Lakeland University’s commitment to experiential learning continues throughout classrooms and its community this fall. Students in Professor Aimee Burns’ Strategic New Media & Digital Communication course are finalizing their implementation of social media campaigns with two of our very own organizations—LU drumline and Men’s Volleyball. These campaigns require students to translate a semester’s worth of knowledge into real-life applications and work toward gaining practical skills for their future careers in public relations (PR), strategic communication, social media management, and beyond.

Each campaign is based on the ROSTIR model by PR expert Regina Luttrell. The ROSTIR model focuses on six fundamental steps: (1) research and diagnosis, (2) objectives, (3) strategies, (4) tactics, (5) implementation, and finally, (6) reporting and evaluation. Throughout the semester, students have researched each organization’s social media presence, established measurable and time-bound objectives for their campaigns, developed tactics for content creation and curation, generated content calendars for consistent implementation, and analyzed their performance using analytical insight. Each campaign group consisted of three members, with one being an active in each organization to serve as liaisons between the campaign development and implementation.

When asked about their experience, campaign member for the Men’s Volleyball team, Riley Jahnke said “This experience has shown me how to bring social media accounts to life from the beginning; we were able to grow it into an active account. I learned that in order to have a successful social media page you need to know your organization well in order to be successful and have relatable content.” Campaign liaison for the LU Drumline, Jessica Leicht, talked about the importance of experiential learning stating, “Students get to experiment with what works and what doesn’t with experiential learning. More specifically, they are allowed to fail with this type of learning, without too many consequences. This allows us to try new things and get outside of our comfort zone and see whether that sort of risk pays off or not.” Additionally, LU Men’s Volleyball team liaison and manager of the posting calendar, Matt Misheck, said that he has learned that everything comes down to deadlines, and he could not have learned that better in any way than overseeing content posting.

To explore some of the campaign work implemented by these students, check them out on social media!

LU Drumline

• Instagram: @Drumline_LU
• TikTok: @Drumline_LU
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/LUDrumline

Men’s Volleyball

• Instagram @MuskiesMVB
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/LakelandUniversityMensVolleyball