APRIL 25, 2017

SOCIAL MEDIA CAMPAIGN

THE DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH

TREY CRISP
ENGLISH 3143
Marketing the English Major
TABLE OF CONTENTS
BRANDING STATEMENTPG. 1

DEPARTMENT GOALS ON SOCIAL MEDIAPG. 1

CURRENT SOCIAL MEDIA USAGEPG. 2

COMPETITORSPG. 2-3

GENERAL RULES FOR SOCIAL MEDIAPG. 3

SOCIAL MEDIA CAMPAIGN 1: INSTAGRAMPG. 4-6

GENERAL RULES FOR INSTAGRAMPG. 4

PROFILE INFORMATIONPG. 4

CAMPAIGN INFORMATIONPG. 4

VISUAL EXAMPLESPG.5

THINGS TO CONSIDERPG.6

SOCIAL MEDIA CAMPAIGN 2: TWITTER PG. 7-9

GENERAL RULES FOR TWITTERPG. 7

PROFILE INFORMATIONPG. 7

CAMPAIGN INFORMATIONPG. 7

VISUAL EXAMPLESPG. 8

THINGS TO CONSIDERPG. 9
SOCIAL MEDIA CAMPAIGN PROPOSAL
BRANDING STATEMENT
What many people dont understand, that we as English majors do understand, is that a degree in
English is many times more valuable than something like a degree in business. We are able to more
clearly communicate with other people. We can express our ideas concisely and take complex ideas
and boil them down to their essence so we can better understand and better explain them to others.
We have incredible research skills and the ability to critically analyze any material you put in front of
us.

When I was at the career fair in February, a corporate recruiter actually said that she preferred
English majors because were better communicators than most of the business majors she meets.
We teach our students some the most important skills that they need to succeed in the professional
world but society doesnt seem to realize that yet. As our website says, we wed the theoretical with
the practical and creative and ask questions about race and gender economics, artistic forms
and genres and the global world we live in today. As it stands, we dont use social media
effectively enough, but with some improvements, we could market ourselves well and reach
prospective students.

DEPARTMENTS GOALS ON SOCIAL M EDIA

The Department of English should be using social media actively to accomplish a few key things:

First, we want to recruit people to come be English majors at OU. We need to use social media to
show that we are engaging, fun, and interesting so that they remember us when they are selecting a
major. We want to show people that we care about our students and our community and that we
prepare people for the future.

Second, we want to improve our visibility on campus. Many people have a stereotype of what an
English major is, what we do, or how useful our field of study is. Using social media can give us a
larger presence on campus so that people can learn more about what we do in our department and
how being an English major is much more than just reading classical literature and poetry (although
we do that too).

Third, creating an online identity. This really relates to the second reason, without having a distinct
identity, we cant improve our recruitment or change the stereotypes about English as a field of study.
We also want to have an engaging identity because it shows that we care and want to be connected to
the people in our department. That is why these two social media campaigns are designed with
creating a unique identity in mind.
CURRENT SOCIAL MEDIA USAGE

As it stands, we only
utilize Facebook on
social media. We also
dont utilize it enough.
Our profile is poorly
constructed. Our about
section reads The
place for news and
announcements from
the OU English
Department. Our story
section reads The OU
English Department's
undergraduate and
graduate programs
offer opportunities to study literature, culture, and
varieties of writing in English. It is home to the Chaucer Screen capture of our Facebook page.

Variorum and the journals Genre, World Literature Today,

and Chinese Literature Today. These are boring and dont do anything
to help us build a picture of what our department is about.

While the story section says some of the things we offer, it doesnt tell a
reader (i.e. prospective student) that we are interested them or that we
do anything different from any other English department in the country.
Our profile picture is a picture of the Bizzell Library, this doesnt show
any personality, and its not even where our department is located.
We need to update our Facebook account and more actively use it
Example of a better profile picture.
so we can engage with students and post important information that
assists our department in some way.

COMPETITORS

If we compare our Facebook page to

other English Department Facebook
pages, for example Harvard and
Georgetown, we can see where ours falls
short in some areas. Harvards Facebook
page features a stylized profile picture
that goes across their social media
accounts (including Twitter and
Instagram). Their header image is a group
picture of the faculty that adds a human
element to their page. Their about section
reads The Harvard University
Harvard English
Department of English introduces students to the full breadth of English
Departments Facebook
page language literature, from 8th Century to current day. While this isnt
much different from our description, it is student centered because it directly addresses how Harvard
interacts with their students.

Georgetowns Facebook page is less

personal than Harvards. Their profile
picture is the Georgetown seal with the
department name at the bottom. Their
header image is of the name of one of
the buildings on campus. While this is
less personal, their about section makes
up for it. Their about section reads,
The English Department at
Georgetown University has one of the
largest undergraduate majors in the
College of Arts and Sciences and
houses one of the few stand-alone
Georgetown English Departments
English Masters programs at a nationally ranked university. Facebook page
With its small classes, the department emphasizes close work
with students and teaching excellence. Our faculty boasts a robust and diverse record of publication,
and many have won major university teaching prizes. Reflecting a broadening of the field in recent
years, our department offers courses in canonical and non-canonical literature and film in English.
Many courses are interdisciplinary and our faculty have played a major role in founding the
interdisciplinary programs of the College: American Studies, Womens and Gender Studies,
Medieval Studies, Catholic Studies, Program on Justice and Peace, African-American Studies, and the
Program for Jewish Civilization. The Department is the home of the Lannan Center for Poetics and
Social Practice, the Shakespeare Association of America, the University Writing Program, and the
Colleges undergraduate Journalism Program.

They provide an in-depth description of what the department is, how it ranks nationally, how it works
with students, and the subjects that they cover. Both departments also post more frequently than we
do and provide a lot of photos at people at events that they put on and links to those events. Harvard
has over 3000 likes on Facebook, and Georgetown has over 500. Our Facebook page has around 300
likes. If we took a page from either Harvard or Georgetowns book then we could improve our social
media presence greatly.

GENERAL RULES FOR SOCIAL MEDIA

When it comes to social media, a lot of the general rules seem like they would be common sense, but
its important to lay them out none the less.

1. Posts should be meaningful: No one wants to see posts about other peoples everyday lives.
Posts should be informative, interesting, funny, or any mix of the three so that people can
engage with them.
2. Dont post way too much or way too little: Maintaining a presence is key to maintaining a
following.
3. Interact with your friends/followers: Replying, liking, and sharing other peoples posts makes
them care more about the things that you post, but make sure you arent just interacting for
attention.
 4. Keep branding consistent: We need to make sure that our brand as an English department is
consistent. We dont want to seem overly professional on one site and then seem really
humorous and carefree on another. We want to maintain a consistent image.

SOCIAL MEDIA CAMPAIGN 1: INSTAGRAM-#OURBOOKCLUB

GENERAL RULES FOR INSTAGRAM

For this social media we would want to post at least twice a week and achieve at least fifteen likes and
three to five comments to know that we have a large enough social media following. With Instagram,
its more about consistency of posts instead of number, so we would want to post at a level each week
that would be easy to maintain. Twice a week is reasonable enough and would show that we are
active.

The network is entirely image driven. Images need to be engaging and interesting enough for people
to want to read the description included. Avoid posting pictures that are considered clich, like a
picture of your feet while lying on the beach. Use hashtags to help others find your posts, but dont go
overboard. Three or four hashtags is enough. Its okay to post more personal or funny things as long
as they relate to the department and help to build an online identity.

PROFILE INFORMATION
The profile picture should be something that either shows OUs logo or
shows that were an English department. Harvard and Ohio States
profile pictures dont use school logos but do show theyre English
departments, while Price Business college has a picture of their building.
Our profile description should show what we do, as well as connect us to
OU. Something like, The OU Department of English believes in the
power that reading, writing, and story provide. From Shakespeare, to
rhetoric, to the graphic novel, we wed the theoretical & creative to invest
in our students and
reshape the world.
Example Profile
This description is
Picture for our
written specifically to accounts
show that we believe in
what we are teaching. It
also shows that our interests are more than just
classical literature. Finally the description is
written so that it shows people that we care both
about making our students better, and gives us a
global persona by addressing our students
Harvards English department Instagram
directly and stating that we want to reshape the
account
world.

CAMPAIGN INFORMATION
This campaign is designed to do two things for our department. First, help create an online identity
with users so people feel that they know who we are as a department. Second, improve our on-
campus presence and recruiting so that more students will potentially become English majors. The
campaign itself is taking photos of our professors, alumni, and prominent school officials such as
President Boren, Bob Stoops, and others with their favorite book. The photos need to be engaging so
people will be interested in reading the description below the photo. The description should be a
short answer as to why that book is that persons favorite book. Using different subjects will reach
different audiences. Bob Stoops will have a wider range of people who are OU fans which improves
our presence, while using our professors will show that we have personality and interests outside of
the stereotype. We should include a creative hashtag that connects the campaign to us so people
know who is putting on the campaign, or they can tag us in the picture and hashtag something like
#OUrbookclub. If we get anywhere from 25 to 50 followers we can consider it a success.

VISUAL EXAMPLES

We want to introduce the campaign by telling

people what its going to be and an
introductory picture. This is a good example.

Though one was posted on Twitter, these

are exactly the types of images we want.
A picture where the book is visible and
the person is engaging with it. The
second image is less engaging because
we cant see the book cover.
THINGS TO CONSIDER
For this campaign we would want to make sure that we keep the captions short enough so people will
read them. People go to Instagram to see interesting images, the captions are just a bonus. We also
want to make sure we have a good mix of students, university officials, and professors. The students
show that we take an interest in those in our department, the university officials show that we have a
campus presence, and the professors show that we have a variety of professors whose interests go
outside of the classical literature idea. One thing I could foresee happening is people commenting
negative things on the pictures of university officials because they dont like them, or commenting
about how someones choice of book is somehow wrong. In this instance it is probably best to ignore
the negative comments unless specific people become a problem and then we could block them if
necessary.
SOCIAL MEDIA CAMPAIGN #2: TWITTER-EXPLAIN A BOOK BADLY
This campaign would be run on Twitter so users only had a limited number of characters. We should
be tweeting anywhere from 1 to 5 times a day at times when people are most active on social media to
improve peoples interaction levels. There are three key times people are most active, those are
before work, during lunch time, and after work. Starting out, if we get a combination of 10 likes and
retweets on our account then we are moving in the right direction.

GENERAL RULES FOR TWITTER

Twitter is different from Facebook and Instagram because it is largely public, and limits your
character usage. Since posts are shorter that means you want post more frequently than other sites.
Make the tweets interesting, funny, or informative though so people are willing to read them. People
dont want a play-by-play of mundane or everyday tasks. As with Instagram, using hashtags is key to
being a part of the online community, but dont use too many of them. Building an identity with Twitter
is important so the tone of the tweets should be similar.

PROFILE INFORMATION
Our profile information on this account should be similar to what we put on our Instagram account.
We want to maintain a degree of consistency in our different accounts. The picture, again, should be
something
that relates
to English or
to OU. The
description
should be a
modified
version of
the one
stated in the
Instagram
campaign so
that it meets the character requirements of Twitter. As with Instagram we want to
Harvard English
show that we are more than the stereotypes that people have, and that we care Departments
about our students and the world around us. Twitter Account

CAMPAIGN INFO
You may have heard of the Explain a Movie Plot Badly craze that happened on Twitter. As the name
suggests, people explain movie plots as poorly as possible to be funny. For example, a person could
describe Indiana Jones as A college professor tries to stop an art school reject or describing E.T. as
an illegal immigrant is chased by the Feds. I suggest we do this, but with books. This is a great way
to build a social media identity, post engaging content, and get people to interact with us online. It
serves as a form of recruitment too because high school students and undecided majors can engage
with us as well. When I was accepted to OU, the university followed me on Twitter. We could get a list
of prospective students and start interacting with them online before they come to OU. The objective
with this campaign is to help us gain followers and interact with people online. We could also make
the campaign more fun by having people try to guess what the book is and vice versa. If we gained 25
followers from this we would know it was a successful campaign and should continue doing it.

VISUAL EXAMPLES

Example of explaining the book

The Count of Monte Cristo badly.
Perfect example of what were
going for.

Examples of explaining a film plot badly. We

can link images to make guessing easier, but
its more interesting if we have people try to
guess.
THINGS TO CONSIDER
We would want to use a hashtag, like #explainabookbadly, so that we could find people who are
participating if they dont tag us in their tweets. We wouldnt want all of our tweets to be about this,
only around 3 a week so that it doesnt get old. We would also want to engage with those people who
are participating in our campaign by liking, retweeting, and replying to their tweets. A warning for
this campaign is some of the bad explanations could potentially be vulgar or offensive, and in that
case we would want to ignore those posts. If they continue to tweet negative stuff towards us then we
would want to block them if it becomes a problem.