Enhancing Relations and Communications

Director of Relations and Communications

Telephone: 304.442.3131

Email: Tech-Relations-Communications@mail.wvu.edu

Campus Address: 201 Old Main

Upcoming Meeting Dates:

Tuesday, October 11, 2011 at 1:00 PM (1 Hour) Provost’s Conference Room, Old Main.

Tuesday, November 15, 2011 at 1:00 PM (1 Hour) Provost’s Conference Room, Old Main

Tuesday, December 13, 2011 at 1:00 PM (1 Hour) Provost’s Conference Room, Old Main

Enhancing Relations and Communications Goals for Year 2 of the Strategic Plan:

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Completed Enhancing Relations and Communications Goals from Year 1:

Major progress on enhancing our communications and alumni relations has occurred in Year 1. A strong, highly-visited main website is critical to enhancing the public’s awareness of Tech and assisting student recruiting efforts. An overhaul of the website has resulted in a series of upgrades, such as rotating images on the homepage which create a new experience for the end user each time they visit the site, easy access “buttons” to open key information (e.g., “Apply Today”), and fresh content added daily during the academic year. A full-time multimedia specialist has been charged with maintaining the website and training faculty and staff to make their own additions to portions of the website to keep it fresh. The specialist will also create an interactive campus tour, laboratory video clips, and other creative elements for the website. These last elements are expected to go “live” no later than the middle of Year 2. Standards have been developed to ensure web content consistency across different academic programs at Tech. A media company has been contracted to create a new athletics website which will feature interactive elements, a mobile site, and highlight our social media efforts in Year 2.

The website upgrades have been accompanied by careful data tracking of internet traffic, which has not occurred in years prior to the strategic plan. During the strategic plan Year 1, the wvutech.edu domain had 349,372 visits with 121,675 unique visitors. Over half of the web traffic to the site was direct (that is, the visit was the product of the specifically typed web address, not the product of casual web surfing or site-hopping).

A comprehensive recruitment-directed marketing communications plan for Year 1 included a variety of emails, letters, postcard mailings, phone calls, college fairs, recruitment publications, and open house/campus visits. Each of these methods was strategically timed to reinforce other communications efforts. Tech also purchased coordinated recruitment advertisements in newspapers and on Facebook.

Work is already underway for data-corrected improvements to the recruitment communications plans for Year 2. A professional photographer was hired to contribute fresh content to new recruitment publications, and data has shown a stronger response from students to large colorful postcard mailings, which will be increased for Year 2. Social media efforts focused on admissions to reach out to prospective students and their parents will also be increased. A consulting company has been contracted to identify specific pockets of potential student populations for targeting social media, email, and other recruiting communications.

As called for in the comprehensive communications plan, social media efforts are important for ongoing communication with students and others, and include Facebook, Flickr, and Twitter, which are all data-tracked. In Year 1, the Twitter account has had 276 tweets and 56 followers. Flickr has had 46 sets uploaded, with over 2,751 photos and videos, and 70,000 views. The WVUIT Facebook page has 634 fans and the Golden Bear Alumni page has 465 fans. These are all significant improvements over prior years, and each medium is interconnected for ease of access. Regular contact with West Virginia news organizations has increased as well, with 163 news media clips and 430 sports media clips for Year 1. Prior years saw only sporadic and untracked contacts with news organizations.

A goal of the strategic plan is a vital, active, and engaged alumni association. To meet that goal, a new 19-member Alumni Association Board was elected at the annual meeting during Homecoming 2010. They hold quarterly meetings and subgroups hold additional conference call meetings, as well as social gatherings. The new Board is comprised of very passionate alumni committed to reestablishing a national Alumni Association. Tech has been working with the WVU Foundation to modernize and update alumni contact information, which had not occurred in prior years.

Analysis:

Two interrelated communications plans were detailed in the strategic plan. One, a comprehensive communications plan for the institution “to effectively disseminate information”, and two, a marketing communications program “that focuses on student recruitment”. Given the importance of enrollment to Tech’s 2015 Vision, it is appropriate that the marketing communications plan took priority in Year 1. This resulted in significant advances in the main website, social media, and recruitment publications, which were all coordinated around major events and with each other and targeted to specific populations of potential students. The increase in student applications in Year 1 (see the Strategic Recruitment and Retention initiative) should in part be attributed to this concerted media campaign.

These advances have indirectly assisted in the aims of the comprehensive communications plan, since it calls for stronger social media and website content. Other progress relevant for this plan includes Tech’s growing presence in local news organizations. Specific goals and objectives for the comprehensive plan should be generated and procedures implemented before the end of Year 2. A major benefit for both plans is the use of data tracking and results-oriented methods in determining the selection and timing of different communications formats.

Overall, Year 1 represents major strides in upgrading Tech’s communications, and the advent of a new, invigorated alumni association board with updated alumni contact information is a critical start to a revitalized and contributing alumni association. Successive years should focus on setting goals and benchmarks, in cooperation with the alumni board, for strengthening the alumni association.

For the complete Year 1 Progress Report, click here

The 5-Year Strategic Plan for Enhancing Relations and Communications:

Strengthening WVU Tech’s relationships with its workers, students, and broader community is a core initiative for the 2015 vision. A series of specific goals have been set to nurture relations and improve lines of communication. By the end of the first year, Tech will have published an impressive institutional web site that is robust, attractive, and useful to visitors and community members. A number of professionals will be engaged to design and improve the site in order to meet the one year time table. Content will include a wealth of information such as interactive campus tours and laboratory multimedia that is helpful to prospective as well as current students. It will be updated daily to provide the very latest information to all interested parties. Years two through five will include regular annual reviews by administrative and academic units, as well as students, to improve content usefulness and accuracy.

The first year will also see a comprehensive communications plan to effectively disseminate information. Modes include postal mailings, online event newsletters, YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter accounts, web site and blog RSS feeds, and regular contact with West Virginia news organizations. Successive years will involve data collection and analysis of the respective modes to determine which should be emphasized/modified to maximize communications impact and audience. Proper protocols and procedures will be developed as part of the plan to ensure message clarity and responsiveness. Two-way lines of communication with students are crucial for Tech to serve its mission, and a variety of systems, including email but especially social (internet) media, will be assessed in the first year and re-assessed in following years to guarantee the best levels of discourse between students and the school.

Years one and two will also see the data-driven development of a marketing communications program that focuses on student recruitment. Prior to recruiting efforts, it is important to establish early discussions and familiarity between potential student populations and WVU Tech. Using targeted populations identified in the strategic recruiting initiative, Tech has a great story to be told, and this communications program will be used to convey that story to these populations. Successive years will involve reassessments of the marketing program to fine-tune it to increase impact and more closely match the target audiences’ varying interests and needs.

All of these specific goals will feed into a broader aim of renewing our connection to a vast population of alumni loyal to Tech. Enhanced communication, feedback, and outreach will yield a vital, active, and engaged alumni association and network. Each year in the five-year plan the participation levels of engaged alumni will be gauged to identify best practices in reaching our people.

For the complete Strategic Plan, click here

YEAR 1 (4 Goals):

Goal 1: Improved Web Site. Timetable: On schedule. Notes: A host of user-friendly interface improvements have been implemented (e.g., radio buttons, rotating images on homepage). Fresh content added continually. Full-time multimedia specialist has been hired to maintain and further improve web site. Program in place to chart and evaluate web page hit rates. Deadline for entire site and sitemap set for January 2012.

Goal 2: Comprehensive Communications Plan. Timetable: On schedule. Notes: Social networking sites have been implemented, regular press release system is established, promoting Montgomery events is underway, and direct mail pieces as portion of communications plan is complete. Deadline July 2011

Goal 3: Develop Data-driven Marketing Program for Student Recruitment. Timetable: Complete. Notes: Marketing plan is integrated with recruiting plan. New program will be developed annually.

Goal 4: Renew Connection to Alumni. Timetable. On schedule. Notes: Full-time Alumni Coordinator hired. National Alumni Association has been re-established. Social networking sites engaged to contact alumni. Detailed alumni directory database is underway. Deadline is January 2012.