Recommendation Report
For this assignment, you will consider what you have learned about how organizations use social media, and you will write a recommendation report, recommending that the English department at SCSU consider a new social media platform.
Right now, the English Department uses several platforms: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, and a blog. (A few years ago, the department tried a LinkedIn group, but it has been inactive for about 6 years.) There are a great many platforms to chose from (like Pinterest, TikTok, Snapchat, or even a podcast, among others).
The important thing, whatever your choice, is that you provide evidence that your recommendation is appropriate for the English Department. That evidence could include outside research about the platform (perhaps showing typical users of the platform fit the demographics of the English department), ENG Facebook analytics (available on Blackboard), information about “typical” department members, based on user personas (see the last few pages of the ENG Social Media Style Guide), or other sources.
So, for example, if I was going to recommend that the department start using Instagram (not an option for you, since the department already uses it), I might argue that it is an appropriate choice because 1) Instagram users are typically between 15 and 30 years old, like most SCSU students, information I have found in researching the platform; 2) SCSU has an active Instagram page, with almost 4000 followers, so there are likely to be many ENG majors already on the platform; and 3) looking at ENG FB analytics, the posts that get the most engagement are those with images, so an image-heavy platform like Instagram makes sense. Of course, I would include examples to back all of those things up (like pointing to a few specific ENG Facebook posts with high engagement due to their including images).
While there are many places online that will give you suggestions for how to write a recommendation report (and since this is a professional writing class, I would normally have you write a more formal report), it is probably easiest to think of this more as the kind of argument paper you probably wrote in ENG 110 or 112 (or whatever first-year writing course you might have taken at another school):
Start with an introduction, reminding the reader of what your purpose is and saying what you will be recommending.
Give a description of the platform you are recommending: how it works, and how businesses and organizations typically use it.
Give your reasons and evidence for the recommendation. Remember, this isn’t just “I use Tik Tok, and I really like it, so the department should use it.” Have some good reasons and solid evidence that will really show why it will work for the English Department. (If you want to argue that Tik Tokis popular among students at Southern, you need to be able to prove it, other than saying all of your friends use it.) Show an understanding of both the platform and an understanding of how the English Department uses social media and what it needs from a platform.
Describe how the department would use it, specifically. Discuss how it would meet the department’s goals (see the “Purpose and Goals” section of the Social Media Style Guide).
Give a few examples of posts (maybe a week’s worth) so the reader knows what it would look like. Don’t just give a general description; create actual posts, or find posts that already exist (maybe from another academic department) that do the things you say would work for ENG.
Wrap up with a conclusion.
A few final important details:
The report will probably be about 4-5 double-spaced pages long
Your audience for this report will be the chair of the English Department, and any colleagues she chooses to share it with. Do not assume that readers are familiar with your proposed platform, or that they have more than a general knowledge of social media. Give details that would be appropriate for a brand new user when describing the platform.
