RVA180Bethany Mulcahy | Emily Pumphery | Shannon Riley | Isabella Armstrong | Julia Dang | Lauren Thomas

Description & Explanation of topic

Target Audience

POST Process

Description of Research

Online Platforms

Strategies & Tactics

Analysis of Research

SMART Goals

Table of | Contents

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Final Thoughts

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Description of TopicRVA180 is for the local adventurers who have been there and done that all throughout Richmond city. The goal is to serve as a platform for new and unique ideas and activities to do in the Richmond area.

RVA 180 posted to social media sites, Twitter and Instagram, and included artistic photographs and interesting suggestions of things to do around Richmond. Young professionals who have either been in Richmond for awhile or had just moved to the area are already familiar with some of the more popular places but our goal was to expand their knowledge of the area and get them to experience new things.

Explanation of TopicThe city of Richmond is full of fun and artistic opportunities that are seemingly

overlooked by the majority of city residents. RVA180’s goal was to facilitate Twitter and Instagram communities to inform and inspire followers to ask more from their

city. We provided our followers with a refreshed take and explore their beautiful city. Richmond is full of street art, beautiful walking trails and delicious food that people

have expressed interest in learning more about.

Behind | RVA180

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Target AudienceRVA180’s target audience was both men and women in Richmond ages ranging from 21 to 34, specifically young professionals that need a refresher on what’s going on in their city. We wanted to give them exposure to unique outing ideas that pull them away from their normal routines.

Richmond, the 44th largest metro area in the nation, is home to nearly 214,000 people as of 2013, with the majority of the city’s population (approximately 56%) falls within the working ages of 25 and 64 years old. Thirteen percent of the working population is made up of young professionals, between the ages of 25 and 34 (see chart above).

Age 17 & youngerAge 18 to 24Age 25 to 34Age 35 to 44Age 45 to 54Age 55 to 64

65 or older

Population by Age2010 Richmond, Va.

5.50 11 16.5 22

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Post | Process

PeopleThe target audience of RVA180 is young professionals living in the Greater Richmond area, whose age ranges between 21-34. We wanted to connect with this audience because we found through our secondary research that this age range is frequently looking for new things to do around the city and have a more disposable income to spend on entertainment and experiences.

We found that apart from our targeted audience, RVA180 attracted community members such as local businesses and other promotional social media profiles.

ObjectiveRVA180 recognized the importance of showing as well as shouting the messages. RVA180’s main objectives were to share and embrace the unique urban lifestyle and people that Richmond has to offer. We also invited followers to tag us in their photos or use #RVA180 to start a conversation. Not only did we build our own community, but we made our presence known in the Richmond community by engaging with other local accounts and our own followers.

POST is the four-step planning process that lays down the foundation for the campaign strategy to build off of. This process is key for tapping into the groundswell.

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TechnologyThe nature of RVA180’s content is heavily based on visuals. We determined that the best way to share our information with our target audience was through Instagram and Twitter.

Instagram | Instagram was an easy choice for our social community because of our emphasis on images when describing places and activities to our audience.

Twitter | We chose to use Twitter because of the ability to easily retweet other Richmond based organizations. We we could quickly grow an audience this way. Although it was highly preferred by our targeted audience, we chose not to use Facebook because visual content has a tendency to be overlooked on this platform.

Post | ProcessStrategyRVA180’s strategy was to target young adults on Instagram, by following local companies that attract our targeted demographic and our personal contacts in the Richmond area. We also followed, reposted and shared upcoming events and articles from local organizations to gain a larger following.

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Research | DescriptionWe surveyed our target audience using an online using the qualtrics survey tool. We reached out to people via Facebook and encouraging people to share the survey. The purpose of this survey was to figure out what direction the posts on Instagram and Twitter would take to engage the most people in our target audience.

We found that the majority of our audience lives in the Fan neighborhood, so we directed our posts towards areas close to there.

We also discovered that our target audience has a wide range of interests. We kept this in mind as we produced diversity in our posts. One of our major focuses in our posts pertained to the results of what people enjoyed doing in the evening which was checking out local restaurants. We also encouraged people to workout in interesting ways that helped them discover more of Richmond because we found that this was something that was interesting to them.

Secondary research survey

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Online | Platforms

@RVA190 on Twitter

RVA180’s content is dependent on visuals. The media tweet (tweets with a picture, video, or some other form of content attached to it) that had the most impressions was of the Virginia Fine Arts Museum exhibit we posted on April 7, 2015. As of April 26, the tweet has 128 impressions. 3 users clicked the link to view the media details, 2 users favorited the tweet, and 1 user retweeted the tweet.

RVA180 Twitter had a total of 1,282 tweet impressions and 290 profile visits. The account tweeted 18 times, 8 of which are retweets from local Richmond pages the account follows. The account has 79 followers and follows 199 accounts.

Tweet engagementApril’s top tweet

JustificationWhen we surveyed our target audience, we found that the top three sources they would go to for information were Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. We decided that Instagram and Twitter fit the needs of our campaign more. Instagram was our top priority because it gave us the opportunity to be artistic with the photos to draw the attention of the audience.

Snapshots of RVA180’s social media profiles are shown below:

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Online | Platforms@RVA180 on Instagram

We used instagram as our main platform because our campaign relies heavily on visuals to encourage Richmond young professionals to step out of their comfort zone. We

scheduled our posts for Instagram using a content calendar and set it up with a structure for certain days to have designated hashtags (such as #StreetArtSunday). This allowed us

to stay organized and maintain diversity.

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We created our Instagram on March 23, where we made our first Instagram post, introducing ourselves to the RIchmond community and asking followers to tell us what they wanted to see.

Over the course of the month, we gained 108 followers and a total of 556 likes and 7 comments on our posts collectively.

Strategies | TacticsStrategy 1

Strategy 2

Tactic 1:

Tactic 2:

Endorse the use of the hashtag #RVA180

Have followers tag posts that relate to the unique activities in Richmond

Tactic 1:

Tactic 2:

Follow similar RVA based Instagram and Twitter pages

Engage with similar Richmond social media platforms by commenting on, liking, favoriting and reposting their posts

Gain more followers on both RVA180 accounts

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Build RVA180 follower engagement

Results | AnalysisImpressions

In April, the tweet that has the most impressions was the tweet about the Squirrels game on April 13, 2015.

As of April 26, it had 280 organic impressions. 3 users clicked the link to view the tweet details, 1 user

favorited the tweet, and 2 users favorited the tweet.

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April’s top post, 44 favorites

We found that RVA180 gained loyal followers throughout the month. Our most engaged user was @triggatrey333 from JMU. This means our content was reaching people outside of Richmond, getting us a greater reach. He favorited 20 of RVA180’s posts. The most favorited post was on April 20, 2015, of a mural painted on the side of a building with 44 favorites

Follower engagement

Successful post seriesRVA180’s most successful post series was #StreetArtSundays, which was inspired by the beautiful street art that is displayed throughout Richmond’s city streets. The most favorited post, featured on the right, utilized this hashtag.

SMART | Goals

To increase our Instagram audience by 100% (100 followers) by April 25

Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic & Timely objectives

To have followers tag @RVA180 or #RVA180 on Instagram (15 tagged posts) by April 25

To have followers post photos of themselves at an RVA180 suggested venue

To increase our Twitter audience by 100% (100 followers) by April 25

Progress reportRVA180 reached and maintained objectives 1, 2 & 3 of our SMART goals. On April 23,

RVA180 reached 103 followers on Instagram. Followers also tagged RVA180 in their photos. By April 25, RVA180 was tagged in 15 separate Instagram posts and #RVA180

was used in 46 posts. We regrammed 2 photos by users who went to our suggested locations. Unfortunately we did not reach objective 4; RVA180 had 77 followers on

Twitter by April, 25, missing our goal by 33%.

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Final | Thoughts

Continued growthDuring the time RVA180 has been active on Instagram, we saw consistent follower

growth and only lost two followers during the month we were active. We also found it interesting that for our last 15 posts on Instagram, 4.63% of our interactions were with accounts that did not follow us. We can attribute this to other users posting about our

content and our use of #RVA in most of the descriptions of the photos.

ImprovementsAfter carrying out the RVA180 campaign, there were areas that could have been improved to build a better community. We found that there were strong Richmond based communities that already existed on Instagram and Twitter because of the popular #RVA tag. However, we didn’t have the engagement we had hoped for and could have improved on this in different ways. Our Twitter seemed to lack the most which could have been remedied if we posted more original content. Our assumption was that our retweets would increase engagement, but it did not have the result we wanted. The campaign could have also benefited if we used Facebook instead of Twitter. Facebook still lends itself to the visual component we had hoped for and the comment capability could have been the forum our audience was looking for.

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SuccessesOverall, RVA180 was successful in creating a recognizable brand based on the content. The campaign was able to engage a community using our own hashtag #RVA180 and the well established #RVA. Our Instagram account seemed to be the most successful aspect of our campaign. With 108 followers, our posts averaged about 20 likes each.

We were successful in creating a community where our followers were tagging us in their posts to be featured. Considering our average spread rate is 4.63% the direction that this social media campaign is going in sets the stage for the community to grow

and improve with more recognition.

Levy, F. (2010, June 17). America’s Best Cities For Young Professionals. Re trieved March 2, 2015, from Forbes.com

Patterson, W. (2010, November 10). Busy People Are Happy People. Re trieved March 2, 2015.

Price, M. (2013, January 16). Which Richmond Neighborhood Fits You? Retrieved March 2, 2015.

Rosen, A. (n.d.). Are Daily Routines Destroying Your Career? Retrieved March 2, 2015.

Sakugawa, Y. (2014, June 1). How to Make New Friends After College (And Revive Your Social Life). Retrieved March 2, 2015, from Thesecre tyumiverse.wonderhowto.com

Simmons, S. (1212). Striving for work-life balance. Nursing, 112(1), 25-25. Retrieved March 2, 2015, from American Journal of Nursing.

Smith, J. (2013, May 8). The 10 Companies With The Happiest Young Professionals. Retrieved March 2, 2015, from Forbes.com

United States Census Bureau. (2015, February 5). Retrieved March 2, 2015.

Work Life Balance. (n.d.). Retrieved March 2, 2015.

Works | Cited

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