Intro to Copywriting 3

Dr. Will Kurlinkus

Social Media and College
 Multiple Key Stakeholders: Who?

 Social media as tool for recruitment: How?

 What do new students/high schoolers like/want?
 How do we help them imagining themselves into a
future with us?
 Active, up-to-date, people oriented, real
 Engagement: SOCIAL answer questions allow
participation (hashtags are questions to answer)

 Social media as a way to promote research +

innovation.

 Social media as alumni engagement.

Platform Differences
 Facebook, Twitter, SnapChat, Instagram—what are
each used for?
 Facebook:
 Group/Community oriented rather than
individualizing. Come together, share with friends,
alumni groups.
 Like oriented (thumbs up)
 Comment oriented
 Video + Image
 What gets actual interaction?
 Why do we go to Facebook?
 How much should a Facebook account post?
 What do you think will be on OU’s?
https://www.facebook.com/uofoklahoma/
 What about the English Department?
Social Media Policy
 Establishing a social media
policy isn’t just about rules, it’s
about creating sustainable
branding that’s able to be
passed on.
 What’s OU’s?
 http://www.ou.edu/webcom
m/social-media
 What might the English
Department’s Be?
 How to respond to
complaints.
 How long should posts be.
 How many posts a week?
 How political?
 What types of posts.
 What’s not allowed?
 Branding.
 Approval process: when to
seek it, from whom?
 Customer service protocols:
answering questions.
 Basic technical information:
log-in passwords, account
names, hashtags, etc.
Our Assignment
The Magnetizers: Holding
Attention
 The Self-Relevant: People are persuaded by
appeals to the self.
 Appealing directly to the audience: “You”
 Writing directly to the person hiring
 Repeating a person’s name
 Next-in-line effect: people won’t pay attention to
you right before or after their “turn.” Speaking in a
meeting, for instance.

 The Unfinished: unifinished tasks and statements

are more memorable. They hoard attention.
 Always finish a writing or work session in the middle of
a thought. You’ll have a drive to return/solve it.
The Magnetizers: Holding
Attention
 The Mysterious: Posing a mystery at the beginning
of a lecture, class, paper, talk, email, will
encourage people to pay attention and read on
because people desire closure so much.
 Mysteries require explanations
 Posing questions at the beginning of a paper that
you intend to answer vs. writing a straightfroward
thesis statement.
The Primacy of Associations
 The brain works through associations
 Metaphors:
 Being careful about using the appropriate nouns, verbs, and metaphors
for the topic/cause we are championing (healthcare company doesn’t
use bullet points, talk about beating competition, etc.)
 Portraying death as walking out of life in order to sell life insurance. When
you walk out, you walk out on people. You need to leave something for
them.
 Weight=serious. Thus, heavier resumes are taken more seriously.
 Metaphorical design

 Terminal vs. Gate in airplanes

 Even things as simple as motivational posters around a workspace

work!
 Implicit Egoism: Associating self with products: people prefer
prodcuts with letters of their name. Named coke cans.
The Computer Desktop
Thinking of Coding as a
Craft
Thinking About Twitter
 Showcase students
Most Effective Academic Twitter
 Ask students to showcase Posts
themselves
 Community posts: shout outs
 tweets with images receive 18% praising staff, students, etc.
more clicks, 89% more favorites,
and 150% more retweets than  Educational posts
tweets without images.
 Inspirational posts
 hashtags are requests for
interaction. multiple for each
 Promotional
tweet
 Behind the scenes
 Conversational: “we” and “you”
creates personality

 Following alumni and retweeting