The Practice of Raising the Public Platform
Online Presence and Social Media Publicity Plans for Research, SJWG Events and Happenings
Keeping in mind the intent and aim of going public with the research or announcement or the expected audience size of an event, consider the following strategies for building an online presence and advertising campaign. Consider plans for publication and/or further community/public outreach to maintain public interest and raise its visibility and impact.
Determining the goals of making such an announcement will inform how the information is advertised and the amount of time needed to carry out the publicity plan.
SJRC WEBSITE and SOCIAL MEDIA PLATFORMS
The SJRC website and social media accounts are maintained by the Center Manager
with assistance from the Center’s Graduate Student Researcher (GSR) and/or Communications Intern as workloads allow. The website should be the first platform which items are posted and shared from, this will drive the traffic to the website. The information posted on the website is shared to the general public through social media accounts with relevant people being mentioned and or tagged as well as included in newsletters and year end reports.
NEWS and ANNOUNCEMENTS
Any [non-confidential] item regarding the Center, its programs and affiliates should be considered for public announcement. News items may include: general opportunities and calls for funding, jobs, fellowships, internships, activisms and support; solicitations for relevant courses offered or events advertised; and publications or awards received from the Science and Justice Community via this online form.
News articles should be accompanied by an image, preferably of the person enacting science and justice or an image that represents the topic, award or publication. News articles should be posted to the website in a timely fashion: within 1-2 days of the release and shared via Facebook and Twitter.
Once posted on the Center’s website, news articles can be used as a catalyst for campus or other outlet articles or more thoughtful blog pieces following events that elaborate rapporteur reports or serve as responses to current societal news items, scholarly articles or publications.
SJWG EVENTS
Upon securing a date on the SJRC Event Calendar, and no later than 6 weeks of the event, the event will be included in all Save the Date pre-advertisements and online postings. The Center Manager posts events to the website, campus calendar and communicates with divisional partners.
SJRC Website
Provide information to the Center Manager no later than 4 weeks of the event, all confirmed event information should be posted to the Center’s website page for Upcoming Events.
UCSC Campus Event Calendar
No later than 4 weeks of the event, all confirmed event information should be added to the UCSC Campus Event Calendar with ‘social sciences’ checked. By checking ‘social sciences’, the divisions event manager and digital communications manager will be notified of the entry. They will share across divisional social media platforms and include on their website event calendars as they deem appropriate.
MailChimp
The Center will announce to SJRCs broader community through beginning of term MailChimps, Twitter and Facebook announcements.
Full MailChimp advertisements include a Director’s letter, featured upcoming events with links to the event page of SJRC website for further information, two smaller announcement items used for news, publication, or blog links, and six smaller sections for upcoming events, three for S&J and three for of interest/community events. A Full Mailchimp is sent on the Monday one-two week prior to the event with reminders sent the day of the event. Reminder MailChimps typically only include information for that day's event.
All MailChimps are Tweeted which feeds automatically to Facebook.
Solicitation Email
Using the confirmed event information, short description and one of the guiding questions posed to the participants, provided by the Event Host, the Center Manager sends email announcements through the SJRC email to the following list and any other predetermined list of key campus figures asking to distribute to their networks.
SJ Happenings (only includes on campus affiliates, all current visitors and SJTP fellow listservs)
Specific Department Managers or Chairs
Participants
If applicable: Co-Sponsoring Units, Departments, Organizers, Centers, the Humanities and Genomics Institutes.
Items to include in every solicitation email:
Asking and thanking them in advance for sending to their networks
Mention the Science & Justice Research Center and any other organizers or co-sponsors
Date, time and location
Event title
One sentence of the high level topic (could be taken from the Director’s letter in MailChimp)
Under signature line:
Presented by the Science & Justice Research Center
Date, Time and Location
Title of Event
Participant names with title and affiliation
Short understandable abstract that includes instigating questions, a short example/story
Optional items to add to a solicitation email:
Outline of schedule if conference or multiple panels
Links to registration
Image (of the topic, their object, or them with their object)
Flyer as a PDF attachment, asking them to post the flyer and share with their students and networks
Personal Outreach
Regardless of how open the event is to the public and how broadly it is advertised, Event Hosts need to consider who is involved in this gathering. Following a similar format to that of the Speaker Invitations, it is expected that Event Hosts write personal invitations to key people on campus or in the Bay Area that they think would enrich and further inform or represent the conversation. Include in the email the reason why they should attend (ie: because of their participation in the original Bermuda gathering). Event Hosts should invite their home department networks, colleagues and graduate students. The Center's Manager and Director can help with this.
Personalized invitations with or without dinner invites should come from a person (Event Host, Director or affiliate organizer) not the SJRC general email address. Forward the Center’s original solicitation email adding a personal note of why this would be of interest to them.
Additional Publicity and Outreach Efforts
SJRC typically doesn’t advertise beyond the above due to on campus event space being limited. Undergraduate students are more than welcome to attend events however unless previously planned, events are not advertised to undergraduate groups or entire classes. If it is applicable to an entire course, consider scheduling a separate guest lecture.
Generate a Flyer
As time allows and as requested, the Center Manager can create a basic informational flyer that can be attached to online and email efforts.
For a more designed poster that will be printed, consider outside design resources and include printing costs in your proposed budget. Consider organizing a group of students to distribute and post around campus and deliver to co-sponsoring units to post. Include flyers and posters on event listings on websites and attach to the Campus Event Calendar entry.
Items to include on every flyer:
Presented by the Science & Justice Research Center
Image (of the topic, their object, or them with their object)
Title
Short understandable abstract that includes instigating questions and an example/story
Location
Time, outline of schedule if conference or multiple panels
Participant names with title and affiliation.
Co-sponsors (name or image of logo)
Websites
For larger and more advertised events the event image can be added to and featured on the homepage as a rotating banner image on the SJRC website. In addition, the Center Manager and the Center Director can coordinate with on and off campus affiliates and partners to share event information with their networks on the following websites:
Sociology: rotating banner image, entry on event calendar on homepage
CSTMS: posted on Community Events
Bay Area STS: posted on Community Events
UCSF and Stanford Bioethics programs
Blog
Blog posts are to be shared on social media and mentioned in MailChimp advertisements. They can include interviews with event participants or research collaborators, thought pieces and reflections about S&J-related issues linked to SJWG events and projects, reactions to current media and news announcements associated with a research theme or specific event, thoughts on publications and research by SJTP Fellows, Visiting scholars, and event participants, and original content with instigating questions to generate interaction and conversation.
Developing Blogs help us to think critically about what we know already about a topic, what has led us here, what is going on currently in the media around the topic, and why we are staying with the trouble (Haraway, 2016). The Center’s blog feed also consists of Center news announcements.
Examples of Developing Blogs are:
PG&E – assist with research on and collecting materials related to PG&E’s energy shutoffs. Refer to the developing blog: https://scijust.ucsc.edu/2019/10/19/pge-shutoff/
Forensic Genomics & Ethics – assist with research on and collecting materials related to forensic genomics and ethics. Refer to the developing blog: https://scijust.ucsc.edu/2019/11/27/developing-story-forensic-genomics/
Center Tweets respond to relevant and current events and news items helping build ideas about ‘science and justice’. They also announce S&J community news items posted to the website and MailChimp advertisements to engage participants. A hashtag (#) can be established for an event and utilized in the following ways:
Generate Pre-Event Buzz:
Leading up to an event, you want to generate interest and excitement surrounding the topic so people will attend. Utilize SJRC social media platforms (including Facebook and Twitter) to post relevant materials to generate interest prior to events.
During the Event:
Participants follow the hashtag on Twitter and ask questions for the participants or other people in their network or others following the hashtag.
Moderator filters questions and acts as liaison and Tweets answers
Moderator engages with other participants during events providing quotes
After event:
Follow up with participants on lingering questions or thoughts
Share any publications or reports as outcome of event
Facebook automatically posts Twitter’s feed. As requested, the Administrative Assistant will create an event post on Facebook and invite people, share other people/groups posts.
Practices for Staying with the Problem
Depending on the plans for the event, consider if the outcomes are of interest and relevant for further exploration. Rapporteur reports provide the Center, event organizers and participants a way to think critically about the topics discussed and helps further the conversation. These reports are added to the event page on the website and serve as a springboard for blog entries and publications, help to inform follow up events and grant proposals.
The workflow for a “Blog Campaign” could entail the following:
Identify approximately three articles in popular press / social media.
Articles should be recent and relevant to the topic being discussed or announced.
Write responses (280 characters) for each article, identify appropriate hashtags, post response and article to Twitter.
Tweets should use the same hashtags and could be published on different days and retweeted with different engagement questions tagging relevant people.
Write a blog piece:
Identify and call out the issue/common concern.
State what we know so far about the topic and those being discussed or left out of the conversation.
Refer back to the Tweeted articles and any relevant past Working Group events or affiliate publications.
State what we are doing about the issue/common concern.
‘We are gathering the voices of our many publics to navigate the issue / common concern... ‘
When relevant and possible: refer to and utilize language from the PLOS Biology article (keeping the article relevant and raising platform of the Training and Visitor Programs)
Send blog piece to the SJRC Manager and Director or Director for content review and approval.
Post the blog to the SciJust website utilizing the tagging conventions to categorize and recall similar items.
If a “Blog Campaign” is composed for an event, the above items can be completed prior to the event and followed up with reflections and action items.
After the event:
Within 1 week of the event, the event’s Critical Listener submits the rapporteur report to the official Event Host.
Within 2 weeks of the event, the official Event Host reviews the rapporteur report and provides further suggestions, reflections or feedback to the SJRC Manager and Director for content review and approval.
Upon approval, post the rapporteur report to the SciJust website on the event listing.
Update the original blog post with any follow up action items and link to the rapporteur report.
Share the blog post on Twitter using the previous hashtags.
SJRC with the official Event Host, GSR, and Critical Listener should all consider additional pieces to collectively write or generate any calls to action and where they can be published.
If participants run their own blog or website, they should build off our blog piece (and refer to it).
Update blog post to include any additional writings or publications and re-share.