Launch strategy
From TheStudentWiki
Proposal for The Student Wiki PR Campaign Leading up to the Launch Date.
Hello everyone, these are our proposed ideas for the PR Campaign, let us know what you think.
Contents |
Emerging Launch Event
- Launch provisionally booked for 6th February. This will include the L1 social event as part of the Wiki Ice Event. The capacity is 400 so there should be ample capacity for the number of guests we wish to invite. DG to contact International about offering a block of tickets to members of the International Students' Society.
- The Electric Press is a potential venue for the small reception associated with the event.
- The event needs to be discussed with Marion. DG to follow this up.
- The event will take place 6-7.30. Our current thoughts on the programme are:
4-4.30
4.30-5 General skating
5-5.30
5.30-6 General skating
6.30 VIP reception
- Involvement in the wiki and the launch by overseas students. DG has made contact with the course leader at Krems. No reply as of 4/1/07.
- Use of the Millenium Square screen. We hope to display messages from the invited guests on the screen as well as imapges from the ice and the wiki.
Step One
The 1st thing we identified was that student wiki as it stands just isn't interesting enough. We need to ensure that people sign up with the intention of writing articles & inspire them to do so. Therefore, the 1st step in our campaign will be to create a debate, mainly on the discussion pages, where we will encourage people to 'Join the Debate'.
The 'Join the Debate' angle will be our main form of driving registrations, rather than just telling students to sign up, this will hopefully encourage them to publish their opinions about the different topics & make the student wiki more exciting, interesting and accessible to the student population.
To set the ball in motion, we plan to post a number of articles ourselves on issues that affect university life & that provoke numerous responses. Issues could be; . The parking issue . Prices of food in the SU . Lack of social media modules taught at Leeds Met
At the same time we plan to complete a series of lecture hits to inform students about the student wiki. Using the 'Join the Debate' angle, we will tell students about the student wiki & get them to sign up in order to have their say about all these issues that get them riled or post their own grievances for other students to comment on. Whilst in lecture hits we'll also point out benefits for their degrees. (PR students can gain articles for their portfolios).
Comments from the Wiki Steering Group
- It would help to include some dates for this activity. If this step is to take place prior to the launch, we would need to attend lectures in the last week of term. Physically getting round might be problematic. Could we use an advert which could be placed on WebCT and played at the start of some lectures? - The 'Join the debate' idea is interesting and would take the wiki in a different direction than we originally planned.
In Response to your Comments
Thanks for letting us know what you think and the ideas you have given us. I'll try to answer your questions as best I can. We plan to start lecture hits as of next week, this will then give us 2 weeks to attend as many lectures as possible before the end of term. If anyone could get an advert on WebCT asap that would be a great help to the campaign. I don't really think using it in lectures will be a good idea though, mainly because we wil have limited time available, lecturers will be very kind to allow us to have a couple of minutes at the start of a lecture. Many lecturers will have powerpoint presentations etc already set up & ready to go, form experience they do not take to kindly to others touching their equipment!
Step Two
Hopefully once having sparked numerous debates on the site, the student wiki will become a lot more interesting. We then propose to run these events simultaneously. (Obviously at this stage these are all just ideas, we may use all of them or none of them depending on what we all agree to be appropriate, please feel free to give us your thoughts).
. Adverts up on plasmas round uni - Pip has spoken to the branding team about this already and it is in process
. Links to the site on personal announcements on portal, or even direct emails to target different course groups (anyone know who we would have to speak to for these 2?)
. Articles for The Met
. Posters
. Flyers
. LSR.fm interview
. Bluetooth/Podcasts
All these things will use the debate angle to create interest. Plus incentives to sign up will be the 1st 100 receiving a free hoodie & prize. (Prize fully explained under launch day).
Comments from the Wiki Steering Group
Have you spoken to the Editor of the Met yet to get the deadline for submitting your article to the next issue? Perhaps you might consider targeting articles at the next few issues of the Met e.g.
article 1: a piece about the 'join the debate campaign' that you are running
article 2: a behind-the-scenes look at the students who are volunteering on the wiki project; how it is helping with their courses and employability; how others can become virtual volunteers.
article 3: it's an e-love thing: the student wiki brings you virtual love (or Valentine's messages, anyway)
If the 'join the debate' campaign is approved, I suggest that you consider submitting a cut-down version of article 1 to the local media as a press release and maybe to the Times Higher as well.
You might also talk to Jacquelin McNee, Students' Union about getting the launch mentioned in her monthly blog and a short piece about it on the SU home page. It might also be worthwhile you writing a piece for the ALT Reflections about how this activity is aiding your course laerning. We could then arrange for it to published on the Wiki Day. (In fact, we could try to get a Research Reflection for the same day).
In Response
I havn't as yet been in touch with the editor, I didn't want to arrange anything without the agreement from everyone about the angle we are taking. I assume that you are all ok with it so I will email the editor tomorrow regarding getting an article in the next issue of The Met. The ideas for articles are good so I shall start putting some articles together now.
Step Three - Launch Day
We understand that one suggestion from the Steering Group is to hold the launch in Millenium Sqaure. During January, the Square will be covered by the ice rink. Perhaps we could use this to our advantage. The main idea is to have the prize given with the hoodie to be a free ice-skating session at Millenium Square in Leeds on Launch Day. Here the 100 people will be present in hoodies on ice! Perfect photo op for both wiki and centenary. Also have the use of the big screen which we will have to think of a way to use to our advantage. This will also result in a lot of publicity & coverage.
Comments from the Wiki Steering Group
- The 'skating on thin ice' caused by our debates would be replaced by 'Get your skates on and join the wiki'; 'it's so cool to be in the wiki' ; 'join the cutting edge of the debate'. This would be a good photo if we could pull it off. Maybe we could arrange the 100 people to form the word 'wiki' on the ice.
The ice rink does not appear in Millenium Sq until February!
- I would like us to consider bringing Valentine's Day into our campaign. If we set up a page where Valentine's messages could be left, perhaps we could have this page displayed on a screen in the refecs at Headingley and CQ?
In Response
I definately like the idea of the ice, I think it would be fun and should get alot of people involved. According to the councils website the ice rink runs at millenium square form January 13th, so if the launch day stays as it is we should have no problems, providing what we wnat to do is feesible. I'll contact the council asap to see about whether its possible to rent it out and the cost of doing so.
Yes, I very much like the Valentines Day idea, at the moment though I think that this can be a follow up stategy after the launch - a phase two in our campaign! So our energies can focus on this after the launch. (We may even get some more money for this?!)
Reservations
We both have serious reservations about the timing of the launch day. Term doesn't begin again till the 22nd Jan, so not many students will be back till then. plus the students that will be back will be right in the middle of exam fortnight, not the best time to try and get them to come for a social skating session. Also; . will 100 people want to come ice-skating . if they don't we have no spare hoodies to make up the numbers with friends . Can 100 people fit on ice?!
Thats about it, please comment on what you think or any other ideas you may have. Particulary any better ideas for launch day, or wether it will be possible to postpone?
Thanks!
Comments from the Wiki Steering Group
- I accept your reservations. Term starts on 9th January so many students should be back that week. In Innovation North, we adopt a different teaching pattern, so this won't affect our students.
In Response
I'm still not convinced that this is the best timing for the date of the launch. Although it may not affect your students, it will certainly affect many others. We want the wiki to be popular amongst all students, and have students from all different teaching schools getting involved with contributing and writing articles. I fear that we may be alienating alot of potential students as they will not be able to claim their 'free prize' for taking the time to write some articles for us.
We were also thinking that maybe it will be best to give out the actual hoodies when they turn up at the ice rink. We then have spares if we do not get the full 100 to attend. Or it may be better for the 1st 50 students to publish an article to receive the prize so the invitation will be for 'you and a friend' to take part in the event. People are much more likely to come with a friend.
One more thing: As it stands I don't think that writing articles is that easy on the site, I think we need something on the homepage to make it alot more accesible.
A big link saying SIGN UP HERE/REGISTER plus a SUBMIT AN ARTICLE link will make it easier for students to write & sign up. I found it quite difficult to navigate around the site so this may deter people from submitting discussions etc.
Once again thanks for your ideas & comments. Please keep your ideas coming, especially topics for debate. Any lecturers that know of any large attendance lectures they have next week let us know and we will pop in to them.
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