Social Media Plan

SPEAKING
BEARCATS
Laine Davis, Brian Aceves, Alyssa Johnson, and Zach
Powelson

History
The Northwest Missouri State University speech program was founded in 1984, and the
Speaking Bearcats were founded in 2011. Our client, Brian Swafford, founded the Speaking
Bearcats under the Phi Kappa Delta organization. The Speaking Bearcats is a team of 15-20
students and they compete against other universities every weekend in tournaments. The public
speaking team since becoming official has won 11 national titles, as well as earned a 5th place
overall finish in 2014. Speaking Bearcats have been ranked in the top ten of the nation for the
last three years.
It is humbling to know that the Speaking Bearcats do not have bitter rivalries, but rather
the contrary: student speakers working as aspirational peers. Aspirational peers are active in
surrounding universities including Nebraska-Lincoln, Omaha, Hasting-Dunn, and Kansas State.

Footprint
The Speaking Bearcats do not have an official team Facebook account, but they have a
public group on Facebook in which they communicate with one another. In their public group,
there are no details listed on how to become a part of the team, how to connect with Brian
Swafford, nor when upcoming events will be held. We can see that their public group is not very
active because their most recent post is from March 2014. Their posts are limited, with only
having posted twice in 2014, and five times in 2013 when the account was created.
Facebook, according to Ebizma.com, is the number one ranked social media site as of
September 2015. Facebook has an estimated 900M unique monthly visitors. If Brian Swafford
were to create an official Speaking Bearcats Facebook page, the organization could gain a much
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higher following, and would have a better chance of recruiting new members and reaching out to
current and perspective students.
The Speaking Bearcats have an active Twitter account in which they relay results from
their events and competitions. Twitter is an effective platform for the Speaking Bearcats to relay
information about upcoming events they are involved in. Currently, the Speaking Bearcats have
146 followers on Twitter. They tweet roughly seven times a day, and only on days when they are
having a competition, which is on average two times a month. The tweets have mainly been
focused on results from competitions, rather than communication revolving around the
organization in general. Brian Swafford has tried to engage with the teams followers on social
media in the past, but has struggled in successfully doing so.
Northwest Missouri States Mock Trial team is one of the Speaking Bearcats greatest
competitors when it comes to students time and interest in public speaking. The Mock Trial
team has a public Facebook page that allows the public to like and/or follow to learn more
about the team. While the Speaking Bearcats have 126 likes on their page, the Mock Trial team
has only 23. The Mock Trial team does not post very often; their last post was made in February
of this year, they do, however, have accessible links to their contact information.

Goal
Our goal is to get more current students and incoming freshmen interested in joining the
Speaking Bearcats. We have carefully and thoughtfully developed several strategies and tactics
that would benefit the social media presence and overall outward communication of the
Speaking Bearcats.
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Strategy 1: Have the Speaking Bearcats connect with current and prospective students via
social media.
Tactic: Post weekly public speaking lists and tips on Facebook and Twitter.
Twitter: Post a list of tips on Tuesday between 12 pm and 6 pm, preferably as
close to 5 pm as possible. This will generate a higher CTR (click through rate) as
a majority of our target audience is online at this time. (Patel, 2015)

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The above post contains a call-to-action, which prompts the reader into doing something
like responding or retweeting the post. By asking followers to tweet their best public speaking
advice, other followers will not only see their response and hopefully learn from it, but they will
see the positive interaction between the Speaking Bearcats and their friends. This will lead to
more engagement. Using a hashtag is a great way to connect with internal and external publics;
by using #SpeechHacks, followers will have access to all advice tweeted, even by those they are
not personally following.
Facebook: Post numerical lists on Wednesdays or Thursdays between 1 PM and 3 PM for
more likes and shares. The majority of the Speaking Bearcats target audience is online at
this time. (Patel, 2015)

The above post is an example of social media communication that could generate wordof-mouth to a wider audience. Hashtags are newer to Facebook, as they joined the social media
site a couple of years ago, and are a great way to connect with comments made by other students.
Strategy 2: Expand social media presence in order to attract more students to the
organization.

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Tactic: Join Instagram and Snapchat to reach a more specific audience, such as high
school students.
Instagram: 25-32% of Instagram users are either in high school or recently
graduated.
Snapchat: 45% of Snapchat users are 18-24, either seniors in high school or
college students. (Kafka, 2015)

Strategy 3: Promote the Speaking Bearcats.

Tactic: Post flyers around Northwest Missouri State University promoting the
organization. By posting flyers in high traffic areas such as: bulletin boards in freshmen
residence halls, the union, the station, and Wells Hall, the targeted audience will have a
better chance of being reached.
Post flyers in Maryville High School. By using the high school as a promotional
platform, perspective and local students will be reached.
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Have Speaking Bearcats travel to high schools and talk to students about the organization
in November and February. Usually high school seniors are thinking about where to go
to college in November and actually deciding in February, so communicating with them
during these months will influence their decision.

Measurement
Measurement is a crucial part of making sure all of the social media plan engagement
strategies are either doing well or not as well as hoped. It is a major part of the plan to
continuously measure social media engagement through time. It is a goal to engage with
followers via the Speaking Bearcats social media platforms. Pictured below is an example of
what a social media calendar could look like throughout several months.
*See Page 9 for graph

This tool will allow you to see the engagement through your different platforms. You will
be able to correlate between different monthly trends or activities. For example, if there are three
events involving the Speaking Bearcats in January, and six in February, you will be able to see if
the number of events or activities in the group had an impact on the engagement through your
social media platforms.
In addition to the monthly measuring tool, tools such as Facebook Insights, Google
Analytics, and Hootsuite can be used to measure some of these trends from different social
media platforms. Facebook Insights measures your groups Facebook page by telling you which
posts get the most engagement. This tool tells the number of friends, likes, comments, and shares
your page has. Google Analytics and Hootsuite will show most of the same trends. All you have
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to do is set up an account and you will be able to compare all of your different social media
platforms through one or two easy pages.
Although measure within social media is very important, crisis management plays a
significant role as well. If a crisis within the Speaking Bearcats were to occur, there would need
to be a plan that the leaders of the group could refer to during the occurrence. For example, if on
the way to a debate competition in another state the bus was involved in an accident and students
were injured, social media can be used as a source to receive news and information to some
people; however, you would want to keep information confidential in case not all family
members have been notified of the accident. An example of a social media post would look like
this:

It is important to respond to each crisis on the platform that it began on in a timely

fashion. For example, if a crisis occurs and most people are mentioning it on Facebook, you
would need to respond via Facebook at least within 12 hours. This goes with any social media
platform. When responding, make sure all of your information is correct. If you are using names,
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be sure that you are using the correct name and correct spelling. The message you are sending
needs to be sincere and/or understanding, while remaining professional.

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Bibliography
Kafka, P. (2015, March 26). Heres the Chart That Explains Why Media Companies
Are Obsessed With Snapchat. Retrieved from recode.net:
http://recode.net/2015/03/26/heres-the-chart-that-explains-why-mediacompanies-are-obsessed-with-snapchat/
Patel, N. (2015, January 2). What Are The Best Times to Post on Social Media.
Retrieved from Quicksprout: https://www.quicksprout.com/2015/01/02/whatare-the-best-times-to-post-on-social-media/

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