The operators of Servus Credit Union Place hope to ramp up the facility’s social media traffic with the help of four students from the Northern Alberta Institute of Technology (NAIT).
A school project completed by students of the business administration and marketing program is the backbone of the facility’s newest social media campaign, which is aimed at greater involvement on Facebook.
“The first objective is to drive people to our social media sites, just to gain some engagement with our members and to hear from people about some of the experiences they have at Servus Place,” said the facility’s business and marketing manager Mark Edwards.
The campaign kicked off Sept. 4 with a goal to reach 500 “likes” by the end of October. Facebook users who “like” the facility’s page will be entered to win weekly prizes, such as gift cards and an iPad.
Felicia Dahrouge was one of four NAIT students who developed the campaign, which was a final project to obtain a marketing diploma.
“It took a lot of time and a lot of effort and we came up with something that (Mark) really liked and we are really happy that our idea is actually launching,” she said.
Servus Place officals agreed in December to work with a group of students to give them practical experience in their desired field of work.
Students were provided a list of potential clients and Dahrouge said her group’s first choice was to work with Servus Place.
“All four of us are pretty into health and wellness, so being able to work with a company that supports that and social media was (rewarding),” she said.
The group spent four months developing the campaign, centred on increasing traffic to Servus Place’s Facebook page.
“It was very intense,” Dahrouge said, adding this was the group’s first time working face-to-face with a real client. “It was really good to have ideas and actually bounce it off someone with a marketing background.”
Edwards said social media is extremely important to the facility and expects this campaign to draw more people.
“We have a very, very engaged group of members and our members very much enjoy telling us their stories and things that they’ve had go on,” he said. “We decided to do Facebook because it’s a bit more engaged, so you tend to have more conversations on Facebook than you do Twitter.”
Servus Credit Union Place had roughly 179 likes as of Sept. 4 with 260 followers on Twitter (StA_ServusPlace).
Edwards said he expects to continue working with NAIT students in the future to give them practical experience and to develop unique campaigns.
“It has been a really positive experience, both for us and for the students,” he said.
Dahrouge’s group received a final mark of 82 per cent on their project and each of the four has since graduated.
