Capstone_ProjectAnalysis_Report

Social Media as a Means
for Student Engagement
05.09.2016
─
Katie Toral
Econ 490: CapstoneSenior Project
Humboldt State University

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Introduction
Hello and welcome to my Capstone report, I hope you enjoy the hard work and amount of
research I put into the social media project.
A. Capstone Project
The purpose of the Capstone Project at Humboldt State University is to introduce soon-to-be
graduates to the idea that their work has lasting positive and negative consequences not only
on the environment but their peers as well. For this reason, HSU students are encouraged to
take into account the HSU Graduation Pledge when deciding their senior project and making
postgraduate decisions. On Humboldt State's website the pledge reads:
“I pledge to explore and take into account the social and environmental consequences of any
job I consider and will try to improve these aspects of any organizations for which I work.”
This year I chose to concentrate on the use of social networking platforms as a means for
student engagement. With the rapid rise of more and more colleges and universities using
social media as a tool to interact with their students, I feel this project will not only improve the
Department of Economics' presence on social media but also inform and encourage current,
prospective, and past students to participate in department events.
B. CPS Social Media Team
Before beginning my Capstone Project, the Economics Department had developed a small
social networking presence. Previous students had the opportunity to work on the department’s
LinkedIn and Facebook page but only posted occasionally. Perhaps I would’ve faced the same
fate if I wasn’t part of the first generation of social media interns the College of Professional
Studies (CPS) choose to hire for their social media project, the project's mission is to use social
media to inform students, faculty, and local community members. Consequently, a team of
interns from every department within the CPS was created to represent each major and work
with someone in their department to strategize different forms of engaging with alumni, current
students, and prospective students. The team helped brainstorm and bounce ideas around
which led to savvy content and marketing strategies.
C. Why Social Media

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Every day the number of organizations turning to social media to promote their product and
interact with their consumer base continues to grow. The goal of my Capstone Project was to
use different social media platforms as a set of tools to increase student engagement within the
college, department, and community. My responsibilities for both my Capstone and CPS job
included researching benefits and limitations of each platform, creating new accounts, updating
existing ones, implementing different strategies to increase reach, designing new and unique
content to post, and building a loyal follower base audience. However, my responsibilities for the
Economics Department focused primarily on promoting the economics department, keeping
students informed on department events, and engaging with students.
An article in the Agricultural Education Magazine found that communicating with students via
social media made it possible for them to leverage technology to recruit and retain students,
increase engagement of students in school projects, and form a community among students,
parents, and alumni. Another example of a university successfully using social media to interact
with students is George Washington University by cross-promoting their social media platforms,
featuring students’ tweets on their Facebook cover photo and adding links to it as well.
Therefore, I feel it is important for our department to continue the expansion of social media to
keep a competitive advantage against other universities who haven't established a social media
presence yet.
In this report, I will introduce you to the social media platforms currently being used, useful
applications used to create content, analytical assessment of followership engagement and its
correlation to the current social networking platforms, and suggestions for future interns to use
and increase student engagement.
Social Networking Platforms Currently in Use
A. Instagram
Instagram is a free social networking application or “app” made for sharing photos and videos
from a smartphone. Originally named Burbn and founded by Stanford alumni Kevin Systrom,
Instagram has quickly grown into a community of more than 300 million users who use the app
daily for visual storytelling by capturing and sharing their life moments in a fun and quirky way
through a series of pictures. It is similar to other social networking sites like Facebook in the
sense that every individual has a profile and news feed. The idea is to experience moments in
your "friends’" or followers' lives through pictures as they happen. Every photo you share or
“post” onto your account shows up in your followers' news feed and vice versa. While Instagram
is a relatively young company, launched on the Apple app store on October 6, 2010, its abilities
to convert low-quality camera phone pictures into vintage, retro-hip photos through the use of
many filters is what users love about it and has helped them gain traction.

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Hootsuite, a social media management system, advises Instagram users to place themselves in
their audience's shoes and consider what time they might wake-up and go to sleep, where they
live, and what time they usually have downtime such as lunch when posting content. Sites like
Coschedule.com, have conducted intensive studies and suggest the best times for posting on
Instagram are Mondays and Thursdays from 8 am to 9 am and then again at 5 pm. Additionally,
they recommend users avoid posting from 3 pm to 4 pm and found that videos posted after 9
pm receive 34 percent more interaction. Besides posting during peak times, users can also
increase their followership and likes per post by engaging with their followers, and one way to
do so is through the use of hashtags. A hashtag is a word or phrase preceded by a hash mark
(#), used by social media users to tag their posts with keywords or a topic of interest, which in
turn makes it easier for social networks to organize content and enables users to search for
specific content. According to a 2014 Instagram study conducted by Simply Measured posts
with at least one hashtag averaged 12.6% more engagement than those without one. They also
found that 91% of posts by top brands had no more than seven hashtags, reaffirming that
hashtags provide followers with an organic way to discover new content by isolating the topics
that interest them. While there is an array of popular or “trending” hashtag already in use to
choose from, many marketing sites suggest hashtags that are specific to your audience, such
as a school name. In the case of the department’s Instagram account, I currently use hashtags
such as #hsueconomics, #jacks, #humboldtstate, #hsuprofstudies, and #hsulife to direct HSU
students and those interested in Humboldt State Univeristy and the Economics Department to
our Instagram account.
The purpose of JACKS4ECON, the official Instagram account of the Department of Economics
at HSU, is to socialize and network with current and prospective students, alumni, and the local
community. The Instagram account features an exclusive behind-the-scenes look into campus
life at Humboldt State through department events such as the Alumni Speakers Series and the
Economics Forums to faculty and student profile features. The department’s Instagram
followership consists mainly of economics students at HSU, students from the College of
Professional Studies, and several on-campus and local organizations. As of May 6th,
JACKS4ECON had 133 followers and was following 77 accounts, of these 133 followers 65 of
them were “fans,” meaning JACKS4ECON does not follow them back, and 8 of them don’t
follow the account back. In total, there have been 241 posts which have generated 1,761 total
likes, from its follower base of 52 female, 35 male, and 46 organizations.
B. Facebook
Facebook is a free social networking platform that allows users the ability to share ideas,
opinions, pictures, videos, and other personal activities. Originally invented in 2004 as a social

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networking site for Harvard students Mark Zuckerberg, its creator, quickly realized the platform’s
potential and expanded its accessibility to hundreds of colleges and universities. Today,
Facebook is the world’s largest social network platform with more than 1 billion users worldwide.
According to Zuckerberg, their mission is to give people the power to share and make the world
more open and connected by providing them with a platform to voice what matters to them.
Thus, users have the option of sharing or “posting” a status update, picture, video, or scheduling
an event onto their profile page which appears on their friends’ news feed. “Friends” or followers
then have the option of liking a post or reacting to a post by selecting the following emotions:
love, laugh, amazement, sadness or anger.
Facebook’s built-in Insights tool manager continuously receives praise for its precise and
detailed analytics of page likes, post reach, page views, and page ranking among similar pages.
This free feature helps businesses investigate who their audience is, when they're online, and
how they liked to be engaged, by providing businesses with data on which posts receive the
highest reach and interaction between the organization and its followers. Coschedule.com,
found the optimal days for posting on Facebook are Wednesdays at 3 pm, Thursdays and
Fridays from 1 pm to 4 pm, and Saturdays and Sundays from 12 pm to 1 pm. They also found
that people were more likely to react to a post on Fridays and that posting at 3 pm will generate
more likes but posting at 1 pm will increase your likelihood of having your content shared.
Finally, the Business Insider found that 71% of all Internet users are on Facebook, and 87% of
Facebook users are between 18 to 29 years old.
The purpose of the official Facebook page, Humboldt State Economics, is to engage its visitors
with fun photos, videos, and articles about economics and college life. Since Instagram is a
mobile app and students are on it religiously throughout the day, the Instagram account focuses
on providing information on department happenings almost instantaneously to students.
Likewise, the Facebook page tries to capture the attention of prospective students and families
of current students by sharing content about the department and campus in general as well as
awards or recognitions given to HSU, and tips on studying or job opportunities on campus. As of
May 6th, the Facebook page had 170 “likes” or followers, of those 170 likes 42% were female,
and 58% were male with the majority of its supporters in the 25 to 35 age group, ranging from
the United States to Pakistan.
C. LinkedIn
LinkedIn is a free social networking site dedicated to business professionals that offer value
resources for building strategic relationships for career advancements. Therefore, it's less
focused on how many people connect with and more concerned with the quality of connections
its members obtain. It’s different from other social networking platforms because it was

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specifically designed to serve as a professional networking site for finding jobs, making
business connections, and enhance professional development. Founded in 2002 by Stanford
alumni, Reid Hoffman, LinkedIn has been able to grow into the largest professional networking
platform with more than 400 million members in 200 countries around the globe. Thier mission
is to connect the world’s professionals to make them more productive and prosperous by
allowing them access to people, jobs, news, updates, and insights that could help them get
ahead. In fact, many Fortune 500 executives are present on LinkedIn and the groups section
allows members to interact with other professionals that share similar interests.
Networking on LinkedIn is very different than networking on more relaxed platforms like
Facebook because all its contents must be related to career and business. Therefore, users are
limited to the type of material they can share and actions they can take. Coschedule.com like
many other marketing websites recommend posting content as close to business hours as
possible since it is a professional social networking platform. The optimal days and times they
recommend include Tuesdays from 10 am to 11 am, and Tuesdays through Thursdays from
7:30 am to 8:30 am, 12 pm, and 5 pm to 6 pm. Their studies also found businesses are more
likely to read LinkedIn in the morning, like a newspaper, as well as the hours right before work,
during lunch, and right after work generates the most click-throughs. However, new studies from
London have found that while regular business hours bring forth engagement from Desktop
computers, there is also an opportunity for more engagement between 7 pm and 10 pm during
the week from tablet and mobile use.
The official LinkedIn group page, HSU Department of Economics, serves as a medium to help
build professional connections and create an online community for current students, faculty, and
alums to network within. The private LinkedIn group page features student and faculty profiles,
articles relating to economics, and announcements about upcoming department events. As of
May 6th, the group page had 98 members, of these 98 members 13 are current undergraduate
students, 76 are HSU economics alumni, and 9 are professionals; interestingly recent graduates
make up the majority of the group members.
Applications currently in use
A. Apps for creating/designing content
I. CANVA

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Canva is a free online tool loaded with easy-to-use features and functionality that can be used
to create engaging content to share on your social networking platforms. Canva offers an array
of content types from pre-sized social media images to header templates, and the best part is
that it regularly uploads new layouts and illustrations. Canva uses the drag-and-drop function
which means you can easily customize your creation from an assortment of images, fonts, and
filters. The primary use for businesses is to create unique and engaging marketing materials
such as flyers and posts to attract followers. To this day, Canva has helped create over 70
million designs. Although Canva provides millions of images and is easy to use, it does have a
couple of shortfalls. Since it’s relatively new, it's still in the beta phase, so the website tends to
crash regularly without saving your work, especially during peak times. Additionally, Canva is
only accessible on a desktop limiting its efficiency since users can’t access it on their mobile
phones and work on their designs remotely.
II. Flipboard
Flipboard is a mobile and desktop database of articles, blog posts, and general news pieces
relating to what matters most to its user. Created by Evan Doll and Mike McCue in 2010, they
envisioned a personalized magazine app that gathered only stories that personally mattered to
the user, was retrieved from trusted sources and was presented in an easy to use magazine
layout. Fast forward six years and a utilitarian internet magazine is born from two people in a
coffee shop daydreaming to more than 100 million people using the service. Similar to other
social databases like Pinterest, Flipboard allows you to create "boards" or folders based on your
interests and themes. Flipboard can be used to cultivate content for other networking sites like
LinkedIn and Facebook. For example, a user can create a board specifically for articles relating
to business, economics, or sustainability which they can later share on the appropriate social
networking platform. I recommend future interns use this resource like an article database to
store items they wish to upload onto LinkedIn and Facebook.
III. Instagram’s Boomerang & Layout Applications
Boomerang is a free app developed by Instagram, available on the Apple app store, which
allows users to create captivating mini videos that go back and forth like a boomerang, hence
the name. According to the Apple Store, the app is easy to use and enables users to upload
one-second videos onto a variety of social media platforms. All you have to do is open your
smartphone’s camera, then tap its button once and Boomerang does the rest by taking a burst
of 10 photos at once to create a mini video. While Boomerang encompasses some fun features
its use seems limited to capturing quick moments, such as students stepping out of the bus on
the first day of school or a student jumping for joy after receiving an A on an assignment.

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Similar to Boomerang, Instagram also created a free layout tool available on the Apple store
that allows users to create fun, one-of-a-kind collages by using photos in the phone’s camera
roll; ironically they named it Layout. The app is easy to use and gifts its users with complete
creative control by presenting them with previews of all the layouts possible with the selected
photos. Another benefit is its flexibility in changing between layouts and photos; the app allows
users to select up to nine photographs from their camera roll and automatically saves the final
design onto the phone's memory in case you’d like to post the picture on different social media
platforms. The biggest con is that individual photos can not be edited or filtered. However, you
can easily apply a filter to the entire collage on Instagram. Aside from Canva, I would
recommend using this app over other apps like Pic Collage because it’s fast, easy to use
functions and its compatibility with Instagram and Facebook.
IV. Rookie Cam
Rookie Cam is a free filter camera photo app that empowers its users to go beyond basic photo
editing by enhancing simple photographs into professional looking photography. This app is
action packed with features such as a layout grid, anti-shake to minimize blur, block white light,
and stickers and text to easily decorate photos. It’s versatility, and ease of use give it various
pros and few cons.
V. Facebook’sMeme Generator
It’s important to provide your followers with a feed that is diverse in its content type. Facebook’s
Meme generator does an excellent job of relating to young college students by quickly creating
memes. Memes are virtually shared “nuggets of cultural currency” expressed through popular or
“trending” images or quotes that are copied and spread all over the internet. Usually, memes
poke fun at everyday struggles, particularly in younger generations. For example, the meme
generator can be used to produce a meme that showcases how a student might feel after
winning a debate by using a picture of a baby with a victory face and fist held high. The pro to
this app is that it serves as a buffer in feeds by breaking up constant posts about school.
Therefore, it’s not meant to be regularly used, but when used correctly, it can generate a lot of
followership engagement, particularly from younger generations.
B. Apps for posting & tracking content
I. Hootsuite

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Hootsuite is a social media management tool that helps users track and schedule posts ahead
of time among several social networking platforms, all in one click. Created for Twitter originally,
Hootsuite was relaunched in 2008 by Ryan Holmes and has become one of the most talked
about social networking management tools with over 8 million users. There are different levels
of the application depending if you want to purchase the app or use the free version. The free
version is supposed to save users time by automatically posting scheduled content, however in
my experience this feature only works for Facebook, which seems redundant since Facebook
has its set of publishing tools. I found the app wasn’t compatible with Instagram and required
approval before posting on Instagram, which defeats the app's purpose and deems it useless.
Therefore, I would not recommend the app due to its lack of efficiency and effectiveness.
II. FacebookPublishing Tools
Every Facebook page comes integrated with a ‘Publishing Tools’ packet and ‘Insights’ tool
packet. Both of these sets of tools help the user create, schedule and gain feedback on their
posts. To begin with the publishing tools permits users to search through published posts for
keywords, schedule posts, and save draft posts.
As mentioned before, the Insights tab enables users to review the impact their content has by
providing them with data such as the reached amount of every post and the amount of
engagement (i.e., likes, shares, comments) each post produces. The Insights tab also provides
demographics of the people who’ve liked the page and live within 165 feet from the place of
business.
Both tool sets are free, easy to use, and extremely helpful in reviewing your progress in student
and community engagement.
III. Repost& Regram for Instagram
Repost is a free app that makes it easy for users to repost their favorite photos or videos on
Instagram while giving credit to the original account. Its platform is very easy to use and only
requires two steps! The first step is to find a post you'd like to repost onto your news feed then
log into the repost app and copy the caption and post it onto Instagram. There are a handful of
repost apps in the Apple app store, but I strongly recommend Repost for Instagram and Repost
& Regram for Instagram. R&R for Instagram works the same as Repost for Instagram, but they
differ in the structure of the app. By using these apps instead of just taking a screenshot of a
post you'd like to share, users ensure the quality of the post and give credit to the original

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account holder who posted the photo or video; which earns you brownie points in the Instagram
community.
IV. InsTrack & Followers+
InsTrack and Followers+ are both free social media management applications, available on the
Apple app store, used to track Instagram followers, fans, and people who unfollow the account.
While the free version shows user basic insight analytics, the premium version of each app go
more in depth and can inform users when followers block an account, unlike posts, who the
“best friends” or people who like your posts the most are, among other data. The pros
dramatically outweigh the cons for these applications since they provide so much information
even if you stick with the free version.
Collected Data
This portion of the report divides followership engagement data into different categories relating
to each social networking platform currently being used.
A. Followership Engagement: Likes
Social Networking
Platform
Total # of Likes Average # of
Likes/Post
Total # of Page
Likes
Facebook 523 3 170
Instagram 1761 7 133
LinkedIn 31 1 98
B. Followership Engagement: Comments
Social Networking
Platform
Total # of
Comments
Total # of Posts Avg. # of
Comments/Post
Facebook 76 176 1
Instagram 56 241 0
LinkedIn 0 23 0

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C. Followership Engagement: Shares and Reposts
Social Networking
Platform
Total # of Shares or
Reposts per Post
Total # of Posts Avg. # of Shares or
Reposts per Post
Facebook 36 176 0
Instagram 45 241 0
LinkedIn 0 23 0
D. Followership Engagement: Posts and Reach
Social Networking
Platform
Total # of Posts Avg. # of
Posts/Week
Avg. Reach or views
per Post
Facebook 176 6 65
Instagram 241 14 46
LinkedIn 23 1 0
Analysis
After reviewing the following statistics I chose to run a regression analysis on the following
scenario:
Is there a correlation between the social networking platforms and the amount of
followership engagement?
This question is important because it compares the engagement levels each social networking
platform produces against each other and gives insight to which, if any, platform is delivering the
least student engagement. Additionally, this information can be helpful in deciding which
platform to invest more time into improving upon or which one would be better off retired. From
just looking at the key statics, I believe there will be a significant correlation between the
platforms and levels of engagement. To answer this question, I began by running a correlation
matrix.
A. Correlation Matrix

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The correlation matrix showed there was a positive relationship between Likes and Comments,
as well as Comments and Reach. However, it showed there was a negative correlation between
Comments and Reach; which I found surprising.
Likes Comments Reach
Likes 1.000
Comments .520 1.000
Reach -.231 .711 1.000
B. First Hypothesis Theory
The next step in my analysis was to determine if there was a significant difference in
followership engagement among the social networking platforms. I chose to conduct a
Randomized blocks ANOVA with the following null and alternative hypotheses:
Ho: The means are equal
Ha: The means are not equal
These were the results of the ANOVA analysis:
Randomized blocks ANOVA
Mean n Std. Dev
771.667 3 891.404 Likes
44.000 3 39.395 Comments
3,833.000 3 6,519.804 Reach
3,986.667 3 6,390.270 Facebook
651.667 3 961.585 Instagram

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10.333 3 17.898 LinkedIn
1,549.556 9 3,722.663 Total
Since the means were not equal, I rejected the null hypothesis indicating there was a significant
difference in followership engagement among the social networking platforms. The final step
was to determine if the difference was statistically significant.
C. Second Hypothesis Theory
After running the Randomized blocks ANOVA, I found there was a difference between the
platforms and followership engagement levels. This last part of the analysis would determine if
the difference was statistically significant. To determine this, I used the ANOVA table and
compared the platforms' and engagement levels' p-value using a confidence level of 95%. For
this analysis I used the following null and alternative hypotheses:
Ho: The treatments are not statistically significant between the different platforms.
Ha: The treatments are statistically significant and vary between the platforms.
ANOVA table
Source SS df MS F p-
value
Treatments 24,257,781.56 2 12,128,890.778 0.82 .5035
Blocks 27,344,760.22 2 13,672,380.111 0.92 .4682
Error 59,263,244.44 4 14,815,811.111
Total 110,865,786.22 8
For the purpose of this table “Blocks” refers to the social networking platforms and “Treatments”
refer to the different type of engagement used to compare the platforms engagement level (i.e.,
Likes, Comments, and Reach). Therefore, I decided to accept the null hypothesis, indicating
that although there are differences in the levels of followership engagement between the
different social networking platforms, it’s not statistically significant different enough to prove
that a particular social networking platform produces more student engagement over another. I

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reached this conclusion after comparing the p-value of each variable to the confidence level of
0.05, and as you can see the p-value is much greater than 0.05.
Conclusion
In conclusion, the ANOVA analysis indicates that each platform provides a different level of
engagement, but there is not enough difference between them to discard any of the networking
platforms. This conclusion makes sense since each platform serves a different purpose and
offers different content to its audience. Consequently, I strongly suggest students continue to be
encouraged to follow each of the social networking platforms to receive a holistic assortment of
information.
To enhance our followership I have provided suggestions for future use such as a new target
audience, methods for increasing participation, and additional networking platforms I think can
bring value to our social media presence.
A. Gathering Feedback
Although data provides us with useful insight into the effectiveness of different content,
individual followership response gives us more precise feedback on the effectiveness of our
current content. Therefore, finding creative ways to obtain feedback from our followership is
important for the future of the social media program. By creative I mean the use of incentives
such as small prizes as a reward for answering surveys or dedicating a specific day of the week
for the account's followers to voice their opinion and satisfaction towards the social networking
platform. Fortunately, one of the easiest and hassle-free methods of obtaining “organic
feedback” or feedback without the use of paid advertisements, can be obtained from comments
or followers’ reaction to posts. For example on Facebook users have the option to share if they
liked, loved, laughed at, were amazed by, felt sad, or angry towards a post.
B. New Target Audience
This year my primary goals were focused on creating an engaged audience and gaining the
attention of Economics majors at Humboldt State. Moving forward, I think it is important to
implement goals for reaching out to prospective students, lower class men, transfer students,
and potential economic minor students.
I. PastEfforts and Future Improvements

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Prior efforts to reach a greater audience include the use of flyers around campus and dorm
halls, TV advertisements in the Jolly Giant and The Depot dining rooms, cross promotion
amongst different CPS Instagram accounts, classroom announcements, and mass email
communication through the department’s “Weekly Econ News”. Altogether these efforts have
provided 133 followers for the Instagram account, 170 likes for the Facebook page, and 98
members of the LinkedIn group. While the department's Facebook and LinkedIn pages were
previously established and managed by administrators, the Instagram account was brand new
this year. Thus, I have chosen to concentrate on what has worked in growing the Instagram
account from zero followers to 133 followers.
The strategy behind placing flyers around campus was to focus on areas where economics
majors and potential economics minors most likely gather. For example, flyers were posted
inside Siemens Hall, Gist Hall, Founders Hall, The Depot, and the library; these efforts
generated a small influx of followers. However, class announcements, word of mouth, and
attendance in department events led to a significant influx of followers. For this reason, I would
suggest continuing these efforts and adding class visits to freshman and sophomore classes.
There was also an attempt at adding digital ads onto the TVs located in the Depot and the Jolly
Giant dining halls. Unfortunately, the person in charge of dining service advertising never
completed the task. Ergo, I would suggest attempting this application once more in the
upcoming semester. Aside from physically advertising the accounts, the 100 Followers
Giveaway helped gained traction with a constant inflow of followers. The idea behind this
Giveaway was to raffle a gift amongst the followers once the account had 100 followers and
upload it online. This strategy provided high followership engagement and fast results so I would
recommend using it in the future but only occasionally and to help reach big targets such as 200
followers or more.
Other ideas I believe could result in an increase in followership include an increase of
interaction between high schools, community colleges, and other colleges within Humboldt
State such as the College of Natural Resources which could attract students to the
Environmental & Natural Resource Planning Interdisciplinary pathway. Additionally, the use of
tabling in areas of campus where there is a lot of foot traffic or during events could help spread
the word, increase followers, and ultimately catch the attention of students interested in studying
economics. Finally, I firmly believe the department could improve its retention rate by hosting a
meet-and-greet mixer at the beginning of each semester for incoming freshman and transfer
students. The purpose of this mixer would be to provide new students with helpful information
regarding the major such as classes students enjoy taking and when they are available,
intermingling with current students studying economics, and meeting the faculty in the
Economics Department.

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C. New Content Ideas
I. SuccessfulContent currently being used
So far, I have experienced positive feedback from most of the post content. Some of the better
performing posts include Transformational Tuesdays, All-Star Alumni profiles, Faculty Fridays,
Motivational Mondays, and current job opportunities for students. The purpose of
Transformational Tuesdays is to empower students to share how they feel Humboldt State has
transformed them; these posts encourage current students to recall good memories at HSU and
provide prospective students with an idea of the type of culture they can find at HSU. Another
successful content concept is the All-Star Alumni series, which serves as a means to update
current students on the achievements of Alumni, inspire them to begin creating their post-
graduate plan, and present them with real-life advice from alumni. The faculty profile series
acquaints current students to the professors in the department and introduces prospective
students to the professors teaching in the Economics Department at HSU. Finally, on Mondays I
like to post motivational quotes that encourage students to conquer the week and the response
for these types of posts have been phenomenal.
II. Future Content Ideas to Introduce
While the types of posts I just listed have done an excellent job of improving our student
engagement, I believe the following post ideas can further enhance our student engagement.
Simple games such as a scavenger hunt with small rewards could increase student
engagement and moral. The idea would be to print out and hide small sized heads of famous
economists such as Adam Smith, Karl Marx, or Milton Friedman in locations where economics
courses taught the most. After students find the printouts, they would have to prove they were
economics majors and followed at least one of the department's social networking platforms
before earning a small trinket.
Another idea to help spread the word about the different programs available for economics
students at HSU is to dedicate one week of every month to review the different pathways
economics students at Humboldt State can pursue. Throughout the week, we could list the
required courses needed to complete each discipline, provide job descriptions of potential
careers a student could go into after graduation, and potentially provide feedback from the
alumnus who chose to study the same concentration at HSU as well as any advice they may
have for current students. For example, if you decided to feature the Energy Pathway, the first
day would introduce the pathway followed by the necessary requirements to achieve this degree
on the next day of the week, and potential career opportunities such as governmental policy
agencies on the third day and so on throughout the week. Ultimately you would do this for every

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pathway, and it would provide both current and prospective students with an insight of the
programs available in the Economics Department.
Finally, a clever way to increase not only student engagement but also parental engagement is
to take advantage of the fact that most students come from far away locations and only get to
visit their families during school breaks. Thus creating the perfect opportunity at the beginning of
the Fall semester or during the mixer previously mentioned, where students can jot down what
they wish to accomplish during the semester onto a small whiteboard or chalkboard and taking
a picture of them holding it. Later we could upload these photographers onto the department’s
social networking sites and mail a copy home to the student’s families with links to our social
networking platforms and gain parental followers that way. The purpose of this proposal is to
increase followership and build a united community among our students and their families.
D. Social Networking Platforms to Participate In
I. Snapchat
Snapchat is a free mobile messaging app used to share photos, videos, text, and drawings.
Founded in 2011 by Stanford alumni Evan Spiegel, Snapchat was originally intended for teens
and young adults but has since then dramatically expanded its user base thanks to the help of
celebrities, presidential candidates, and recently multi-national corporations. It has become
popular due to its “self-destructing” feature which only allows recipients the ability to view
messages for only a few seconds and has a maximum storage of 24 hours, in turn gaining the
attention of over 100 million users and 7 billion daily videos views. The idea is to replicate
human interactions in real life by making moments temporary. At first, Snapchat may seem
confusing, but the app becomes easier after a few uses and boasts several features.
As I mentioned before, businesses have begun using it because 45% of its user base is under
25 years old. Users have the option to share a snap (a picture or video for 10 seconds), a story
(a series of snaps), or chat with each other. While it might take new users a second to get
familiar with Snapchat’s features, most college students already have a personal account and
are already experts at it. Snapchat is a great source for instant followership engagement, and its
constant rotation of fun face filters and stickers keep users coming back for more. However,
some of the cons associated with the app are its retention time and short-lived content.
Due to the fact, that Snapchat does not permanently store users’ content I would not
recommend replacing it for other social networking platforms but instead, use it as an additional

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tool to raise student engagement and provide quick insight bits of department happenings. For
example, it would be perfect for sharing parts of an interesting class lecture or enticing students
to show up to events like the economic forums by taking a quick snap of the discussion and
displaying it to others. Since it is the newest form of social media, it’s still not clear exactly how
organizations will continue to use Snapchat, but the audience it provides is invaluable.
II. Twitter
Twitter is a free social networking platform for friends, family, and coworkers to communicate
and connect with each other through the sharing of quick, and frequent messages. Users can
post “Tweets”, which range in content from photo users and with 83 percent of them using the
app from their mobile phone.
According to Coschedule.com, the optimal time to post on Twitter are weekdays between 12 pm
to 3 pm. Additionally, they have found that 12 pm generates the highest amount of retweets and
clickthroughs while 3 pm and 5 pm to 6 pm also achieve high engagement. Just like Snapchat,
Twitter should not replace our current social networking platforms but instead, be used an
additional resource for students to receive department notes, club meeting notes, and links to
econ related articles. The major con with this platform is that each post is limited to 140
characters however posts are permanent, and it is encouraged to repost posts continuously to
ensure a greater reach.

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