The Center for Women and Gender

Social Media Business PlanSeptember 2016 – December 2016

Kristen Steiner

Content Introduction Past and Current Social Media Use Concerns Goals Audiences CWG Calendar Stories to produce Social Media Campaigns and Hashtags Conflict Resolution

IntroductionIn 2010, Utah State University established the Center for Women and Gender (CWG) by collapsing the Women’s Center, Women and Gender Studies, and the Women and Gender Research Institute to create a single program focused on the understanding of intersectionalities, enhancing opportunities for people of all genders and backgrounds, and building leadership skills. The CWG’s goal is to help teach, serve as an outreach, and help and provide research in particular fields of study pertaining to women and gender.

While the center provides many different services, it also provides academic programs such as undergraduate programs and graduation certifications. Students throughout the university can also use the classes that are offered through CWG as a minor to enhance any program on campus.

The CWG is home to the Perspectives Club, a club dedicated to equal pay and women and gender issues at a student level. They also host the Smart Girl Program, a program helping young girls throughout Cache Valley develop social, emotional, and leadership skills.

Past and Current Social Media Use

FacebookThe center has a strong presence on Facebook with 618 likes. The last post was written on August 19, 2016 with posts almost weekly before that. The content published is mostly videos or links to articles dealing with feminist issues with a variety of likes ranging on an average from 2 – 12 per post.

TwitterThe twitter account for the CWG is currently being followed by 208 users and is following 196 users. The last tweet was posted on April 14, 2016 with regular posting before that. Most content seems to be focused around links to different articles regarding feminism and politics and current events or issues on campus. There is also another account with the handle of @CWG_USU that has not been used for four years. It would be beneficial, if possible to delete that account to make everything focused on the one active account. Instagram

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The “cwg.usu” Instagram account currently has 71 followers and is following 104 users. Since the centers Instagram account launch there have been 45 posts with the last one 23 weeks ago.

Snapchat Snapchat is not a platform that is currently being used by the CWG.

YouTubeThe center currently has a YouTube page, however, there is no content or videos on the page. The CWG page has 39 subscribers currently.

BlogThe Center for Women and Gender currently has a blog that is attached to their website. The blog is simply formatted and accessible to all who visit the site. It is not regularly updated, nor does it have a schedule for posts. Its last post was August 23, 2016, however, the last post before that was October 31, 2015.

ConcernsThe Center for Women and Gender have had a lot of success in reaching a lot of people through social media outlets, but there are strong concerns regarding posting material, the use of certain platforms, and generalized content regarding the center and their mission.

Some current concerns of the CWG are: Being “edgy” enough and pushing the envelope on particular issues while still

catering to a more conservative audience Being sensitive to the nature of the program and what it entails in all social

media interaction Keeping the use of current social media platforms strong through the entire

semester Keeping under the topic of what the program stands for in all the center does

and produces The use of Twitter and if it is a effective platform to be using at this time Producing blog posts that are beyond subpar Getting more university students involved in activities and social media

engagements Having an effective, used, and visited YouTube channel

Goals For the 2016 fall semester at Utah State University, the Center for Women and Gender have decided to focus its social media efforts on a couple of particular events and topics to create excitement for what is to come. Those include:

Promote events Increase followership and recognition of organization among university

students Promoting Nicholas Kristof – Kristof will be a guest lecturer in the upcoming

spring semester, however, the CWG wants to take advantage of this semester

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to highlight him, his work, and what he will be speaking about to make people aware of him and his upcoming USU debut.

Focusing on the topic of sexuality and politics – With the presidential election coming up in November, and Kristof coming to speak in the spring, the CWG want to make this a topic that is forward, relevant, and speaking to those within the Cache Valley demographic.

T-shirt push – The Perspectives Club will be creating and handing out free t-shirts to make university students, faculty, and staff more aware of what the center is about and every day issues.

While the above listed items are over arching goals that will be integrated into many social media posts across the different platforms, there are also specific goals pertaining to each platform that the CWG would like to address.

Facebooko X# of posts weekly o Increasing followers by X%o Find campus groups to connect with to increase student awareness

Twittero Brainstorm ways and ideas to make it more effective and relevant for

target audienceo Decide if it is a platform worth keeping at this particular time

Instagramo X# of posts weekly o Follow campus and other groups with similar interests to pull in more

followerso Post pictures relevant to overarching goals listed above

Snapchato Research and decide if Snapchat is worth the time and effortso Create an account if applicable

YouTubeo Continue to create content and link to social media siteso Determine and brainstorm ways to make more it more relevant and at

the forefront of what is being done at the center Blog

o Post meaningful content every other week

Audiences

CurrentAt the present, the center reaches a large demographic of people. Not only does it reach the students, faculty, and staff of Utah State University, the center reaches community members, scholarship donors, and alumni.

Potential

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While university students are being reached, the center wants to focus on not only reaching more students university wide, but reaching more specific colleges. The Center for Women and Gender is all encompassing. It helps, teaches, and provides opportunities for people of all genders, races, ethnicities, and backgrounds. The potential to reach out to particular colleges on campus (i.e., The Huntsman School of Business, The College of Humanities and Social Science, etc.) and become more involved in clubs and different organizations is an area that could result with significant impacts for the center.

CWG CalendarAll events will be promoted on social media at least one week in advance, as well as the day before. The content will be posted during the event as well, however, the particular content will be determined when more details are given regarding each event.

Event Date Time PlaceScholarship Dinner Thurs, Sept. 22 6 – 8 pm TSCCarnival and Documentary

Thurs, Oct. 6 6 – 9 pm UPR Lawn

Brown Bag Wed, Oct. 12 12 – 1 pm Library 208Clothesline Project Wed, Oct 26 –

Thurs, Oct 27All Day TSC Sunburst/International

LoungeBrown Bag Mon, Oct 31 12 -1 pm Library 101Documentary Thurs, Nov 3 7 – 9 pm NEHMAVeterans Day Celebration

Fri, Nov 11 7 – 8 pm TSC Auditorium

Madeline Cavinass Thurs, Nov 17 TBA TBAMunch and Mingle Thurs, Dec 1 4 – 5 pm TSC 309

Stories to Produce – When applicable, stories will be written preceding the event being held as to excite audiences and create an event marketing opportunity.

Carnival and Documentary Perspectives Club Clothesline Project Brown Bag (Oct 31st) Veterans Day Celebration Nicholas Kristof

Social Media Campaigns and Hashtags

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Campaigns

Weekly blog posts – Create a weekly blog post highlight upcoming events, lecturers, and people involved with the center.

Remarkable Women Series – The CWG want to focus on more than the big names. The Remarkable Women Series will be a type of article series about amazing women (i.e., staff, faculty, Perspective Club students, top university students) who have accomplished something spectacular and should be recognized for their hard works and achievements. CWG wants to give credit where credit is due.

Did You Know? – This will be a way to educate people what the CWG is involved in and supports. We will use everyday news facts, facts about the center, and upcoming events or campaigns for the club to show that CWG is for everyone and what it stands for. This would also be a great opportunity to find memes or short video clips to share among users to help follower growth.

Feminist Fridays – This will be a great way to show people that feminism is not a bad word. We will post memes, pictures, stories (local, nationally, or globally), and videos to show different aspects of feminism, who is involved in it, and why it is something fun to be associated with.

Events – CWG is hosting a variety of events this semester. All events are ones that students can attend, so by using our various platforms we will dedicate a day to post reminders about upcoming events each week on the different platforms, so that students, faculty, staff, and alumni are aware of upcoming events.

A Day at the CWG – It is important for Instagram to be involved this semester when the center is trying to attract university students. This will be a post that shows pictures of what is happening at the center, who is involved, and the fun that everyone is having. It will be a visual appeal to highlight the center.

Women Crush Wednesday – This will be a way to highlight important women in the public who make a huge difference in the world of feminism and paving the way for women.

Hashtags- #cwg- #heforshe- #leaderHERship- #usucwg- #aggielife- #feministfriday- #meninfeminism- #wcw- #thisiswhatafeministlookslike

Content Calendar

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Sunday Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday

Did you know? (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram when applicable)

Promote next weeks event (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram)

Women Crush Wednesday (Facebook, Instagram)

Remarkable Women Series (Facebook, Twitter)

Feminist Fridays (Facebook, Twitter)

Promote blog post (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram)

Did you know? (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram when applicable)

Promote next weeks event (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram)

Women Crush Wednesday (Facebook, Instagram)

A Day at the CWG (Instagram)

Feminist Fridays (Facebook, Twitter)

Promote blog post (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram)

It should also be noted that if possible, content will be posted during and after each event.

Conflict ResolutionIf conflicts occur regarding social media posts or usage, a meeting will be arranged with a representative from the CWG and the other party involved. Inappropriate or negative content on any of the social media outlets will be dealt with quickly and efficiently. Any conflicts will also involve the involvement of CWG faculty:

Reni McBridereni.mcbride@usu.edu

Stephanie Bagnell Stephanie.Bagnell@usu.edu

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