Network MT MTSU’s Student Networking Site By: A.J. Grande and Ebon’e Merrimon Table of Contents Audience Analysis…………………………..3 Proposal…………………………………………5 Sample Messages…………………………..7 Message Testing…………………………..20 2 Audience Analysis As partners we agreed on the idea of creating a website that would allow MTSU students to create an online portfolio distributing their accomplishments within their major. The personal profile will be viewed by other students, organizations, professors, and companies allowing them to network and communicate with those in their line of work. By providing this necessity, students will be able to outsource and network without the fear that their work is going unnoticed. Students will have the power of networking within their fingertips and can improve student connection within the university. Our targeted audience would be college students, because this website is based upon the idea of providing a way to improve the way they network and gain recognition. While forming a focus group we wondered whether our idea was a necessity and how it would be beneficial to our school. We want to not only provide a lending hand to college students, but for MTSU as well by improving the way they promote students and allow them to network. We gathered our storyboard of ideas, came up with a various group of questions, and reached out to find participants for our focus group. The psychographic and demographic build up of our focus group came to one basic premise, we just wanted to find MTSU students whom were trying to find ways to promote themselves. Due to us having friends who fit that criteria, we didn’t have to use a media search. Our participants were between the age of 18-24, from both small – middle town backgrounds, and EMC majors. They all shared the ability of being open-minded, use self-promotion, and spent an average amount of time online. The main social media usage they use to promote themselves was Snapchat and Twitter, though they do use other forms these were the most popular ones. Lastly, they all shared the opinion that university doesn’t provide a grounded way to network with others. By examining these psychographic and demographic similarities, we understood the necessity of our idea. For our focus group, we wanted to ask unbiased questions, allowing those involved to have broad-minded responses. We focused on questions like how may the site contribute to you as a student and, if it can, what ways can it be improved and much more. The responses we 3 received were direct, nonjudgmental, and insightful. For example, when asked how could the site help promote your work, one participate said, “I will post videos of myself working with other artists hoping to get noticed. There is no central place to network.” We want to be that central place for students, so by that comment we learned we were on the right track of making that happen. The focus group flowed well and we gained an ample amount of information we can use in order to improve our website. We did find that, consistently, the participants would state how they wish MTSU would promote their students and that organizations would promote themselves better. We learned how to broaden our website to assist the university and organizations to do so. The participants also suggested on opening our website to companies so by getting in contact with companies in the Nashville area, we can allow students to learn of opportunities that may help them in their field. The focus group was a major success and now we are better prepared to create our website. With all that we learned we feel that we are confident in the website we want to create. The site will put the power of networking in the hands of students and allow them to become noticed by the work they create. By placing your profile online, students can collaborate and companies can find what MTSU students are doing and how to get in contact with them for their business. The focus group allowed up to see that this is a major necessity for MTSU students and a definite need for our university. 4 Proposal Our project is a website that will help improve the way MTSU students network. By creating a central place for students to network they can share their work. We want to allow students to have the power of connecting in their hands. No longer will they have to hope to run into someone in their major while in class now they can simply go to our site to access students in their major. Students will now know who to connect with and how to connect with them. Having a central area for students to connect is important because students don't have that at MTSU. Though our university cares for us greatly we hope that our site can enhance the way they engage students. By relying on just classmates most time we can't expect the work some students claim to offer. This will allow students to appreciate the work other students do and help them collaborate. Our target audience is obviously MTSU students, as we look to engage them and create this central area for them. The majority of them and 18 to 24 and are from or currently live in the Nashville area. Another characteristic of our target audience is those who are looking to network with others and get connected. These people usually very technologically savvy and are very connected on social media. Our project looks to engage these students and get them to put themselves out there like they have on other sites. But also, we want to target Nashville area businesses with our website, so they can be aware of the local talent in Murfreesboro, and the high quality graduates and current students we have! The theme of our project is to succeed. We hope to build up students with their resumes and portfolios. By doing so we hope to improve the rate of student involvement in organizations and soon increase students receiving a job after college. This will be done by organizations and jobs of the Nashville area having the ability to connect with MTSU. We run on a platform of succession and improvement. Our goal is to improve the way students connect and collaborate with others Using Wordpress, the idea for our website is allow people to submit information about themselves and we use it to create a basic profile for them. This profile will list all their work 5 plus their resumes if they have one, Then students can click on a tab to find who is within their major. Once on that tab students will be able to glance at other student portfolios and see who is in the same area of expertise they are in. Also they can click on tabs that list MTSU organizations that will best fit them. We show you who and how you connect with them and all you have to do is call. The way we increase traffic on the website is by using social media. That platform that we chose to use is FaceBook, because it is the powerhouse of the social media industry and almost everyone, whether students or alumni, have a profile. It also it is the easiest social media platform to connect on. Though this is a project now, we see this type of website as a need for the university, and we see this website being sponsored by MTSU in the long term. As for now, the website will be up and running in 3 weeks, and if it blows up quickly, could be picked up by MTSU in just a few years! I don’t see us spending any money on the website now, but if the university decides to sponsor it, the site would need a full time webmaster to monitor and keep track of the site. With these tools, we hope to create a community and culture here at MTSU of students helping students, and working together and bettering each other, while also bettering the university and the community! 6 Sample Messages About Us NetworkMT was founded in 2016 by two college students seeking a better way to network with other students within their field. With an idea to connect and a goal to improve the ay students communicate NetworkMT was born. Created to link students with others in their major and also help how they network and build partnerships we hope our site help create working relationships. Our website was built on partnership and will provide that to all those that use it to connect. MTSU is a growing school with many organizations and people to help guide those the right direction in order for someone to fully achieve. Many may feel this way yet don’t know how to connect with such people. Our site takes away that wonder and provides that missing link for students to become engage in the things going on at the campus. We also aim to highlight students within their fields and the skills they’ve acquired. By our social media platforms we expose the hidden talents within MTSU and students can feel that support MTSU has to offer. Our site is just designed for all to feel as important as they are as a MTSU student representing true blue. Designed to link college students our website gives them an easier way to build connections and working relationships. By simply creating a portfolio and providing basic information we guarantee students can find someone they can collaborate with to assist them in their field.