Jessica's Blog

I have officially finalized my objectives, strategies, and tactics. Creating my survey was a bit of a struggle because half way through I discovered that I was asking certain questions that I was not able to ask. Consequently I had to rethink my question choices and wording. I have now created a survey that my director and I both feel will help me measure my objectives. I posted the survey earlier this week, and am still working on promoting it to reach my desired amount of responses. My next step will be to use the data I collect from my survey responses to write a results section of my campaign paper. I also need to figure out the best possible way to display the content I created within my project. From there I will have mostly completed the project and will be able to create my slides for the faculty review.

Now that I have developed my key messages and come up with objectives, my next steps are to list my strategies and tactics. This is a bit different than it would normally be because I have already created some content (tactics) so I am doing it a bit backwards. Along with the strategies and tactics, I will also need to develop a survey to measure my objectives. I drafted a list of survey questions, which I then edited with feedback and approval from Dr. Kushin. I also collected an appropriate consent form from a class I have previously taken in the Shep Comm Department. My next step is to post the survey, so I am able to get responses and use them to write the results section of my project.

The next stage in my capstone process is developing my Strategies, Tactics, and Key Messages. After my last meeting with Dr. Kushin, I know that this will involve looking at my existing content and developing messages to help communicate the policy. I must ask myself how the Su Student Affairs page is driving traffic to the account. I need to explain that Take stoc wants me to communicate the policy in an understanding and approachable way. I need to develop a strategy to get the word out and articulate what larger strategy I must use. Kushin said it may be best to b reak the strategies into time periods  I should explain that I helped to get messaging down and get word out with my posts. As for tactics I need to develop a content calendar of posts. I will also need to explain that I developed content, and integrated messaging that was derived from research.

Continuing to work on my campaign plan, up to this point I have been doing mostly research. At this point I have created a document of everything I did last semester, and added my new progress to it. This is helpful for me because all of my work is in one place, and it is also helpful for Dr. Kushin because he is able to look at my work and even leave notes if he wants to. I have pretty much finished most of the background research at this point. I have completed a client analysis, a publics analysis, a competitor analysis, and a lot of other important information about the "client". I did a lot of research online, went to meetings on campus, as well as phone interviews to acquire the information. My next step is to work on creating my key messages, tracking my content, and strategies and tactics.

This semester in addition to creating and posting content, my main focus is going to be creating my campaign plan.  The first step in that process is the background research, which includes things like a client analysis, a competitor analysis, and a situation analysis.  I had actually done a good bit of this last semester but am now working on improving it and adding to it wherever necessary.  I also have plans to reach out to a faculty member on campus for assistance in finding more information on a topic for my competitor analysis. My next step, other than touching up what I have already done, is to start working on a situation analysis including a detailed SWOT analysis.  I will also be attending the final Take STOC meeting next week to gain any helpful information I could collect there. The other tools I am going to use to complete my entire campaign are my consistent meetings with my director Dr. Kushin, as well as using the COMM 370 Strategic Campaigns outlines...

On Thursday I atten ded the Fall 2019 Capstone presentations.  It was really interesting to see what all the other students chose to do their projects on.  It was also inspiring to see all the hard work and dedication that my fellow classmates put into their projects.   Though none of the presentations I saw closely resembled my project, I did get a few ideas of things that I want to incorporate into my project. I especially enjoyed Georgia’s presentation.   Makeup is one of my favorite hobbies and I love to watch beauty videos on YouTube like Georgia’s! Seeing a bit of the background and what went into making the videos was super interesting. This experience   gave me some insight into what lies ahead for me next semester.  I know that it will be challenging and take a lot of effort, but after seeing how rewarding the experience was for this semesters graduates I am ready to take it on.  I am looking forward to next semester and the opportu...