P ublic R elations c amPaign
P lanbook
g RouP F ouR
t able o F c ontents
Team Introductions_____________________________________________________________3 Executive Summary_____________________________________________________________4 Company Background___________________________________________________________5 SWOT Analysis ________________________________________________________________6 Social Media Analysis ___________________________________________________________8 Secondary Research ____________________________________________________________10 Primary Research ______________________________________________________________11 Key Publics___________________________________________________________________12 Key Messages__________________________________________________________________13 Key Persona___________________________________________________________________14 Objectives and Strategies_________________________________________________________15 Sample Tactics_________________________________________________________________16 Evaluation ___________________________________________________________________18 Goals________________________________________________________________________19 Conclusion ___________________________________________________________________20 Appendices___________________________________________________________________21
t eam i ntRoduction
Taylor Tate is a senior in the department of journalism. Tate is an intern at Obsidian Public Re- lations, and is also a member of the Public Relations Society of America.
Andrea Coleman is a graduating senior in the department of Journalism. As a reporter at the Daily Helmsman, Coleman loves a good story.
Rachel Brandon, a marketing intern at Baptist Memorial Health Care, is also a graduating se- nior in the Department of Journalism. Brandon works closely with community relations clients
at Baptist.
Alex Gary, a graduating senior and public relations major, enjoys traveling and family time. As an American Heart Association intern, Gary learned about health care public relations.
Melissa Byrd, the past two-time Executive Director of St. Jude Up ‘til Dawn, the collegiate fundraising organization for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. Byrd is continuing this ex-
perience into the fundraising and development field, and is a graduating public relations stu-
dent.
e xecutive s ummaRy
Social media has become an essential asset for all organizations who strive to communicate with their stakeholders. The Mid-South Food Banks is not engaging its audience on social media, resulting in a large portion of their public, specifically millennials, to be unaware and inactive in the Mid- South Food Bank’s mission to provide the food insecure populations of the Mid-South with steady, nutritious meals.
The Mid-South Food Bank is a non-profit organization that relies on donations from the Mid-South community to deliver nutritious meals to the food insecure populations of the Mid-South Food Bank. The food bank partners with corporations, public schools, and other organizations to raise awareness for their cause. However, the Mid-South Food Bank has the means to do this itself through its social media pages.
This research report seeks to assess the social media practices of the
Mid-South Food Bank while also providing independent research on the top-
ic to offer guidance in using social media to reach a growing demographic
that is valuable to the Mid-South Food Bank: Millennials
c omPany b ackgRound
The Mid-South Food Bank changes lives by eliminating hunger in parts of Arkansas, Tennessee, and Mississippi. The Mid-South Food Bank is a Memphis based not for profit organization with a mission of feeding the need in the mid south.
They’re alone of the biggest food banks in the country, feeding about 220,000 peo- ple in 31 counties around Memphis. But in 2016, they plan to grow their capacity by 35 percent and distribute an additional 6 million pounds of food. The need is most certainly there in Memphis. In 2010, Gallup ranked Memphis the most food-inse- cure major city in America, with 26 percent of residents saying that at some point in the past year, they couldn’t afford to buy food for their families. Among the city’s 77 low-income census tracts, only seven have access to a full-service supermarket.
The Mid-South Food Bank offers both a pantry and a mobile service that caters mainly to the rural areas and shut-ins. The Mid-South Food Bank is a member of Feeding America, the national network of food banks and a founding member of the Safety Net Collaborative. The Mid-South Food Bank distributes the donations both monetary and physical goods to local agencies such as churches and smaller scale food banks that will in turn give these food items to hungry mid-southerners. Fif- ty-four percent of the funding for this organization come from individual donors and only a measly 1% from government grants.
Last year, nearly 10,000 volunteers contributed more than 37,400 hours of
service. Volunteers are made aware of opportunities and need through the seasonal
newsletter sent out by the Mid-South Food Bank communications staff. While over-
all revenue has decreased within the past year, programs implemented at the Mid-
South Food Bank have flourished and the media has taken notice. The Memphis
Flyer claimed that the Mid-South Food Bank is reinventing itself, and this seems
to be proven true. Several child hunger programs have reached even more needy
adolescents and the mobile food bank now travels to 19 different locations. The Mid-
South Food Bank is well on their way to reaching their goal of growing their capacity.
T
hreaTssWot a nalysis
s
TrengThsW
eaknessess• The cause – Food insecurity impacts a significant portion of the Mid-South. It’s an issue that can leave lasting damage on families. As such, it is a cause that you can easily create a conversation about.
• Connections with corporations, schools – The Mid-South Food Bank has a history of working with local companies and schools to fundraise food and money to help those in need. These connections are extremely important.
• Connection with Feeding America – The Mid-South Food Bank connection with Feed- ing America allows the organization to buy nutritious meals for much cheaper than others could. They are in a better position to help those who suffer from food insecuri- ty than anyone else in the Mid-South community
• Lack of funding – As a non-profit, the Mid-South Food Bank suffers from a problem that plagues many non-profits. They do not have the money to put towards adver- tising and their brand suffers because of it.
• Misinformation – Many people still are not sure what the Mid-South Food Bank is.
Many think that the Mid-South Food Bank is connected with MIFA. Others think that the Mid-South Food Bank is a food pantry.
• Lack of awareness – In general, the majority of the Mid-South is unaware of how food insecurity impacts our community. They do not know who it impacts and they do not know the best way to help solve the problem.
• Trouble connecting in Mississippi – Many in Mississippi believe that the Mid-South Food Bank only caters to Tennessee. Because of this, the Mid-South Food Bank has trouble reaching those in Mississippi who suffer from food insecurity. More So, there are other food banks in Mississippi that potential donors turn to instead of the Mid-South Food Bank.
O
ppOrTuniTiesT
hreaTssWot a nalysis
O
ppOrTuniTies• Social Media – Social media provides the Mid-South Food Bank with a tool that can target many of its weaknesses: it provides affordable advertising that can spread the message of the Mid-South Food Bank and reduce the amount of misinformation amongst the public.
• Growing private businesses in Mid-South – Memphis and the surrounding area is home to many private businesses. By working with these growing businesses, we can further spread our message and potentially fundraise as well.
• Local “celebrities” – There are many local celebrities – be it in music, sports, or something else – that could help spread the Mid-South Food Bank’s message if we were able to establish a relationship.
• Other charities and non-profits – Statistics have shown that people generally have a certain amount they are willing to spend on charities. Essentially, there is a finite amount of resourc- es available in our community.
• Losing audience - The Mid-South Food Bank connects well with the youths of the Mid-South by working with schools – however, this relationship is generally lost as they age into young adults.
s ocial m edia a nalysis
Communicating with key publics - including volunteers, donors, donation recipients, employ- ees, and partners - through their preferred avenues is essential to effectively spreading a message.
For nonprofit organizations like the Mid-South Food Bank, this is especially vital.
The Mid-South Food Bank is currently using the following platforms for social media commu- nication: Twitter, Instagram, Youtube, Facebook, Pinterest and Google+. The organization actively uses its’ Facebook and Twitter accounts to engage and interact with their publics. The Instagram ac- count The Youtube and Google+ accounts are however used less frequently. To get a better under- standing of how the Mid-South Food Bank creates its current messages, we examined their social media accounts to look for trends and styles.
The Facebook account has accumulated 3,185 likes at the time of this report. This social media page runs posts on an average of 10-20 times per week. Each post receives 0-9 likes. Over 1,029 people have “checked in” at the food bank’s location. The Facebook account appears to be the primary source of online interaction for the Mid-South Food Bank. The content of these posts educates page viewers of upcoming events.
The organization has a total of 3,938 followers on Twitter and in turn 1,309 users. On average, the Mid-South Food Bank tweets 10-15 times per week with messages on various topics. This account is used for mostly retweeting the posts of others. The posts typically show donations and contributions from others in the community. Users are rarely directly replied to. The Mid-South Food Bank does not respond to questions or engage with its constituents. These tweets depict a sense of one-way communication.
The Instagram account created by the organization has 65 followers and follows 8 users. It contains 41 posts of various images of food drives, canned good art creations and food recipients.
This account does not have a profile picture, but includes the organization’s website.
We feel as if the organization should send different messages on this platform, with the same mes- sage on an ongoing campaign.
s ocial m edia a nalysis
The Google+ account has 11,450 view. The last post was made in November of 2014.
Previous posts were made in 2031. In total, the Mid-South Food Bank has made 3 posts, and these were videos that were also posted on YouTube. There are no photos added to the stream.
The YouTube account has 5 subscribers. The organization hosts videos with volun- teers, employees and previous events. The platform has 12 videos, which dates range from 3 years ago up until 8 months ago. The Mid-South Food Bank must use this tool to reach out to those who this platform on a weekly basis.
The Pinterest account has 61 pins, and 37 followers. In turn, the Mid-South Food Bank fol- lows 17 users. Boards include information on donation and fundraising. Others include . The Mid-South Food Bank often promotes the campaigns of Feeding America, and other national organizations. The Mid-South Food Bank pins food hunger pictures and inspirational mes- sages.
To gain a better understanding of how other food banks communicate with their pub- lics, we analyzed the media presence of two similar food banks: the Atlanta Community Food Bank and the St. Louis Area Foodbank. We chose to examine these food banks due to their similarities to the Mid-South Food Bank. Memphis, St. Louis and Atlanta have similar eco- nomic demographics and are all Southeastern cities. In addition, both of these organizations implement programs similar to the Mid-South Food Bank. Some of the programs focus on feeding teens and seniors; others include pantry programs and mobile units. These are all areas that the Mid-South Food Bank are trying to focus on. Both organization interacted with their followers on a daily basis. The Atlanta Food Bank communicates with thanks-you posts, and random hello messages to followers.
s econdaRy R eseaRch
Our team examined many social media accounts that the Mid-South Food Bank has to con- nect with their publics. After examining all of the Mid-South Food Bank’s social media accounts, we saw a sense of urgency on some of the accounts that had few followers and less posts. While con- ducting our secondary research, we analyzed an article entitled; “Is Social Media a Time-Waster for Nonprofits?” this article really reassured non-profit organizations that social media could be incredi- bly useful.
In turn, nonprofits need to really estimate the number of post and what media platform would they use and what is going to be their limitations. As we cross-referenced what the article stated and what the Mid-South Food Bank actually does, we noticed that the number posts were not actually benefiting the Mid-South Food Bank.
Millennials’ and generations X are whom the Mid-South Food Bank needs to target. By post- ing simple facts of what food insecurity really means and how they could donate or volunteer would really go a long way. Both generations what to feel appreciated for anything that they do. As the Mid- South Food Bank builds relationships with its stakeholders and these two generations, they can see a significant difference in the number of volunteers and donations.
P RimaRy R eseaRch
Survey
Our primary research gave our team some background information on our targeted public:
Young adults in the Mid-South area, ages 17-25. We developed an online survey using the website Qualtrics to help us determine how young adults interact with non-profit organizations on social me- dia. We disseminated our survey primarily using our resources on the University of Memphis campus, reaching out to individuals that we knew to gather people for the survey. In total, 61 participants com- pleted our survey, giving us vital information in how young adults perceive the Mid-South Food Bank and how we can best communicate with them.
The survey was open online Nov. 19, 2015, through Dec. 7, 2015. The survey consisted of a mix of open and closed-ended questions. There were also several questions that featured an agree- ment scale or a semantic differential. We feel that the information gathered from our survey is reflec- tive of our target demographic.
Survey Results:
· 57 of our 61 respondents fell within the age range of our target demographic.
· 49 out of 61 participants were aware of the Mid-South Food Bank. Most respondents also said that they first learned of the Mid-South Food Bank through school or from friends.
· 100% of the participants have at least one form of social media. The most popular social media plat- forms were Facebook (93%), Instagram (93%), Snapchat (90%), Twitter (83%), and Pinterest (65%).
· However, only 1 of our 62 participants has ever interacted with the Mid-South Food Bank on social media.
· 76% of respondents answered that they were either likely or very likely to donate to the Mid-South Food Bank in the future.
· 67% of participants also donate to charities other than the Mid-South Food Bank.
· We asked our participants what their preferred mode of donating would be: time, food, or money. Our respondents said that they would rather donate food than anything else. After food, they would donate their time. Money was their least preferred method of donating.
We also compiled a list of other non-profit organizations that our respondents donate to. These in- clude:
• St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital
• Le Bonheur Children’s Hospital
• Goodwill
• United Way
• Ronald McDonald House
• Local animal shelters
• St. Mary’s Soup Kitchen
• Compassion International
• Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation
k ey P ublics
Public Persona
Targeted Demographic:
* Memphis, Tenn.
* Young professionals / college students
* Smartphone, application users
* Age: 17-25
Millennials are likely to have a strong social media presence and enjoy being involved. Millennials from 17-25 year-olds are looking for ways to volunteer in their community, add experience to their resumes and better their surround- ings.
Psychographics:
* Strong sense of community
* Tech savvy
* Moderate to heavy online presence
k ey m essages
Our key messages include “Feed the Need,” and “You Can Do More”
“Feed the Need”
* The Mid-South Food Bank does well to provide information to it’s audience on social media about the issues surrounding food insecurity, but these messages do not engage or encourage the audience to learn more about the subject.
* This message, however, invokes our public to learn more about what the Mid-South Food Bank is all about: Providing nutritious meals to the food insecure populations of the Mid-South.
By calling this issue a “need,” we are making clear to our audience how crucial their help is.
* Tactics of this message are simple and short enough to appear on any logo, design, caption, and social media post, and as a social media hashtag.
“You Can Do More”
*This message addresses our community’s misconception that donating cans is the only way that they can help the Mid-South Food Bank.
* This message offers an engaging call to action. It encourages others to learn more about what the problem of food insecurity is all about and how others can help the Mid-South Food Bank.
*
Tactically, this message is short and simple. We want people to remember that $1 can pro- vide our food insecure populations with three meals through the Mid-South Food Bank. The brevity of this message makes it easier to market and allows the Mid-South Food Bank to elab- orate on more specific details once we have grabbed our audience’s attention.t he v oice oF m ilennials
Caitlyn is a 21-year-old resident of the Centennial Place. She is currently en- rolled in 15 hours for the spring semester.
Special Interests: Lifestyle blogs, community develop- ment and online
Crossley is currently working as an intern at Le Bonheur Children’s Hospital. Caitlyn is also looking for ways to expand her resume for anything related to a good cause.
She maintains a lifestyle blog with an emphasis on per- sonal and community development. She also has a social media presence of Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
She engages with multiple organizations on her social media channels, and participates in trending topics and charitable campaigns.
The University of Memphis senior is somewhat
familiar with the Mid-South Food Bank, and is hoping to learn more about the orga- nization and its’ key values.
Caitlyn is willing to donate monetary funds, along with canned goods to the food bank. She recently followed the Mid-South Food Bank on Twitter, and plans on adding the organization to the rest of her social media channels.
Meet Caitlyn Crossley, a senior marketing major at the University of Memphis.
s tRategies and o bjectives
To reach a growing demographic that is valuable to the Mid-South Food Bank: Millennials.
Objective #1: To increase participation in local conversations online related and unrelated to food insecurity by 50% over next three months.
Strategy: Follow up with user-generated content based off whom Mid-South Food Bank follows. Follow certain hashtags and trending topics.
Objective #2: To maintain current youth volunteers and donors of the Mid-South Food Bank by engaging them on the Mid-South Food Bank’s social media.
Strategy: Implementing a #ThankYouMSFB trend and encouraging others to share their experiences. The Mid-South Food Bank will also offer surveys and comments regarding ways to improve the Mid-South Food Bank. The Mid-South Food Bank will analyze and document survey answers and comments to better serve the needs and assets of the com- munity.
Objective #3: To increase the amount of users following the Mid-South Food Bank on so- cial media by the following amounts by November 2016: on Twitter by 20%, on Instagram by 20%, on Facebook by 10%.
Strategy: A social media audit to gather benchmark data on current engagement levels before the campaign is executed. We would perform another audit afterwards as well as continually monitoring during the six-month campaign to measure how engagement levels are changing. Engagement levels refers to the ways each social media platform specifi- cally measures interaction. These would be likes, comments, and shares on Facebook, for example.
Objective #4: To better educate citizens of Memphis, Millennials specifically, on the mis- sion of the Mid-South Food Bank and how the organization services the community.
Strategy: Create concise and informative infographics and other marketing materials, hashtags, and tag lines to introduce via social media.
s amPle t actics
Alex Briggs
1. Sample tweet: “A big thank you to everyone who participated in [specific event.] With your help, we fed X amount of families! #FeedTheNeed”(Include picture of event/graphic to go with tweet)
2. A video for Facebook where we interview volunteers at a MSFB event. Why does this cause matter? Why did they decide to volunteer? Add in statistics of food insecurity in the Mid- South. At the end, provide a call to action - “You can do more”. #FeedTheNeed”
Taylor
1. Sample Facebook post: According to Feeding America, 15.3 million children lived in food-in- secure households in 2014. Mississippi, at 29 percent, had the highest rates of children in households without consistent access to food. The #MidSouthFoodBank is determined to decrease that statics, but we need donors and volunteers like you. (Insert link to Feeding America article, followed by donor and volunteer information)
2. Create a sentimental video for followers, one of which that will be posted on Youtube and Google+. The video should not be posted on Twitter and Instagram, because it should be at least 10 to 15 minutes in length. The video should display the storylines of children in Mississippi who rely on the services of the Mid-South Food Bank. The video should be shot with the assistance of millennial aged children. The stories should be at least 2-5 minutes in length.
Andrea:
1. Use pinterest as a tool for nutrition education. Pin info essential to the reduction of food insecurity--such as pinning “a food bank wish list “ (Suprisingly, most food banks have these pinned on their board.)
2. Pin quotes/call to actions -- such as Mother Theresa’s “If you can’t feed a hundred people feed one.”I hope that covers it.
s amPle t actics
Alex G.
1. Researching other food banks and finding new ways to improve the knowledge and volun- teers that the Mid-South Food bank already has. This would include following them on all social media outlets.
2. Having a volunteer appreciation luncheon. You never want volunteers to go unnoticed.
Thank them for their efforts in making the Mid-South Foodbank reach out to many as possi- ble.
Rachel
1. Engage with the press on social media. Many established media outlets both online and offline use a combination of blogs, Facebook and Twitter to connect with readers and view- ers. Use these outlets to engage directly on topics of interest to the community and the Mid- South Food Bank and connect with the journalist in the form of following them on Twitter and commenting on their blog posts.
2. Utilize promoted tweets during the holidays and when volunteers and donations are most needed. Allow one tweet to seek volunteers, while the other provides the opportunity to donate.
Measuring the success of this campaign will first require examining the statuses of the the Mid-South Food Bank social media platforms. We want to measure how many people follow, like, or subscribe to us on each of these platforms before the campaign begins as well as measuring the engagement we receive from our followers. We would measure this by tallying the amount of likes and comments we received on posts. By measuring these values before starting our campaign, it will allow us to more easily track what parts of our campaign are working successfully. We can see what types of posts garner more attention and interaction from our followers and modify our campaign accordingly.
Another way to evaluate the success of this campaign is to track the amount of vol- unteers we employ at the Mid-South Food Bank events as well as the amount of money we fundraise online. We would provide our volunteers with a survey to ask relevant questions:
how they heard about us, if they follow us on social media, and what made them decide to volunteer with us.
By gathering this information, we can better understand where we are getting our vol- unteers as well as crafting a message that will help us reach the Mid-South community. We can also track the amount of money we fundraise online to see if there is any change during the campaign. Be it amazon.com, political campaigns, or other charities, Millennials are fa- miliar with paying for things online. By crafting a message to reach Millennials and providing a way to donate online, we can measure if our success of interacting with Millennials is also leading to success in fundraising.
e valuation
g oals
The Millennial generation recently became the largest generation in the history of the United States. Possessing the best education in U.S. history as well, Millennials are quickly becoming a treasured commodity for the economic success of cities around the country. The city of Memphis knows this and is actively trying to lure Millennials to join the Mid-South community.
For these reasons, reaching out to Millennials should be a priority for the Mid-South Food Bank as well. Millennials are often described as a generation looking to impact the lives of others. With a cause as important as the Mid-South Food Bank’s as well as a message that $1 can provide three meals to those in need, the Mid-South Food Bank can provide Millennials with a fantastic opportunity to help others.
That is what the goal of this campaign is all about – to communicate with Millenni- als and to get them connected and involved with the Mid-South Food Bank.
c onclusion
In conclusion, the Mid-South Food Bank has a wonderful opportunity to invest in the future of the Mid-South: Millennials. By reaching out to Millennials and providing them with information on food insecurity as well as a way to give back to their community, the Mid- South Food Bank will be able to help those in the Mid-South who are in need of a reliable source of nutritious food. Millennials are the largest generation in the history of the United States. They are the most educated and informed generation and are seeking ways to en- gage with their communities. Millennials are always plugged into the internet as well, com- municating with others online through social media. And as a non profit organization, the Mid-South Food Bank has a valuable tool in social media.
The Mid-South Food Bank and Millennials match very well together. The youngest generation is currently looking to find its place in the world. They are looking for ways to give back and are easily accessed through social media. By implementing a campaign to reach these young adults, the Mid-South Food Bank can not only help those struggling with food insecurity in the short term, but it can also develop an engaged community who will stand up and fight against food insecurity into the future.
