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ONA Mizzou: Capstone Report
Amanda Klohmann, Matthew Hibbard, Laura Hibbard and Stephanie Stouffer
Table of Contents
Timeline…………………… 2
Social Media Guide……..... 5
Research Results……...…. 16
Appendix……………...…. 20
Timeline
Week One (January 16 – January 22)
The executive board members meet Tuesday, January 18 to begin the important steps of brining the Online News Association or ONA organization to the University of Missouri campus. See Appendix A. At the meeting, board members discussed different ways to promote the ONA brand. We decided the ONA name for the University of Missouri campus would be called ONA Mizzou. We brainstormed different ways to get the word out and decided on three popular social networks.
Week Two & Three (January 23 – February 5)
In these two weeks, the executive board members started using the ONA Mizzou name on various social networks. Also, we decided on executive board positions.
· Laura Hibbard – President
· Amanda Klohmann – Vice President
· Stephanie Stouffer – Finance Officer
· Matthew Hibbard – Social Media Coordinator
· Faculty Advisor – Amy Simons
The University of Missouri’s Organization Resource Group or ORG requires all organizations to have at least a president and finance officer listed. As we were working towards obtaining official ORG status, we also started to create processes for our three social networks. Those networks included Twitter, Facebook and Wordpress. For the most part, Stephanie Stouffer was in charge of the Facebook account while Matthew Hibbard was in charge of the Twitter Account. Both Amanda Klohmann and Laura Hibbard carried out administrative duties as well as provided content to the ONA Mizzou Wordpress blog. The executive board held an unofficial meeting Thursday, January 27. The meeting was primarily an informational meeting and allowed the executive board members to inform potential members about ONA and its importance and impact on the University of Missouri campus.
Week Four (February 6 – February 12)
Around this time, ONA Mizzou experienced its first set back. While the group showed an abundance of energy towards cultivating the ONA Mizzou brand, the group failed to communicate every detail to ONA national. In the beginning, the executive board promoted ONA as a “chapter” when, according to national standards, is supposed to just be called a “club”. The board was misinformed about ONA logos and photos in our promotional tools as well. For example, when the board posted a Facebook fan page for the ONA Mizzou chapter with a photo of Mizzou’s Truman mascot, the board received a stern response from an ONA national representative. In order to be on the same page with ONA National, faculty advisor Amy Simons set up a conference call with our ONA national contact Jeanne Brooks. The conference call was constructive and informative for both sides. ONA national was very impressed with the executive board’s eagerness to get a club off the ground so fast. They were also impressed with their use of social media and even proposed the opportunity for ONA Mizzou to contribute their processes to all the national organizations. ONA Mizzou also had a meeting with the ORG staff at the end of the week. The executive board learned about the opportunity for funding, promotional tools and the official process a prospective club goes through to obtain organizational status. At this time, ONA Mizzou had already drafted a constitution. See Appendix B.
Week Five (February 13 – 19)
During week five, the executive board prepared for their first official meeting. They were able to secure a guest speaker, Scott Woelfel (co-founder of CNN.com and CEO of Armchair Media) and arranged to Skype him into a meeting. The executive board decided to use a Doodle to not only schedule the best time for the guest speaker to present, but also determine the best time for its members to meet on a regular basis. The executive board contacted ONA national about the event. ONA national agreed to advertise the event on the ONA website. The board continued to pioneer their specific social media handles with daily posts, and waited for a consensus on when the first official meeting would be.
Week Six (February 20 – February 26)
Week six was the week of our first official meeting, and it was a great success. We had a little more than 40 people attend the meeting, which took place on Thursday, February 24 at 5pm, in RJI. Scott Woelfel spoke to a packed room from his office in Atlanta and provided a well-rounded lecture perfect for the diverse audience that was in attendance. He spoke about everything from his college career at Mizzou, to working at CNN in its infancy, his work in creating its website, and his current multimedia firm Armchair Media. He also spoke at length about how the industry was changing with the Internet and social media. One attendee told us afterward that he was so glad he came because it was “exactly what he wanted to do”. After the meeting, the ONA Mizzou executive board edited the video of the meeting and sent it to ONA national with an event summary. The process for covering monthly meetings was in place at this time. The executive board communicated with ONA national before and after the meeting. We hit one setback this week. We found out any funding from ORG that we apply for (after we become an official MU organization) will only be available next semester. So, if ONA Mizzou wanted food and its meetings or if they wanted to bring a guest speaker in, they had to either pay for those out of pocket or through separate fundraisers.
Week Seven & Eight (February 27 – March 12)
This week centered on expanding our social media outreach and self-promotion. We delegated two different blog posts a week, as well as stepped up our game with Twitter and Facebook. This is also when the executive board first started debating how Facebook was best used. Since Facebook is different than Twitter, in that people don’t expect multiple posts a day, we decided a few posts a week might be the best way to use it. People were coming to the Facebook page and viewing the content posted, but they rarely left a comment or started their own conversation.
Week Nine (March 13 – March 19)
The executive board brainstormed a speaker for our second official meeting. Among other options, we thought Alex Wharton and Jim Spencer from Newsy would be great speakers to invite. The board thought these guest speakers would be beneficial to our members because it would provide insight into how a start up company begins.
Week Ten (March 20 – March 26)
This week was a success despite the low amount of attendance at our meeting. The executive board promoted the event fairly well and decided the low attendance was mainly due to it being the Thursday before Spring Break. About 15 people show up, which by normal standards would be considered good, but compared to first event it felt a little low. Regardless, Jim and Alex did a great job talking about the ups and downs of a start up businesses. They also talked at length about how new ideas in journalism should be embraced and not feared. Jim also made a point to recognize everyone we were going to school with, because they were the ones students might end up starting companies with someday.
SPRING BREAK (March 27 – April 2)
Week Eleven (April 3 – April 9)
The week after Spring Break, the executive board got back to work posting to its various social media outlets. We had a bit of time before our next meeting, so we decided to use our time mainly focusing on research as well as presentation. We created a quick survey on Survey Monkey and sent it to various organizations around campus. We began advertising elections for next year’s ONA Mizzou officers, but didn’t go into detail. Around this time, the executive board decided to use its Wordpress blog more frequently. In the past, the board was posting about two posts a week on the website. We also were posting live blog sessions as well as meeting recaps. Our analytics and traffic were relatively low in the months of January, February and March. To improve our traffic, and in essence our branding, we decided to post everyday. Each board member was given a specific publishing deadline. The stories focused around digital media, current events and or interesting gadgets, trends and statistics. We saw our analytics improve greatly and our Google presence spike as well.
Week Twelve (April 10 – April 16)
This was a very successful week for us. With the help of broadcast student Austin Kim (who was responsible for getting many of the panelists) we hosted a brown bag, which discussed the best practices for journalists and Twitter/Social media. Our panelists included: Dave Matter (Columbia Daily Tribune), Gabe DeArmond (PowerMizzou.com), Joy Mayer (RJI fellow), Amy Simons and Jen Lee Reeves (Journalism School Faculty). The hour-long discussion flew by because of all the different opinions being shared and debated. In totally we had about 73 faculty and students attend and participate in the discussion, which was much larger than our previous attendance. Afterward we edited the video from the event, hosted in on YouTube, and posted it on our website. The next day, the post was in the top ten results for “Twitter and Journalism” on Google. Other than the meeting, the executive board continued to share its survey to organizations around campus. We quickly discovered our survey was not being completed. We decided to send personal emails to the specific organizations instead.
Week Thirteen (April 17 – 23)
During this week, the ONA Mizzou executive board continued to promote the elections. They also continued to promote the organization through social networks, the blog and by word of month. Lynda Kraxberger held an event sponsored by ONA Mizzou this week. Matt Sokoloff visited the Missouri School of Journalism and meet with students to talk about job opportunities and to provide guidance.
Week Fourteen (April 24 – 30)
Week fourteen was election week. On Thursday, April 28 candidates meet in Tucker Forum to run for executive board positions for ONA Mizzou next year. All positions were available including: president, vice president, secretary, finance and social media. Those who attended the event were mainly those who were running for an officer position. Each candidate gave a brief speech as to why they were the best person for the position. Candidates filled out an election form prior to the elections. These forms were handed out during the elections so that members could get a better picture of the candidates they were voting for. The executive board was able to receive candidates that were studying abroad as well. Executive board members read their election forms at the election meeting on their behalf. The results of the executive board elections are as follows:
· Melanie Gibson – President
· Vice President – Ashley Crockett
· Secretary – Nicole Garner
· Finance – Addison Walton
· Social Media – Andrew Gibson
Week Fifteen (May 1 – May 7)
The executive board started to draft its capstone research, social media guide, paper and presentation. On Friday, May 6 the executive board held a transition meeting with the newly elected officers.
Week Sixteen (May 8 – 14)
The executive presented their capstone presentation on Tuesday, May 10 formally ending their duties as members of the ONA executive board.
ONA Mizzou Social Media Guide
Why we use social media: Social media is the use of web-based and mobile technologies to turn communication into interactive dialogue. The primary purpose of the ONA Mizzou social media accounts is to create a brand and identity for our student club as well as facilitate this interactive dialogue. By maintaining a Twitter feed, Facebook page, and Wordpress blog, ONA Mizzou is able to support constant interactions and participation with users actively online as well as develop platforms for providing information valuable to the functionality and sustainability of the club.
Twitter:
By our experience Twitter is active. There is always someone on Twitter who can see you message. This means Twitter is all about the immediate conversation you can generate. Because it is an active conversation tool it is our responsibility to maintain conversations consistently. These conversations also help ONA Mizzou reach new audiences.
How often ONA Mizzou posts to Twitter: Multiple times a day. Tweet at least two times during the day. It is best to post a tweet in the morning and afternoon times to catch different audiences.
What ONA Mizzou posts to Twitter:
· Links to the ONA Mizzou blog
· Links to the ONA Mizzou Facebook
· Links to online content about digital media and digital news
· Meeting/event announcements and reminders
Suggestions to generate conversation:
· The ONA Mizzou Twitter account re-follows every Twitter user who follows us that has some relationship with journalism, multimedia, social media, Mizzou, Missouri School of Journalism.
· Continuously search for new digital news leaders to follow and other ONA Club Twitter accounts as well.
· Participate in journalism Twitter chats. If you choose to participate in chat rooms related to journalism, you’ll need to be transparent about who you are representing. If you are injecting your opinions and views, please use your own Twitter hold. When you are using the @ONAMizzou account you are representing not only the campus organization, but the national organization as well.
· During ONA Mizzou meetings live Tweet important announcements and interesting discussion points. Also allow meeting attendees to Tweet questions to the ONA Mizzou account for speakers to address.
· Re-tweet wisely.
The profile information for ONA Mizzou includes the Twitter handle for the person responsible for maintaining the Mizzou ONA Twitter. For example, the Twitter account profile currently reads, “Online News Association (Mizzou) official account. Tweets provided by @MRHibbard. http://onamizzou.wordpress.com/.”