How To: Improve Belmont's Office of Service Learning Socials

SAMPLE REPORT WRITTEN IN PRL 2180 (*perfected sample*)

INTRODUCTION

The first sentence seen on Belmont University’s Service Learning page reads, “Belmont's vision statement puts service at the heart of a Belmont education.” When thinking about moving to a new, big city like Nashville, it might be difficult to find how to get involved in the community. Students coming from all across the country are trying to find where they belong and are relying on their social media platforms to find their place. Belmont’s Office of Service-Learning can use the webpage on belmont.edu, their Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram to reach out to students. Social media is a powerful tool that allows people from all over the world to connect and the Office of Service-Learning should definitely use it to its fullest potential.

RECOMMENDATIONS

Some ways that the Office of Service-Learning can enhance its engagement is to use creative platforms to make interesting content to post on social media, such as Canva. Canva is a free website that individuals can use to make Instagram stories, posters for upcoming events, or even a newsletter to send out in emails. Using this type of website will help increase the current traffic to the Office of Student Learning social media pages. According to Statista, “In 2020, over 3.6 billion people were using social media worldwide, a number projected to increase to almost 4.41 billion in 2025” (Tankovska). With numbers that high, college students more than likely look to their phones to gain the newest information around their school.

By using Canva to help the number of individuals viewing a certain app, the next step in managing a prevalent audience is to look deeper into the statistics of what time of day most students are viewing your posts and stories. By learning when the Office of Service Instagram or Facebook page is most active, this will help decide when you will reach the most individuals in order to schedule posts. With apps such as Loomly and Sprout Social, one can schedule several posts days in advance.

Looking at Belmont's current Office of Service Learning social media, it seems that these pages are not remaining active. The last post on the Facebook page is from February 26, meaning anything that has happened in the past week has not been shared. However, if there are no activities being held, individuals may still want to know about upcoming events and/or things concerning COVID updates on service opportunities. As for Instagram and Twitter, the same photos are being shared.

In order to use every platform for its individual purpose, it is important to be aware of what the app is mostly used for. Instagram is most often used for sharing pictures, however, Twitter is better at individual engagement and short texts. Belmont Students most enjoy content that they can relate to it on a personal or emotional level. The Office of Service-Learning seems to be active on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, and the belmont.edu page. However, personality does not seem to shine through as much as an interested student might like. Important aspects for an aspiring social media page are engagement with followers, links to important sites, and relatable content.

RECOMMENDATIONS 2.0

One idea to gain feedback on events or what others want to see on social platforms is creating polls. Instagram and Facebook stories can be used in many ways to reach out to interested people by asking questions, hosting live Q&As, or even by using a poll to get those engaged. For example, by using Canva one may create a poll that says, “Would you rather see information about service projects for feeding the hungry or helping with disaster relief groups?” By creating a poll with option A or B, students who are interested can vote on what they would like to see next from Belmont’s Office of Service-Learning platforms.

Belmont is a true entertainment school. By coupling the present social media with the most popular majors and organizations on campus, the office can make a huge impact. Consider posting joint events and activities with groups such as the Copyright Society and even PRSSA. These could get those students involved with Service-Learning and interested in helping out music-related service organizations around Nashville. The office of Service-Learning could host Instagram live game nights with one of the aforementioned groups or even Greek life, they could amass a large amount of social media presence and engagement. Belmont’s Greek life is heavily involved with St. Jude’s Children’s Hospitals, so involving itself on social media with Greek life would cause a large new following and getting those already interested and involved in philanthropy involved in new horizons.

If we are to be honest, Bruin Breeze is not the most beneficial place for information to be posted. By increasing the office’s social media presence, then we could increase the viewership and visibility of these opportunities. Posting every day and utilizing new social media accounts such as Snapchat and Tik Tok is important. Young people are flocking to these sites now more than Twitter and Instagram by a long shot. According to Oberlo, Tik Tok has more than 33 million downloads. It also boasts over 41% of users being between the ages of 16 and 24 according to Omnicore Agency which is exactly the demographic we are targeting. Tik Tok contains many “trends” and activities for users to participate in and the Office of Service-Learning could easily get behind that. An example of this is Tall Hall having its own Tik Tok account and posting a trendy video that amassed over 800,000 views. Tik Tok is both for information and entertainment and that could be achieved along with persuasion to get students involved in service. A suggestion is to utilize the best and most popular trends on Tik Tok and use many young people in a humorous video that both educates people on Nashville and Belmont’s need for service in their communities.

CONCLUSION

New media and social media are the perfect ways to get young people involved in service learning. The Office of Service-Learning can use these to its advantage to encourage all types of students to engage in service. By use of platforms such as Canva, Snapchat, Tik Tok, Instagram, and other new platforms that keep popping up, it is easy for students to access materials to help the community. The office needs to update these daily and engage in trends and content that students like and are receptive to. By using all the following tips and tricks, Belmont’s Office of Service Learning may be able to gain more traffic in their social media platforms which will in turn bring in more individuals that are interested in joining this organization.