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STEAM Village Social Media Strategy

Table of Contents

Situation Analysis................................................................................................................................. 3Company Overview......................................................................................................................................... 3Marketing Objectives..................................................................................................................................... 3SWOT Analysis.................................................................................................................................................. 4Branding Guidelines....................................................................................................................................... 4Budget.................................................................................................................................................................. 5Social Media Analysis..................................................................................................................................... 5

Audience Identification...................................................................................................................... 5STEAM Participants and Awareness......................................................................................................... 5

Awareness...........................................................................................................................................................................6Participants.........................................................................................................................................................................6

Contributions and Fundraising...................................................................................................................7

Competitor Analysis............................................................................................................................ 8Salt Lake Community College...................................................................................................................... 9Game Stop........................................................................................................................................................ 10Salt Lake Comic Con...................................................................................................................................... 11

Goals and Objectives......................................................................................................................... 12

Strategy and Tactics.......................................................................................................................... 13Themes and Voice......................................................................................................................................... 13Implementation............................................................................................................................................. 15Timeline........................................................................................................................................................... 16

1 Month..............................................................................................................................................................................173-6 Months....................................................................................................................................................................... 18

Reporting and Analytics.................................................................................................................. 19

E-Commerce elements..................................................................................................................... 19

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Situation Analysis

Company Overview

STEAM Village is a non-profit organization that provides assistance for five groups of

people to pursue careers in science, technology, engineering, arts, and math. The five

groups STEAM Village caters to are: youth aging out of foster care, veterans, youth at risk,

high functioning disabled adults, and graduates of the Utah Scholars program. By the year

2018 Utah will have 101,000 STEAM related jobs that need to be filled. STEAM Village’s

goal is to help prepare the next generation for these jobs.

Marketing Objectives

Although STEAM Village does not have a current strategy for marketing, it does have four

overall objectives to help them accomplish the task of preparing Utah’s youth for STEAM

related careers:

1.  Increase the number of qualified students who are pursuing careers in science,

technology, engineering, arts, and math.

2.  Increase the access to such careers for those with disabilities, “aging out” of foster

care, Utah Scholars program, “youth at risk” and training for returning veterans.

3.  Position Utah and Sugarhouse in Salt Lake City as a top ten leader in the sharing of

best practices for education and STEAM careers. Coordinate and collaborate more

effectively within public education and higher education to share learning best

practices with each other.

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4.  Utilize Social media and other marketing to create a peer group model of STEAM

students perceived as role models for STEAM Careers

SWOT Analysis

Strengths

Concept

Description

Purpose

Objectives

Weaknesses

Strategy

Accessibility

Awareness

Opportunities

Social Media

Community

involvement

Threats

Funding

Participants

Sustainability

Branding Guidelines

STEAM Village currently has no specific branding guidelines. However, they do have a logo,

which includes the name in front of a gear with five colored spokes (purple, blue, green,

yellow and red) to represent the five STEAM areas. The background of the logo is dark gray

with black accents.

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Budget

STEAM Village is currently raising funds to implement the program. There is currently no

budget for marketing or social media, unless results prove valuable. For the purposes of

this strategy we will assume there will be no budget for social media purposes.

Social Media Analysis

STEAM Village currently has 8 ‘Likes’ on Facebook. It does not have a presence on Twitter,

Instagram, or YouTube. The button links at the bottom of STEAM Village’s website for

social media only link to the main page of each social media channel, some of them re-route

to the STEAM Village website itself.

Audience Identification

STEAM Village has different objectives, which causes there to be at least two different

audiences. One audience is focused on participants in the program and encouraging STEAM

careers, while another is geared toward contributions and fundraising. Even within these

two different focuses, there are different audiences that STEAM Village needs to reach. The

distinctions within these areas will be discussed below.

STEAM Participants and Awareness

Although STEAM Village’s purpose is to provide resources and help to individuals in order

to pursue STEAM careers, it also wants to promote STEAM careers on a wider level. These

two groups will be categorized as ‘Participants’ and ‘Awareness’. The ‘Participants’ group is

a narrow sub-set of the ‘Awareness’ group.

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Awareness

Demographics

Youth ages 14-20 years old

Live in Utah, primarily Salt Lake County

Male or Female

Attends High School or has recently graduated

Taste, Preferences, and Lifestyle

Enjoys creating things

Enjoys working with their hands

No chosen life-path

Wants a higher education

Uses social media

Likes technology

‘hands-on’ learner

Participants

The individuals that STEAM Village wants to participate in the program fall under the same

basic demographics as those in the ‘Awareness’ category, however, their tastes,

preferences, and lifestyles are more precise.

Taste, Preferences, and Lifestyle

Falls under one of the following five categories:

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o “Youth at risk”

o Veteran

o Youth “aging out” of foster care

o Adult with mild disabilities

o Graduate of the Utah Scholars Program

Needs encouragement to pursue higher education

Does not have a support system

Contributions and Fundraising

STEAM Village is non-profit organization, which means that it needs to acquire funds to run

the program from outside sources. $200,000 is the estimated cost per year to keep the

program running. A majority of the funds will come from grants, which for now, will not be

affected by the social media strategy. However, a portion will come from the community

through fundraising events. A significant event STEAM Village has the opportunity to

participate in twice a year is the Salt Lake Comic Convention (Comic Con). In April they set

up a 72 hour Game-A-Thon where people could pay $10 to play video games for one hour.

Individuals can also sign up to host a video game party with proceeds that go to STEAM

Village throughout the year. The target audience for this type of fundraising is as follows:

Demographics

Young adults ages 18-30

Lives in Utah, primarily in Salt Lake County

Male or Female

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Taste, Preferences, and Lifestyle

Plays video games on a regular basis

Wants to contribute to a good cause

Has a little extra spending money each month

Loves comics, and super hero movies

Pursues higher education

Fits the ‘Gamer’ stereotype

Buys video games at GameStop

Plays video games with friends

Likes ‘old-school’ video games and pop culture

Likes technology

Uses social media

Night-owl

Competitor Analysis

STEAM Village is a unique organization within the Salt Lake Valley. The organization’s

objectives are focused on a very specific purpose that is not found in any other place. This

means that there are no direct competitors for STEAM Village. However, there are

organizations that influence STEAM Village and its target audience. A few of these

influencers include Salt Lake Community College, GameStop, and Salt Lake Comic Con.

Understanding how these influencers interact with their audiences on social media will

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help STEAM Village to know what works and what does not work. It can also help STEAM

Village to better understand their target audience.

Salt Lake Community College

Although Salt Lake Community College is not a competitor, it does promote higher

education. Also, STEAM Village will encourage its participants to attend community or

technical schools in order to obtain specialized certificates and degrees in STEAM related

fields. Salt Lake Community College maintains profiles on all of the major social media

sites; Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and Instagram. Salt Lake Community College use social

media to interact and engage with former, current, and prospective students. Posts include

photos or information about events and campus life, and deadlines or other school news.

Salt Lake Community College also maintains a blog for more in depth information and

engagement. The following data shows basic reach and engagement for Salt Lake

Community College on the various social networks.

Facebook

Salt Lake Community College has 8,676 ‘Likes’ for their Facebook page as a whole. 341

People are talking about Salt Lake Community College. And 30,312 people have ‘checked-

in’ or said they were at SLCC. Multiple posts every week, with no more than one per day.

Photos: 4-380 ‘Likes’ per photo, 1-12 ‘Shares’, 1-10 Comments

Links: 1-18 ‘Likes’, 1-2 ‘Shares’, 1-3 Comments

Videos: 1-28 ‘Likes’, 1-2 ‘Shares’, 1 Comment

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Twitter

Salt Lake Community College has 1,313 ‘Followers’ and is ‘Following’ 325 people. SLCC has

a total of 1,171 tweets. Tweets include pictures, links, and campus news. On average,

tweets receive 1-5 re-tweets. Multiple posts every week, sometimes 2-3 tweets in one day.

YouTube

Salt Lake Community College joined YouTube in 2009 and has 55 subscribers. The channel

has received 56,424 views on its various videos that range from 30 seconds to 10 minutes

in length. Videos include promotional and artistic views of campus life, as well as tutorials

and faculty spotlights. 2-5 videos uploaded per week.

Instagram

Salt Lake Community College has 292 ‘Followers’ and is ‘Following’ 107 people on

Instagram. It has posted 94 pictures or videos. Each post averages 15-30 ‘Likes’. Salt Lake

Community College typically posts one photo or video each week.

Game Stop

‘Buck the Bunny’ is the voice and face behind all of Game Stop’s social media. Having a

character as the communicator makes it easier for individuals to connect with the brand. It

is easier to connect with another human being (or bunny, in this case) than asking

questions or interacting with a corporation. ‘Buck’ uses social media to share gaming news

and discussions in a community of ‘gamers’. Game Stop uses Facebook, Twitter, and

YouTube as its primary means of interaction with this community.

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Facebook

GameStop has 5,977,971 ‘Likes’ on Facebook. There are 45,950 people talking about

GameStop on Facebook, and 561,305 people ‘were here’. GameStop uses social media

primarily to start conversations with ‘followers’ about games, gaming systems, and other

game related topics. Mixed in with these conversations are a few promotional or

advertising posts. GameStop posts on average 3-5 questions, photos, and promos per day.

Questions: 600-12,000 ‘Likes’, 5-850 ‘Shares’, 200-6,000 Comments

Photos: 1,000-5,000 ‘Likes’, 50-400 ‘Shares’, 25-2,000 Comments

Promos: 100-1,500 ‘Likes’, 1-86 ‘Shares’, 5-115 Comments

Twitter

GameStop has 477,000 ‘Followers’ and is ‘Following’ 95 people. It has a total of 15,000

tweets. Tweets include pictures, links, and product information. An average of 2-9 tweets

per day. ‘ReTweets’ range from 6-636 per tweet, with 5-570 ‘Favorites’ per tweet.

YouTube

GameStop has 34,407 ‘Subscribers’ on YouTube and over 4.5 million total views. Videos are

mostly excerpts from games which range from 30 seconds – 10 minutes. 5-10 video

uploads per month on average.

Salt Lake Comic Con

Since one of STEAM Village’s largest marketing events is held at the Salt Lake Comic Con,

the attendance at Comic Con is important to understand. Awareness for the event is

primarily gained on social media channels such as Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Salt

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Lake Comic Con uses these social media sites to announce VIP guests at the events, share

photos, and to build an event loyalty.

Facebook

Salt Lake Comic Con primarily uses Facebook to share pictures and offer giveaways for

passes to upcoming Comic Con events. There are 92,223 people who ‘Like’ the Salt Lake

Comic Con Facebook page, with over 43,000 people talking about it, and 16,308 saying they

‘were here’.

Photos/Contests: 1,000-4,000 ‘Likes’, 3-577 ‘Shares’, 82-2,000 Comments

Twitter

Salt Lake Comic Con has 6,826 ‘Followers’ on Twitter and is following 751. There are a total

of 4,218 Tweets made by Salt Lake Comic Con. Tweets include pictures, announcements for

future events, and re-tweets from people who attended the previous events. 4-25 tweets

per day. Each post gets 2-25 ‘ReTweets’ and 1-45 ‘Favorites’.

Instagram

Salt Lake Comic Con has 882 ‘Followers’ on Instagram and ‘Follows’ 809 people. Posts

include a few behind the scenes photos but mostly ‘reposts’ from people who attended the

event. Their photos receive 28-130 ‘Likes’ per post and 1-5 comments on average.

Goals and Objectives

The objectives of STEAM Village should always influence the objectives of its social media

strategy. Increasing the awareness for STEAM related careers and more specifically

creating awareness for STEAM Village is the primary objective for the time being.

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Fundraising is a strategy that will help create awareness while also getting the money to

implement the program. Specific goals for how to best accomplish these objectives are

outlined below.

1. Increase total number of Facebook ‘Likes’ from 7 to 150

2. Create a Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube accounts and have 100 unique and

engaged ‘Followers’ or ‘Subscribers

3. Raise $35,000 at Comic Con and through virtual gaming fundraisers

Strategy and Tactics

Themes and Voice

The purpose of this social media campaign is primarily to gain awareness. There are two

different reasons why gaining awareness is so important to STEAM Village; fundraising and

participants. Everything that STEAM Village posts, whether on Facebook, Twitter,

Instagram, or YouTube, needs to be appealing and have the objectives of the campaign in

mind. People who ‘Follow’ STEAM Village on social media will be more interested in what

we have to say if the posts relate to current events and the interests of the viewers. The

voice of STEAM Village on social media should be casual, friendly, and encouraging.

One topic that would apply to both segments of the audience is superheroes. This topic can

be applied to fundraising and participating in the ‘Game-A-Thon’ during Comic Con. It can

also relate to everyday heroes that work in STEAM related jobs. Some of these professions

could include doctors, astronauts, aerospace engineers, and architects. How this message is

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conveyed will differ depending on the social media site. Following are some ideas and

examples of what will work best for Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and Instagram:

Facebook

Pictures of STEAM professionals

Questions to start conversations

o What STEAM career are you most interested in pursuing?

o Who is your STEAM Hero?

Videos from the YouTube Channel

Photos of STEAM Village events, especially Comic Con

Twitter

The same strategies used for Facebook will work for twitter; however how the content is

published will make all the difference:

Here is a picture of an everyday #SteamHero.

Who is your #SteamHero?

Instagram

Pictures from #STEAM events

Picture of a #SteamHero

Pictures of STEAM Village participants

Partial videos from YouTube Channel

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YouTube

Video of people dressed up like superheroes playing video games

Video of everyday STEAM heroes playing video games

Video from Comic Con

Interviews of everyday STEAM heroes

Implementation

The first thing that needs to be done for this strategy to work is to create accounts on all of

the social media networks. STEAM Village already has a profile on Facebook, but Twitter,

Instagram, and YouTube all need to be created. Along with creating the social media pages

for STEAM Village, the links to these pages need to be updated on the STEAM Village

website. Robert Cox along with STEAM Village participants will be implementing all of the

elements of this strategy. This campaign will begin the first of May and run through the end

of October. Salt Lake Comic Con will happen again on September 4-6, which means a large

portion of the campaign will be directed towards that event.

The success of the campaign will primarily rest on its visibility. It is important to have

followers, otherwise it doesn’t matter how many times a day STEAM Village posts or how

creative their posts are if they have no followers or people to see it. However, the more

creative and interesting the posts are, the more likely the current followers are to share it

with their friends, who in turn will hopefully ‘Like’ or follow the STEAM Village pages.

Another important way to gain followers is through an existing email list for prospective

STEAM Village participants. The primary source for the list is from the Utah Youth Mentor

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Project. The list will continue to grow, so as it does, new candidates and potential

‘Followers’ can be found. The emails to the individuals on this list should briefly describe

STEAM Village and its purpose then encourage recipients to ‘Like’ or ‘Follow’ social media

pages for more information and interaction. Each post will be an experiment to see what

works and what does not, especially for the first few months. However, we can see from the

competitor analysis that videos, pictures, and conversational questions have the highest

rates of engagement.

Facebook and Twitter will be the priority because they have the most users. As STEAM

Village gains more awareness and also knowledge of social media Instagram and especially

YouTube will become more important to the strategy.

Timeline

The target age and lifestyle for STEAM Village is primarily online in the evening and night

hours. This is when all of the social media posts should appear so they will be most visible

to the target audience. The following schedule is not concrete and can be changed

depending on current events and other time-sensitive matters.

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1 Month

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The strategy behind this schedule is to post almost daily on Facebook and Twitter with

weekly or bi-weekly posts on Instagram and YouTube. The first month or so will be

extremely experimental especially in seeing what type of content does better at what time

and day of the week.

3-6 Months

After a few months it will be easier to see whether it is better to post in the morning,

afternoon, or evening. We will also be able to see whether STEAM Village receives more

engagement and interaction on specific content on different days of the week, for example;

individuals may be more receptive to photos or videos over the weekend and

conversational posts on weekdays. These are ways the strategy can improve after

implementing this plan for a couple of months.

Also, during this time period STEAM Village should work on building an email or

newsletter list. An email marketing service such as MailChimp would be appropriate in

housing the database of contacts and sending monthly newsletters and other marketing

emails. A link (shortened URL) to sign up for the newsletter will be shared via the different

social media channels. STEAM Village should also create a blog either on blogger or tumblr.

The monthly newsletter will simply be a condensed version of the blog. Once the blog is

created, STEAM Village should plan to have post at least one meaningful and well-thought-

out blog post each week. These could include more in-depth interviews with STEAM

professionals, personal organization bios, or advice for success in STEAM careers.

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Reporting and Analytics

For the first six months on social media STEAM Village will manually track its success. Each

social media platform has an analytics or insights section for measuring reach and overall

success. Some social media sites require the organization to have a certain number of

‘Likes’ or ‘Followers’ in order to be able to access the analytics. Specifically, the Facebook

page for STEAM Village has to have 30 ‘Likes’ before we can access the insights for the

page. However, we can still see how many people have seen each post and how many

‘Likes’ we have received. This is why it is so important to increase the number of ‘Likes’ and

‘Followers’ on these social media sites.

Reports will be created at the end of each month to document and prove success. Reports

will include overall ‘Likes’ or ‘Followers’ for each of the following four social media

platforms: Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and Instagram. Each one will then be broken down

into type of post that was most popular and how many ‘Likes’, ‘Shares’, and comments it

received.

All links used in posts on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube will be shortened

URLs. STEAM Village will use the Google URL shortening tool. This tool allows easy tracking

to see where traffic to the link is coming from.

E-Commerce elements

STEAM Village is using an online fundraising service called Blackbaud for its virtual gaming

events. The Blackbaud online software program is where individuals and teams can

register for the live Game-A-Thon at Comic Con as well as register to host a virtual gaming

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party. This service also provides access to analytics and tracking. This is where STEAM

Village can really see the effectiveness of each post and its conversion rate. STEAM Village

can also see exactly how much each person contributed or raised through their own

personal efforts.

Links to this online interface for registration will be crucial within the next six months.

Anytime fundraising or the Game-A-Thon is mentioned on social media, STEAM Village

should post a shortened URL link to the Blackbaud registration page.

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