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Report on the Use of Multiple Facebook Pages-Griffith University Student Representative CouncilAuthor: Kurt Prosper – Intern, Trimester 2, 2019Table of Contents Executive SummaryPg3AnalysisPg3Current SRC Facebook LandscapePg3Current SRC Facebook IntentionsPg3Advantages and DisadvantagesPg5AudiencePg5AdvantagesPg5DisadvantagesPg5Content and MessagePg6AdvantagesPg6DisadvantagesPg6RecommendationsPg7Counterargument Pg7Implementation of RecommendationPg9SummaryPg10Executive SummaryThis report will serve the purpose of auditing the Griffith University Student Representative Council’s (SRC) use of multiple social media accounts, namely the use of five Facebook pages spread across each Brisbane based campus. The current landscape with which the SRC’s Facebook pages will be examined and online practices from event officers will be noted. This report will then compare the advantages and disadvantages of having multiple social media accounts throughout one organisation. It will do so using the metrics of audience, as well as content and message. Finally, this report will make a recommendation into future social media practices for the SRC, specifically whether the continuation of multiple Facebook pages is advantageous to the organisation. AnalysisThis section of the report will provide a short analysis of the current environment and procedures of the SRC’s Facebook pages. It will also provide comment from SRC Event Officers on their current use of their respective Facebook pages.Current SRC Facebook LandscapeCurrently, Facebook is the only form of social media utilised by the SRC in its PR efforts. It is notable that for a wholistic entity, there are five different Facebook pages representing the organisation. There is a separate Facebook Page for each campus at Nathan, Mount Gravatt, Queensland College of Art, Queensland Conservatorium and Logan. From an observational perspective the predominant uses for the Facebook pages are to; advertise upcoming SRC events, encourage students to attend SRC events and engage with students through giveaways and competitions. As a not for profit university organisation it is clear the key goal of the SRC is to get as much student engagement as possible by utilising social media.Current SRC Facebook IntentionsTo further understand the common social media practices of the Event Officer’s and the environment of which they employ these, three simple question were presented. Below are the questions asked of the Event Officers and the collated responses.Question 1 – What do you predominantly use social media for and what do you post on your Griffith SRC… Page?Answers: Promoting SRC Events and GiveawaysPromoting SRC and Griffith University servicesSharing Griffith University specific contentCommunicating on upcoming eventsAdvertising workshops and career development opportunitiesFollow up from info on the websitePost photos of student engagement Cross advertising with Griffith Uni events (i.e. Workshops, Truck n’ Shop days etc.)Posting external community relevant events and workshopsPeer and student acknowledgement postsPromoting SRC Advocacy and WALiQuestion 2 – How many posts per day would you say you averaged on your page?Answers:2-3 per dayMinimum 5, maximum 10 per day2 per dayQuestion 3 – How many likes does your Facebook page have?11,017 total Likes, 11,306 total Follows (NA)3,252 total Likes, 3,341 total Follows (MG)1,641 total Likes, 1,652 total Follows (Logan)841 total Likes, 879 total Follow (QCon)625 total Likes, 661 total Follows (QCA) Information acquired and accurate of 18/07/19, 09:10 amAdvantages and Disadvantages This section of the report will investigate the positive and negative repercussions for organisations having multiple Facebook Pages for the one ‘product’. For the purpose of this report the messages and information provided by the SRC will often be referred to as a ‘product’ as it is what the organisation wants its target market/audience to ‘buy’ into and engage with. AudienceAudience refers to the people whom the SRC intend their key messages and ‘product’ to be portrayed. In this instance the audience identified, in its simplest form, is ‘currently enrolled, Griffith University, undergraduate students.’ The ways in which using five Facebook Pages could affect the SRC’s audience include:AdvantagesUsing multiple Facebook accounts allows you to target different audiences individually. This in turn allows the manager to concentrate on a more specific demographic. (i.e. Griffith SRC Nathan only trying to reach and engage with Nathan undergraduates) Students who are interested in one specific campus can choose to follow just that account.Some say that with multiple accounts you have the ability to share content with a wider audience, this can drive more exposure and potentially create a more engaged audience.Each page can promote localised content or products, and the SRC can align promotional strategies, towards growing a ‘community’ based on geography and location. (i.e. Campus based audiences)DisadvantagesMultiple accounts can lead to audience confusion. Too many options, often confuses the target audience making it easier to follow no pages than find the right one.There is potential for many students to follow the wrong page, (i.e. Griffith SRC Nathan instead of Griffith SRC Mt Gravatt) This leads to a less than satisfactory experience and notable drop off in engagements.Potential for students who study on multiple campuses to get confused and follow no pages because keeping up with two or three creates sensory overload.The duplication of content is a big negative for having multiple Facebook pages. Multiple Facebook pages ultimately means numerous posts with very similar or exactly the same content and information. This again creates potential for sensory overload and lack of engagement with the audience.Sharing lots of the same content across all pages causes post to become less effective.Multiple pages in this instance means multiple administrators of social media content. This can often create confusion for the audience as they don’t hear from or speak to the same person consistently.Content and MessageContent and message refer to both the visual and textual stimulus that a business or organisation uses to engage with and provide information to its target audience(s). Content and message are of impeccable importance to the SRC as this is how the students will receive and process information provided. The ways in which using five Facebook Pages could affect the SRC’s content and message include:AdvantagesUsing five Facebook pages allows each page to supply content specifically designed for their audience (i.e. campus-based content)Messages for different cohorts can be provided specifically to them without interfering with other unintended audiences.DisadvantagesFive different pages run by five different people results in five different ways of delivering content and message. Different people interpret content and messages differently and this concept is further complicated students see up to five different posts about one topic.Five different pages potentially creates an environment with no uniformity in content sharing or message creations. It will constantly create the challenge of maintaining consistent brand voice and brand standards. By having managers of social media and different content creators usually leads to the misrepresentation of content. This can further result in audiences who become disenchanted with the organisations message.Five accounts also create no central point of contact for content or messages. Often some pages will have information earlier, later, more frequently than others providing no consistency.Having multiple accounts can further result in many accounts with small followings rather than one account with a big following. This can cause a loss of engagements overall. Recommendations This section of the document will consider all the above information and provide a recommendation in regard to the poignant question of whether five separate Facebook pages or one uniform Facebook page is the best course of action for the SRC’s Facebook presence going forward. This report finds the recommended course of action for the SRC’s ongoing Facebook presence is to transition to a singular uniform ‘Griffith SRC’ Facebook page. This recommendation is based on all the advantages and disadvantages mentioned above. The most notable findings leading to the recommendation are; there is currently no uniformity in regards to social media branding of the SRC and without a uniform online ‘brand’ students will interpret and perceive the organisation differently; If all Griffith undergraduate students are following one Facebook page it will become much easier going forward to get large-scale traction and engagement; Having one Facebook page will limit the tendency for content saturation and duplication, similar and duplicate posts will not occur and students will not become confused or disenchanted with the SRC’s content and or message. Ultimately it is for these reasons that it is recommended the SRC provide students with one ‘Griffith SRC Facebook’ page. CounterargumentsThis paper recognises that all recommendations will have counterarguments, and this is no different. This paper will now address some popular counterarguments and questions regarding having one central Griffith SRC Facebook pageHow will the SRC engage with students on a campus to campus basis without a designated SRC Facebook page for each campus? One central Facebook page will still allow each campus and its audience to be targeted. For example, content such as cross campus events, SRC services, Griffith University services, WALi, SRC Advocacy are currently posted on all SRC Facebook pages, just in varying amounts and at different times. With one central Griffith SRC page these posts will reach a larger target audience and no cohorts will feel less or more informed than the other. Communicating to individual communities and campuses can also be done through the use of the Facebook Locations tool. This tool allows organisations to plot on a map anywhere they have offices or locations. In the case of the SRC each campus will be plotted so that students know exactly where our services and offices are located. Furthermore, each post made on the central Griffith SRC Facebook page will have the option to be tagged with one or more of its locations, easily notifying students of what campus the post is referring specifically too.Where do the SRC’s existing followers go?In the implementation section of this report it will explain how a transitioning phase will be held over the period of Trimester 3, throughout which students on old pages will be regularly reminded to follow our new page, as the old one will become decommissioned in Tri 1 the following year. It is advised to also send Facebook ‘invites’ to current members and followers of each page. This will provide students with an easy way to like the new ‘Griffith SRC’ page. In theory it is easy and practical for them to do (e.g. accepting or declining an invite is an easy task.)Does the SRC merge pages, or create a new one?Creating a new page is the recommended course of action here. One centralised, ‘Griffith SRC’ page should be created, and people will be asked and invited to like it, as in the above scenario. This will not only this create a culmination of followers; it will also provide the page with more realistic engagement numbers as many alumni or disinterested people will not switch over.How will staff, administrate one page? The uniform Griffith SRC Facebook page would be best implemented by one media and communications officer if applicable. The minimum requirement for this would be for one event officer to run the Facebook page so that the above advantages of having one voice and one unified brand can be fully experienced.Implementation of RecommendationThe following section of this report will outline the best course of action for implementing the recommendation of one ‘Griffith SRC’ Facebook page. It is recommended that the uniform Griffith SRC Facebook page be implemented by one central media central person from the SRC. The ways these could be achieved are as follows:Through the creation of a media and communications officer position the Griffith SRC Facebook would be one of the responsibilities of this position.This could be a part time focusing on just social media and communications work orThis could be full time taking many of the other communications tasks off the events officersOne Events Officer could take on the responsibility of the uniform Griffith SRC Facebook page.This could require some role sharing as the social media workload would take up more time than the Events Officer is used to.An Events Officers without a full-time workload could be positioned as a full-time employee with the extra responsibility of social media communications.Furthermore, it is recommended that the transition towards one Griffith SRC Facebook page be initiated during and identified Trimester 3. The historical lack of other activity during this period, provides a perfect platform for change to occur. It provides the person tasked with the operation, whether they be a new employee or existing Events Officer, to process the transition in a manner that is thorough and not rushed. As mentioned previously, once the Griffith SRC Facebook page has been created, invites should be sent out to current members and followers of the SRC’s campus-based pages and constant notifications should be posted to encourage people to transition over. This will prove to be effective as even though students traditionally don’t check their student emails over Tri 3, they will still be checking Facebook.SummaryIn conclusion, this report has provided an in-depth review of the current SRC Facebook landscape and its intention. It has also analysed the advantages and disadvantages of having five Facebook pages as opposed to one against the metrics of both audience and content and messages. Following this a recommendation has been provided for the ongoing use of Facebook and social media at the SRC. Counterarguments and questions of uncertainty were also addressed, and an implementation strategy is also provided. ................
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