Communication Plan

For the Salem State University

Communications Department

Judy Culp

Introduction

The Salem State University communications department has many strong suits, but it is
lacking the student and community awareness that is necessary for it to properly flourish in the
future. In this plan, we seek to raise student, faculty and community awareness of the Salem
State communications department so that both prospective and future students are aware of the
benefits of getting a communications degree from Salem State.
Objectives
We have four main objectives for this communications plan. First, we would like to
share up-to-date information with the communications students, faculty and staff so that they
know about the benefits of the department and the programs and events that it offers. Second,
we will share the benefits of getting a degree in communications from Salem State with
prospective students and their families to increase enrollment in the department and establish a
team of students excited to learn about the world of communications. Finally, we will share the
successes and benefits of the communications department with Salem State University students,
faculty and staff as well as the Salem community and local businesses to create a strong coalition
among students, faculty, the university and the surrounding community. There will be further
details about how I plan to achieve these objectives later in the report.
Target Audiences
As I shared in the objectives section, we have several key target audiences that we would
like to reach out to through this campaign. These audiences are both internal to Salem State and
external, reflecting the community and beyond to prospective students.
Target Audiences Internal

The Communications departments internal audiences include students in the department,

faculty and staff.
Target Audience External
The external target audiences include the Salem community, undeclared students, the
university, prospective students, prospective staff, businesses, parents of students and students
wishing to change their major.

Communication Audit
In this section, I conducted an audit of the communication departments outreach to its
target audiences as well as its internal communications. I then share the strengths and
weaknesses that I found when I completed the audit. These results established the basis for my
suggestions in the remainder of this communication plan.
Methodological Approach
For this audit, I looked at the departments social media pages to see how often they were
posting and what kind of reach their posts had. I used the Communications departments
Twitter, Tumblr and Facebook as well as its page on the Salem State website. I chose to use this
data because the most important factor in a social media campaign is whether or not the user has
a social media presence. If a site isnt active, it cant communicate with its audiences at all.
I also looked at the front desk of the communications department in order to see what
kinds of tangible materials the department had to offer to its target audiences. While we are
beginning to live in an online world, these tangible materials are still very important to students,
faculty and staff because they are the materials that students can take with them and read later if
they are unable to stop to get the information. This also gives prospective students information

to take with them after seeing the campus so that they remember the communications department
at Salem State when they are making their college decision later. Because of these reasons, I
also looked to see what kinds of tangible materials there were for the department.
Audit Results
Website
As I was looking at the communications website, it seemed that the page was full of good
ideas, but they just needed someone to effectively carry the ideas out. This issue manifested
itself mostly in updated information. For example, the department news and events were only
recently updated and prior to that were empty. This is something that the department needs to
update regularly if the page is going to be in existence so that students and faculty are able to go
to that page for reliable up-to-date information. In addition, the department page doesnt have
very many images on the pages. Images that are up-to-date make the page look more inviting
and help to more effectively tell the story of the communications department.
Twitter
A strength of the Twitter page was its frequent posts before it became dormant. Other than
that, there were a few obvious problems on the Twitter page. First, the page doesnt have any
pictures from events around campus which keeps its students from being informed and engaged.
In addition, the Twitter handle is @SSU_CommDept which is inconsistent across the social
media platforms since the sites use a photo reading COM@SSU. Continuity between pages is
essential for clear communication channels. The biggest problem, though, is that the last post is
from July 26, 2012. This isnt acceptable for a Communications department because it sets a bad

example for current students and makes it difficult to reach new students. Overall, the quality of
this page was lacking in its ability to provide an engaging presence for its target audience.
Tumblr
Just like the Twitter page, the Tumblr page had few strengths. One strength was its
continuity of posting before the period of inactivity. They also had professors from the
Communications department post, which allowed the character of the department to shine
through. The Tumblr also didnt engage well since the last post was on October 1, 2012. In
addition, the only people who posted on the page were faculty members, which limits the
audiences that the department could reach. The Tumblr page as a whole is simply not engaging
its audiences at all, which can be worse than engaging poorly.
Facebook
The Communications department Facebook was doing better with its posting frequency
compared to the other pages. For example, they just shared a video on February 18 about one of
their students. Still, the last post that the department shared prior to that was at the beginning of
December, which has made it hard for the department to gain or maintain a following. The
Facebook page only had 23 photos on the page as well, which is not enough. Finally, the page
only had 145 likes in a Communications department of roughly 6% of the school or about 640
students. That means that the likes for this page represent about 23% of just one portion of the
larger target audience, which is not acceptable for a Communications department. The quality of
this page is okay, but it ultimately didnt engage its audiences as well as it could have.
Promotional Materials

With regard to promotional materials, I found that the department was greatly lacking the
appropriate materials. They did have a handout on the front desk, but it wasnt comprehensive
enough to reach the target audiences. There also wasnt a distinguishable set of materials for
prospective students or current students. This is not the best practice for the department to use
because it will ultimately neglect the needs and questions of their internal and external
audiences. The department needs to work on better differentiating its promotional materials so
that prospective students know where to get these materials when they want them.
Departmental Materials
As I found with the promotional materials, there wasnt a separate set of materials for
current students. This is definitely something the department should look into soon so that they
can effectively reach their current student body. The communications department also didnt
have separate materials for each concentration. Since these concentrations end up having a
different flowsheet and unique job opportunities, this is a necessity in the department so that
students are able to find the resources that they need. If there was a brochure of some sort,
students who are trying to choose a concentration could see the information that they need to
know when they are making this decision.
In addition, there wasnt any sort of department newsletter to let students, faculty and
staff know what is going on in the communications department. This is important information
because it lets students know if there are professional development events or interesting special
topics courses that they can take. A newsletter also keeps the faculty and staff updated with
regard to students who are doing outstanding work. This is great information to keep students,
faculty and staff updated on and it should begin to be more of a priority for the department so

that it can effectively engage its students so that they are informed and involved in the
department, which will help it to grow.

Strategy & Tactics

As I stated in the communication audit, there are a few notable issues that the
communications department needs to address so that it can be more effective in reaching its
target audiences. In order to effectively reach our goal of raising student awareness of the
communications department at Salem State, we broke down our overall objectives into more
specific categories of strategies and tactics.
Strategies
Based on the issues at hand and the stated objectives, I am recommending three key
strategies and two tactics for those strategies. The first strategy is to increase internal
communications in the communications department so that the students and faculty are informed
about upcoming events and department achievements as well as important academic deadlines.
My second strategy is to let the prospective students know about the benefits of seeking a
communications degree at Salem State using promotional materials. For my third strategy, I will
share information about whats going on in the communications department with the university
and the community as a whole.
Strategies & Tactics
In order to achieve my first strategy of increasing internal communications in the
department so that students, faculty and staff are better informed, I have two tactics. First, I
would propose that we design and release a monthly newsletter that informs students, faculty and
staff about upcoming events in the department and faculty and student news. Second, we would

distribute the hard copy newsletter at the front desk of the communications department as well as
an electronic newsletter on the department Tumblr so that it can reach everyone in the internal
audience.
In order to achieve my second strategy, we will first design a brochure for each
concentration detailing the job description, key faculty and possible minors. I have already
designed a sample of these brochures for the public relations department. The brochures for the
other concentrations would follow the same template with unique information for each
department. These brochures would reach out to prospective students because we could use them
to show students looking into the department what they could do as a career with each
concentration. My second tactic is to distribute these brochures in the admissions office with the
other informational materials and at Accepted Students Days and Open Houses in order to recruit
students to both Salem State University and the communications department itself. These
locations are key times to market to prospective students so they are important times to reach out
to them as they are beginning the college search process.
For my third strategy focused around community outreach, we will first design a
Facebook Story Series to let the university and the community know about various department
events and the everyday life of a communications student. While this is a great tool for building
community engagement, it is also a strong recruitment tactic. For example, with the example
Facebook Story Series that I attached, students will be able to see communications clubs,
internships and famous communications professionals. These will show undecided students that
a communications degree might be for them. In addition, it can be a recruitment tool for local
businesses to offer internships when they see other local companies that hire students. The
second tactic is to distribute these Facebook Story Series to the department Facebook page once

a month with a new story created by a student in the department so that the community is up-todate on interesting events and departmental developments.
The third tactic is to post three to five times a week on the Facebook and Twitter pages
about upcoming events. We will use the events from the department newsletter to share the new
events with students. In addition, the department can schedule their posts for the most effective
times of day. In a study by Bitly, the URL shortener, the company found that there were specific
times that were effective for posting. They said that posts fared the best on Twitter from 1 to 3
p.m. Monday through Thursday (Sonderman, 2012). For Facebook, posts did best from 1 to 4
p.m and for Tumblr, the posts did best after 7 p.m. (Sonderman, 2012). This is important for the
department to keep in mind in posting because if they schedule their posts for these times, they
will ultimately have a better post reach.

Timeline
The first strategies that the department should implement are those pertaining to posting
on the social media sites. Because these are quick fixes that will require minimal maintenance
and time, the department will be able to reach all of their audiences where they are.
Next, the department should begin to implement the Facebook Story Series because this
project might require more time and effort on the part of the department, but it still requires little
to no funding and minimal effort. This means that the department can reach out to their
audiences better.

Finally, the department should implement the brochure and the newsletter last because
these will take time, effort and funding all of which the communications department might
currently be lacking. Still, when they can implement these, it will add tangible resources for
students and faculty. The department can also reach out to the audiences for these resources last
because they are targeting current students for the most part so the need for them is not as urgent.
The newsletter will need to be updated once a month in order to be an effective resource
for Salem State. If the time and money doesnt allow for the department to accomplish this, they
could print the newsletters on a bi-monthly basis instead. The brochure, on the other hand, can
be reprinted once every year or two years because this information will be pertinent for at least
this long. As the department is changing and updating, though, the brochure will need to be
reprinted more frequently to give students up-to-date information. These brochures might not
need a design change every time they are updated, but merely a content change.

Conclusion
The Salem State University communications department is in a time of change and
transition for the better. However, this means that the department will need to better reach out to
students so that the department will continue to grow. To positively communicate with their
audiences, the department should increase and diversify their social media postings to better
reach their audiences with tools like the Facebook Story Series. They should also try to print
more effective tangible information for prospective and current students. With these changes,
the department will be able to flourish to its full potential.

Works Cited
"College Search - Salem State University." (2014). Big Future. College Board. Retrieved from
https://bigfuture.collegeboard.org/college-university-search/salem-state-university.
Sonderman, J. (2012, May 9). Bitly data shows the best times to post links to Facebook, Twitter
and Tumblr. Poynter. Retrieved from http://www.poynter.org/latestnews/mediawire/173308/bitly-data-shows-the-best-times-to-post-links-to-facebooktwitter-and-tumblr/.
"Welcome!" (2014). Salem State University: Communications. Salem State University.
Retrieved from http://www.salemstate.edu/communications/.