Hey, Im not a student anymore but this is one issue where I have no problem shouting current UNB Student Union President Greg Bailey a message. Its an issue that has surpassed being just about the SUs decision to not uses posters this year. Its a major issue with their whole communications strategy and basic PR. SO. First off, thank you Tess Allen for writing the opinion piece I would have loved to write months ago. You nailed it, whether you missed the points about Oh we have being trying, weve done events in the SUB etc etc IT DOESNT MATTER IF PEOPLE STILL DONT KNOW WHATS GOING ON. In a world with or without posters there is only one thing that matters. And that is results. If you are having events such as a Rich Aucoin concert, A By-Election, etc People should know! It doesnt matter how they get this info, it just matters that they do. Now Greg, a few more questions, (And yes, I am asking Greg, he seems to be the only one who had been actively speaking out against posters. However this letter is signed by the whole exec, I still direct my questions at Greg. He is after all the president and the one calling the shots.) When you say During the summer, the UNBSU exec began formulating a communications strategy for our organization — something which no executive team in recent memory had done, ...I mean, Id like to call bullshit on this one. Sure it may be because I am good friends with some past UNBSU Presidents, or the fact I have sat on council, worked for the bruns, etc, regardless, every single exec sits down at exec/council transition and discusses their plans for the year a head and how to communicate to students. This is literally the biggest issue that every single exec faces every year, of course they are going to come up with a strategy. Sure maybe you felt yours was bigger, better and fancier, sure, but that doesnt mean past councils havent done them. MOVING ON. The logic was that by significantly reducing the number of posters we print, we could focus on communicating in other ways. Okay so by removing posters you are using this as a scare tactic to motivate your exec to do better marketing because they have nothing to fall back on? That is the logic? Because that is how I read this. And if so, thats stupid. I mean, Im no business student, but if some of them could back me up. DONT CUT YOUR GREATEST MARKETING STRATEGY UNLESS YOU ALREADY HAVE A BETTER MORE EFFECTIVE STRATEGY TESTED AND PROPERLY IMPLEMENTED. Just food for thought. Okay next paragraph. For instance, we have increased and streamlined our social media content. Once again, not at social media expert however I do have a good idea how facebook pages and twitter work. I myself am constantly trying to promote myself on social media. Now what I do know is good social media marketing is all about engagement. That is, getting people to, like, comment, share, retweet, mention, favourite, etc etc. Now just scrolling down your facebook page, the majority of your posts have zero likes, comments and shares. The odd one that does is almost exclusively done by someone who is directly involved with that post (i.e. Post about basketball game, 1 basketball player likes it) Now that isnt very good. Here is a potential reason as to why. Looking at your facebook page, you have close to 3000 likes. Out of a school which has enrolment nearing 10,000. And yes, I know my numbers here are not accurate. So lets say 1/3 of students like your page. Right? Wrong. I noticed the student union joined facebook back in 2009. That was when I was in grade 11. I since then have gone through grade 12, 4 years at UNB and now am out in the real world. So I could only image out of those 3000 likes, at least half of them have graduated by now. SO lets say, for arguments sake 2000 of those likes are people who you genuinely care to reach. When you make a facebook post as a page, it tells you your reach at the bottom, tell me how many of those say 2000+? I would bet none, unless you have paid to have them boosted. In which case, they still arent getting to who you need them to. Overall, when your page has very little engagement, and 3000 likes over 6 years, I wouldnt bank on your facebook page being your prime marketing strategy, same goes for twitter. The math doesnt add up. NOW TAKE NOTE. I DIDNT SAY STOP USING FACEBOOK. Keep it up! It doesnt work and can build! I know you like scraping things that work but trust me, keep using facebook. Now I hope the next section is true. Though it would have made you look phenomenal if you flat out wrote THE SU TOOK YOUR FEEDBACK AND IS GOING TO BEGIN RUNNING POSTERS AGAIN. I mean, I dont even know if I would be writing this if those exact words words were in there. Yet, I hope that eventually is the outcome. I feel like an ass for writing this long ass post but it is how I feel. Getting posters back up is one step I believe is in the right direction. However it is sooooo much more than that. Its about being everywhere. Its about blasting people. Take #MyDefinition for example, a campaign which under the student union Lee Thomas partnered with Student Services and created what I believe to be the greatest campaign ever to hit UNB. Take what Lee did, learn from it. It had all the components. It had face-to-face, it had a wicked social media buzz and it event had posters. Okay, Im done here. Greg, hate to shit on you but hopefully this post acts as another form of student engagement and feedback. Also I would have sent this to you privately however I hope this post gains some feedback to show you some additional student engagement and feedback.
Posted on: Wed, 22 Oct 2014 16:49:55 +0000
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