FACEBOOK

PROJECT PLAN 1

Action

Through my research it was clear that even though students may have visited or

unintentionally come across the Arizona in Italy Facebook page, they werent absorbing the key

messages of the program (i.e. direct-credit, open to all majors, courses taught by UA faculty

etc.). As we learned in lecture, people can receive the message but if they dont understand it

well enough to remember the main concepts behind it, then the message has made no impact on

the target audience and is serving no purpose (King 2014). With this in mind I structured my

informational objective to be: by the end of this academic semester, increase the awareness of

what the Arizona in Italy Study Abroad experience entails by 30% among UA sophomore and

junior female students.

My research also confirmed the issue of many people thinking that the application

process is a difficult one, when in fact its a simple four-step process. Thus the first step in

achieving my motivational objective is to change the negative attitude directed around applying

to study abroad. If I am able to change this unfavorable perception, it will most likely increase

the chances of achieving my motivational objective which is: By the October 25th application

deadline, increase the number of female sophomore and junior applicants for the 2017 spring

semester by 5% in comparison to the number of female sophomore and junior applicants for

2016 fall semester.

For this campaign the active audience is made up of UA students that are interested in

studying abroad in the future, UA students that are actively pursing studying abroad with the

Arizona in Italy program and the parents of UA students interested in studying abroad in Orvieto.

As the parents will be looking to learn as much as possible about what the program entails and

the application process, since they will be the ones expensing the trip and giving the final
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approval of whether the student can go or not. According to my research the demographics of

this segmented public are primarily white females that are either in their sophomore of junior

year of school. The sophomores will most likely be interested in studying abroad the following

year, while the Juniors will be looking to study abroad next spring or in the upcoming summer.

Although all majors are welcome, the majority of the applicants will be Communication or

Psychology majors. So I will have to make sure to craft posts that highlight students abroad in

Orvieto who are studying or pursing careers involving either of those two disiplines. The

majority of these female students will come from a household that has an average to high

income. Segmenting the psychographic information taken from my research, this public is made

up of students that are involved in their academics and on campus. They are known by others to

be positive, social and goal-oriented. They are involved with their majors and are interested in

learning about new cultures and the history behind the evolution of that culture. I will target this

audience by crafting and repetitively posting content that exhibits the unique cultural and social

excursions that are exclusive to the AZ in Italy program (i.e. UNESCO Field trips, professional

chef cooking classes) as well as information on application dates and opportunities for

scholarship to help further the process of applying.

The passive audience is made up of uninvolved alumni who are still following the

Facebook page, UA students who are not interested in studying abroad and the current fall

students online network of friends, who are exposed to the programs messaging when their

friends (a current Arizona student in Orvieto) personal Facebook is tagged in a post. The

demographics for this public encompass the type of individuals that I mentioned above and for

that reason there is no way to comment on the psychographic segmentations as there is not

enough research done on these specific publics to form a conclusion. Although to catch the
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attention of these audiences I need to come up with original and entertaining posts that

incorporate either trending media platforms, (i.e. boomerangs) or information that is relatable

(i.e. Bear Down video is something that all Arizona students would enjoy). I also have to be

cautious about overly posting and annoying this audience, as this could prompt the uninvolved

alumni to unfollow the page. As they have no reason to be involved or continue their connection

to the program.

Informational Objective: By the end of this academic semester, increase the awareness of
what the Arizona in Italy Study Abroad experience entails by 30% among UA sophomore and
junior female students.
Strategies for the Informational Objective:
Accelerate the frequency of featured program participants and alumni in Facebook
social media posts.
o Tactic #1:Published weekly spotlights on current students and program
alumni. Student of the Week w/ Andrea, Fall Break Spotlight w/ Diego,
Alumna Spotlight w/ Tricia Horn
o Tactic #2: Used advice posts to prompt discussion between alumni and
current students. Question for Alumni, Spring Alumni Advice, Feedback
Post
o Tactic #3: Tagged current students in field trip photo albums. most
recently the Rome field trip album
Actively engage and speak to the involvement of third party organizations in
student-related posts.
o Tactic #1: Tied in organizations that students are involved/ affiliated with by
tagging their Facebook page in student spotlights. Student of the Week w/
Andrea, Tagged: UA Womens Club Volleyball Team, Student of the Week w/
Shae, Tagged: Sigma Kappa Sorority
o Tactic #2: Produced a video that reached out to the UA community by
involving the school battle song. Bear Down Orvieto Video
o Tactic #3: Published posts that give the contact information of UA Study
Abroad office. Scholarship Announcement
Continuously reiterate and enforce the role travel plays in our program.
o Tactic #1: Published photo albums after every fieldtrip Venice Photo
Album, Florence Photo Album, Siena Photo Album
o Tactic #2: Put together interactive maps that track the routes of our travels.
Naples, Pompeii and Paestum Map, Fall Break Travels Map
o Tactic #3: Highlighted all of the different locations and special stops that we
made during our field trips through writing captions. In the Rome album I
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spoke about the Trevi Fountain, Pantheon. Vatican City and the Sistine
Chapel

Motivational Objective: By the October 25th application deadline, increase the number of
female sophomore and junior applicants for the 2017 spring semester by 5% in comparison to the
number of female sophomore and junior applicants for 2016-fall semester.
Strategies for the Motivational Objective:
Encourage students to apply to the AZ in Italy program
o Tactic #1:Collected and compiled application instructions from Study Abroad
Coordinators. Scholarship Announcement, Alumni Advice
o Tactic #2: Highlighted academic recourses to help aid or decrease the cost of
studying abroad. Scholarship Announcement
o Tactic #3:Wrote out steps for applying in posts. Four Easy Steps to Study
Abroad w/ the UA
Paint a picture of the Orvieto Culture
o Tactic #1: Inserted photos of Orvieto walkways that depicted the city structure.
Whats on the Agenda this week in Orvieto, Scholarship Announcement
o Tactic #2: Filmed a video that covered a bi-weekly community event Farmers
Market Video
o Tactic #3: Wrote posts that elicited program participants to share their favorite
memories of Orvieto Question for Alumni
Promote positive outcomes that are a result of study abroad experiences.
o Tactic #1: Highlighted cultural learning opportunities that are exclusive to this
program. Italian Cooking Class
o Tactic #2: Spotlighted moments of personal student benefits, gained during the
weekly field trips @UniversityofArizonaCollegeofArchitecture senior Diego
OFarill took a special interest in the sustainability exhibition as for his senior
thesis OFarrill is creating a project monitoring the environmental impact of
plants on buildings, I got a lot of great ideas just from walking around and I cant
wait to see how I can use them to enhance my project, said the senior Venice
Photo Album.
o Tactic #3: Formulated posts that described cultural classes only available through
this program. Italian Food, Wine and Culture Class

From research collected prior to the campaign, I was able to identify poor retention levels

of the programs key messages among students. As students were being exposed to the messages

but didnt necessarily accept their concepts. To clarify what the programs key messages are, the

key messages consist of: direct-credit, available to all majors, small town environment, small

classes, close Professor-Student relationships and more affordable tuition for out-of-state

students. To achieve my informational objective, which is to increase awareness about what the
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AZ in Italy program entails, I made sure to repetitively reinforce at least one key message in

every single post that I crafted. For example the post Whats on the Agenda this Week in

Orvieto, reinforces the key message of direct-credit. Every time I would write that post, I would

make sure to include the official class name and number. If a student were to look for the

Communication and PR class on UAccess they would see they both show COMM 313. To

reiterate my motivational objective, by the October 25th application deadline, increase the

number of female sophomore and junior applicants for the 2017 spring semester by 5% in

comparison to the number of female sophomore and junior applicants for 2016 fall semester. To

help achieve my motivational objective I was very direct with stating the key message in posts

about applying to the program and student spotlights. For example, in the Student of the Week

with Andrea, I named the key message of direct-credit in the post The Yuma native's dream of

studying in Italy became a reality because the AZ in Italy program provides direct-credit for the

courses needed for her major.