Auburn University public relations students are required to take Public Relations Campaigns as one of their final classes before graduating. The class is designed to allow groups of students the chance to practice the PR skills they have acquired through previous classes to real-life clients in the community of Auburn. Throughout the duration of the semester the groups create a public relations campaign that the client can utilize.

Elizabeth Traylor is a senior student currently enrolled in Dr. Brunner’s PR campaigns class. Her five person group was assigned Jean Dean RIF as their client. Jean Dean RIF is a local non-profit organization that provides books to at-risk children throughout the state in a fight against illiteracy. The specific purpose of their campaign was determined to be geared towards Run to Read, a 5K run fundraiser for the organization that started just last year.

Their mission through this campaign was to raise awareness of the event and increase participation. The run was not as successful as hoped for its first year being that it was poorly organized the first year due to inexperience, lack of manpower, and little funds. There were many directions the student’s in Traylor’s group could take this campaign, but they decided to take it to the next level by utilizing social media.

Social media is driving the world more and more, and in order to make this a successful campaign they saw the need to harness that force. They included the traditional campaign materials like press releases and fact sheets, but they looked to technology for that extra kick.

“Jean Dean RIF really needs that extra edge to give it the recognition it needs and deserves. We knew social media would be there way to get there,” comments Traylor.

They started off with something easy and very familiar to them from class. They decided to create short, two minute videos that would show potential sponsors and volunteers what the organization does. Videos are a quick, easy, and inexpensive way to give the public and inside look at the organization and what they do. They recorded everything from volunteers working in the warehouse, to children receiving books for the first time, to testimonials from parents. They knew that this would add to the emotional appeal of the campaign.

They also worked to create tactics that would be effective on the web, being that most people would be receiving information about the organization and the event from this source. It also proves to be the most cost efficient, which was important being that Jean Dean RIF a non-profit organization with a small budget. They created mini profile widgets for the event using sproutbuilder.com. This widget, which contains information, pictures, and links for the event, can now be embedded into other various websites to provide more exposure.

As requested by the clients, they also made a newsletter and brochure promoting the event. However, in order to get more use out of them, these documents were uploaded to issuu.com and made into a magazine-like format that can be viewed online.

It wouldn’t be a social media campaign without social networking, and for this reason, they also decided to make a Facebook fan page for the organization as well as an event invite for the run.

They feel these added features are going to set their campaign apart from ordinary student campaigns. They realize that with the way social media is growing, the best way to catch everyone’s attention is by staying ahead. The campaign looks extremely promising and the client, as well as their professor, couldn’t be happier with their choices.