This is a project I prepared for my social media management class as an undergraduate at the University of Florida.

1. Fashion Institute of Technology
October 2, 2016 | Prepared by: Zee Krstic | Social Media Strategy

2. table of contents
1. Executive Summary [pg. 1]
2. Social Media Audit [pg. 2 – pg.8]
a. Social Media Assessment, October 2016
b. Traffic Sources Assessment, April 2016 to September 2016
c. Customer Demographics Assessment
d. Competitor Assessment
3. Social Media Objectives [pg. 9 - pg. 10]
4. Online Brand Persona and Voice
5. Strategies
6. Timing and Key Dates

3. executive summary
Our major priorities for 2017 will be creating a online community for the university’s
admissions department and unifying branded online university operations.
The primary focus will be the targeting of potential applicants and consolidation of
different internal departments’ social media properties via our main brand’s social media
hub.
Two major social strategies will aid in this endeavor:
● Organic content that directs our audience to our admissions’ portal for prospective
students, increasing the amount of submissions of the admissions inquiry form
available to prospective students.
● Within the university brand, merging those individual
departments on social media platforms in the hopes to
introduce a clearer online brand representation.

4. social media audit
preface: The following slides are a complete audit of the Fashion
Institute of Technology’s main brand social media presence to date.
We’ve accessed all social networks that the university entertains, as
well as web traffic, demographics of its audience, and a competitor
analysis.

5. social media audit
Assessment: Twitter serves as the university's most successful social media
platform with the highest percentage of interaction given the amount of
followers, with Instagram in a similar position for the face of FIT’s online
brand. YouTube efforts largely under perform and should either content rebrand
or transition out of the university’s main social media platforms.
Social Media Assessment as of October 2, 2016
Social Media
Platform
Follower Count Average Weekly Activity Average Engagement
Rate [# interactions / reach]
Facebook 114,504 11 posts per week on average 1.5%
Twitter 16,955 23 tweets (incl. RTs) weekly average 4%
Instagram 27,323 6 posts per week on average Average interactions per
post = 525
YouTube 2,381 2 videos per month on average Average views per video
= 475
Flickr 36 N/A Average views per album
= 12,500

6. social media audit
Summary: Twitter draws in the most traffic to our university homepage,
fitnyc.edu, closely followed by Facebook. This being said, the conversion rate
(conversion goal = number of admissions inquiries submitted) is much higher
based on the traffic off of our Facebook platform. No direct data is available for
Instagram, but our YouTube channel hasn’t driven any visitors to our
admissions webpage whatsoever.
Website Traffic Sources Assessment
Timeframe: monthly average, April 2016 to Sept 2016
Source Volume Percentage of Overall
Traffic
Conversion Rate
Facebook 2600 unique visits 3.4% 51%
Twitter 3200 unique visits 4.2% 36%
Instagram NO DATA NO DATA NO DATA
YouTube 97 unique visits 0.12% 0%
Flickr 571 unique visits 0.75% 5%

7. social media audit
Summary: Our majority of respondents come from the average age group of our
students and recent alumni, as well as professionals seeking post-graduation
certification. The age group of 41-55 shows interest in our online properties, indicating
families of students and outstanding alumni are interested in our brand. Our fastest
growing age group is the mobile teenager, which could be a great tool for our
pre-college on campus programs. Instagram remains a trusted network among our
audience despite lack of data.
Audience Demographic Assessment
Via survey distributed in Aug/Sept by opt-in email.
Total Responses: 1,000
Age Distribution Gender
Distribution
Primary Social
Network
Secondary
Social Network
Primary need. Secondary need.
11% 13-18
50% 18-30
19% 31-40
12% 41-55
8% 56-80
60% female
40% male
40% Facebook
35% Twitter
20% Instagram
5% Other
30% Facebook
20% Twitter
45% Instagram
5% Other.
Education
interest in study
of the arts, as
well as interest
in a land-grant
university.
Students,
alumni, and fan
community
keeping up to
date with
on-going life at
the Fashion
Institute of
Technology.

8. social media audit
Summary: Our analysis focused on 3 major comparative higher education institutions with a strong social
presence on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. High quality visual content is a major driver of engagement with
their audiences, and the use of a unique brand for the institution’s name hashtag generates many brand mentions
on Twitter. Areas where comparables have room for improvement is audience communication and highlighting
cohesive student life through department web pages or standalone social media platforms.
Competitor Assessment
Competitor Social Media Strengths Weaknesses
Fashion Institute of
Design and
Merchandising (Los
Angeles, CA)
Facebook
Twitter
Instagram
Very quick turnaround on feedback or
comments for their Facebook community: they
respond to individual comments on their
content quickly. Instagram content relays very
strongly onto other platforms and stays on the
brand’s image and awareness goals.
Twitter content relies heavily on off-brand content
to fill feed. Often content are not indicative of any
synonymous content across platforms. It seems their
Twitter platform isn’t in line with the social media
concepts found on their other branded platforms.
Pratt Institute (New
York, NY)
Facebook
Twitter
Instagram
Executes the showcasing of student’s work
flawlessly with clean, simple and serious
content that is straightforward and flows
between platforms. Their Facebook platform
also incorporates faculty news and updates for
university and fan community at large.
Frequently underutilized Instagram content on
cross platforms such as Facebook. Often fails to
self-promote and is not outright to direct
audience traffic to main website or other
branded properties.
Parsons, The New
School for Design
(New York, NY)
Facebook
Twitter
Instagram
Visually compelling and graphic design
scheme for their brand is as memorable as their
content. Sense of cohesiveness across all of
their individual social media platforms.
Parsons is a college within the university, their
social media doesn’t connect with the New School’s
overall media platform. No cohesiveness between
this department and university at large.

9. social media objectives
In 2017, our foremost social media strategy is to aid the admissions department by increasing the visibility of
the department for undergraduate applicants in the university enrollment process and promote professional
programs offered to non-traditional students. To help increase applicants to all FIT degree programs, we will
carefully procure content geared towards prospective students and work to redirect them to our online admissions
properties via social platforms.
A few objectives:
1. Utilize social media platforms to secure 12,500 unique admission inquiry forms for the 2017 admissions season
through:
a. Increased effort to drive social traffic to our university’s admissions webportal
b. Incorporating syndicated cross-platform content on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram to promote student
life and academic programs for prospective students, including hashtags such as #ThinkFIT
2. Directing all university video content to our Instagram platform and cycling out content from our failing
YouTube channel. We aim to increase user interactions on Instagram by 25% by November 2017.
3. Increasing our Facebook audience by 7,500 in the next 6 months by facilitating
two-way communication with our fans and community members.
continued on next page

10. social media objectives
KPIs
key messages
● Number of Admission inquiry forms filled out by
prospective applicants
● Amount of views recorded on Instagram videos
● Number of Facebook fans who like our main FIT page
● Admissions webpage traffic and interaction rates
● Number of comments or replies posted by the FIT account
on Facebook
● Where Creativity Gets Down to Business
● Dreams BeneFIT Careers

11. online brand persona & voice
Adjectives describing our brand:
● Unique
● Innovative
● Enterprising
● Visionary
When interacting with our audience we are:
● Responsive
● Supportive
● Approachable
● Memorable

12. strategies, tools
Paid:
● We will market and heavily boost our targeted content for applicants on
Facebook during the admissions recruitment season, from mid-August until
mid-January 2018. All promoted content must redirect, via hyperlink or product
enticement, visitors to our admissions inquiry form.
● We will also engage in a Followers campaign with Twitter Ads to target high
school seniors who explicitly show interest (through content or profile
tendencies) in the fields of study we offer.
continued on next page

13. strategies, tools
Owned:
● We will create synchronous content across all of our platforms that will be directed at
prospective students using the #ThinkFIT #LiveFIT #ApplyFIT campaign of branded
content.
● Natural re-posting of student and faculty testimonials on social media through the hashtag
campaign can be a source of inspiration to appeal to prospective applicants.
● We will also ensure the admissions blog for prospective students is regularly shared across
all social media platforms.
continued on next page

14. strategies, tools
● Partnering with prominent fashion and design bloggers such as AnnStreetStudio.com’s Jamie Beck to create
off-site content to promote the Fashion Institute of Technology.
● Striking a partnership with HerCampus.com or buzzfeed.com to generate content promoting student life and
academic programs at FIT.
● Ensuring that our relationship with US News & World Report is strong to have an entry for the Fashion
Institute of Technology that has all data fields correct: such as financial aid, admission statistics, student life
research, important deadlines and contact information.
● Working with prominent alumni in the industry, such as Carolina Herrera or Alexander Wang, to create
personal testimonials or endorsements about their education at FIT on their own media properties to be
re-shared on our social media platforms.
continued on next page
Earned:

15. timing & key dates
Holiday Dates:
1. Labor Day (Long Weekend)
2. Columbus Day (Long Weekend)
3. Nov 6: Daylight Savings
4. Veteran’s Day (Long Weekend)
5. Thanksgiving Day
6. Black Friday (retail)
7. Christmas | Kwanzaa | Hanukkah Season
8. New Year’s Day
Internal Events:
- Open House: Oct 15th | Regional High School Visits | SAT Test Dates: Sept 18, Oct 23, Nov 12, Dec 3 |
Application Due Date: Jan 1 | Decision Day: March 15
Reporting Dates: will occur monthly in February, May, August, September, October, November, December.

16. social media roles and responsibilities
Executive Director, FIT Public and Media Relations - Cheri Fein
Communications Specialist - Alexandra Mann
Social Media Specialist - Connor Durkin
Social Media Assistant - Ivana Cepeda
Supporting Social Team Members:
- Steven Bibb (administrative assistant)
- Norma Campbell (web content coordinator)
- Regina Ferreria-Gayadin (telecommunications operator)

17. Fashion Institute of Technology | Social Media Policy
Social networking platforms have rose to prominence in recent years as a means for individuals and organizations to build
relationships and share information. Social media provides an opportunity for the university to communicate with its various
audiences in support of its educational mission and strategic goals. The following policy is for FIT personnel members who officially
communicate on behalf of the college through social media, including contracted employees:
● Those employees or faculty setting up personal social media
accounts to discuss their position or activities related to the
university should be transparent for their reasons for doing so.
● Never post confidential or proprietary information regarding
FIT, its employees, trustees, donors, students, alumni or other
affiliated parties.
● Refrain from posting or presenting any material without
explicit permission from the rightful owner.
● Our online mission is one of service to those in our audience.
Remember, we are a public university with a mission of
excellence.
● Exercise proper online etiquette. When in direct contact with
individual users, always use cordial and proper
communication skills.
● In a particular situation that needs additional assistance?
Always contact specialist Connor Durkin, (212) 242-1227
ext. 304, before posting on behalf of FIT.
● Never post anything in conflict with these policies: FIT’s Policy Against Harassment, Academic Honor Code, Student Code of
Conduct, and all other policies governing employee and student conduct.
● Never utilize FIT’s digital properties as a means of personal use -- do not express personal views on matters unrelated to official
college business.
continued on next page

18. Fashion Institute of Technology | Social Media Policy
Employees who violate this policy will be subject to FIT’s policies on Harassment,
Academic Honor Code, Student Code of Conduct, and all related policies regarding
employee and student conduct. Those who publish content on FIT servers are subject to
the college’s Web Content and Computer and Network Use policies and all applicable FIT
policies, laws, and regulations.
Suspected violators may be denied access to college-related social media sites and may be
subject to disciplinary procedures, put on a probationary period or dismissed. Depending
on the violation of applicable laws, FIT will reach out to the appropriate law enforcement
agencies.

19. critical response plans: scenario one
Action Plan:
1. When situation arises or campus emergency lockdown is activated:
a. Immediately indicate the closure on the live updates section of our website.
b. Post the automated message on Facebook and Twitter regarding campus lockdowns and indicate live
updates to follow.
c. Alert Connor Durkin (social media specialist) and Alexandra Mann (communications specialist)
immediately.
2. Connor is to coordinate with Alexandra the immediate follow up strategy and monitor live updates
as directed by FIT Public Safety. Ivana Cepeda to assist as needed.
3. Alexandra to notify Executive Director Cheri Fein on situation updates and draft email to
non-imminent community members regarding situation.
4. All external media relations is to be handled by Cheri, assisted by Steven Bibb if necessary.
Scenario One: Campus lockdown due to imminent danger or developing situation
Facebook: “We’re currently monitoring a critical situation on campus that has
resulted in a lockdown, as directed by law enforcement and FIT Public Safety.
Please refer to our website for updates as we learn more on the situation as it
unfolds.”
Twitter: “Incident on campus has resulted in lockdown. Fitnyc.edu for live
updates as we learn more.”
Pre approved messages:

20. critical response plans: scenario two
Action Plan:
1. When comment or applicable violation of social media policy is detected:
a. Document (screenshot) the content officially by recording its existence. Try to discern as much
information about the offender as possible within an appropriate amount of time. Delete the comment if
possible, or consider deleting the material itself if necessary.
b. If danger or harm is imminent to any member of our community or has been implied against any
individual, notify FIT Public Safety and the appropriate authorities accordingly.
c. Alert Connor Durkin (social media specialist) immediately and refer to his authority if necessary.
2. Connor to consult Alexandra Mann regarding next steps and whether those adversely affected
should be individually contacted.
3. Alexandra to refer any university officials involved to Cheri Fein, executive director, for case
review and possible disciplinary actions. Should external media inquire, direct to Cheri.
Scenario One: Inappropriate or unlawful comment posted by audience on university content
No pre-approved messages in this scenario. Contact to be determined by Connor
and Alexandra.
Pre approved messages:

21. measurement and reportingReporting Data as of Nov 1, 2017. Period: 4 months
Website Traffic Sources Assessment
Aug 2016 – Oct 2016
Source Volume Percentage of Traffic Conversion Rate
Facebook 3,100 unique visits
+ 19% growth
4% 53%
Twitter 3,670 unique visits
+ 14% growth
4.9% 39%
Instagram NO DATA NO DATA NO DATA

22. measurement and reporting Social Media Assessment as of Aug 1, 2017
Social Media
Platform
Follower Count Average Weekly Activity Average Engagement
Rate [# interactions / reach]
Facebook 120,680
+5.2% increase
19 posts per week on average
+72% increase
2.75%
Twitter 18,828
+11% increase
29 tweets weekly average
+26% increase
6%
Instagram 33,500
+22.5% increase
10 posts per week on average
+66% increase
Average interactions per
post = 1,235
YouTube N/A N/A N/A
Flickr 38 N/A Average views per album
= 12,500
0% increase

23. measurement and reporting Social Media Assessment as of Aug 1, 2017
After redirecting our video content to our Instagram and closing our fledgling YouTube channel, our Instagram
interaction performance has grown by nearly 70% over the summer, and we’ve also increased our follows by more than
25%. We’ve seen much more interaction with video content here than we ever thought possible on other platforms, and
our team also is easily able to redirect viewers to our webpage and other online properties.
Facebook content, both promoted and natural joint ventures with FIT alumni and professional bloggers, has grown our
audience greatly in the first three months of our strategy. We’re recruiting members of our own community who haven’t
connected with our online brand, but we’re also interacting with fans of the arts and the fashion industry who appreciate
our content as well. Our audience is aware of our two-way conversational skills as a social media platform and
testimonials have been pouring in for us to use in our driven content plan.
Twitter has continued to be our strongest property to direct visitors and fans to our web
presence, and our campaign with Twitter Ads have led to a steady stream of increased
followers. We’ve been able to track how our #ApplyFIT content has been shared as well as
the demographics of those interacting with the media. More than 1,000 unique users have
participated in the #ApplyFIT campaign in the first three months of it’s launch. The
campaign has translated very well across all platforms, including more than 750 unique posts
on Instagram since launch, and is a natural way of directing our viewers to our admissions
web portal for all of our degree programs.
#ApplyFIT Performance

24. measurement and reporting
Qualitative KPIs
Sentiment Analysis:
An analysis of the interactions on 100 Facebook posts, 100 Instagram posts and 100 Tweets revealed the following:
● Alumni have been a great proponent of sharing our content in all categories across our different platforms.
They often reshare our pointed admissions content as well, using their chance to comment to reflect on their
own FIT education.
● Our parent and family audience often share our Flickr and Instagram content more than any other type of
media we produce. Visuals are a great way to incentivize this group, which is a majority of our 41-55
demographic, to directly interact or respond to our content – our goals for two-way conversation have been
mostly successful in this regard.
1. Continue #ApplyFIT campaign until applications are due on January 1st.
Highlight this content during holidays where students aren’t in school.
2. Consider video programming, such as Facebook Live, to continue to
appeal to older demographics during our admissions season. This content
would also work well on Instagram.
3. Consider revamping our Flickr platform via a revised content plan to aid in
our goal of admissions visibility and interaction.
Proposed action items:

25. measurement and reporting
Key KPI Performance:
● Number of Admission inquiry forms filled out by prospective applicants: 950 due to direct linkage on social
media.
● Admissions webpage traffic and interaction rates: up 30% since campaign launched