EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Throughout this project, our goal was to design the content management plan for the Facebook page of MSU student exchange program with IESEG School of Management in Paris, France. For this, four competitors were analysed; Washington Business Week (WBW), ESSEC Luxury Brand Management (ESSEC), IES Abroad Paris BIA (IES) and ISA Study Abroad-Lille (ISA). These were selected for their content and location that were like our brand.
In order to increase the activity and engagement of our Facebook page, a review was made of the content of the competitors’ Facebook pages and it was found that an informational approach was dominantly used across all pages and allowing to affirm that our post should be focused in this type of content. Likewise, it was found that the most commonly message richness type were Image post, Image + URLs and Videos + URLs, because they allow the audience to engage in a better way.
Our strategy consists mainly of post about 1-2 posts per week and start increasing the amount as we approached the peaks periods (application deadline dates, the start of IESEG Exchange, and during the program), in these periods of time we heavily used brand awareness strategies in order to keep our participants informed and to be at their disposal to resolve any doubts. While in off-peak periods, we want to produce more personal posts to create a sense of personality and community towards our customers. In general, all our messages include text and photos, which allows our clients to view our content and information faster and clearer, which allows for better engagement.
It is intended to keep track of our Facebook page and its engagement by analysing the number of likes each post receive, the number of comments and shares, and the amount of people that would be reached.
COMPETITOR ANALYSIS
DESCRIPTION OF COMPETITORS
Washington Business Week (WBW)
WBW is a week-long summer program that places students in a dynamic workplace stimulation. Where they compete as industry professionals, launching a company and solving real world problems. WBW has run for over 40 years and has provided over 63, 000 students a competitive edge for life success and career advancement.
ESSEC Luxury Brand Management
The objective for ESSEC is to create a talent pool of specialised individuals to develop the luxury brand sector in emerging markets.
ISA Study Abroad
International Studies Abroad (ISA) provides college students in the United States and Canada an opportunity to gain high-quality education at overseas institutions at affordable prices.
IES Abroad Paris
Based in Chicago, IES aims to create once-in-a-lifetime educational adventures, for around 6000 students wishing to study abroad each year. IES offers over 120 programs across 30+ global locations, to create authentic global education and cultural experiences.
COMPETITOR BENCHMARKING ANALYSIS
Washington Business Week (WBW)
Page Likes – 4,903
Average Number of Likes – 11.5
Average Number of Comments – 0.9
Average Number of Shares – 0.2
Overall Engagement score – 0.14%
The majority of their posts were informational posts, using predominately Brand Awareness and Engagement content categories. In terms of media richness, a majority of posts were Image plus URL based.
ESSEC Luxury Brand Management
Page Likes – 1,042
Average Number of Likes – 24.4
Average Number of Comments – 0.3
Average Number of Shares – 0.2
Overall Engagement score – 2.45%
The majority of their posts were informational posts, using predominately Brand Awareness and Engagement content categories. In terms of media richness, a majority of posts were Image based.
ISA Study Abroad
Page Likes – 122
Average Number of Likes – 2.5
Average Number of Comments – 0.1
Average Number of Shares – 0
Overall Engagement score – 1.1%
The majority of their posts were informational posts, using predominately Brand Awareness and Engagement content categories. In terms of media richness, a majority of posts were Image based.
IES Abroad Paris
Page Likes – 562
Average Number of Likes – 10.9
Average Number of Comments – 0.4
Average Number of Shares – 0.4
Overall Engagement score – 1.15%
The majority of their posts were informational posts, using predominately Brand Awareness and Engagement content categories. In terms of media richness, a majority of posts were video based.
The engagement scores listed above we calculated using the following formula:
CLIENT ANALYSIS
OUR CLIENT
IESEG is one of the top business schools in France and 21st in the world. Many international students choose to go to IESEG on exchange, with IESEG receiving around 850 international students a year. There are several subjects offered through the exchange program. These subjects are taught in English with the option for French language classes. Subjects offered include:
- Advertising
- Business
- Economics
- Management
- Telecommunication
- Public Relations
- Marketing
- Finance
- Human Resources and Labour Relations
Important dates for the program that need to be taken into consideration are:
- October 2nd the deadline for spring semester applications
- January 1st students arrive at IESEG
- May 19th students depart IESEG
CLIENT BENCHMARKING
** As our client did not have a brand Facebook page with enough content to analyse an analysis of the American Semester and Exchanges (ASP) page was conducted. **
Page Likes – 1,263
Average Number of Likes – 335
Average Number of Comments – 7.7
Average Number of Shares – 80
Overall Engagement score –23%
ASP has historically produced more content using an informational appeal, which is in line with the appeal needed for a high involvement purchase decision. Using an informational appeal facilitates the presentation of all relevant information to consumers, enabling an easier pathway for product purchase.
Brand awareness and engagement are the most predominant content types to be used by our brand. Constant brand awareness strategies that employ our brand allows for customers to easily recall the brand when short course programs are being thought of. The use of engagement strategies such as photos and directional posts allow for more viewership of the content of what ASP offers to its customers while also giving more traffic to our main website in shorter to be able to deliver more information regarding specific questions and answers.
Images, Videos and URLs are used more often than a plain text post to engage the audience, and boost brand awareness as richer messages often draw the most engagement. For our brand images were predominantly used to generate richer messages. Images are able to be filed with content that is relevant to what our customers would want to be answered. Images can also very informational and can be used to capture what our brand wants to deliver to our audience; may it be more brand content or beautiful scenery to advertise the campus or location.
MEDIA STRATEGY
POST TIMING AND FREQUENCY
Our brand should post an approximate amount of 1-2 posts per week, while having the flexibility to increase or decrease the count for certain periods during the year. Especially in peak periods through the year, such as 2-3 months before the deadline of the Spring and Fall exchange dates, in order to create more traction for the brand. Increasing the activity and posting amount during these periods will allow for more engagement from the customers when needed. During these peak periods, 2-3 posts per week would be suitable in order to generate high amounts of traction for our brand.
A majority of posts were published between 5pm-8pm EST, however the most successful posts were published between 8am-11am EST. This suggests that the best time to publish messages is in the morning, in order to generate consumer engagement. After analysing the pages top 5 posts, it was found that the day of the week doesn’t have a high influence in the reception of the post. As all 5 posts were published on different days of the week it can be concluded that message type and content type has more of a role in generating engagement.
MESSAGE APPEAL
Considering the type of service or product we provide our customers, we intend to post more informational content compared to transformational content, as our customers would want these kinds of posts in order to make decisions. However, in saying so, we would still like to utilise transformational posts to support the informational posts in order to create a bigger push for our customers to purchase what we offer. The mix of both informational and transformational would greatly benefit our cause and generate more customers during the application periods.
CONTENT CATEGORIES AND MEDIA TYPES
In terms of our content categories, the distribution we would propose would depend on certain periods of the year. For example, during the peak periods where we want to generate impressions and clicks, we would heavily use brand awareness and engagement strategies in order to inform our customers of what our goals are. These periods are the months that are prior to the deadline dates of the Spring and Fall exchanges (October 2nd and April 1st).
Deployment of Social Media
Social media posts were created and scheduled through Facebook and Hootsuite, covering the next 12 months. The following is only a selection of posts that have been scheduled for the IESEG Facebook page. The rest can be found in the Appendix.
Overall content schedule outlining the content categories used for each post.
CONCLUSION
ASP competitors included Washington Business Week, ESSEC Luxury Brand Management, ISA Study Abroad and IES Abroad Paris. Following the average social media engagement, ASP outranks its competitors. However, many of the posts were much like ASP including posts mainly being informational with the content categories involving brand awareness and engagement.
Our Client; IESEG is one of the top business schools in France where a number of subjects are offered like Advertising, Economics, Marketing. As IESEG Facebook page did not have sufficient content for analysis, ASP’s page was used.
ASP’s Media Strategy include the post timing and frequency which involved posting on average, 1-2 posts per week while posting more frequently to 2-3 posts a week, during peak periods to gain more traction. Where successful posts were found to be posted 8am-11am EST where the day of the post was found to not have an effect on engagement. While ASP will be posting more informational posts due to the type of service provided to customers however transformational posts will be used to provide more emphasis.
Overall elements in ASP’s Brand Content Strategy was found to be quite similar to that of their competitors. Elements including informational appeal being the most dominant as the purchase decision required high involvement. We then mainly used Engagement and Brand Awareness to ensure potential customers are aware of ASP and to build customer perception of the brand but to also reinforce our brand. However, we will be utilising seasonal and customer service content to create more personality and create relationships with our customers. We rely heavily of texts, photo and video posts to allow for more engagement and interest in our posts. Where Social media posts were scheduled through Hootsuite and Facebook over the next 12 months.
Overall elements in ASP’s Brand Content Strategy was found to be quite similar to that of their competitors. Elements including informational appeal being the most dominant as the purchase decision required high involvement. ASP then mainly used Engagement and Brand Awareness to ensure potential customers are aware of ASP and to build customer perception of the brand but to also reinforce our brand. Content Categories found to not be applicable were CSR and Promotional, which was again quite similar to ASP’s competitors. The dominant media type was found to be image posts followed by URL and following the average social media engagement, ASP outranks its competitors. Which can be due to ASP utilising more image and video content compared to their competitors.
RECOMMENDATIONS
Constantly and consistently keep track of all our numbers and measurements of our posts, as well as our metrics system, where we will monitor on a weekly basis. To ensure we are evaluating and monitoring its effectiveness and the engagement it is producing and where we can and need to improve.
As well as monitoring and keeping track of our Social media channels; Facebook and Hootsuite, to update our posts and maintain relationships with our customers. And to analyse out click through and impression rates produced from the posts.
Always internally and externally benchmarking on consistent basis to see the brands overall performance compared to its past performance and competitors. To also be able to analyse ASP’s strengths and weakness
Developing and securing a Contingency Plan in place for risk management, in case anything were to go wrong, on our social media channels. We will need a back plan to make customers aware of the issue and reassure our customers that the issue is being taken care of. This will also display accountability and honesty with customers to appear more authentic and credible.
Through My Eyes! 