The Social Media Campaign (SMC) project asks you to produce a 5-post prototype for a social media campaign. The SMC project is challenging because it requires you to harness knowledge of design, genre, media, professionalism, and audience expectations in the production of a strategic media experience.
This project requires 2 submissions (Version 1, Version 2). These submissions include the following documents:
For the full list of core and supporting documents/files, & specifications, refer to Submission Requirements.
Social media emerged first as a tool for connecting people who might otherwise have no mechanism for staying in touch. During the past 20+ years, however, media platforms have risen and fallen, and the cultural place of such technologies has transformed dramatically. Social media has for many people replaced most other, more traditional knowledge centers, including print and broadcast journalism. For information designers, social media evolved into a staple tool for connecting with customers and other stakeholders. This assignment focuses on understanding what it means to take a systematic, strategic approach to harnessing the potential of social media for professional purposes.
The phrase social media gathers a lot of technologies under one broad umbrella. It includes the current array of the usual platforms: Facebook; Instagram; TikTok; YouTube; and X. There are countless others, including recent, emerging tools, such as Threads, BlueSky, Mastodon, and Lemon8; and more established spaces, such as Reddit, WhatsApp, and Twitch. Each option is framed for a particular purpose or community, with most demonstrating significant overlap of function.
Regardless of platform, video content is trending, and has been for several years. Instagram Reels and TikTok emphasize short vids (15 to 90 seconds). YouTube hosts much longer videos, but 10 minute (or shorter) vids are trending. Smart tools drive much recent content development, but at the cost of authenticity and consumer trust. As has been the case with other emerging media over the past several decades, social media has been characterized by cycles of amateurism and experimentation followed by increasing conformity and professionalism. Concerns about establishing and maintaining high quality are once more on the rise.
As you prepare to craft a social media campaign through this assignment, I encourage you to identify and study the way professionals, companies, experts, and such use media platforms to establish identity, build community, and shape the discussions into which they enter. Perhaps you have done so before. Perhaps not. However, when I say that this project values "understanding what it means to take a systematic, strategic approach" to social media design, that is the logical first step.
In this segment of the description for the RPW Card project, I emphasized blending design knowledge, strategy, and tools. Now I will recast that emphasis using specific language that itself shapes the way we look at information design work: bricolage and bricoleur. You may have heard me discuss these terms before.
The terms bricolage and bricoleur emerged from architecture connected with the practice of harnessing the knowledge & abilities of available personnel to design architectural solutions for problems using the materials and equipment on hand. In other words, bricolage is design enacted only with the tools, resources, and expertise to which you already have access. A bricoleur is a designer capable of such adaptation. Bricolage is a particularly appropriate design mindset for technical communication and information design, given the impact that context has on the design decisions that lead to effective solutions.
For our purposes in this course and in RPW programs more broadly, bricolage is your perpetual state of design. That is, you only know what you have learned so far during your studies & experiences, & the palette of tools you have available at any given moment is often limited either by their availability or by your level of ability to produce a professional solution with the available tools. The one element of the project you can control is your own level of investment & dedication to the tasks ahead of you. Thus, you are limited in this course mainly by your current level of professional development & your degree of willingness to invest in learning what you need to learn as you go to craft an effective, professional information design solution in response to this assignment challenge.
Developers provide an incredible array of tools for creating and curating content on social media platforms. For your work on this assignment, I encourage you to work with Figma/FigJam (for assembly of your media campaign elements), Canva (for graphic element design), CapCut (for video editing), and Adobe Photoshop (for image editing). You may substitute tools that you know better if you have them. However, please recognize that these tools often have advanced tools that make your designer life easier, and all of these are used in a variety of industry workspaces.
Deliverables: memo, description, personas, media campaign
Document scope: 150 words (memo), 1 page (description); 1 page each (personas); 5 posts (prototype, refer to the description below for details)
Project value: 250 points (50 points for V1, 200 points for V2)
Evaluation rubric: _Eval_SocialMediaCampaign.pdf
Recommended tool(s): Figma/FigJam (campaign prototype); Microsoft Word (memo); CapCut, Canva, Adobe Photoshop (content development)
The SMC project results in a prototype media campaign that supports a teaching and learning program, a professional community event, or information-design-tool release. The focus of the campaign may be real or fictitious (as long as it is plausible). The campaign will consist of 5 posts. In support of your work, you'll design 2 personas appropriate to the topic of your campaign.
You may complete the project independently or in collaboration with 1 or more peers (up to your whole design team). For those of you opting to work as a team, scale your campaign so that each team member produces 5 posts.
Draw on your professional development interests, experiences, and goals as you decide on a focus for your campaign. Although you do not have to know enough today to actually deliver your idea to market, you should have some awareness of what it might mean to do so. If your campaign relies wholly on your imagination, it will be impossible to establish and maintain a sense of authority or professionalism.
Your SMC must support one of the following 3 kinds of events:
Draw on your knowledge and experiences. If I were going to create a program, I would focus on podcasting, UX problem solving, or job-seeking. Identify a topic that you could lead a 1-day seminar about.
Draw on your interests and engagements. If I were going to create a professional event, I would plan a career fair, podcaster meetup, or a coaching workshop for youth sports. Identify a topic that you could lead a 1-day event about.
Draw on your professional vision. If I were going to design a tool, I would create an app for curating professional resources (e.g., articles, videos, podcasts). Identify an information design tool that you would develop.
If you are unsure what to focus on, propose a handful of ideas to me via campus email, and I will try to help you through the process of identifying something appropriate for your campaign.
You need not actually develop the full course/event/tool. However, you do need to craft a 1-page description of your campaign topic that provides enough concrete, meaningful detail to convey effectively and fully its purpose, content, and design to prospective participants/consumers.
Include the following elements in your description.
Select 1 or more social media platform(s) where you might present your social media campaign. Your campaign will include 2+ static posts and 2+ dynamic posts. You get to decide which kind of post to present for your 5th campaign entry. Select your media platform to best serve your purposes. Note that some platforms allow the posting of both static and dynamic content. If you choose one of these tools, you will only need one platform for your campaign. However, you may also opt to present your campaign across multiple media platforms.
For example, perhaps I want to use Instagram for my static posts, and Instagram Reels for my dynamic content. I might consider Facebook and TikTok instead. I recommend that you select media platforms with which you are already familiar.
For this project, you'll follow the same pattern of persona development that you did during the 2 persona-design workshops. That is, you'll construct a 1-page persona based on you as a stakeholder/audience member for your social media campaign, and you'll construct a 1-page persona based on your perception of potential audience members for your campaign. Use the PersonaDesign and PersonaWorksheet docs as your guide for content development. (As before, these files are available in the Workshop Support folder on Canvas Files.)
These documents will evolve with your campaign posts. That is, you'll have the opportunity to continue to develop and refine your personas between the submissions for Version 1 and Version 2. As you work on all elements of the project, your vision for the personas and for the campaign itself will become more detailed and sophisticated. Your personas should reflect that maturation of vision as well.
Use these personas during your planning, development, and refinement of your media campaign. Return to these documents frequently to consider how the people framed in your persona documents might respond to your campaign content and design.
The core of this project is the Social Media Campaign itself. That campaign must include 5 or more entries presented in a mix of static and dynamic posts. You'll craft 2+ static posts (e.g., images) and 2+ dynamic posts (e.g., videos, animations), with 1 post being your choice. Think of each post as a linked-but-stand-alone argument to viewers about the program/event/tool on which your SMC focuses. Each entry is an invitation to connect, to engage.
Rely on your Description doc as a reminder of the details for your program/event/tool. Use FigJam's storyboarding capabilities to map out a plan for your campaign, post by post. Take advantage of the social media templates in your design apps and packages when they serve your needs.
Include the following elements and design considerations in your development of individual posts.
Note. The word dynamic can mean many things in this context. Video of you speaking. An animation. A series of static slides that change every few seconds.
Note. Although some media platforms allow the use of copyrighted audio and video content (e.g., music, sound/video clips from games/video/film/tv), such content should only be used with written permission from the publisher of that content to be considered fully legal. Limit yourself here to royalty-free images, sounds, and videos. Search royalty-free [images/art/photos/sounds/music/video] to locate online warehouses of such content.
As you complete individual elements of your social media campaign, export them in formats appropriate to how they will be shared.
As you complete individual elements of your social media campaign, assemble all 5 posts into a 1-page document where all are visible at a glance.
Remember to add a campaign title to your doc, as illustrated in the Demo file.
Insert a live streaming link to any video content beneath a still image from that dynamic post.
Export the project as a PDF file.
Refer to Williamson-SociaMediaCampaign-Demo.pdf in the Project Support folder for this assignment on SVSU Canvas for an example of what this document might look like.
Your project submissions will be accompanied by memos of transmittal. That category of memo introduces the document it accompanies, providing context for its audience(s). Your memo should be addressed from you to me.
Your memo for Version 1 of your Social Media Campaign should incorporate the following content and design elements.
Consult the sample memo documents (refer to SVSU Canvas Files: Project Support) for additional guidance.
Your memo for Version 2 of your Social Media Campaign should incorporate the following content and design elements.
Consult the sample documents (refer to SVSU Canvas Files: Project Support) for additional guidance.
This section is designed to help you anticipate and avoid problems as you work on this project. Therefore, as you work, consider the following hints and tips.
Approach this assignment as a design bricoleur. Harness your energy, creativity, & knowledge. If you encounter challenges that you cannot confidently & accurately understand or address, seek knowledge. You have an incredible array of tools & services available to you for gathering new knowledge: the SVSU library; professional social media platforms; peers & colleagues; internet-based research tools. Adapt & overcome. Become a resilient, self-reliant, strategic information designer.
Research what it means to create an effective, useful, usable social media post, and how to assemble multiple posts into a campaign. Seek knowledge using the tools highlighted in the description above. Locate heuristics for evaluating designs. Review published tools from app stores and the internet that pursue similar goals. Identify what makes them effective or ineffective. Apply that knowledge during your own developmental work.
Remember that writing in professional & technical contexts values highly the ability to write and speak with economy, directness, and professionalism. Another way of saying this is to make every word count. Stay focused on the details necessary to communicate effectively with your audience(s). Write and rewrite until your textual content makes sense and represents careful, concise, professional communication.
Consider what it means to establish a strong, consistent sense of professionalism & attention to detail visually and structurally (organizationally) with your design choices. Professional designers use words such as clean, logical, and orderly to describe document designs they appreciate & respect.
Edit carefully, seeking to express your ideas clearly and concisely. Edit out loud with the intent of writing in such a manner that your written content sounds professional and focused. Work to meet the design specs. Scrutinize your work so it is consistent, professional, and of good quality. Refine your document continuously as you work.
Read and attend carefully to these submission guidelines. Failure to do so may result in points lost on the final evaluation of your project.
Create a folder for this project inside your shared class folder on Dropbox.com. Remember, I can only view files that you place inside that folder. Until you place files in that space, you have not in practice submitted them.
Name the folder Social Media Campaign.
Make sure the files listed below are available to me in the project folder by the submission deadline. Model your filenames on the listed examples:
Note. Do not share the individual files or project folder with me. By placing the project files in the project folder, and by placing the project folder inside your class folder, you have already shared them by default.
Make sure the files listed below are available to me in the project folder by the submission deadline. Model your filenames on the listed examples:
Note. Do not share the individual files or project folder with me. By placing the project files in the project folder, and by placing the project folder inside your class folder, you have already shared them by default.
This section describes the standards by which the Version 1.0 & Version 2.0 submissions will be evaluated.
There are 50 possible points for the prototype stage of this project. You will earn points according to the following standard.
The final project submission (Version 2.0) is worth 200 possible points. You will earn points according to the standard described on the policies page (see Policies for a description of these categories).
The specific areas of emphasis for the SP1 project are drawn from this description and our discussions of the project (including the supporting teaching materials that I provide to you along the way). Review the project rubric (_Eval_SocialMediaCampaign.pdf) for the specific qualities and characteristics emphasized in each evaluation category.
Remember that I will only post the point values for projects on the Grades page in SVSU Canvas. I will provide the supporting details relevant to that evaluation in your class folder in a project-specific file. Look for a Microsoft Word file in your shared class space on Dropbox with a filename that that follows this pattern:
YourLastName_Eval_SocialMediaCampaign.docx.
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