Putting My Knowledge to the Test

I spent all summer learning about social media marketing in my online summer class, participating in social media marketing plans for my internship, and writing about social media marketing on this blog. This week, it was time to put my knowledge and skills to the test. I created my own social media campaign from scratch.

As I mentioned in a previous blog post, I founded a NAMI on Campus chapter at my university last year. NAMI stands for the National Alliance on Mental Illness. Because we just received recognition last semester, this semester we are really getting started. Time flies in college, and next week is already Mental Illness Awareness Week! Using ideas from previous meetings and from the NAMI extranet, I put together a schedule of activities for that week a little while ago. I ran it by my executive board (e-board), and we began planning for these activities. Some ideas had to be postponed, so the activities that stuck were giving out positive messages written on little cards with candy, having students make cards to send to a local mental health facility, giving out temporary semicolon tattoos (in reference to Project Semicolon) to students who put up a positive message on a sticky note in the bathroom, and having students take the Stigma Free pledge on NAMI's website.

I had already created a Facebook and a Twitter page for my university's chapter of NAMI on Campus and had been sporadically filling them. Now was the time to really get this club involved on social media. On Monday, I posted a flyer that I downloaded from NAMI advertising Mental Illness Awareness Week and telling viewers to keep checking our social media pages for more information on activities we have planned. I also created an event on Facebook and had the e-board share it.

Advertising the week and our activities was good, but from what I learned this summer, people want to feel connected and interact. That's why I created an interactive social media campaign. One of the goals of the club is to eliminate the stigma surrounding mental illnesses and mental health in general. Education and understanding help eliminate stigma, and they are achieved through communication. It's important to listen and to be heard. The campaign I created calls for people to share a mental health story on Facebook or Twitter. I realize that is risky, so I clarified that it does not have to be personal. They simply need to share a story with the hashtag #StigmaFree and tag the club. The goal is not only to gain exposure, but also to get people talking about mental health. I posted the call-to-action on Facebook, Twitter, and University Posts (the forum my university uses to spread information across the community). Because I have more Facebook friends than the club's page has followers, I also posted it as myself. I had the e-board share that as well.

On Tuesday, I designed a flyer advertising Mental Illness Awareness Week and posted it to our Facebook and Twitter accounts. By Tuesday night, it had reached 10 people. I also created a generic poster for the club. Our Facebook page needed a make-over, so I cropped the poster to become our banner photo and made our profile picture a green ribbon for mental health awareness.

On Thursday, I tweeted, "Mental Illness Awareness Week is next week! Who's ready??" and posted a similar message on Facebook. On Sunday, I posted, "Mondays are the worst :( Let us brighten your day! :) Stop by our table in the Campus Center tomorrow for a positive message and some candy!" on Facebook.

The result of this campaign was a lot more exposure for this new club. By the end of the week, on Facebook, the post first announcing Mental Illness Awareness Week had reached 21 people; the event had reached 21 people and had 2 likes; the Mental Illness Awareness Week poster had reached 26 people and had 2 likes; the "Who's excited for Mental Illness Awareness Week next week??" post had reached 7 people; and the post about Monday had reached 5 people. The mental health story campaign reached 184 people and had 1 like, but nobody participated in it. Overall, our Facebook page gained 14 new, organic page likes. Our Twitter page now has 13 followers. The mental health story tweet received 1 favorite and 2 retweets. The "Who's ready" tweet received 1 favorite.

I think the club definitely gained a lot more exposure than we've had before this week. I learned that while fans want to be engaged, they don't necessarily want to be too involved if they don't already have an emotional connection to a brand or a cause, so asking them to share a mental health story is like asking someone you just met to answer a really personal question. A post made on our Facebook page by my Vice President explaining what Mental Illness Awareness Week is about and linking to our Twitter page reached 104 people, received 3 likes, 3 love reactions, and 1 share, and led to 4 post clicks. From that, I learned that maybe introducing ourselves first is a better way to gain trust.

UPDATE:

Also, social media is not the only way to build relationships with consumers. Our first activity today (handing out positive messages with our logo on them and candy attached) was a huge success. Hopefully the activities we host throughout the week will continue to get people involved and more engaged in the club.