McKay School of Education

PR Communications Plan
Spring/Summer 2013

Organizational Chart

Asst to the Acad VP

Assoc Acad VP - Faculty

Assoc Acad VP/Grad Stdys

Academic VP
Assoc Acad VP/Undgr Stdys

CITES Assoc
Teaching Prof

College Alumni Director,

PR, Mentoring

Dept Chair IP&T

Recruitment
Coordinator

Dean, Law School

Cecil Samuelson
Pres. of BYU

Associate Dean
Dean, College of Nursing

Associate Dean
Dean, FHSS

Dean, School of Education

Department
Chair
Assistant Dean

PR Office,
Grant Facilitator

Data, Assessment, &

Accreditation

Accountant V

Database/Web Manager

Dept Chair Teacher

Education

TEC Lab Admin

Dean, Engineering &

Technology

Dean, Humanities
TEC Lab Admin

Dean, Life Sciences

Department Chair

Education Student Services

Director

Dean, School of Management

Exec Secretary IV
Dean, Physical & Math
Sciences
Dean, Religious Education

PR Coordinator/Writer
(4-6)
PR Video Facilitator

College Editor & Writing

Consultant

Dean, CFAC

Department Chair

Alumni Student
Employee (1-3)

PR Editor

Background

About the McKay School of Education

Brigham Young University operates one of the largest nationally accredited teacher
preparation programs in the nation. The BYU Education Preparation Program (EPP) consists of
the David O. McKay School of Education and more than 25 departments from seven colleges
across the campus. To ensure the quality of its educator candidates, the EPP aligns its curriculum
and instructional practices with the standards for teachers and administrators developed by the
Utah State Board of Education. By grounding its programs in these national and state educator
standards, BYU uses the best practices in the field as determined through rigorous research and
review while ensuring it prepares high quality candidates to work with the countrys children and
youth.
The program has been fully accredited since 1954. The BYU EPP program is currently
accredited by the Teacher Education Accreditation Council (TEAC), an organization that has
successfully completed a strenuous appraisal by the U.S. Department of Education. TEAC
administers a comprehensive review including program self-study, site visits, and evidence
evaluations before successfully awarding accreditation.

External Environment
The McKay School of Education strives to facilitate improved learning and teaching
within the school as well as in the home, church, and community worldwide. Students in the
McKay School are working to become educators in many different areas and subjects. These
career choices might include, teachers, principals, counselors, speech pathologists, instructional
designers or researchers.
Not only does the McKay School interact with its own internal departments and the other
colleges on campus, but the McKay School also holds a position in the Utah community because
of its impact on education. It influences and has an effect on BYU students (undergraduate and
graduate), BYU prospective students, BYU faculty, alumni, donors, other universities, and the
Utah public community.
With the current rise of a new generation that gets information differently than past
generations, it is a challenge for the McKay School to find efficient ways to reach out to its
publics. Whether it is through a blog, website, other social media outlets, or even postal mail, the
McKay Schools challenge is to find which outlets relate to which specific public. It is crucial for
the school to determine which methods reach targeted publics and what will improve awareness
and donations to the McKay School. It will then be another task to find the McKay Schools
actual reach in terms of numbers, statistics, and what those numbers really mean for the school in
Utah, nationally, and even internationally.

Industry
According to the 2012 U.S. News Report, one of the BYU McKay School of Education
Graduate programs was ranked as 81st in the nation, a four spot improvement from the previous
year. With some of BYUs college programs like the Marriot School of Management and the J.
Reuben Clark Law School in the top 40, BYU has gained a high-ranking educational profile in

the university community. The McKay School of Educations graduate speech-language

pathology program was ranked 62.
The McKay School has approximately 150 faculty. Each year over 900 students graduate
from the McKay School. The total number of graduates and alumni from the McKay School is
approximately 45,000.

Product, Service or Issue

The David O. McKay School of Education PR office seeks to assist with recruiting
perspective students and increase positive awareness of the McKay School through engaging the
alumni, current students, and future students and impacting education through the dissemination
of research. Each individual department within the McKay School has had varied
accomplishments. It is the PR offices job to promote quality research and engage the schools
different publics in its activities and research. However, it is also crucial to create public specific
messages to target each individual public and motivate them to action.
Numbers and figures are good quantitative data, but ultimately the goal is to figure out
what those numbers mean qualitatively. Social media has been one of the growing strategies
used by the PR field. The McKay School PR office is gathering analytics to obtain statistics on
impact in terms of audience and reach. With all of the information gained through these social
media analytics, it is necessary to determine what these numbers truly mean and how they can be
used to improve the McKay Schools standing and reputation in the field of education.

Promotional Methods
The PR office has typically used traditional methods of reaching the McKay Schools
publics. For the alumni, donors, and even potential donors, physical letters have been sent out,
bi-monthly newsletter notifications have been emailed out, and McKay Today, the schools
alumni magazine is printed twice a year. The office also started using social media outlets like
Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Youtube, and a Wordpress blog during the 2010-2011 school year.
Currently, the McKay School is developing a more active and interactive website having recently
hired a webmaster.
There also lies a huge opportunity in LinkedIn, an online professional social media outlet.
LinkedIn creates professional connections between people and also allows its users to view
profiles, resumes, job opportunities, and it is only just starting to gain speed in the social media
world. This site has an enormous potential for growth, especially among the targeted audiences
for the McKay School.

Purpose of Promotional Methods

The defined purposes of promotion of MSE activities and research are listed below:
Awareness
Credibility and Excellence
Loyalty
Funding
Recruitment and student enrollment
Sharing knowledge, tools, resources

Competition
The McKay School of Education competes not only with other universities, but also with
other BYU colleges on campus. An example is the Marriott School of Accounting, which has
rated highly for years. With such a huge reputation, programs like this can outshine the McKay
School, which can have a negative impact on recruiting, funding, and coverage in BYU media
outlets for the McKay School. That is why it is crucial to find ways to better reach and serve the
McKay Schools publics in such a way that it will be recognizable through the analytics.

Resources
Awareness of the McKay School of Education will build a donor foundation. Aside from
funding provided by the Church, the large majority of incoming money comes from donor
support. Many of those donors are past BYU graduates, some who graduated from the McKay
School. These alumni donations have been increasing every year since the implementation of the
PR office. This increase is not necessarily causally linked to the PR office, but there is a
correlation.

SWOT
In order to assess where the McKay School needs to make improvements, a SWOT table
is a useful tool to analyze and determine what actions need to be taken. It analyses Strengths,
Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats in order to highlight the areas the McKay School can
improve on and what can feasibly be done to improve public awareness and credibility.
Strengths:
Nationally ranked program
Positive feedback from magazines
Refined email system
Active Facebook page
Active Twitter page
Active Pinterest page
Growing blog following (34
followers and 400 average weekly
hits)
Good relations with faculty and staff
Good relations with individual
departments within McKay School
Connected to other colleges and
groups on campus through Twitter
Connected to other colleges and
groups on campus through Facebook
Huge alumni base

Weaknesses:
Low social media following
Lack of awareness of McKay School
events/programs
Not well connected to other education
major programs at other universities
Some unorganized department
webpages
Struggling video process

Opportunities:
Promote quality research
Share different events/stories/news
via social media outlets
Secure better prizes to bring in more

Threats:
MSE posts on social media, but not
really engaging its publics
Other universities with higher
nationally ranked programs (more

students for McKay School contests

Tweet at other colleges within
BYU/The Universe
Tweet at other universities
Teach faculty to share research using
academic social media
Make use of active hashtags
Tag faculty/students/main subjects in
McKay School stories on Facebook to
increase social media reach
Promote stories on other plasma
screens around campus
Friend McKay School faculty and
students (people stories are written
about) on Facebook
Revamp each departments webpages

recognized faculty with more widely

publicized works)
Lack of participation in McKay School
events or contests
Webpage content for some of the
departments is unorganized
General media about education is often
negative
Some programs (M.S Special Ed) are
having trouble getting enough quality
applicants

Situation Analysis
Currently, the McKay School of Education communicates with multiple departments
within its school, other colleges among BYU, other universities, and many other publics in the
Utah community. The McKay School is also part of the Educator Preparation Program (EPP) in
addition to seven other BYU colleges. These colleges collaborate with the McKay School to
prepare undergraduate secondary teaching majors and minors. The EPP exists to align content
and assessment across the broad spectrum of BYU programs preparing teachers, ensuring that
each student who graduates from BYU as a teacher will have the knowledge and skills needed to
effectively instruct their students. The McKay School also has alumni that range in age from 18
to 92. Because of these disparities between publics and the way they receive information, the
McKay School needs to find specific ways to reach out to them. Finding the right messages for
the variety of publics that will help increase their positive awareness of the McKay School as
well as increase donations for the college.
The McKay School gains a large amount of its graduate students through recruitment,
and it is the PR offices job to find the correct ways in which to reach its publics and get them to
join the McKay School. Another one of the most apparent issues is the McKay Schools low
solid social media following. The PR department has been working on improving this, yet it still
needs to expand the schools reach in such a way that it will show the McKay School as a strong
competitor among other universities. It will be crucial for the school to take advantage of social
media conversations already online, and hopefully this will increase the McKay Schools social
media following, gain recruits, as well as make it a well-regarded name in the education world.

Core Opportunity
If the McKay School of Education effectively targets and reaches each of its publics, it has the
opportunity to be a well-known and respected college not only at BYU, but also among other
universities in Utah and the nation.

2012-2013 Reporting
Below defines previous goals and the status of each from 2011 to the present.
Goal

Objective

Develop a consistent and

significant social media
presence
(2010 start)

Develop, maintain, and

promote student blog
(2011 start)

Incorporate videos into news

stories, and refine video
process by fostering more
communication between the
videographer and the PR
coordinators

Reevaluate and refine PR

Department Coordinator
positions

Implement an effective
training system on Photoshop,
InDesign, Excel and Illustrator

Continue to pursue coordinated

recruitment efforts (e.g. user
surveys)

To engage the McKay

School of Education
audience (current
students)

Promote the McKay

School teacher
education programs
and inform students
and potential students
of processes
Provide visitors of
website with visual
news on applicable
stories
Direct communication
at all parts of the
video process so that
the videos can be
effectively utilized
Focus on positive
relations with chairs
and heads of
departments
Leverage stories and
department pages
Have all PR office
employees have a
basic understanding of
how to use graphic
design and graphic
software

Hold at least 4
college-wide
recruitment meetings
during the 2012-2013
school year
Fine-tune new
brochure
Promote
dept./program use of
folders and respond to
feedback
Refine college-wide

Measurement

Number of
followers/comments
Increasing EPP
students
Level of engagement
Klout rating (online)

Blog subscribers
Post views/comments
Feedback

Number of video
views per month
Time watching
Video storyboards
Likes and video views

Status
Ongoing

Promotional method is
developed and operating

Bi-weekly reports to
chairs
Department centered
requests
Relations with staff
and faculty

Ongoing

All employees should

be able to produce
posters, flyers, graphs
and charts

Development of
additional materials
Addressing individual
program recruitment
needs
New visuals (positive
feedback)
Qualtrics surveys

Developing workable
process with TEC lab
Story board template
created for PR
coordinators to more
effectively connect and
share ideas with
videographer
Discussion with TEC Lab
for usable process

Everyone has finished the

training modules
Illustrator training session
July 8, 2013
Hired trainer
Developed Handbook
Training seminars
provided by the office

Held three meetings

Hired student
Developed reusable
materials
Sent out recruitment
survey to M.S SpEd
cohort


Understand and successfully
employ search engine
optimization to maximize
promotional scope

Develop tangible outcomes for

website, blog and social media
analytics

Develop relations with the new

social media practitioner at
University Communications

Develop process for webpage

content and design
Make PR office handbook
more useful, accessible and
widely disseminated

graphics and
disseminate widely
Maximize visibility of
our stories
Create an SEO
Checklist (for PR
coordinator use) to be
displayed in and used
by office staff
Google+ posting
Discern trends and
patterns according to
story or post topic
popularity
Develop measurable
outcomes
Maintain positive
relationship with
University Comms
Cooperate with web
team and departments
to refine all applicable
web processes
Make the handbook
more usable and
easily accessible

Hold quarterly
meetings with Aaron
Olson to review SEO
techniques
Effect of SEO on page
and video views

Ongoing
Review with web
quarterly
Review in social media
meeting quarterly

Weekly analytic
reports
Logic models to chart
outcomes for social
media projects

Working relationship
Pitch stories regularly
Bi-weekly meetings
with web team
Department feedback

Ongoing

Established and ongoing

Each PR coordinator in
charge of coordinating
with web team and
department page owners

Handbook divided
into searchable
sections and put on
shared drive

Completed

Action Planning

Overarching Goals of the McKay School of Education

1. To strengthen children and youth in a changing world
2. To prepare noble educators for the challenges of a changing world
3. Extend the benefits of our research and creative work to a changing world

The Mission of the McKay School of Education

The Mission of the David O. McKay School of Education is to improve learning and teaching in
the school as well as in the home, church, and community worldwide.

The McKay School of Education Public Relations Office Charges

The McKay School of Education PR office was developed in October 2004. The fundamental
charge given to the office continues to guide its activities.
Increase awareness of the McKay School of Education in educational
research and practice
Increase awareness of the BYU-Public School Partnership (BYUPSP) in education research and practice and as a leader in education

collaboration
Increase positive feelings about education along the Wasatch Front
and throughout the nation and world

The McKay School of Education PR Office Goal

To assist the McKay School of Education in becoming a better-known institution through
increasing credibility, promoting significant research, and successfully reaching out to each of its
publics to garner their support and respect.

Current Measurable Objectives

1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.

Develop a consistent and significant social media presence

Expand audience reach via social media sites
Increase promotion and readership of the student blog, news stories, and magazine
Train faculty to use academic social media tools
Fill program seats with quality applicants
Develop a quality web presence
Improve relationships between the McKay School and its respective publics

*In-depth Current Measurable Objectives Table located at the end of the report

Key Publics
(from highest to lowest priority)

McKay School Faculty and Staff

Donors, Alumni, Graduates
University Peers
BYU-Public School Partnership
Students
o Undergraduates
o Master Students
o Prospective Students

1. MCKAY SCHOOL FACULTY AND STAFF

Demographics

150 faculty
BYU operates one of the largest nationally accredited teacher preparation programs in the
nation
o BYU EPP consists of the McKay School and more than 25 departments from
seven colleges across campus

o EPP functions together with the BYU-Public School Partnership (which consists
of five public school districts, the McKay School, and those colleges at BYU
responsible for secondary teacher education)
Psychographics

Studies/Departments include:
o Center for Improvement of Teacher Education & Schooling
o Communication Disorders
o Counseling Psychology & Special Education
o Educational Leadership & Foundations
o Educational Inquiry, Measurement and Evaluation PhD
o Instructional Psychology & Technology
o Teacher Education
Majority LDS
EPP exists to align content and assessment across the broad spectrum of BYU programs
preparing teachers, ensuring that each student who graduates from BYU as a teacher will
have the knowledge and skills needed to effectively instruct their students

Strategies:

Engage with the faculty and staff through internal communications

Engage with the faculty and staff through social media conversations

2. DONORS, ALUMNI, GRADUATES

Demographics
Over 45,000 alumni/graduates
Majority female
Donors are generally McKay School grads
Psychographics
Many went on to teach in the Utah community
Majority LDS
Strategy: Engage with Donors, Alumni and Graduates through the McKay School of

Educations written content (both online and print publications).

3. UNIVERSITY PEERS
Demographics
2,618 accredited four-year colleges and universities in the U.S.
18 in Utah (state colleges, private universities, and vocational programs)
BYU Campus including 13 other colleges and subsequent organizations
Psychographics
University of Utah, Utah Valley University, and Utah State University are nearby

competitors
BYU Campus
o Majority LDS
o Majority Caucasian males and females

o Small population of ethnic groups

Strategies:

Engage with university peers in social media conversations/online promotion

Engage with peers/peer schools through MSE events
Get BYU (mainly MSE) students involved with social media

4. BYU-PUBLIC SCHOOL PARTNERSHIP

Demographics

Collaborative effort of 3 entities

o 5 public school districts: Alpine, Jordan, Nebo, Provo and Wasatch
o The McKay School of Education
o The arts and sciences colleges and departments at BYU that participate in
preparing secondary teachers
Participating school districts educate about 1/3 of Utahs school children (approx.
180,000) and employ over 7,000 teachers
BYU annually graduates approximately 800 teachers and 40 school administrators
Governing Board for the partnership includes the superintendents of the 5 participating
school districts, the dean of the McKay School of Education, and the executive director
of CITES (the Partnerships facilitating unit)

Psychographics

Foundational principle of the partnership states that improvement of public education

requires teacher training institutions and public schools to collaborate in simultaneously
improving teacher education and K-12 student learning
Board collaboratively identifies needs that can be most effectively addressed by the
combined efforts of the university and school districts
Partnership initiatives are grouped under 3 categories: professional development,
education support, and research and publications
Mutual trust and respect of the partners as relationships are built, resources are shared,
and collaboration and honest communication are achieved
CITES (Center for the Improvement of Teacher Education and Schooling) department is
the operational unit of the Partnership, serving to facilitate its goals and objectives
EPP is one of its partners.
o The EPP is a collaborative unit, which prepares undergraduate secondary teaching
majors and minors. The EPP consists of the McKay School of Education and
seven other BYU colleges, comprising 26 departments

Strategy: Engage with the Public School Partnership through online and written promotional

methods

5. STUDENTS
Demographics

Over 900 students a year graduate from the McKay School

Over 45,000 graduates total

Psychographics

Majority LDS
Main population of students in the McKay School are female

Undergraduates
o Strategy: Get students involved with fun contests
o

Tactics:

Have a meme contest (best captions wins a prize, most likes/shares/reposts

gets a grand prizeeg. Maroon5 swag)
Wheres Waldo water bottle contest
o Strategy: Improve online presence (especially in terms of social media)

Master Students
o Strategies:
Improve online presence (especially in terms of social media)
Recruit students who are not BYU undergraduates

Prospective Students
o

Strategies:
Improve online presence
Improve department websites and application information
Engage with prospective students through MSE events

Current Measurable Objectives

Affected
Publics

Objective

Tactics

Develop a
consistent and
significant
social media
presence

Donors,
Alumni,
Graduates
University
Peers
Students

Tweet using popular hashtags to engage in a

discussion/conversation
Actively update website with news stories, student
accomplishments, professor research, awards, etc.
Facebook/Twitter/Pinterest/Youtube pages-constant
updates to inform peers of MSE news and events
Engaging with peers via the blog, gaining comments
and followers
Create promotional videos
Improve social media conversations to engage and
inform prospective students (engage with different
schools, groups, clubs on campus)
Tag students or professors online if they are involved
in our posts (will increase our social media reach)
Engage with LinkedIn connections

Status

Increased usage of hashtags

Increased social media following
Video process has been created, not
implemented yet
Have 6 bloggers (2 blog posts a week)
Started friending students/professors
involved in MSE stories/research (they
repost stories, which increases reach)
Have not started actively using LinkedIn yet
Post to Google +, which increases Google
ratings
Actively posting blog posts to Pinterest (8
boards, 224 pins, 36 followers, following
41)


Increase
promotion and
maintenance
of student blog

Increase
knowledge of
events and
news
concerning
MSE

University
Peers
Students
Alumni

MSE
faculty
and staff
Donors,
Alumni,
Graduates
University
Peers
Students
BYU-PSP

Increase
national
recognition of
the McKay
School
(through
speakers,
news,
programs,
research, etc.)

Improve
presence on
academic/prof
essional social
media sites:
Academia.edu,
Google
Scholar, BYU
Scholarly
Repository,
LinkedIn

MSE
Faculty
and Staff
Donors,
Alumni,
Graduates
University
Peers
Students
BYU-PSP
MSE
Faculty
and staff
Donors,
Alumni,
Graduates
University
Peers
Students
BYU-PSP

Engage with peers via the blog, gaining comments and

followers
Improve blog promotion via other social media sites
Engage online users with interesting, relatable,
informative blog posts
Choose topics that relate to BYU peers, students,
alumni, etc.
Pitch to peer blog sites
Engage with them via:
o
McKay School Magazine
o
Faculty Accomplishments
o
ENewsletter
o
BYU Today
o
Brochures/pamphlets/etc.
o
Website
o
Facebook/Twitter/Pinterest/Youtube
o
Blog
o
LinkedIn connections
Actively update website, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest,
Youtube with the latest news stories, blog posts, and
event info
Engage with peers via blog, to gain loyalty and
preference
Directly Tweet stories
Instigate proper use of hashtags (popular educational
hashtags)
Tag them in related stories on Facebook, Twitter, etc.
(will increase reach)
Engage users with interesting, relatable information
that will increase their desire to attend MSE events
Extend invitations to other schools, professors, and/or
educators to attend, speak, or share their research at
MSE events
Create promotional videos for stories
Engage with them via:
o
McKay School Magazine
o
ENewsletter
o
BYU Today
o
Brochures/pamphlets/etc.
o
Website
o
Facebook/Twitter/Pinterest/Youtube
o
Blog
o
LinkedIn connections

Have 6 student bloggers currently

2 blog posts a week
34 blog followers
400 average weekly blog hits
Significant increase in blog comments
recently due to blogger Seth Weiler (he is
especially good at reposting blogs to his
personal social media pages)
Bi-monthly newsletter notifications
McKay School magazine printed biannually
Active social media pages
Increased social media following
Currently updating/redesigning McKay
School website (each PR coordinator
facilitating relevant department)
Started friending students/professors
involved in MSE stories/research on
Facebook (they repost stories, which
increases reach)

Engage users with interesting, relatable information

that will increase their desire to attend MSE events
Extend invitations to other schools, professors, and/or
educators to attend, speak, or share their research at
MSE events
Have more research posted on academic/professional
social media sites (like Academia.edu and Google
Scholar)
Gain connections and relations with other educators
from BYU or peer universities via professional social
media outlets (like LinkedIn)

Hired student
Pilot program in process
1 year implementation
Growing advocates