About Me
My journey to pursue a Communication degree started two years ago when I first started attending Brigham Young University of Idaho. At the time, I had originally been pursuing a degree in Fire Science, a degree not currently offered at BYU-I. Since I had the initial intention of becoming a Paramedic for the Fire Department, I felt obtaining a degree in communication would help me develop and hone the skills needed to excel in that field. However, this decision would alter my career path forever as I had not only honed old skills but was able to develop new ones, such as Public Relations, Crisis Management, Public Speaking, Social Media Management, Content Creation, and so many more skills which are essential in today’s changing workforce. Armed with this knowledge and the skills necessary to succeed, I have now made my main career goal focused on becoming and working as a PR specialist in either the cooperate, government, or entertainment field. For my Senior Project, I decided to take these skills that I have learned from my time here and apply them to creating a PR plan and social media content for one of the newest and most popular Soda shops in town, Fixxology.
Project Overview
To give a little bit of background, I am currently employed at Fixxology and help manage a few of their social media accounts for my internship. I was however previously employed at SodaVine, Fixxology’s predecessor, and worked there a year before the store’s transition. As a social media intern for Becca Maddsen, Fixxology’s franchise owner, I was given the task and responsibility of managing the social media accounts of the three newly acquired SodaVine locations (Rexburg, Hibbard, Saint Anthony). My responsibilities also included content brainstorming and planning, social media content creation/editing, and trend research. However, upon my transition from working from SodaVine to Fixxology, a huge obstacle threatened the initial success that Fixxology sought to obtain in the absence of SodaVine. This issue would take the form of die-hard SodaVine customers, who were upset that their favorite soda shop had sold out to another. After Fixxology’s initial hard business launch, their review sites became targeted by these displeased customers, who let their dissatisfaction known in the form of 1-star reviews despite the two companies being separate existing entities.
With my Senior Project coming up, and having access to the resources needed to make a difference, I offered to make Fixxology a PR plan to alleviate these prejudiced feelings and help grow and retain our customer network both locally and through social media as well as win over those haters. It would also allow me to be able to measure and compare the growth of our brand to SodaVines.
Objective
My main goal for this project is to improve Fixxology’s standing with the local community and win over SodaVine’s loyal customer base over a six-month time frame. I also sought to increase our brand networking reach and improve customer satisfaction through meaningful and purposeful content creation.
Content and Trend Research
The majority of my time spent on this project went into researching and data collection from posted content and customer interactions. To help aid and further the progress of my main goals, I first pulled up demographic data based on our posted content to help develop content tailored to that specific audience. I also compiled all the brand reach and social media reach info to compare and contrast the number of individuals we had reached from months 1 through 6. To help measure customer loyalty program participation and personal satisfaction levels, I created a Google Forms survey and collected responses from 80 participating Fixxology customers.
Google Forms Link: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfCHM87uG-G_WOyXQ5qFlrvQYOEy0OOLSb4qig3suG7d0mOEg/viewform
Content Creation Process
The rest of my project was focused on the actual content creation for Fixxology’s brand which I had organized within my PR plan. For created content, I made a plan to post 3-4 pieces of content every week to help create consistent posting habits and increase reach. I also created a style guide and content calendar to help highlight my thought process when designing and producing quality brand content. Below is my PR plan which includes a situational Analysis, Style Guide, examples of created content (Not all my created content will be shown for the sake of room), Goals and Objectives, Key Messages, Content Calendar, and Brand and Reach measurements.
Fixxology PR Plan
Conclusion
After concluding both the research collection, content creation, and execution of the PR plan, these are the results that I came back with:
Increased Brand Awareness and Reach Rate (Out of 80 Responses):
13,038 new accounts were reached over 6 months which beat out the initial starting reach of 2,418 accounts. 70% of participating customers reported having a Fixxology Loyalty account while 30% are not active participants. Exceeded initial goal of gaining a 60% participation rate for the loyalty program by 10%.
Customer Experience and Satisfaction Rate:
93.8% of participating customers reported feeling satisfied during their experience at Fixxology versus 6.2% who reported feeling unsatisfied with their experience. Exceeded goal of having an 80% satisfaction rate by at least 13.8%
Expanded Market Reach in the last 6 Months (8 New Locations), (1Soda Truck):
- 2 Locations in Rexburg (Main and Hibbard)
- 1 Location in Saint Anthony
- 2 Locations in Texas (Nederland, Vidor)
- 3 Locations in Idaho Falls (Hittif, Ririe, Broadway)
We exceeded the initial market reach by at least 40% since our initial growth projection was initially at 2 new locations.
Overall my project was a success as we had reached and exceeded most of our initial goals and objectives. Below is the initial rating of Fixxology Rexburg 3.3 stars, following this are the newest updated reviews.
Personal Application
After completing this Senior Project, I can now look back and see how I applied and honed all the skills I have learned over the last 2 years, which is expected for the professional workforce. This project showed me what kind of work would be expected of me and all the small aspects that go into showing you the larger picture. Creating and working on this PR plan not only helped me better understand what kind of future work I may be doing, but it has given me invaluable insight into what steps I must take to organize and execute a successful PR campaign.