In order to highlight the experiential learning commitment of the PR Stream in TRU’s JCNM department, it is important that we share our message with curious students who may not be familiar with the benefits of a communication program. Showing the existing successes and value of experiential learning will demonstrate the commitment of the department to helping students make the transition to hands-on and professional PR work. While there is information on the departmental website about course offerings and the structure of the PR stream, a blog campaign allows for personal perspectives on the PR program that are lacking on institutional, owned media. This plan proposes a three-part blog series describing the experience of two students and one professor involved in experiential learning projects in the PR stream.
AUDIENCE
(who is the audience for this initiative and campaign, and why will the audience connect with it?)
This blog campaign will be aimed at attracting already-admitted and first-year TRU students thinking about a Major in JCNM’s Communication PR Stream by showcasing attractive existing elements of the program that are focused on pre-professional experience. Students will identify with JCNM students who are the authors of some of the blog entries.
RESEARCH
(what supplemental information can you provide that justifies your choice of channels and campaign design?)
There is no doubt that students can be best reached through digital channels. Young people, according to a 2018 survey on internet habits by Statistics Canada, are the most likely to be regular users of the internet. While social media relies on followers and can be reposted and circulated in unpredictable venues, a blog presents a middle ground between owned media and shared media, where links from TRU social media can be used to direct students to blog entries . Blogs are perceived as more informal than other kinds of owned media, and may be more open to trust from users because of this fact: a 2007 study published in the Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication concluded that blogs are perceived as credible by internet users because of, rather than in spite of, the personal and opinionated writing styles that they use.
Directing prospective students to the blog and gaining impressions will be the biggest challenge, and campaign across multiple channels on social media can be of use here. The blog series should be tested with a small focus group drawn from existing students who can be asked qualitative questions about their feelings about experiential learning in the department before and after reading the blog series, providing a benchmark by which to judge the change in sentiment.
SPOKESPEOPLE
(who will speak on behalf of the organization in the online space, and why are they a good fit?)
Diffusion theory of public opinion reminds us that while voices of authority and earned media are important sources of information on new or ongoing issues, the general public relies on the confirmation from people they are acquainted with or see as like them in order to make their assumptions. Splitting this difference, this blog campaign will seek out two students and one professor who have been involved with experiential learning to share their experiences as guest writers, with a focus on both benefits and challenges within experiential learning. Each of three blog entries will highlight the personal experience of one of these three spokespeople in an experiential learning project.
CONTENT
(what will your content look like and sound like? Be as specific as possible.)
The campaign is designed to raise awareness about experiential learning and direct students to the JCNM course page rather than provide in-depth information about the program.The blog series content should be framed in the first person to encourage identification. A focus on equity and diversity within the student population should be paramount when choosing guest writers and seeking out recommendations from professors in the PR stream. The blog itself can be largely repetitive, focused around a short, set series of questions about what experiential learning means to the guest, how it changed their perspective on PR, and how they hope to incorporate the skills they learned going forward. Comments should be turned off to funnel feedback to monitored channels like departmental email, but questions and contact for the guest writers and for the departmental adviser should be included. Links back to the core JCNM departmental website and academic advising should be included for more information about course planning.
CALENDAR
(This should be a short timeline – is this the first blog post in your campaign? how many blog posts are you planning, and will they be released over a month? a year? why have you chosen this timeframe?)
This blog series should be released weekly over the final month of the Winter term. This timeline is designed to engage first-year students before they enter the exam period but as they are beginning to consult with academic advisors about their upcoming course loads and academic plans.
Blog entries guest written by student spokespeople should be featured first in order to promote identification with student audiences. Data on impressions should be reviewed weekly to measure results from social media cross-posting and redirection.
CONCLUSION
This three-part blog series will provide a personal, student-focused perspective on experiential course projects in TRU to engage with prospective Communication majors during the period of course and program selection at the end of the Winter term.