final campaign

Social Media For Social Good:

a pilot project to stop cyber bullyingB

y Jennifer Daniel

As par t of an assignment for the upper level communication course, ?Contemporar y PR & Social Media (#MimsPR),? a team of seven students worked in col laboration to create a campaign against cyber bul lying. The campaign was appropr iately named #WordsHur t in an effor t to r aise awareness about the negative, and potential ly lethal consequences

of cyber bul lying. The objective of this assignment was to star t a conversation on social media about a social issue you care about. Our #WordsHur tPR team applied concepts from Jonah Berger?s Contagious to examine what makes content ?sticky,? ?spreadable,? and ?contagious.? In completion of this assignment, our team conducted secondar y r esearch (from three outside sources) and pr imar y r esearch (through the creation of a questionnair e). After we obtained our r esults, we used the data from our pr imar y r esearch to define a message str ategy and a video to enl ighten Mason students about this social issue. Using al l the aforementioned components, our team launched a 21 day campaign on social media to promote views, l ikes, shares, and retweets to boost engagement. The fol low ing r epor t is an analysis of our r esearch, str ategies, tactics, w r i tten products, and results.

December 6, 2016

When you think of bul lying, you typical ly think of a high school aged boy shoving a fr eshman into a locker , or a group of gir ls spreading r umors about another gir l at a sleepover. However , what was once l imited to verbal, social, and physical bul lying has spread into perhaps an even more damaging categor y: cyber. With the grow th of technology, standard bullying has expanded into the technological r ealm know n as cyber bullying.

College students are the most fr equent users of digi tal technology and social media, but this does not mean that their increased matur i ty and exper ience w i l l keep them safe (Smith, Rainie, & Zickuhr , 2011). Because of this, i t is imperative that we, as a campaign team use social media for social good to r aise awareness of this har sh r eal i ty.

Produced by Jennifer

Daniel

Social M edia For Social Good:a pilot project to stop cyber bullying

INTRODUCTION

B ACKGROUND

Cyber bullying

MEMORANDUM TO: Pr ofessor Mim s FROM: Jenni fer Daniel SUBJECT: Secondar y Resear ch- Cyber bu l l yi ng DATE: October 20, 2016

When you think of bul lying, you typical ly think of a high school aged boy shoving a fr eshman into a locker , or a group of gir ls spreading r umors about another gir l at a sleepover. However , what was once l imited to verbal, social, and physical bul lying has spread into perhaps an even more damaging categor y: cyber. With the grow th of technology, standard bullying has expanded into the technological r ealm know n as cyber bullying. Bullying is typical ly caused by an imbalance of power. Individuals who bully use their power , such as their physical str ength or access to information to cause harm to others. In order to be considered bullying, the behavior must be r epeti tive. In other words, an act of aggression must happen more than once or have the potential to happen more than once. But what is cyberbullying, and how does i t di f fer? According to the Cyberbullying Research Center , cyberbullying is defined as ?w i l l ful and repeated harm inf l icted through the use of computer s, cel l phones, and other electronic devices,? (Cyberbullying Research Center , 2014). This, of course, is what distinguishes cyberbullying from tr adi tional bul lying. Youth who exper ience bullying in ei ther of i ts forms are at an elevated r isk for suicidal thoughts, attempts, and successes. Cyberbullying and i ts aftermath is typical ly associated w ith high school and middle school aged individuals, however , data from a study from the Univer si ty of Washington shows other w ise. In a study questioning 265 gir ls enrol led in four col leges, ?researchers found col lege-age females just as l ikely to suffer the negative effects of cyberbullying as younger adolescents.? In fact, the study found that col lege gir ls were more l ikely to meet cr i ter ia for depression. (LaMotte, 2015). College students are the most fr equent users of digi tal technology and social media, but this does not mean that their increased matur i ty and exper ience w i l l keep them safe (Smith, Rainie, & Zickuhr , 2011). Because of this, i t is imperative that we, as a campaign team use social media for social good to r aise awareness of this har sh r eal i ty.


Secondary Research


Our #WordsHur tPR team created a questionnair e to test possible messages and gain insight into how to best present our message. We wanted to identi fy who our audience was, so we began our sur vey by asking demographic questions. Of our 166 respondents, 65.7% were female and 31.3% were male. Age var ied from 17-26, however most r espondents r anged from 20-22 (55.4%) w ith the second highest age group ranging from 17-19 (33.1%). Par ticipants were also asked which online platforms they use most fr equently. Facebook ranked the highest (99.4%), fol lowed by Snapchat (94.65), Instagram (87.3%), Tw itter (59%), Tumblr (30.7%), Yik Yak (12%), and other (7.8%). I t is interesting to note that although Facebook was the most fr equently used platform, par ticipants did not think that i t was the most common venue for cyber bul lying. Tw itter was the number one purpor ted cyber bul lying platform (70.5%) w ith Facebook at a close second (66.3%).

83.1% of r espondents said that they or someone they know has par ticipated in anonymous websites/forums. When asked how often they thought that cyber bul lying occurs, 75.3% answered ?often? and 19.3% answered ?sometimes.? We were not surpr ised to see that no par ticipants answered ?never.? Par ticipants were also asked what names they were cal led i f they were cyberbull ied and how they r eacted (i f applicable). We reviewed the r esponses and used them as a supplement in our campaign video. In r egard to how par ticipants r eacted, the major i ty said that they ignored the comments/threats (40.4%) or blocked the user (30.75). In the middle of the spectr um, 23.5% said that they told a fr iend and 20.5% said that they cr ied/were upset. Only 7.2% of r espondents said that they r epor ted cyber bul lying. Our f indings were consistent w ith our hypotheses and secondar y r esearch: both victims and bystanders are not l ikely to r epor t acts of cyber bul lying. After r eview ing our r esponses, we wanted to change the stigma associated w ith r epor ting. We employed Jonah Berger?s STEPPS and created a public pledge to stop cyber bul lying. According to Berger?s typology, the more public something is, the more l ikely people are to imitate i t. Our sur vey garnered 84 responses.

Primary Research


M essage Strategy

Goal Speci f i c Object ive St r ategy

Change online behavior s Increase awareness about the cor relation between cyber bul lying and depression/suicide;

Stor ytel l ing through the use of a video and actor por tr ayal; appeal to emotion

Stimulate some kind of r esponse or action

Promote video shar ing and signing the pledge

Tr iggers/Association- promote through Tw itter since most people think cyber bul lying occurs


Video

https://w w w.youtube.com/watch?v=dahJHD8tDEQ

Publ i shed on Nov 15, 2016With the grow th of technology, standard bullying has expanded into the technological r ealm know n as cyber bul lying. Anonymous websites, applications, and online forums have made cyber bul lying a tool accessible by vir tual ly anyone.College students are the most fr equent users of digi tal technology and social media, but this does not mean that their increased matur i ty and exper ience w i l l keep them safe. Cyber bul lying continues after high school and has been l inked to depression and even death among college students. I t is imperative that we, as col lege students use social media for social good to r aise awareness of this har sh r eal i ty. Share your stor y, sign the pledge, and stop cyber bul lying. Pledge: https://goo.gl/forms/6HDnyjaMhCnDNcRA*We do not ow n the r ights to this song. Al l r ights belong to the ar tists*

This shor t but power ful video depicts the negative consequences of cyber bul lying. The crux of this campaign was based on data col lected from actual Mason students. As such, the #WordsHur tPR team used actual words that Mason students r epor ted to have been cal led online. The video employs stor ytel l ing and emotion, fol low ing the stor y three actor s. Each actor stands before a blank screen, where a projector turns on and words from the sur vey are emblazoned across his or her chest. These actor s r epresent the victims of cyber bul lying and the pain they endure. With this shor t, to the point public ser vice announcement, the #WordsHur tPR team discerned a simple and somber message: words hur t. The brevi ty and simplici ty of the video was designed so that viewers could digest the statistics and visuals, but fol low their ow n interpretation.



In order to increase views and awareness of our campaign, we determined the best way to r each the target audience (on a nonexistent budget) was to uti l ize platforms that were prevalent among college students. Each member of the team was assigned an inf luencer group, which can be seen on the planning char ts. Effor ts were made both face-to-face and on di f ferent social media platforms to r each the goal of informing the Mason community about our campaign. Our team created a Tw itter to engage w ith our publics, conduct pol ls, and disseminate our video. Graphics, news releases, blogs, and ar ticles were also created to pass along to target audiences. We achieved face-to-face interactions by screening our video dur ing a soror i ty chapter meeting, PRSSA meeting,as well as several high tr aff ic locations on campus via ORCA. The fol low ing pages breakdow n our tactics as we prepared to launch our campaign, defined our w r i tten products, assigned inf luencer groups, and measured our effor ts across these platforms.

Tactical Plan



Task Assigned to Deadl ine

Finalize video & share w/ team Josh 11/8

Write description

Josh 11/8

Set launch date

ALL 11/15

YouTube Channel (create, post video)

Josh 11/8

Twitter: @WordsHurtGMU Alexis & Dennix 10/15

Define written products ALL 11/8 midnight

Identify 5 key inf luencers (law of the few)

ALL 11/8 midnight

Define metrics, obtain benchmarks

ALL 11/10

Prepare to Launch



Define Products

Product Assigned to Due date (to # mimsPR)

SM Launch message w/ visual

All 11/10 midnight

News Release

Jen 11/15

Letter to faculty, key staff (email)

Tatiana 11/15

LinkedIn article/post Bushra 11/15

Blog post or Article Josh 11/15

Buzzfeed article for Community

Antonnet 11/15

@WordsHurtPR: Twitter Description & Twitter Polls

Main Curator: Alexis 11/15

Twitter Graphics / Various Graphics

Dennix 11/18



Define Target Audience

Inf luencer Assigned to Message strategy

Alpha Phi Jen Video screening (142 impressions)

Alpha Kappa Lambda Josh News release;share video and pledge

Asian Student Organizations

Dennix Create and share visuals to disseminate across social media

PRSSA Alexis Stats, conduct poll questions, video of PRSSA meeting where they

WAVES Antonnet Blog to Buzzfeed Community

Active Minds organization at Mason

Bushra News release

Panhellenic Community Tatiana Faculty email pitch



Efforts

Task/plat form Assigned to Ef forts Due date

SM BLASTAcross all platforms

ALL LAUNCH MESSAGE/RT/SHARE this

November 15th

Post blogs, articles

Antonnet, Josh, Bushra Share on personal accounts; free websites

Nov. 15-29

Connect w/ inf luencers

Jen, Dennix, Alexis Reach out to organizations on campus- identify stakeholders and

Nov. 15

Email faculty, staff Tatiana Provide link to pledge and video

Nov. 15

Issue release Jen ? Thank you so much for your pitch. Due to the high volume of submissions, we are unable to respond to all emails personally. We typically respond to pitches that interest us within two weeks. If you don't hear from us, please feel free to pitch your piece elsewhere. We appreciate your patience and your interest in BuzzFeed Ideas.?

TBA

Family Share All Thanksgiving

Buzzfeed

Antonnet Nov 17


FOR RELEASE: Immediate CONTACT: Jennifer Daniel, [email protected] 540-904-8978

Mason Students Col l abor ate to Raise Awar eness About Negat ive Consequences of Cyber Bul l ying

(Fair fax, VA ? November 15, 2016)- As par t of an assignment for the upper level communication course, ?Contemporar y PR & Social Media (#MimsPR),? a team of seven students worked in col laboration to create a campaign against cyber bul lying. The campaign was appropr iately named #WordsHur t in an effor t to r aise awareness about the negative, and potential ly lethal consequences of cyber bul lying. This Tuesday marks the off icial launch date of the #WordsHur t social media campaign for social good. Perhaps the most inf luential and notewor thy aspect of the campaign is the student dir ected, f i lmed, and edi ted video that fol lows the stor y of three victims of cyber bul lying. Shy of one minute, the video is a power ful depiction of the negative consequences of cyber bul lying. The crux of this campaign was based on data col lected from actual Mason students. The data comes from a sur vey asking par ticipants a var iety of questions r anging from demographics, l ike age and gender , per ceived fr equency of cyber bul lying/across what platforms, and what names (i f applicable) they had been cal led. The sur vey closed w ith over 160 respondents. The results were shocking. Perhaps even more shocking was the video which brought the r esults to l i fe. The video opens w ith a blank screen. A projector turns on and words from the sur vey are emblazoned across the chests of three separate individuals, r epresenting the victims of cyber bul lying. With this shor t, to the point public ser vice announcement, the #MimsPR team discerned a simple and somber message: words hur t.

One of the key factor s in creating this campaign was the l ink between cyber bul lying and depression and suicide. Unbeknow nst to many, suicide is the thir d leading cause of death amongst col lege students. When you think of ?bullying? you typical ly think of a high school boy shoving a fr eshman into a locker , or a group of gir ls spreading r umors about another at a sleepover. Bullying does not have an age l imit, nor does i t have a demographic. In i ts most basic form, bul lying is typical ly caused by an imbalance of power. Individuals who bully use their power , whether i t be through physical str ength or access to information, to cause harm to others. But what is cyber bul lying, and how does i t di f fer?


Written Product

According to the Cyber Bullying Research Center , cyber bul lying is defined as the ?w i l l ful and repeated harm inf l icted through the use of computer s, cel l phones, and other electronic devices.? With the grow th of technology, standard bullying has expanded into the technological r ealm know n as cyber bul lying. Anonymous websites, applications, and online forums have made cyber bul lying a tool accessible by vir tual ly anyone. Cyber bul lying and i ts aftermath are typical ly associated w ith high school and middle school aged individuals; however , data from the Univer si ty of Washington shows other w ise. In a study questioning 265 gir ls enrol led in four col leges, r esearchers found col lege-age females just as l ikely to suffer the negative effects of cyber bul lying as younger adolescents. In fact, the study found that col lege gir ls were three times more l ikely to meet the cr i ter ia for cl inical depression. College students are the most fr equent users of digi tal technology and social media, but this does not mean that their increased matur i ty and exper ience w i l l keep them safe. ?These statistics are star tl ing,? said Jennifer Daniel, a member of the #MimsPR team. ?People don?t r eal ize that cyber bul lying doesn?t stop after high school. As petulant and mean spir i ted as i t may be, cyber bul lying is a huge problem, especial ly on Mason?s campus.? Data from the student-conducted sur vey found that over 75% of Mason students have received hateful, discr iminating messages via cyber communication platforms. ?What makes matter s worse is anonymity,? Daniel continued, ?Websites l ike Greek Rank have become places for per sonal attacks. One of my fr iends was blatantly victimized on this websi te, and I w i tnessed f i r sthand i ts devastating aftermath. That is why I am so passionate about this campaign.? Using the know ledge obtained from sur veys, obser vation, and research, the #MimsPR team is working closely to spread awareness about the negative consequences of cyber bul lying. I t is imperative that we, as col lege students use social media for social good to r aise awareness of this har sh r eal i ty. As col lege students, faculty, and staff , we are stewards of the George Mason legacy. That is, we are r esponsible for preser ving our campus and i ts r eputation for future generations to come. How do you want to be r emembered?

Take the pledge to stop cyber bul lying athttps://goo.gl/forms/siveAttYq6KPWPAq2 View the #WordsHur t video at https://youtu.be/Amw VX4lMGik

###



Twi t ter ? Quant i tat ive - Com bined Resul t s for #SM/SG@Wor dsHur tPR

Posts: 27 tweets

Likes: 2

Analytics: 1,964 tweet impressions, 570 prof i le visi ts, 5 scenar ios, 31 fol lowers

Tw i t ter ? Qual i tat ive

The f i r st week of the campaign coincided w ith Antibul lying Week. We were lucky in that our theme for our campaign worked hand in hand w ith the message of Antibul lying week. Tweets created not only contained the campaign hashtag #WordsHur t but also #Antibul lyingWeek.

We also interacted a lot w i th the Black Lives Matter social media for social good tw itter handle because a lot of their message str ategy involved spreading love in words instead of hate. This was consistent w ith our

Results

Facebook ? Quant i tat ive ? Com bined Resul t s for #SM/SG

Posts- Between the f ive of us, we shared the content f ive times.

Likes: 20- People are more l ikely to ?l ike? posts than share them on their ow n social media platforms

Shares: 16- Mostly from family members, but also target inf luencers l ike PRSSA and the Greek community

Facebook ? Qual i tat ive

Interactions: We had a lot of r e-shares from family members and fr iends in our community. I t was harder to tr ack analytics on Tw itter since we do not al l fol low each other /have pr ivate Tw itter s, but there was an increase in engagement when we shared the video since there was a visual component to the post.

Review what was l iked, shared, etc.: The video received the most engagement. Impressions came from family members, PRSSA, the Greek community, and miscellaneous Facebook fr iends.

YouTube ? Quant i tat ive

Views in # days: 164

ORCA dist r i but i on (wher e, #days)

Our ORCA video played from the 17th ? 29th and i t played at any and al l locations in which ORCA is used. I even saw i t at the gym when I was working out!


Results


Results

Other social m edia r elat i ons:

Press r elease: November 18Outcome: ?Thank you so much for your pi tch. Due to the high volume of submissions, we are unable to r espond to al l emai ls per sonally. We typical ly r espond to pi tches that interest us w ithin two weeks. I f you don't hear from us, please feel fr ee to pi tch your piece elsewhere. We appreciate your patience and your interest in BuzzFeed Ideas.?

Emai l to professor : November 22Outcome: We e-mai led a var iety of student organizations, teachers and staff members. We sent an e-mai l to the seven di f ferent presidents of al l the soror i ties, along w ith the Panhellenic counci l . Along w ith that, we e-mai led al l of the Student Involvement Staff , which was 6 di f ferent staff members along w ith grad members. The reason we reached out to them was because they are al l in charge of Student Organizations. Along w ith that, we reached out to three di f ferent professors so they could go ahead and share w ith their classrooms. They al l r esponded back and said they would share w ith their classrooms and we got a lot of emai ls back saying that the organizations would present i t to their groups.

BuzzFeed ar ticle :November 17 Outcome: Tw itter : 158 impressions, 19 engagements, 4 l ink cl icks, 3 l ikes, 1 r etweet

LinkedIn Ar ticle: November 17Outcome: 38 views, 1 l ike, 2 shares, 1 r esponse


Analysis

In an analysis of the #WordsHur tPR team?s overal l campaign, we were able to successful ly spread awareness about the negative consequences of cyber bul lying. Our #WordsHur tPR team created multiple w r i tten and visual campaign mater ials in an effor t to promote views, l ikes, shares, r etweets, and overal l engagement about this social issue. Dur ing this 21 day per iod, effor ts were made both face-to-face and on di f ferent social media platforms to r each the goal of informing the Mason community about our campaign. Our team created a Tw itter to engage w ith our publics, conduct pol ls, and disseminate our video. Graphics, news releases, blogs, and ar ticles were also created to pass along to target audiences and key inf luencers. We achieved face-to-face interactions by screening our video dur ing a soror i ty chapter meeting, PRSSA meeting, as well as having our video featured in several high tr aff ic locations on campus via ORCA. After analyzing our r esults, there are a few str engths and weaknesses that we identi f ied i f this were to launch as a national, ful l length campaign. In an assessment of our str engths, our team employed a successful message str ategy. The brevi ty and simplici ty of our message tr anslated well across al l of our campaign mater ials, especial ly our video. Whi le there could obviously be room for improvement in the production of the video, the content and the str ategies employed were a huge par t of our success. Our team was also successful in spreading awareness across di f ferent onl ine platforms, groups, and inf luencers. We were able to use our campus resources and our ow n networks to sol idi fy a fol low ing, obtain data, and gather names for our pledge. We capital ized on our var ious backgrounds and membership in di f ferent organizations to promulgate our message. One area where our campaign faltered was our social media presence. An over looked issue could be that gaining the ini tial fol low ing of the tr end. To improve, we would need to devote more time toward marketing the campaign and the target outcome. For a larger -scale campaign, i t could be beneficial to have endorsed tweets from people that have a large fol low ing and are personally connected to the cause. For example, a celebr i ty advocate such as Demi Lovato, who is a spokesperson for the Bystander Revolution. After completing this campaign, our team learned f i r sthand the impor tance of social media?s role in spreading awareness. Our team successful ly employed Jonah Berger?s STEPPS of contagion to establish our goal, using emotion, stor ytel l ing, tr iggers, and publics. Overal l , this campaign ser ved as an invaluable learning exper ience. With the grow th of technology, social media campaigns are becoming more and more ubiqui tous, and this campaign w i l l lay the foundation of what is yet to come.


Appendix

Ci tat i ons Cyberbullying Research Center. (2014, December 23). What is Cyberbullying? Retr ieved October 20, 2016, from http://cyberbullying.org/what-is-cyberbullying LaMotte, S. (2015, March 3). The health r isks of cyberbullying in col lege - CNN.com. Retr ieved October 20, 2016, from http://w w w.cnn.com/2015/03/02/health/cyberbullying-in-col lege/index.html Smith, A., Rainie, L., & Zickuhr , K. (2011, July 19). College students and technology | Pew Research Center. Retr ieved October 20, 2016, from http://w w w.pew internet.org/2011/07/19/col lege-students-and-technology/

Sur veyhttps://goo.gl/forms/iKslCQzNzhRmRUVm2

Documents

final campaign