#writ240

Introduction

Thank you for stopping by my blog! My name is Christine, and I am a full-time employee and part-time student at Queen’s University. I have always enjoyed expressing myself through writing, and I believe starting a blog is a great way to supplement my self-expression, while also connecting with others on a particular topic. This assignment comes with perfect timing as I was planning to start a blog to document the never-ending waves of grief I am experiencing. I hope this social media platform will assist me as I work through my grief, and also connects me with others who are experiencing something similar.

My Grief

Death and grief is not something I have always had experience with, or an interest in. How fortunate was I? My innocent bliss quickly changed. Life has a funny way of doing that. In December of 2012, my beautiful warrior Mom was diagnosed with terminal Breast Cancer. My world instantly changed. I went from worrying about trivial matters, to worrying about losing the most important person in my life. Endless questions came fluttering in.

Questions kept coming and I felt like I was drowning. Thankfully, Mom beat the statistical odds of a 2-year survival rate and lived for 6 years. The cancer was always there and slowing working its evil through her body. She fought daily with admirable strength only a warrior could do. My initial shock turned into denial, which then slowly transitioned into anticipatory grief. As treatment options started to dwindle, and quality of life became more important than quantity, I started to feel a level of acceptance. Acceptance that my Mom was going to die and there was nothing I could do to save her. On October 21, 2018 my Mom passed away. Although I was preparing myself for this for years, I cannot quite explain the overwhelming emotions that flood in. It is truly indescribable. Now, I am on a new journey with grief; a subject not many people speak of.

Grief and Social Media

Sharing my grief on social media allows me to share my experience with the world. This is important. Death and grief are treated as taboo topics in our society, when in fact they are two experiences that connect us all. I want people to know it’s okay to talk about death and grief. Social media has been a great tool for me during times of intense sadness and loneliness. Visits from family and friends have started to disappear, but many comforts still come from the online world. Several Facebook posts, instant messages, and online condolences continue to provide me with peace. I believe this blog, along with other social media accounts, will act as a comforting resource for myself and for others. I think that is one of the things I love so much about social media. Connection; isn’t that what social media is all about?

Abstract

This report will analyze HBO’s presence on a variety of social networks via a social media audit. The audit will examine factors such as consistency across platforms, quality of content, consumer feedback, competitor comparison, and platform compatibility. HBO’s overall social media presence is broad, but is lacking in several departments. These departments will be presented and criticized throughout the report.

Introduction

The chosen brand, HBO, was analyzed and audited due to glaring deficiencies in the organization’s online presence. The lack of consistency across all channels is reason to take a deeper look into the overall synchronicity of their social media platforms. As a beloved brand, known for their subscription based model, and incredible exclusive programming, there is significant potential for a revamped, or updated social media strategy.

HBO has become a beloved platform in Mass Media/Television. By analyzing their current social media strategy, and developing their online presence via a social media audit, there is significant progress to be made for the platform.

Literature Review

The majority of the literature gathered was used to explore strong social media strategy that companies are using at this point in time. This report will be guided by previous online literature such as a great article by Ben Davis illustrates 30 brand with excellent social media strategies, “How to Create a Social Media Marketing Strategy for 2019 and Beyond” from buffer.com, and “Creating Social Media Strategy” from moz.com.

Methodology

The methodology employed in order to analyze HBO’s social media strategy was a comprehensive social media audit. The audit analyzes HBO’s online platforms individually and weighs their pros and cons. This method gives great structure to the research report. The main platforms that will be analyzed are the HBO Canada’s Website, HBO Canada’s Facebook, and HBO Canada’s Twitter. In addition of the main prompts of pros, and cons, there will be evidence provided for the claims in screenshot form just in case posts are altered, or removed from the platforms.

Results

HBO Canada’s Website

The Pros of HBO Canada’s Website:

• Access to a large variety of ad-free and original content.

• No commercials, pop-up menus, or redirects on the website

• The website is easy to use, consistent, and caters to Canadian users by providing relevant and intriguing content.

• Popular titles are prominently featured on the site, and easily navigable for users.

• First prompt on the site mentions that HBO Canada has transitioned to CRAVE in Canada. This provides users with upfront information essential to the user’s subscription needs.

The Cons of HBO Canada’s Website:

• Blocked content seems to occur depending on your region/ provider.

• Additional costs added to exclusive content, which encourages users to switch to Netflix

• The website can experience lagging at times and the large images/ font size make it difficult to properly utilize all website functions on a smartphone or iPad.

• Confusing prices (ex. “Starz” package which is not clearly explained by Crave.ca website)

• HBO Canada has transitioned from “HBO Canada” to “CRAVE” which may confuse users. The social media links provided on the homepage of the HBO Canada site directly link to CRAVE social media platforms. This is confusing to users, and will lead to less successful Search Engine Optimization

HBO Canada’s Facebook

The Pros of HBO Canada’s Facebook:

• HBO Canada has an extensive following of 24,148 people (see Appendix 1). The Facebook page is well organized and consists of an in-depth description of the site, quality graphics, external links, posts, videos, and a strong community following. Additional pros to HBO Canada’s Facebook page include: easy to access and diverse content, consistent and high-quality video, no ads and no interruptions.

• Engagement on the page is extremely high as Facebook users consistently like, and comment on content posted (see Appendix B). This is a great sign for HBO in Canada. Users are interested, and use the HBO Facebook page to communicate interest with friends.  

The Cons of HBO Canada’s Facebook:

• Although HBO Canada seems to be strong and well managed, the page doesn’t compare to the official HBO Facebook page, which has far more extensive content, and is liked by over 12 Million users. Upon analyzing both pages, it seems as though HBO Canada shares pictures, videos, and posts a few hours after the official HBO Facebook page. This is problematic due to the fact that many users want the most up-to-date and timely posts – which makes them more inclined to follow official HBO rather than HBO Canada.  Additional cons of HBO Canada’s Facebook page include: infrequent posting, poor timed posts, fails to consistently use hashtags and external links. The Facebook page also fails to explain how much the service costs + any additional costs such as the Movies + HBO option or the Starz package.

• The content on the HBO Canada Facebook page is very game of thrones centered. This may leave fans of other titles disenchanted with the page.

HBO Canada’s Twitter:

The Pros of HBO Canada’s Twitter:

• HBO Canada’s Twitter account posts frequent, up-to-date content and is well managed by the sites social media team.

• Consistently uses Twitter hashtags to encourage users to keep up with shows, content and news ex. #GoTPremiereNYC

• HBO Canada boast a following of 63.7K and receives consistent engagement from their followers.

The Cons of HBO Canada’s Twitter:

• HBO Canada’s Twitter account is not consistent with the Facebook page, thus proving that HBO Canada struggles to maintain consistency with their content across all media platforms.

• News will often be posted to the Twitter account and not the Facebook page

• Tweets from this account can sometimes be irrelevant and unnecessary, which media companies want to avoid due to the frequent posting and un-wanted spam complaints from users

• In the biography of the page, a link re-directs you to a page that wants you to sign up for Crave – failing to accurately explain what the service has to offer.

• Re-direct links can be confusing for less “tech savvy” users – this could create confusion and lead them to believe that other services are superior (ex. Netflix – which is incredibly user friendly).

Discussion

Changes as a result of the preliminary findings in the social media audit have the potential to create more buzz for upcoming release of Season 8 of HBO’s most notable title, Game of Thrones.

In the off chance you have missed the teasers for the new season, check these out:

GAME OF THRONES Season 8 Trailer 'Fire & Ice'

Game of Thrones | Season 8 | Official Tease: Crypts of Winterfell (HBO)

The results of the social media audit are very positive but point to current issues with HBO’s current social media strategy.

With many companies/organizations having such a negative or controversial presence online, all findings shown in the audit are much less dramatic than the following:

BIGGEST Social Media Fails By Companies

Conclusion

In summary, HBO Canada’s social media pages are well managed and active. Their Twitter and Facebook pages have been proven to post frequent, up-to-date and relevant content. Although high-quality content is evident, there lacks consistency across platforms. HBO Canada also fails to keep up with the competition – which was proven by comparing the user-friendliness, feedback and compatibility of Netflix up against Crave TV. In order to surpass competition from a business standpoint, HBO Canada will have to improve upon their social media strategy, potentially by reading this very report.

Recommendations

What needs to be done as a result of findings: HBO Canada needs to improve on consistency across platforms. In multiple cases, the Twitter account and Facebook account fail to post at the same time and the content is often varied slightly. In order to reach their target market effectively and consistently, Twitter posts should match Facebook posts and they should both utilize hashtags and external links. It was concluded that the webpage was user friendly, well managed and effective, but image/font size does impact mobile users. So, with this suggestion, HBO Canada needs to improve on their overall appearance and aesthetic while still maintaining consistent, well linked content throughout all three platforms. If this is effectively done, users across all platforms will avoid being confused and gain consistent, up-to-date knowledge on TV series, movies and docs.

HBO Canada is also faced with a difficult rebranding process with the incorporation of CRAVE into their social media and streaming platforms. For this reason, HBO Canada should consistently link CRAVE social media platforms across their existing HBO Canada platforms. This will aide users in finding the information they need to be fully immersed in HBO Canada’s content.

References

https://econsultancy.com/30-brands-with-excellent-social-media-strategies/

http://www.hbocanada.com/

https://www.facebook.com/HBOCanada/

https://twitter.com/HBOCanada

BIGGEST Social Media Fails By Companies

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y7QQb8oMG8k

Social Media Marketing Explained in 11 Minutes - Gary Vaynerchuk | Business Talk

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0rSWdW2GQI4

GAME OF THRONES Season 8 Trailer 'Fire & Ice'

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RYWjB0kWNXk

Game of Thrones | Season 8 | Official Tease: Crypts of Winterfell (HBO)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wA38GCX4Tb0

How to Create a Social Media Marketing Strategy for 2019 and Beyond

https://buffer.com/library/social-media-marketing-strategy

Creating Social Media Strategy

https://moz.com/learn/seo/social-media-strategy-video

Appendices

Screenshots of findings sorted by platform:

Facebook:

Appendix A

HBO Canada Facebook following.

Appendix B

HBO Canada’s Facebook engagement.

HBO Canada’s Twitter:

HBO Canada’s Following.

Abstract

This report will analyze HBO’s presence on a variety of social networks via a social media audit. The audit will examine factors such as consistency across platforms, quality of content, consumer feedback, competitor comparison, and platform compatibility. HBO’s overall social media presence is broad, but is lacking in several departments. These departments will be presented and criticized throughout the report.

Introduction

The chosen brand, HBO, was analyzed and audited due to glaring deficiencies in the organization’s online presence. The lack of consistency across all channels is reason to take a deeper look into the overall synchronicity of their social media platforms. As a beloved brand, known for their subscription based model, and incredible exclusive programming, there is significant potential for a revamped, or updated social media strategy.

HBO has become a beloved platform in Mass Media/Television. By analyzing their current social media strategy, and developing their online presence via a social media audit, there is significant progress to be made for the platform.

Literature Review

The majority of the literature gathered was used to explore strong social media strategy that companies are using at this point in time. This report will be guided by previous online literature such as a great article by Ben Davis illustrates 30 brand with excellent social media strategies, “How to Create a Social Media Marketing Strategy for 2019 and Beyond” from buffer.com, and “Creating Social Media Strategy” from moz.com.

Methodology

The methodology employed in order to analyze HBO’s social media strategy was a comprehensive social media audit. The audit analyzes HBO’s online platforms individually and weighs their pros and cons. This method gives great structure to the research report. The main platforms that will be analyzed are the HBO Canada’s Website, HBO Canada’s Facebook, and HBO Canada’s Twitter. In addition of the main prompts of pros, and cons, there will be evidence provided for the claims in screenshot form just in case posts are altered, or removed from the platforms.

Results

HBO Canada’s Website

The Pros of HBO Canada’s Website:

• Access to a large variety of ad-free and original content.

• No commercials, pop-up menus, or redirects on the website

• The website is easy to use, consistent and caters to Canadian users by providing relevant and intriguing content. 

• Popular titles are prominently featured on the site, and easily navigable for users.

• The first prompt on the site mentions that HBO Canada has transitioned to CRAVE in Canada. This provides users with upfront information essential to the user’s subscription needs.

The Cons of HBO Canada’s Website:

• Blocked content seems to occur depending on your region/ provider.

• Additional costs added to exclusive content, which encourages users to switch to Netflix

• The website can experience lagging at times and the large images/ font size make it difficult to properly utilize all website functions on a smartphone or iPad. 

• Confusing prices (ex. “Starz” package which is not clearly explained by Crave.ca website)

• HBO Canada has transitioned from “HBO Canada” to “CRAVE” which may confuse users. The social media links provided on the homepage of the HBO Canada site directly link to CRAVE social media platforms. This is confusing to users and will lead to less successful Search Engine Optimization

HBO Canada’s Facebook

The Pros of HBO Canada’s Facebook:

• HBO Canada has an extensive following of 24,148 people. The Facebook page is well organized and consists of an in-depth description of the site, quality graphics, external links, posts, videos, and a strong community following. Additional pros to HBO Canada’s Facebook page include: easy to access and diverse content, consistent and high-quality video, no ads and no interruptions. 

• Engagement on the page is extremely high as Facebook users consistently like, and comment on content posted. This is a great sign for HBO in Canada. Users are interested and use the HBO Facebook page to communicate interest with friends.  

The Cons of HBO Canada’s Facebook:

• Although HBO Canada seems to be strong and well managed, the page doesn’t compare to the official HBO Facebook page, which has far more extensive content and is liked by over 12 Million users. Upon analyzing both pages, it seems as though HBO Canada shares pictures, videos, and posts a few hours after the official HBO Facebook page. This is problematic due to the fact that many users want the most up-to-date and timely posts – which makes them more inclined to follow official HBO rather than HBO Canada.  Additional cons of HBO Canada’s Facebook page include: infrequent posting, poorly timed posts, fails to consistently use hashtags and external links. The Facebook page also fails to explain how much the service costs + any additional costs such as the Movies + HBO option or the Starz package. 

• The content on the HBO Canada Facebook page is very game of thrones centered. This may leave fans of other titles disenchanted with the page. 

HBO Canada’s Twitter:

The Pros of HBO Canada’s Twitter:

• HBO Canada’s Twitter account posts frequent, up-to-date content and is well managed by the sites social media team. 

• Consistently uses Twitter hashtags to encourage users to keep up with shows, content and news ex. #GoTPremiereNYC

• HBO Canada boast a following of 63.7K and receives consistent engagement from their followers.

The Cons of HBO Canada’s Twitter:

• HBO Canada’s Twitter account is not consistent with the Facebook page, thus proving that HBO Canada struggles to maintain consistency with their content across all media platforms. 

• News will often be posted to the Twitter account and not the Facebook page

• Tweets from this account can sometimes be irrelevant and unnecessary, which media companies want to avoid due to the frequent posting and un-wanted spam complaints from users

• In the biography of the page, a link re-directs you to a page that wants you to sign up for Crave – failing to accurately explain what the service has to offer. 

• Re-direct links can be confusing for less “tech savvy” users – this could create confusion and lead them to believe that other services are superior (ex. Netflix – which is incredibly user friendly). 

Discussion

Relevance of your results: 

Changes as a result of the preliminary findings in the social media audit have the potential to create more buzz for upcoming release of Season 8 of HBO’s most notable title, Game of Thrones.

In the off chance you have missed the teasers for the new season, check these out:

GAME OF THRONES Season 8 Trailer 'Fire & Ice'

Game of Thrones | Season 8 | Official Tease: Crypts of Winterfell (HBO)How results fit with other findings:

The results of the social media audit are very positive, but point to current issues with HBO’s current social media strategy. 

With many companies/organizations having such a negative or controversial presence online, all findings shown in the audit are much less dramatic than the following:

BIGGEST Social Media Fails By Companies

Conclusion

In summary, HBO Canada’s social media pages are well managed and active. Their Twitter and Facebook pages have been proven to post frequent, up-to-date and relevant content. Although high quality content is evident, there lacks consistency across platforms. HBO Canada also fails to keep up with the competition – which was proven by comparing the user friendliness, feedback and compatibility of Netflix up against Crave TV. In order to surpass competition from a business standpoint, HBO Canada will have to improve upon their social media strategy, potentially by reading this very report.

Recommendations

What needs to be done as a result of findings: HBO Canada needs to improve on consistency across platforms. In multiple cases, the Twitter account and Facebook account fail to post at the same time and the content is often varied slightly. In order to reach their target market effectively and consistently, Twitter posts should match Facebook posts and they should both utilize hashtags and external links. It was concluded that the webpage was user friendly, well managed and effective, but image/font size does impact mobile users. So, with this suggestion, HBO Canada needs to improve on their overall appearance and aesthetic while still maintaining consistent, well linked content throughout all three platforms. If this is effectively done, users across all platforms will avoid being confused and gain consistent, up-to-date knowledge on TV series, movies and docs.

HBO Canada is also faced with a difficult rebranding process with the incorporation of CRAVE into their social media and streaming platforms. For this reason, HBO Canada should consistently link CRAVE social media platforms across their existing HBO Canada platforms. This will aide users in finding the information they need to be fully immersed in HBO Canada’s content.

References

https://econsultancy.com/30-brands-with-excellent-social-media-strategies/

http://www.hbocanada.com/

https://www.facebook.com/HBOCanada/

https://twitter.com/HBOCanada

BIGGEST Social Media Fails By Companies

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y7QQb8oMG8k

Social Media Marketing Explained in 11 Minutes - Gary Vaynerchuk | Business Talk

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0rSWdW2GQI4

GAME OF THRONES Season 8 Trailer 'Fire & Ice' 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RYWjB0kWNXk

Game of Thrones | Season 8 | Official Tease: Crypts of Winterfell (HBO)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wA38GCX4Tb0

How to Create a Social Media Marketing Strategy for 2019 and Beyond

https://buffer.com/library/social-media-marketing-strategy

Creating Social Media Strategy

Introduction

The purpose of this report is to examine whether the Canadian Red Cross is using their social media platforms efficiently to benefit their organisation, and offer where improvements can be made to reach a wider audience. The Canadian Red Cross is a humanitarian charity organisation that is funded privately and through the government. Although they have a huge presence offline through charitable acts, their online presence is very small. This report examines the amount of online presence that the Canadian Red Cross has by looking at their audience, search page ranking, and design to determine what can be improved upon.

Literature Review

The Red Cross’ biggest strength is the amount of information they provide to the public. At any given point over their different social media platforms they can give you a lot of resources that can be helpful in the case of any natural disaster. However, they do not reach a lot of people through an online medium, and seems to rely on in person campaigns, and government support/funding to reach their audience rather than having an online presence. Their major weakness is their online social media presence. They have a Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook page, but all could use a revamping. They need new, and interesting information, and they need to create a different way to get their information across. They could possibly try doing contests, or quizzes to increase everyone’s interest in all the information.  They need to try and get more of the younger generation involved with the Red Cross, and they would benefit from giving their website a section on the homepage that quickly describes who the Red Cross is and what they do, then provide all the history on another page.

Methodology

Check the Canadian Red Cross website for their content; design, purpose, and audience.

Find any social media that is listed there and analyse the design, purpose, and audience.

Analysing design: Accessibility? Easy to understand? Pleasing to the eye?

Analysing purpose: Is information clear? Easy to understand? Do people know what the organisation is about?

Analysing audience: How much traffic is on each platform? Where are they on Google search results? Who are they appealing to? Do they have collaborators?

Compile information and determine how to improve their online presence.

Results

●    Purpose

○        States purpose clearly in Twitter and Facebook.

○        Well known to the general public, so it’s not a big deal that they don’t state it up front in their website… instead they have information on the most recent problems and crisis which people can help with.

■        Website also states their mission, how they help the public, jobs they provide, how to contact them about it; very thorough.

○        “The Canadian Red Cross mission is to improve the lives of vulnerable people by mobilizing the power of humanity in Canada and around the world.”

○        They have a category at the top of their website that states all the various ways they help, and provide an in-depth list on current laws and emergency services.

●    Audience

○        Website is targeted for those who want to help with humanitarian work, volunteer, job opportunities, and donations and is easily found when searching “red cross”.

■        However, typing in “Canadian humanitarian organizations” or “Canadian relief organizations” does not bring up any information about red cross in the first three results (the Golden Triangle) of Google.

■        Searching “humanitarian aid Canada” brings Red Cross Canada up on a list of humanitarian organizations (coming in second in the list).

○        Has several social media accounts for users of different social media; Twitter, Facebook, Youtube and Instagram.

■        Some of their stories and what they do for their work is highlighted in short posts with tons of photos (great visuals).

■        They always have recent posts on all of their social media platforms (within 24h) and updates their website to show it.

○        Right now their audience would be more of the older generation, towards the 30-60 year old category.

●    Design

○        Desktop site has information available to the audience, and is easy to find because everything is accessible at the top.

○        Neat, not cluttered, everything is colour coded, and great usage of common symbols for navigators to get through easily (great design for scanning).

○        You know EXACTLY that this is the Canadian Red Cross website because of their usage of logos, colour coordination, and photos.

○        Accessible by mobile phone and is just as easy to navigate compared to their desktop site.

■        Users can easily scroll down and click on the menu to find out more about them.

■        Different social media platforms are easily found on the website at the top, or at the bottom for the mobile site.

■        It’s good that they have multiple platforms so people who prefer certain social media can read about them in their preferred design.

○        They give you the option to subscribe to a weekly email newsletter they have, which will help keep people more in touch with cause.

○        They advertise their latest tweets near the bottom of the page, and help give people a taste of their other forms of social media.

○        They give you a chance to donate any amount you’d like near the top of the website.

Discussion

●    Purpose

○        Well stated, and easy to find.

■        Since they are a well-known organization, people tend to know what the Red Cross is about.

■        Looking at the website at first people can also easily formulate what they are generally, but will have to click around into “About Us” to find out what their actual mission is… perhaps state it in one short sentence or tag line that is memorable and one of the first things people see?

■        Create a shorter, more concise mission statement.

■        Give a small explanation on the first page, of who the Red Cross is to better explain to new parties of interest.

●    Audience

○        Could use better SEO so that they turn up in the first few results or first page of Google.

■        Use more keywords containing ‘humanitarian, ‘ ’relief,’ and provide more backlinks to other news sources such as CBC, the Globe and Mail, etc.

■        Could potentially reach more people if they posted more with celebrities and well known social media influencers (Humans of New York and other individuals).

○        Good social media platforms, but there aren’t a lot of followers (10k on Instagram, 150k on Twitter, and 130k on FB).

■        Their posts have very little likes, comments, and shares (300 likes, 1 or 2 comments, and hardly any shares).

■        They don’t use hashtags or many @s at all, making it even harder for people to find them if there was no prior knowledge on the organization.

■        By mentioning other organizations and people who help them out (or collaborate), they can have a better social media presence.

■        They could make their social media platforms more interesting by following a similar strategy to “Humans of NY” Instagram account. They could share in depth stories from cases they help. It would drum up more interest in the sites.

○        They could do more contests, or quizzes to get the younger generation involved in who they are.

●    Design

●    It would be to their advantage if they linked their other forms of social media to their main website page. By allowing their visitors to click on their latest tweet or Instagram post, and directing  it straight to their other websites people are more likely to look at multiple forms of social media.

Conclusion

While the Canadian Red Cross has a strong presence in humanitarian work, their online and social media presence is very weak. They do not reach a lot of people through social media, and seems to rely on in person methods to reach their audience instead. However, in a rapidly developing world of technology, it can be crucial to have an online presence in order to stay relevant The Canadian Red Cross could benefit from having a stronger social media presenceby establishing online campaigns, reaching out to reputable people, and improving their SEO.

References

https://www.instagram.com/redcrosscanada/

https://twitter.com/redcrosscanada

https://www.facebook.com/canadianredcross

https://www.instagram.com/humansofny/

https://www.redcross.ca/

Alma Mater Society of Queen’s University: Social Media use and Branding

 Executive Summary:

This report assesses the social media and branding effectiveness of the Alma Mater Society (AMS) of Queens University. It analyzes the AMS’ current social media practices and prescribes changes aimed at improving the total reach and engagement for the organization’s online promotions and communications.

Social Media Channels:

The AMS’ social media presence on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and their website, myams.org. was reviewed and evaluated. These four outlets are the way that AMS primarily distributes information to their target audience, however, they also use monthly email newsletters to get out key information. Assessing their use of these four primary communication channels and providing opportunities for growth and improvement, while maintaining a consistent brand will lead to improved reach and engagement. Each channel will be examined separately, pointing to strengths and weaknesses, as well as an overall analysis of the AMS brand.

Overall Brand:

The AMS has a consistent brand across all social media channels, with the AMS logo, consistent font use, and even consistent colour pallets being used for different categories of posts/pages across all platforms. The AMS has a Brand Manager (myams.org àAbout Us àMeet our team), which clearly has a great impact on visual identity standards being upheld.

General Strengths

·         Ample cross-links. Cross-links in posts from AMS to other sources was used effectively in most cases.

·         Professional page layout. Each media site has a casual business feeling to its appropriate layout (e.g. Facebook page is set up for an organization with a contact messenger.)

·         Dissemination of a vast variety of information; social, educational, resources, etc..

General Weaknesses:

·         Posts are inconsistently timed. The frequency of posts is sporadic; inconsistent amongst media platforms.

·         Post content is text heavy. Users engaging with AMS on social media are seeking quick updates and basic information.

·         Lacking platform engagement. Many posts do not receive many likes, comments or shares.

·         Overuse of Logo and similar post formats may be causing brand dilution, which will damage recognition overtime (Finkle, 2018)

 Platform Specific Comments

 Facebook

·         Many posts with heavy text

·         Inconsistent

·         A battery of posts followed by no posts

Twitter

·         Very sporadic posts

·         Mostly shared Facebook posts

·         Underutilized potential for tags and cross-links

Instagram

·         Good spacing between posts

·         Strong engagement

·         More playful and light

Webpage

·         Effective information communication

·         Good use of cross-links

·         Inconsistency with fonts and formatting between webpages

 Recommendations:

We find that while the AMS is doing many things right, there is some potential for improvement. While Twitter is underutilized, the target audience does not actually use Twitter (Kats, 2018), and is more likely to use Instagram, followed by Facebook, making these two channels far more important.

Through more regularly scheduled posts, with minimal textual information, and a more informal style, the AMS could increase its post engagement.

 AMS has a very strong, consistent identity amongst its media platforms. The use of the logo, recognizable graphics, and layout across platforms is visually appealing but lacks total consistency. Having a visually appealing presence will attract the user’s attention, (Smith, 2017) and being consistent over platforms will build trust with the audience.

The AMS is most lacking in post content. Their posts need to be lighter with less text and information on their Instagram, Facebook and Twitter platforms. These three species should have engagement-first thinking when posts are being made. The voice of the posts needs to be more oriented towards asking the audience things such as content ideas, advice, or even a general question. (Rampton, 2014)

Recommendations:

What needs to be done as a result of our findings:

-          Posts need to be done daily at the most, weekly at the least.

-          Posts should differ across platforms even if the information is the same or similar.

-          Post context amongst “lighter” platforms like Instagram and Twitter should be briefer and contain more images and titles that capture the audience’s attention. For detailed information, the user can be linked back to the main AMS webpage.

-          AMS needs to orient their posts to generate more user interactions. Posts need to have a different voice.

-          Posts that include polls, Instagram/Facebook stories and even giveaways/trivia can be effective to gather more user interaction.  

-          Use hashtags across all platforms to make content more searchable by users. Employ the use of existing hashtags and create new ones specific to AMS to tie content to other similar and relevant posts and increase appearances in searches.

-          Cross-link with other organizations within Queen’s University, for example, The Queen’s newspaper.

Works Cited

Finkle, C. (2019, January 2). What is Brand Dilution. Retrieved April 2, 2019.

Kats, R. (2018, October 22) Who's Using Instagram. Retrieved April 2, 2019

Rampton, J. (2014, September 22). 7 Free Ways for  Boosting Your Social Media Engagement. Retrieved March 30, 2019

Smith, E. (2017, November 17). The Importance of  Graphic Design in Social Media. Retrieved March 30, 2019

Hi Tumblr World! Check out my research report below on @Capitalizeforkids social media presence. I took snap shots of the report to make it easy for viewing.