Columbia University Journalism School MA Program

10-Year Anniversary Social Media Campaign | 2015

Research, social media strategy

In 2015, Flock and Rally was asked to conduct research and develop a social media strategy for the Master of Arts program at the Columbia University Journalism School in New York to celebrate its 10-year anniversary. This Ivy League institution’s graduate program in specialized journalism boasts an alumni base of high-profile professional reporters and editors around the world, and the marketing team wished to develop a social media campaign to highlight these connections and show the impact of the program’s influence on its students.

Flock and Rally worked with the client team to conduct in-depth research into current best practices, content threads, active influencer profiles, hashtags, groups and more within the upper-echelon circles on social media that are frequented by alums, faculty and prospective students. Using this research, Flock and Rally devised a social media strategy that offered recommendations for the program’s Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook presences as well as ways in which the umbrella brand of the Columbia Journalism School could amplify its MA Program’s posts. In addition to a recommended posting schedule, social media ad spend, hashtags and best practices per platform, Flock and Rally developed a content strategy for the 10th anniversary social media campaign focused on use of the hashtag #cjsMAstories, highlighting alumni and faculty clips in major international media outlets, industry news, announcements and more, resulting in a successful campaign with consistent engagement.