Social Media Campaign

OU Department of English

Hannah Grip
Table of Contents
Departmental Branding Statement2
Social Media Goals and Objectives..2
Review of Current Accounts...3
Competitor Analysis
Harvard English Department (FB)5
Syracuse English Department (Instagram).6
General Rules...6
Campaign 1: #OUbooktweets
General Rules.8
Profile Information.8
Rhetorical Analysis.8
Campaign Description..9
Campaign 2: Dead Week Literary Procrastination on Instagram
General Rules..12
Profile Information..12
Rhetorical Analysis..12
Campaign Description...13

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Departmental Branding Statement
The Department of English at the University of Oklahoma
is dedicated to a thorough examination of ideas, culture,
and communication through the study of literature and
writing. We offer an unmatched variety of courses,
ranging from classes on environmental writing to
Shakespearean comedies, John Steinbeck to the graphic
novel, social media to Toni Morrison.
We prepare students not for narrow career paths, but to
be assets to the community of ideas in many fields, including medicine,
marketing, law, publishing, and education. Students with degrees in English
from OU possess skills in critical thinking, written and verbal communication,
empathetic interpersonal interactions, and primary and secondary research.
Join us as we build a community of thinkers and creators.

Social Media Goals and Objectives

Goals:
Engage English department undergraduate students and create an
online sense of community
Create an appealing online image that attracts prospective and current
OU students to the English department
Advertise OU English department events

Objectives:
Write 3 Facebook posts per week
Write at least 1 Tweet per day
Post at least 2 times a week on Instagram
Run 3 interactive and fun campaigns each semester, one each on
Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram
Include a clear call to action in at least 80% of all posts

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 Respond to all mentions of the OU English department on social media
within a day
Include photos with people, ideally students, in 60% of all posts

Review of Current Accounts

The Department of English at the University of Oklahoma is most active on
Facebook. We have recently begun a Twitter account, but since it is so new,
this review will focus on our Facebook
page.
Our Facebook page is currently trying to
advertise events within the department
and across campus. It is trying to provide
resources to students, including articles
about the value of humanities degrees and
links to internship and job opportunities.
The OU English departments Facebook
pages posts generally fall into these
categories:
Images of flyers for talks given by English department faculty
Lit links
Articles about the value of/state of humanities degrees and
departments
Links to internship and job opportunities
Shared FB events from other departments/groups on campus
Blocks of text announcing events within the department
Occasional photos from our events
Announcements about the successes of our faculty
In terms of likes, the most successful of these categories is the photos of our
events. Generally these are impromptu and have a mix of students and
professors in them. Some of the least successful posts on our page are ones
that are pictures of flyers, most of which are poorly designed, and the blocks

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of text that announce events. Most of the posts on our Facebook page get less
than 12 likes, and very few have comments on them.
Most of our posts are informative and useful for students, but their
design and tone do not match that audience. This user persona provides
information about a typical OU English student.
Jennifer
English literature junior
Uses Facebook, Instagram, and
Twitter for personal
entertainment, staying in touch
with friends, and keeping up to
date with events
Doesnt realize that the OU
English department has active
social media accounts
Wants to get more involved with the English department to meet
professors and other students
Is motivated by giveaways and is interested in quality content,
especially photographs

As for our profile in general, I recommend several improvements:

Profile Picture: We should change our profile picture to something
more specific to the department, maybe a logo. It does not look good to
have the same image for the profile and cover photo, especially since the
photo is of Bizzell Library
Our Story: The Story section of our About page could be more
engaging. I recommend a version of the Bio I have written for our
Twitter and Instagram pages.
Engagement: Our posts could be more interactive and include clear
calls to action for the audience.
Events: We should create Facebook events for events the department
puts on instead of advertising with posts that have flyers or are just
blocks of text.

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Competitor Analysis
Harvard University Department of English Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/HarvardEnglishDept/
Harvards English department does several things better than we do on
Facebook. Here are some of the main things we can learn from them:
Post during events. They posted a photo of an
event and wrote, Standing room only at the
creative theses readings happening now! Posts
like this one remind students of events in real
time. This one also highlights the popularity and
success of their events.
Post pictures of people. Their cover photo is of
a group of professors standing and smiling. They also post many photos
of students and professors interacting. These images give the viewer the
impression that their department is friendly and the faculty are
approachable.
Post articles about professors doing cool things. The Harvard
English department routinely posts links to articles about professors in
the department. For example, they posted an article titled about the
winners of a short story contest and wrote, Congratulations to Director
of Creative Writing, Bret Johnston! Posts like this one make their
department seem more interesting and the faculty more approachable.
Post videos. The Harvard English department posted a video on
Instagram of an English and Biology concentrator talking about how
studying English will make her a better doctor someday. They then
cross posted it on Facebook. This video is a great marketing tool, since it
shows how relevant an English degree can be.
Have a logo. The Harvard Facebook page has a custom logo as their
profile picture. This is better than our picture of Bizzell because it is
specific to their department.

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Syracuse University Department of English Instagram:
https://www.instagram.com/syracuseenglish/
The Syracuse University English department does
several things well on their Instagram account. When
our English department starts an Instagram account, we
should take several cues from Syracuse, including:
A mix of content. Syracuse English posts a variety of
types of images. They post flyers, photos of professors, photos of
students, photos of cats, and photos of books.
A relevant logo. Syracuse Englishs profile picture is above. It is done in
the colors of the university, and is specific to the department. Their
choice to mention that they are a part of the College of Arts & Sciences in
this image is a good one because it expands their reach and relevance to
students outside of the department.
Humanizing content. The process of hiring new faculty is often hidden
from students. But, Syracuse uses Instagram to make the process more
transparent and accessible to students. They post pictures of the
prospective hires, and the caption is a short Q & A with them.
Post often. The Syracuse English department posts regularly on
Instagram. They post about 2 times a week. They also post the same
flyer a few times to reach the most people possible.

General Rules
To ensure consistency and continued success on social media, the OU
Department of English should follow these general rules:
Post regularly. I recommend 4 posts a week on Facebook, at least 1
Tweet a day, and 2 Instagram posts a week.
Have a social media calendar. Posts for the week should be planned
and scheduled using a social media queue service by Thursday the week
before.

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 Respond to all comments and mentions. It is good practice to reply to
mentions and comments. These replies should be made within 24 hours
of the original comment.
Maintain a positive tone. Even in response to negative comments, the
OU English department should respond in a helpful and polite way. By
doing this, we will create an image of ourselves as a group that wants to
serve people and make their experiences better.
Encourage engagement. Between half and two thirds of our posts
should include a clear call to action that encourages our audience to
post something in response to us.
Support other department and organizations. Social media is just
thatsocial. If we want others to share our content, we should do the
same for them. So, for example, we should retweet a post from the MLLL
department that announces a panel discussion on literary translation.
Also, our audience will appreciate that we curate content from other
sources that is interesting and useful to them.

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Campaign 1: #OUbooktweets
Objective:
To promote student engagement with OU English
department on Twitter and to promote an image
of the department as a fun, yet literary group

General Rules:
At least 55% of posts should have images
The tone should be conversational, and a
majority should include an action opportunity for the audience, i.e.
question to respond to, poll to participate in
At least 40% of posts should include a link, and the post should be
written to drive people back to our website or other information about
the department
The department should acknowledge in some way all mentions
Any important text that is included in images should also be accessible
to visually impaired readers who are using a screen reader by providing
that information via a link in the tweet

Profile Information:
Handle: @OUEnglishDept
Name: OU English
Description: The #OU English Dept. is home to impressive faculty and
dedicated students. We prepare future writers, teachers, lawyers,
marketers, dreamers, and doers.
Profile picture: Red background, white OU interlocked logo, ENGLISH
DEPT. in white letters underneath
Header photo: Bookshelf with spines of old books about Oklahoma and
books by English department faculty showing.

Rhetorical analysis of the profile:

Ive written our description this way to make sure that readers understand
that the department is focused on its undergrad students. Our department
needs to highlight the service it does for its students, so I wrote about the jobs

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it prepares students for. I added the part about dreamers and doers at the end
because the English department needs to preserve its dedication to
intellectual idealism even as it moves towards a more professional image.
Finally, I made sure to use the Oxford comma because it is consistent with our
focus to tight writing and differentiates us from the College of Journalism.

Description of the campaign:

This campaign will include one post per day for a week. The posts will include
a call for students to summarize their favorite books in a Tweet. In addition to
the text, there will be images of professors summaries of books theyre
teaching in their classes in less than 140 characters. The tweets will
encourage students to make their summaries visually appealing, whether
through doodles or basic graphic design. This campaigns main objective is to
encourage students to interact with the department on social media. Another
objective is to create a space for professors to talk about books in a light-
hearted and fun way. The goal for this campaign is to generate 5 retweets per
post at least, 7 likes per post, and 4 responses to each call to action.

Examples:
House full of baby venom. Girl (or ghost?)
shows up. Family troubles. Beloved by
Morrison ENGL 2283. Share your summary with
#OUbooktweets
This post would likely be successful for several
reasons. First, the body of the tweet includes a
call to action, asking students to share their
own summaries with the hashtag. Second, the
description is cryptic and interesting, and it
includes a particularly intense quote from
Beloved about the house being full of baby venom. Finally, the image is
visually appealing, since it includes books and typewriters and the text is easy
to read.

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This example is effective because it is a
brief summary of a widely known work,
The Inferno. The post would be made
more effective by an image.

It was posted in response to the

following Tweet:

This post was successful, and over thirty

people mentioned @TelegraphBooks in
tweets with the hashtag, #bookcheats.
Below is the content of the article.

These are not actual Tweets, but if they were, they would likely not be
successful because they are dry and too obvious. Using character names takes
away the elements of excitement, interest, and surprise. However, this article
and the @TelegraphBooks tweet include a clear call to action that is based in
humor.

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 While this post is not a #bookcheat
Tweet, it is relevant to the campaign
that I propose. Here, the UT English
Department is relying on its
audiences knowledge to make a joke.
This post assumes that people know
what Infinite Jest is and recognize
David Foster Wallaces face. Our
campaign plays on the same sense of
community by making clever
summaries of books and will be a
quiet compliment to our audiences intelligence.

Rules, Tips, and Warnings:

One of the possible dangers of this campaign is that student generated
tweet summaries will include inappropriate language. Since English
classes are often peppered with adult language and themes, the
department will not take an aggressive stand against these tweets. We
will like these tweets, but we will not respond to or retweet them.
Our original tweet summaries will be free from vulgar language.
Our tweet summaries will also be of books that have come out at least
five or more years ago, in order to avoid spoilers for people who havent
read certain new books.

Campaign 2: Dead Week Literary

Procrastination on Instagram
Objective:
To promote an image of a fun, student-centered English department, which
will in turn foster a sense of community and attract new students

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General Rules:
25% of Instagram posts should be cross-
posted on Facebook
The department will respond in some
way to all mentions and uses of the
hashtags we have created for our
campaigns
60% of photos posted must have people
in them
Every post must have at least three
hashtags
We will not post pictures of bad-looking flyers

Profile Information:
Handle: OUEnglish
Bio information: The #OU English Dept. prepares future writers,
teachers, lawyers, marketers, dreamers, and doers. We love our
students and our faculty. http://cas.ou.edu/English
Profile picture: A picture of a beautiful and colorful bookshelf.

Rhetorical Analysis of the Profile:

This Instagram bio is similar to the one that I proposed for the OU English
departments Twitter account. One change is that instead of saying that we are
home to impressive faculty and dedicated students, I wrote, We love our
students and our faculty because Instagram is a slightly less professional and
business-minded platform. It is also a bit of a spoof on the practice of young
people putting information in their Instagram bios about their relationships
and who they love. This humor is subtle, though, and being subtle is important
on Instagram because it functions more as a space for a brand to develop its
image than one for them to share information.

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Campaign Description:
This campaign will be run during Dead Week. It will consist of two posts every
day on Instagram. The posts will be photographs of artfully arranged books or
scenes of people reading. The captions will explain the idea of literary
procrastination or will include quotes from famous authors about
procrastination. For example, it might say, Instead of doing our dead week
work, were soaking in the sun and the great writing of Hemingway, below a
picture of someone with their feet up on a desk with coffee cups and a stack of
Hemingway books. All posts will include a call to action, like Share what
youre up to this week using #OUliteraryprocrastination.

Examples:

Todays work of literary procrastination

is The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara
Kingsolver. Show us what youre reading
instead of what youre supposed to be
reading using #OUliteraryprocrasitation

#OU #OUEnglish #goodreads #books

This post is rhetorically effective because

the photograph is visually engaging and
is in a style that is popular on Instagram
right nowthe coffee plus anything else
style. The image is also one of relaxation,
which will appeal to students during the high-stress time of dead week. The
caption will encourage students to participate because it has a clear call to
action, and that call to action is phrased in a humorous way. During dead
week, students are always talking about what theyre doing instead of what
theyre supposed to be doing, so this post will play into that pattern.

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 This post from the
Harvard English
department is effective for
several reasons. First, the
photograph is well-lit and
has an interesting
composition. Also, there
are human legs in the
picture, which adds
interest, since Im left
wondering who it is thats
reading on the couch. The
caption also has a clear call to action. This call to action could be stronger by
encouraging students to show what theyre reading instead of just
commenting.

This post from the

Syracuse English
department is a nice
looking photo that, like
the post I proposed,
plays on the coffee cup
plus trend on
Instagram. It did not
inspire any comments
probably because the
call to action was
vague. A simple
question without a directive for how or where to answer is hard for audiences
to respond to.

Rules, Tips, and Warnings:

It will be important to show a variety of books in this campaign,
including ones from outside of the canon
Calls to action must be very clear by explicitly asking followers to post
using the hashtag #OUliteraryprocrastination

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 All posts should be fairly tongue-in-cheek, so they dont sound like
theyre actually encouraging people to not do their final papers

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