Intro
The content I have created relates to the Hertfordshire Business School (HBS), which is the Business School of the University of Hertfordshire.
I was expected to help create content for the social media platforms of the HBS.
I created three pieces of content related to HBS's objectives, specified audiences, specified digital platforms, content themes, and brand guidelines. The people I’m incorporating in these messages are students at the HBS as well as prospective students (Video).
There have been different topics to decide from. I was personally most interested in all the topics about mental health, black history month, LGBTQ+ history month and the question why people should choose the Hertfordshire Business School.
At the end I had to decide for 3 topics. In the following I will explain my strategy, as well as the topics I’ve decided for and why.
Strategy & Concept
The objective given by the HBS is to increase its followship on social media across 3 audiences and 3 platforms. That means, that new perspective students join the HBS, as well as current students who already study at HBS.
However, before creating content, some key elements such as strategy, concept and planning need to be considered (Forsey, 2018).
There are strategies, which help to follow the customer journey and make it easier to understand the target customer, in my case the students and perspective students.
I asked myself: How do I reach the students and make them interact?
To realise my creative concept, I decided to use social media posts on the topic "Mental Health at University: Resources". These are meant to make the user to introspect. They should recognise that the HBS offers ways to catch them up and give support when they feel unwell. As a paid form of content, I wanted to support my overall objective (Meyer, 2016). By using ads and boosting posts, the HBS will stand out among other competitors. During the rational, I will take a closer look at the posts in the social media.
Due to the upcoming exam season, I wanted to create a blog post and focus on “Stress and Mental Health: Managing stress around exam/deadline season”, to support current students. To create a catchy blog, I decided to use the popular post: "How to...", which provides the reader with step-by-step instructions for a specific activity (Leist, 2019). In the blog, I tried to catch the readers' attention with a quote as a hook. I have tried to structure the blog simply with meaningful headings so as not to overwhelm the reader with the amount of information (Ross, 2020). Right at the beginning, I have added a call to action and the used pictures should encourage the reader to take a closer look at the blog, because visual content usually creates much more engagement than text-based content (Monaghan, 2021). They should also be a kind of pictorial checklist.
In the content of the blog, I gave tips on stress relief from the perspective of a last year student and how the HBS helped in stressful situations. To achieve the goal of increasing the followship, the blog as an owned media marketing communication, free for consumers, can be used to spread content through social media channels organically (Mosley, 2018).
The last content was supposed to be a video, in which I wanted to show the day as a current student at HBS. Especially for prospective students, it is interesting to see what a day as a student at HBS can look like. This might convince them "Why (to) choose Hertfordshire Business School?”.
I wanted to connect directly with the audience without creating a distance in between. I wanted the audience to see me as a friend who gives good advice. However, it was important to keep the film short so as not to bore the viewer. Natural light was used, as well as a vertical orientation to direct the video to the social platform - Instagram (Hootsuite, 2020). The app I have used for editing is PowerDirector (Lua, 2019).
By acting like an influencer, the community interacts and creates conversations about the “VLOG” online, which leads to the earned media marketing communication (Wasyluk, 2019).
Copywriting
The message I want to get across to the audience is, that they are not alone with their mental health issues and that there are people going through the same. Instagram serves as a platform to share one's thoughts and interests. Problems and concerns are also published here.
Because this content is supposed to be an Instagram post, it must consist of 138 – 150 words and the title needs to be under 60 characters (Hanlon, 2019).
The copywriting formulas I have used are the FAB and BAB.
FAB formula means Features – Advantages – Benefits (Clark, 2012).
In this case the “feature” is mental health support of the HBS, “advantages” are the help people get from the content and “benefits” are that the reader knows who to contact in the case of mental health problems.
The BAB formula treats the before – after – bridge (Villon, 2021). “Before” is the situation, when the students think about his current mental situation, “after” is the feeling once the student has found a solution how to take care of his mental health. “Bridge” is the way they solved the situation.
In addition, hashtags such as #mentalhealth #mutualexchange #wearehere #mentalhealthmatters have already been used by HBS to express the importance of health disorders and to share them widely on social media and to make HBS's point of view visible.
Moreover, to create a direct link between the content and the associated website, the call to action “You need to talk? We are here to listen: <Link> “ has been integrated (Leaning, 2018).
Design principles
Before creating the content, I have thought about the visual identity of the HBS. There are strict guidelines on which colours, typography, logos, and photos may be used (University of Hertfordshire, n.d.). I have reviewed the current use of content. What stood out for me was that the HBS always shows real life students in their content. As well as blurred filters on top of their pictures in a colour of the brand identity.
For me, the HBS, especially to appeal to students, is identified by the colours: bright violet, bright green, and bright blue (University of Hertfordshire, n.d.) (view also guidelines).
The typography in social media posts is “Helvetish”, the statement short but clear. And always in the colours white or black. So, I tried to integrate these striking features into my work. I wanted to create a balanced work which gives a relaxed feeling, especially because of the mental health topic (Hooks, 2018). One side in the content should seem “heavier”, the other one lighter to create a nice flow and respect the rule of thirds (Barry, 2012).
The brand focuses on showing the audience what HBS has to offer using colours and their contrast. Purple with white and a monotone background. Also, there is not much text on the previous posts.
I have also focused on the reading pattern, where people analyse in the shape of a “Z” the picture (Babich, 2020). That’s the reason why the heading is on the top and it follows the line until reaching the logo of the HBS.
To keep the focus on the heading and logo, the background in muted and so in a lower hierarchy (Bigman, 2019).
I have decided to use the colour “purple” because it radiates the feeling of calmness and spirituality, which is essential in the topic on how to reduce stress (Lundberg, 2019).
SEO
In order to support and listen to people who are struggling with mental health issues, especially during exam time, I thought about customer search behaviour. But to not only give students tips, but also to show them how HBS supports them, I put myself in the shoes of a student seeking help with mental health problems at university.
In order to support and listen to people who are struggling with mental health issues, especially during exam time, I thought about customer search behaviour. But to not only give students tips, but also to show them how HBS supports them, I put myself in the shoes of a student seeking help with mental health problems at university.
These are some of the search terms that might be asked by students struggling with their mental health during exam season, as well as searching for Mental Health: Resources at HBS. My content is answering these questions because it makes the students aware of the student wellbeing team, which is there to help them and talk about their situation. As well as it provides tips on how to reduce stress while exam season. These tips include the help and the offers of the HBS in combination with general tips.
Theory
Below, theories including strategies, frameworks and models will be considered.
To follow a strategy, especially the RACE model helped me to contribute to the given objectives in a digital surrounding (Chaffey, 2022).
The usage of the 3 H model to engage with the audience (Hymes, 2017):
The PESO framework is a strategic tool to show the strengths and weaknesses of each type of media (Waddington, n.d.).
This grid identifies the benefits and weaknesses of the different media types.
The combination of these media tools will lead to its profitability.
Outro
I have worked step by step to combine what I have learned in class with my creative ideas.
The guidelines have provided a framework that I have strictly adhered in order to achieve the goals of the HBS.
Overall, I am very happy with my work, and I believe that I have provided also background information, researched, and elaborated the contributions on the topic of mental health, which should be treated very sensitively.
In contrast, I wanted to present the video in a more unconventional way and let the followers participate in my life here at HBS.
Reference list
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