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National Council for Marketing & Public Relations 2020 Paragon Awards Entry
Category: Social Media or Online Marketing Campaign
Entry prepared by Austin Warren, SCC Public Relations Assistant
Intro
COVID-19 has had a very negative impact on higher education institutions across the nation. Because of the importance of social distancing, constant changes in government regulation and limitations on public spaces, along with the general uncertainty for the rest of 2020, enrollment in higher education is way down. Since April, Southwestern Community College NC social media has primarily focused on three things: highlighting our activities within the community, showing our students engaged on campus while being safe (masks, plexiglass, gloves) and most importantly trying to get students to enroll in summer and fall courses.
Messaging
To do this, SCC has focused on the following key messages and brand values in their posts:
- “Why pay more for the on-campus experience you might not have? Our online classes are affordable and transfer almost anywhere in the UNC system. Get the credits you need, without uncertainty and for a fraction of the cost.”
- “At SCC, we’ve been perfecting distance learning for more than 20 years. We were built for moments like these.”
- “This summer, SCC is open and ready to get you closer to your degree. COVID-19 may be interrupting the world, but don’t let it interrupt your education. When the world returns to normal, a skilled education will be more important than ever.”
- “We’re offering tons of online, affordable and easy to navigate courses. Now is the perfect time to focus on your studies.”
- “This could be you in two years.” (A picture of students smiling in cap and gown) “Get a strong education in an essential career so that you can be prepared for anything.”
Effectiveness and Communication Theory
In March, SCC was down around 18% on full-time enrollment (FTE) for summer, which is a lot of students. FTE determines how much money and resources an organization is provided by the state, which is one reason enrollment is an important function that a communication executive is responsible for in higher education. By the time classes started on May 26, we nearly broke even from last summer’s FTE, which means we had a very successful and effective social media ad campaign.
There were several factors that made this messaging strategy effective. The first was our use of framing and the framing effect, key elements of Situational Crisis Communication Theory that can also be applied to general communication contexts. In communication, framing is the way that information is presented in a message in order to influence what parts of the message the receiver focuses on or pays specific attention to. It is a technique that communicators use to help receivers make decisions about certain facts, situations or the organization as a whole that benefit the organization and its goals for a particular communication (e.g. a social media post and boosting enrollment).
There are a million negative aspects of COVID-19 that one can focus on, and in general humans are more likely to focus on negative, threatening aspects of any situation because it’s an inherent defense mechanism to protect oneself from harm. In situations like these, the communication executive is responsible for shaping the crisis frame to focus on factors and elements of a crisis that shift the consumer into forming more positive associations and judgments in regards to the organization. SCC used its social media to connect existing brand values (affordability, essential careers like skilled labor/trades, providing modern online education) to real, factual selling points that are in the best interests of potential students (consumers) during this situational crisis where individuals are searching for a ‘silver lining’. In this regard, our social media strategy showcases effective application of Fully Functional Society Theory. As an institution, we are providing opportunities and affordability that benefits our communities and serves their interests (online courses, affordability, securing a ‘pandemic proof’ career) but at the same time directly benefits us as an entity (increased enrollment, profitability, resources).
Another part of SCC’s success came from consistency and inclusiveness. We regularly posted a different ad campaign up to twice a week for two months and gave each campaign a consistent budget, which gave every piece of messaging nearly the same paid reach to the same target audiences. Because money was a stable factor, engagement results for each ad campaign allowed us to see more accurately which messaging was most effective and subsequently adapt the messaging of their next post.
We also made sure to showcase a wide variety of stakeholders in photography for each post, highlighting students of different races, ages, sexes and academic/trades programs for the broadest, most inclusive marketing appeal. Semiotics play a huge role in effective integrated marketing communication and marketing strategy, particularly when it comes to photography and video. SCC chose to use inspirational symbols (e.g. students in cap and gown smiling at graduation) to signify happiness, success, and perseverance, all characteristics likely to persuade target audiences. We also matched those images with complimentary semantics (“This could be you in two years”). In terms of integrated marketing communication theory, our social media strategy followed the “Four C’s” theoretical framework model of communication. Each post included messaging that emphasized or operated on the marketing elements of “consumer,” “cost,” “convenience” and “communication.”
Campaign Posts
‘This summer, SCC is open...’ (April 20)
‘Interested in college…’ (May 4)
‘This summer, eligible high school…’ (May 7)
Analytics Summary
- 115 Shares
- 1,478 Engagements
- 18,028 Reach
- 236,386 Impressions
Click HERE for a full analytics report from Facebook.
