circumstances. Our group as a whole agreed that communication is the first step toward creating a change. Where things are at now, there is no effective way to get the conversation started. People tend to look away from the issue because they don't know what to do about it, or jump to conclusions about how the homeless got there. Obviously this strategy of turning a blind eye is not doing anything for anyone. Our networking solution would create opportunity for the homeless to begin to put the pieces back together, and it would also benefit those who are willing to be apart of the movement for change.

Our site would have components that are influenced by social media, as each person who is homeless could build a profile with background information as well as their resume, experience, and life story. As a group, we discussed our idea outside of class in the Holland and worked together to create the content for the presentation. After presenting our idea to the class, I personally felt very inspired and fulfilled. I think sometimes we as humans have the tendency to overcomplicate things. It's easy to forget that one simple idea, one initial step toward progress, could potentially save lives. Overall, this activity was extremely beneficial and I was really happy with what we did.

OTM #3 "It's Just Business"

"It's Just Business" largely focuses on the discussion of privacy and rights to information- mainly online data. After listening and re-listening to this story I finally have a good grasp on the situation at hand. For those of us who are not so accustomed to political vocabulary, here's the breakdown. Trump is going to reverse a rule shortly that was set to go into place later this year. The rule was going to govern the rights to information such as private emails, browser history, etc. Fundamentally, the rule was going to require that the "user" had to give consent for the information to be tracked. By revoking this rule, it is unknown what the rights to this data will be.

If you ask me, I think it's crazy that there isn't currently a very clear policy/regulation/rule regarding the rights to user data on a federal scale. However, I also think it's important for any consumer/online user to realize that they are giving up a great deal of privacy by being online at all. It's not realistic to expect to have complete control of your content. Lets be honest, the internet is like a black hole. It's this massive network with so many moving parts its unfathomable! The society we live in today utilizes technology to the fullest. This has its pros and cons. For example, take a look at something like Google Earth. Consumers love to use this technology to "explore the world" without lifting more than a finger. But it is often overlooked that in essence, we are all being watched and documented. The same is true for cameras in parking lots or gas stations. My point is, our society today has completely changed the game for what amount privacy is even possible. That being said, I also don't think online service providers should be able to make money off of the data we generate.

Just as a side note to all of this, it seems unnecessary for Trump to be spending time and effort undoing everything that Obama did. I understand that each President has a strategy and the power to make decisions that will change things, but if every President were to come along and undo what the President before had done then nothing would ever get done! Truthfully I think that is one of the problems with the system. And not only that, but it takes so long to make these changes that the effects of the new rules are never really seen all the way through to see if they are beneficial or not! Just food for thought,

WI #3 Racism

Our class discussion of racism broadened my perspective more than any other discussion that I've been a part of or any research that I've done thus far. The most pivotal moment was when two students were asked to stand in front of the class. As a class, we were asked what it was about the two students that we noticed first.

They were both male; one was black and one was white. When asked if our initial reaction was to notice that one of the students was black, I responded with "no". I was told that the reason my reaction to that question was such an immediate no was because it would be an unkind thought. At first, I wholeheartedly believed that wasn't all it was. I was insistent that I had noticed they were different, but hadn't identified "black" as the stand out. As I look back on this event, I can see that even when we truly don't think we have automatic response, bias, etc., we do. The more I've reflected on this, I've come to see that denying the fact that we notice things, such as color, is almost dangerous. If we deny ourselves of the truth, we are living in a state of ignorance. This sparked some digging and I found a quote that summed this whole experience up perfectly and as simply as can be. "Racism springs from ignorance." Mario Balotelli

The trouble with ignorance is that it's not intentional and it's not known. In order to avoid ignorance, we must really push ourselves to look past our own point of view. In Communication Theory, we discussed a concept called White Blindness. It is a good label to help explain this kind of unintentional bias I'm talking about. It means that when you are a part of the majority (white, in this case) you don't notice it anymore. That's just the way it is. And for those who are the minority, they are constantly reminded. There are certain privileges that come with being a part of the accepted majority, but because the majority of people are the same, it doesn't feel like a privilege and therefore one becomes blind to it.

WI #2 Religion

Religion is one of those things no one wants to talk about, but once you get into it you can't stop thinking about all the big questions. I shared a lot of my beliefs and questions with the class during our discussion because I felt comfortable enough in that setting to do so. This is an opportunity that I do not take for granted. I realize that there are not many environments, especially in school, where one gets to be completely open and also inquisitive of the very morals and standards that people choose to live their lives by.

One experience I had recently sent me into a very self-aware state. My father was raised Catholic, but wasn't actively involved with the church as I was growing up. A few months ago, my grandma (his mother) was diagnosed with cancer. It's been a trying experience for our entire family. I think this has made him re-evaluate some things in his life. He expressed to me that he deeply regrets not teaching me the importance of believing in God and Jesus Christ. He shared with me that his belief is that the specific religion you choose to follow is not the most important thing. He said he believes that the most important thing is that you believe in God and Jesus. We attended a mass together and it was a memorable experience no doubt.

Although I was not raised within any specific religion, I have done my best to research at least a few religions in depth. Buddhism is probably my favorite, because it is so drastically different than what I am used to seeing or hearing about on a day to day basis. "Buddhism is a tradition that focuses on personal spiritual development. Buddhists strive for a deep insight into the true nature of life and do not worship gods or deities" (BBC 2014). This Buddhist belief totally contradicts what my father is expressing to me. I don't believe that Buddhists are doing anything wrong or will "judged" poorly later for the way they are living their lives.

Here's my thing with religion- it's not that I don't care to know or want to find out the answers. It's not that I don't want to be a good person and be at peace with my spirituality because I do! I just truly believe that no one on this earth knows what they are talking about when it comes to life after death or the specific practices that one must do in order to be a good person. I understand that religious texts are supposedly historical, but I have a hard time with it. Just because I write a book it doesn't make it true right? I feel thankful that I have the ability to think critically for myself about these issues because I was not given much direction in the beginning, but it also makes me feel a little lost.