FIRE Strategic Communication Consultation
As a part of my public relations minor, I was able to choose between several options to fulfill certain requirements. In the Fall semester of my senior year, I chose to take Communications 220: Communicating Public Policy. For my final project, I chose to do a strategic communication consultation for a non-profit, the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE). Below, I have outlined different sections of the project and linked the entire 15-page paper.
Communication Audit
The first aspect of the project required me to research all of FIRE's current communication strategies. To accomplish this, I looked over the FIRE website, their social media platforms, and used secondary research to better understand the work that they do to promote First Amendment rights on college campuses in the United States. The audit and background portions of my project guided my recommendations for the communication strategies of the organization.
As part of my analysis, I recommended FIRE use more graphics in their social media, specifically to interact more with their publics. This graphic, which can be viewed in the full document, could be used on a weekly basis to interact with followers on Twitter and Facebook.
Social Media and Website Strategy
As a nationally-focused organization, it is no surprise that FIRE has a large audience to communicate with. However, their social media platforms could use a bit more exposure, considering the breadth of the audience they are trying to reach. I recommended that FIRE use more hashtags on Twitter and use Facebook advertising to boost their presence. Although 18,000 Twitter followers and 24,000 Facebook likes seems like a lot, I felt this could be improved significantly.
This pamphlet can be utilized by FIRE interns on campuses. The full cover page and outline can be seen on the full document.
On-Campus Communication Recommendations
The final part of my recommendations was for specific on-campus work through the organization. While FIRE writes letters to administration at many universities where free speech is not upheld, based on my research they did not have much of a physical presence on college campuses. Here, I recommended that FIRE hire on-campus interns to actually create student organizations to support free speech at large universities. As part of this, I designed a pamphlet that these interns could utilize. These student organizations could act as more physical manifestations of the "FIRE Student Network" that is advertised on their website.