recommendation #3 and analysis

Recommendation #3: Establish a Stronger Twitter Presence for Event Information Distribution

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Our team sought to determine how enhancing Women4Change’s Twitter presence could benefit the organization’s event attendance. The team researched how to utilize social media for marketing and what platforms seem to be most popular among students in college. 

 

Figure 4 illustrates the top 3 responses regarding what social media platforms students use most often, a question from the local study survey. These platforms included Twitter, Instagram, and Snapchat. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Figure 4 shows the distribution of responses when asked the question, “What forms of social media do you most often use?”

 

While Instagram and Snapchat rank slightly above Twitter, according to the local study survey conducted and presented in Figure 4, based on previous conversations with Isra Haider, Women4Change already has an active Instagram account and did not foresee Snapchat as a feasible medium. As a team, we feel that Twitter has many benefits and can prove to be a promising platform to pursue. 

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Using Twitter as a way of developing a community for Women4Change active and potential members on social media

The idea of belonging to a community is, what some say, drives the desire to use social media platforms, such as Twitter. According to an article written about the effectiveness of online advertising, “Research proves that the main motivators for using these web pages are driven by consumer’s need to build and nurture social relationships” (Pikas & Sorrentino, 2014, p. 71). In a study on the resurgence of a beloved department store, it was discussed that because of the instantaneous nature of Twitter, a sense of community is developed among an account or organization and its followers. The study states, “Twitter offers such engagement, to promote a company’s brand, relevancy to pop culture, and immediate interaction with a community of over 300 million active users around the world” (Mahfouz, Joonas, Williams, Jia & Arevalo, 2017, p. 185). It can be found, then, that with the cultivation of a Twitter community, an influx of followers may result. With that, more followers correlates to a more widespread dispersal of information, such as event invitations and flyers, therefore increasing the chances of attaining high numbers of event attendance. Along with further reach, Twitter offers a quick form of communication. For students, emails can sometimes become saturated with unrelated content, so utilizing Twitter’s quick, concise, and focused nature, that oversaturation issue can be overcome.

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Using Twitter can be helpful when communicating and interacting with college aged students 

For many college students, portions of their social lives reside and rely on social media platforms, such as Instagram, Snapchat, and Twitter. These forms of social media, Twitter especially, are seen as “trendy” ways to interact with peers, as well as organizations students might be involved in on campus. According to a study conducted at a university in the Northeastern United States, 66 students reported their experiences with using Twitter and five themes emerged from the responses. Of those themes, their perception of the app being “trendy and cool” was at the forefront of the conclusions. Along with that, the study states that, “According to the participants, Twitter represents a relative new social media channel (especially compared to Facebook) to connect and interact with their social relations, and the usage of this particular social media platform signals their belongingness to their social groups” (Chen, 2015, p. 214). With that being said, reaching out to students in a way that is relatable, easily accessible, and not as formal allows for credibility for the organization among students. It will also allow information to be dispersed widely and quickly as it has the ability to circulate through many peoples’ feeds the Women4Change account begins to post more.

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Figure 5 represents a figure presented in the study by H. Chen in their research on how college aged students interpret Twitter and the marketing information seen on Twitter. The figure shows the five themes discussed, with Twitter being “trendy and cool” at the top of the list.

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Using Twitter successfully to drive event outreach and participation

With a tool such as Twitter, consistency is key in order to keep the Women4Change tweets circulating. Based on research from a journal that discusses the relationship between Twitter and marketing, a Twitter account is only successful if there is consistent interaction between the account and its followers. The journal states that their results, “reinforce the need for strategic consistency in developing Twitter practice.” (Burton, 2011, p. 491). As of now, there is an active Twitter account for the IUPUI Women4Change chapter, however the tweets seem to be disjointed, meaning it is only tweeting out every couple weeks. Managing a consistent social media page can feel daunting, however, these responsibilities can be relayed to a potentially new position of “Social Media Officer.” This officer would be in charge of keeping up with the social media accounts and distributing any information needed for the organization. 

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Maintaining a regular schedule for Twitter posts can boost the follower count and follower response, thereby promoting knowledge, and potentially attendance, of the Women4Change events, because the more people that know about the event, the more likely they are to attend.

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With an already fairly active Instagram account for the IUPUI Women4Change, our team believes that tackling the Twitter platform next can only benefit the organization as it can cultivate a sense of community between its members and potential future members by using strategies such as posting member testimonials, for example. With consistency, the account could see immense success and an increase in event participation, which is the ultimate goal for this incredible and empowering organization.

 

With this research, our team has constructed a list of affordable and plausible recommendations for the IUPUI chapter of Women4Change to implement so that they may see a boost in event attendance and overall organization participation. 

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Recommendation #3: Establish a stronger Twitter presence

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• Communicate with other student organization accounts to advertise and boost name recognition throughout campus

• Establish a social media focused office position, which would be in charge of posting consistently on the new Twitter page, as well as on any other existing and active social media accounts

• Post testimonials as to why the events are beneficial on the Twitter account