RVAMakerFest - Social Media Campaign

2016 Social Media InstituteVirginia Commonwealth University

Instructors: Marcus Messner, PhD and Vivian Medina-Messner, MA

DASHTY KHDHIR

MUSTAFA ZANGANA

PAULA TALERO

SELAM ZENEBE

YOUSIF ALSHAMKHAWEE

ZENA  ALJORANI

Table of content

Introduction Page 3

Strategies for social media platforms Page 4

Measurement and tracking Page 9

Fundraising strategy Page 10

Future directions/thoughts Page 11

Names and contact information Page 12

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INTRODUCTION

In a world in which mass production dominates the market and big corporations own most of the

feedstock and control the manufacture of many of the products we use and consume every day,

the “maker culture” is positioning itself as the opposed alternative. In Richmond, RVA

MakerFest presents an annual event in which all sorts of makers participate, contributing to the

creation of a DIY (Do It Yourself) community in Metro Richmond.

We have created this manual with the objective of improving RVAMakerFest’s current social

media platforms (Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and YouTube) and providing some directions for

the future. We have also included recommendations for a better tracking and measurement of the

success of the social media campaign and some ideas for fundraising. The strategies presented

here seek to become a path to spread greater awareness of the event, create anticipation and

connect RVA MakerFest to similar organizations. We also hope this campaign fosters

conversation beyond the event on September 24th. In order to accomplish this, we recommend to

hire a social media manager intern who can devote time daily to each of the platforms.

Thinking in terms of time, we recommend the organization to start the social media campaign on

August 1st, and to continue the conversation until October 31st. This timeline, which includes

three months of work, allows to create anticipation during almost two months, and continues the

conversation further in order to receive feedback from audience and makers. Attendees and

makers can coment on their experiences during the event, posting content on the different

platforms and suggesting improvements for the future edition.

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STRATEGIES FOR SOCIAL MEDIA PLATFORMS

Webpage

For the existing webpage we recommend the organization to update the description and provide a

clear vision about the organization’s mission. It is essential that those who may be unfamiliar

with the maker’s culture learn about the movement. The webpage should also include a list of

the makers who will be participating in the event, together with their contact information / links

to their social media platforms. The makers can provide this information when signing up for the

event.

One of the main objectives of the campaign is to build excitement and anticipation for the event,

and one of the easiest ways is to create a countdown for the event.

The information about the Maker Application (available at http://rvamakerfest.com/2016-

application/) should be accessible directly from the “home” of the webpage, close to the

“Contact Us” tab. This information could be posted on the social media platforms as well for a

greater impact and reach.

We finally recommend to add more colors to the logo, given that colorful logos catch the eye of

readers more.

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Twitter

We advise you to use the same profile and the cover picture in every platform (Twitter,

Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube), since that would contribute to an easier and faster

identification of the organization.

Twitter should work as a conversational space, therefore we advise you to ask questions at the

end of the tweet, to mention old makers so they can be involved and to interact with the new

makers. Starting conversations with old makers will get them involved and these interactions

would work as a bridge between editions. They can also help get the new makers more excited or

invite new makers.

We advise you to try to reach out to similar communities or those that might be interested. For

instance, VCU Engineering.

We like your hashtag ( #RVAMakerFest ) but we also suggest others for this edition of the event

(#RVAMakerFest16 or #makers2016 ).

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Instagram

We advise you to post short, simple and upbeat videos on Instagram about the event – these

could include videos from previous events or prompting videos.

Below there is a simple example of the info photos you could include in the promoting

campaign for the next event.

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Facebook

We recommend that you interact with previous makers and share with your friends/followers

their stories and the experiences they had in previous events. We recommend that you post one

micro-story on Facebook about one of the makers daily. Asking the makers to submit a

micro-story about themselves and their products and a picture during the online application

process can facilitate this task. The social media manager would only have to use the material

that had previously been sent by the maker, instead of producing it.

We noticed that you do not use or have any watermarks, therefore creating a watermark on

every platform you use is another one of our recommendations, since having your own

watermark helps identifying your content and making it more unique.

One idea to increase participation on Facebook would be getting the makers involved in a photo

competition.

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YouTube

We highly recommend you to change the name of your channel on YouTube because it still

appears as “default name”.

Since you do not have a big staff, we believe it is not necessary to constantly update the YouTube

channel. We recommend you to make one final video about the highlights of the event and post it

after its celebration.

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MEASUREMENT AND TRACKING

Hootsuite is one of the most popular social media managing websites, it allows the user to

manage multiple accounts at the same time. Hootsuite can schedule posts in different social

media platforms (Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, among others).

Facebook Insights is a powerful tracking tool, simple and effective. There are several options to

reach certain posts individually, promotion posts, likes and overview to the page. Moreover, the

user can export the data as an excel file.

Twitter Analytics provides details on your tweets' engagement, clicks, retweets, favorites,

replies, and more. Also, you can export the data as an excel file.

Google Analytics is a free Web analytics service that provides statistics and basic analytical tools

for search engine optimization (SEO). We recommend using Google Analytics to make RVA

Makerfest’s website more efficient.

SocioViz: We recommend this tool because it is user-friendly and it serves to analyze hashtags-

the user can find out who is the most active, influential and who is the center of that hashtag.

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FUNDRAISING STRATEGY

For a potential fundraising strategy in the future, we would like to provide the next

recommendations:

Explain the goals of RVAmakerfest, begin with smart objectives that translate the

organization’s goals and its reason for existence.

Use direct and attractive communication through your social media platforms

(Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram), and target the right audience.

Audit data supply, find out what data is being tracked, over what period, how it’s stored

and how it can it be exported, and make a list that includes all surveys that are conducted

(web analytics collected, media monitoring programs).

Keep a close eye on key metrics on a daily and monthly basis, and use them to guide

decision making. Get to know the performance metrics that most influence results to

educate and guide potential contributors through the process of donating.

Make smart videos for your fundraising events on Instagram to encourage the process

of donating.

Promote posts on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter about the event and the goals of

RVAMakerfest that attract donors and encourage the audience to share it on their pages

and tell their friends about the goals and events of the organization.

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FUTURE DIRECTIONS

One of our suggestions for RVA MakerFest is to hire an intern who will become the social

media manager of the event, and will be responsible for all of the social media platforms. It is the

best way to update the different platforms and to keep track of all the data analyses. We suggest

the creation of an internship partnership with the Virginia Commonwealth University and/or the

University of Richmond. There are a lot of students who are savvy users of social media and

some of them have even taken courses about social media management.

We also recommend to connect all the social media platforms together. For example, the

organization might want to redirect its audience to the website or the Twitter account from the

Facebook page. Also, different users use different platforms. Have an encompassing approach:

the best way to reach a wider audience is to look at all the platforms equally.

On a different note, the design of the platforms could use a few improvements. The graphics are

the face of your work, and you should show it to your audience in the most efficient way (more

colorful designs and same pictures for all the platforms, for example).

There are also two more recommendations that you might want to have into consideration for the

future. You might want to include a list of the makers in your phone application, together with

their information and products. Users can use the app to get to know more about future events

and makers and to find out more about their products and tools.

Moreover, the organization can also think about an online magazine to show off the highlights of

the event and to provide information about the makers and their products. ISSUU is a free

electronic publishing platform for magazines, catalogs, newspapers and more. It has more than

85 million active readers, and it would be a great source to publish online.

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NAMES AND CONTACT INFORMATION

Dashty Frya Khdhir

Email: dashty.fr@gmail.com

Mustafa Adil Hussein Zangana

Email: mostafamsto@gmail.com

Paula Talero Alvarez

Email: taleroalvarep@vcu.edu

Selam Zenebe

Email: zenebesn@vcu.edu

Yousif Raheem Handhal Alshamkhawee

Email: joseph.muhsen@gmail.com

Zena Ali Mkanas Aljorani

Email: zena.ali2496@gmail.com

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