International Marquette Action Program - Final
STRATEGY
Summary of your mid-term strategy document
Our strategy document was laid out as a template for our group to follow, including a set schedule for posting on each social media platform.
Included first Tumblr posts.
It had displayed what each group member had been assigned to accomplish.
Our mid-term strategy was lacking due to our group not yet having a particular direction or plan beyond when we were going to post content. We had not yet agreed with our client on what we were going to be doing.
Mission, audience, metrics, timing, platforms and tools
Our mission from the get go was to raise enough money to send a single student on the 2015 IMAP trip.
Our audience was focused on the general student body, and the scarce number of followers we accumulated during our campaign.
We tried to space out the timing of our posts in a way that they were posted on the right platforms at the right time.
We utilized Sprout Social, Mention, Tumblr, Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook.
In addition to social media we branched out to our own personal groups such as family and friends to raise awareness. IMAP alumni became another focus of our outreach.
Our content was focused on the emotional appeal the trip is known to provide for its alums.
Our Tumblr posts were focused on alumni profiles of different people who had already gone on the trip, as well as a profile from a student who is planning on participating in the 2015 trip.
The rest of our social media was used to spread the posts from our Tumblr.
MEASUREMENT
What were the results of executing your strategy?
We stayed up to date with posting on both the Twitter, Tumblr & Facebook accounts for IMAP. We planned on posting regularly via Instagram, however, did not see much success with it considering users were not able to click on links that would lead them to the IndieGoGo campaign page.
What content performed the best?
The content that performed the best overall throughout the campaign were the posts that had personal stories/interviews with IMAP alum. It showed the personal connection with the program and allowed for the audience to see the impact the IMAP trip has had on so many people. It also attracted more alum to help donate to the campaign because it showed that even though their time has passed, the IMAP trip continues to impact students who are following in their footsteps.
Did you meet your intermediate and success metrics?
As far as followers go, the @Marquette_MAP account ended up with a total of 189 followers and the Facebook ended with a total of 495 likes. Neither account really had much of a presence on social media, so it was great to see these increases in followers/likes for both accounts. While these numbers seem low and do not coincide with our original goals a large part of that was because we had to give Marquette Action Program it’s own identity and use that as our medium to promote information on IMAP and the crowdfunding campaign. Our success metrics were to be measured by the amount of money raised for the campaign, however, we unfortunately did not meet our goal of $2,000 and instead raised $1,060 which was still a significant amount of money considering our resources and challenges that we came across throughout the campaign.
Here are some posts that generated some interest and led to more donations. The story on Jen Meverden got reblogged a few times helping to reach larger groups. Marquette also retweeted it making its popularity increase even more.
ANALYSIS
Unfortunately, we did not meet our goal. We believe there are a few reasons that held us back.
First and foremost, the client is not one that pulls in money. Campus Ministry programs are hard to raise money for, especially at a Jesuit university. There seemed to be an unspoken understanding that University Advancement does not focus on raising funds for this specific department. However, as we have seen in recent news, money is being raised for our Jesuits and their residences.
Secondly, Campus Ministry is, in the grand scheme of college life, an extra-curricular. It has no direct tie to a college or major program. We witnessed throughout the campaign that most of the campaigns that had huge success were tied to specific colleges and/or majors. Therefore, it was evident that those types of campaigns and programs have an existing donor base that will not go away. While Campus Ministry and IMAP have had a profound impact on alumni, these alumni differ from others.
This concept ties into the third reason why our campaign did not reach its goal. Our non-existent donor base consists of alumni who are in the public services industry, which means they do not make as much as other alumni. While we are proud of their accomplishments and the amazing work they are doing, we are acknowledging that they are unable to give as much as they could.
Another reason why the campaign was not as successful as we had hoped for is due to the frequency of IMAP. The program is annual. It is a one time thing per year. Students can only attend the trip once during their time at Marquette. Therefore, the emotional ties and bonds students may have formed during the trip will soon go away because of this.
For the success we did have, we can thank our close network of friends and a few alumni. This was possible through direct e-mail appeals that we sent out to our immediate networks and alumni of the program. Social media was fun and got people to see the campaign, but it did not help us raise money. The money that came through was a result of reaching out to our family, friends and alumni through e-mail appeals.
The lack of success is due to the overall lack of support the Marquette community has for the department of Campus Ministry and IMAP, which is one of SEVERAL service opportunities students can go on. Simply, it is not that big of a deal to the greater community. The program is lost in a pile of opportunities and experiences students can have, and on this campus, it does not necessarily stand out or appeal more than any others.
ACTION
What recommendations would you make for a future campaign?
Broader Target Market as it got too narrow by separating IMAP from Campus Ministry.
It would have been better to use Campus Ministry’s social media platforms to spread the message of this campaign, but unfortunately Father Anderson did not want our group to have access to those accounts. Had we used those platforms as a group we would have reached a larger demographic with the same passion for service as IMAP.
Include more call to action- we had good emotional appeal, but never really made a strong connection to donate.
Meeting more frequently as an entire group would have been beneficial so that we were always on the same page and this could have helped with the team dynamic aspect Aaron previously mentioned.
Based on your analysis, what would you avoid, and what would you do more?
Unfortunately, for this class social media is not a priority for the MAP program. The account is ran by a student coordinator who tweets very rarely so there is not a high number of followers or engagement meaning once we are done running the accounts there will be barely any tweets or Facebook posts for the followers to see.
More direct emails as we found the greatest success with this. We personally emailed each IMAP alum to share with them this campaign and urge them to spread the word about it. Most of our donations came from these emails so in the future I would suggest emailing more than just IMAP alums, but also MAP alumni as well as alumni very active within the Campus Ministry department.
The feature stories were definitely the most popular of the information we shared. The stories allowed readers to put a face to the program and truly see the impact IMAP has had on students.
Moving forward, we would avoid the Instagram as overall it was not beneficial; however, maybe when the group travels to Ecuador and posts current pictures it will improve in popularity.