Project #1: Strategic Report for Social Media Marketing Firm
Description: The Experiential Network student was tasked with creating a research report for a social media marketing company specializing in helping firms identify micro-influencers, the loyal everyday customers who champion the products and services they use. The company understood the “what” and the “how” of their business. The student’s purpose was to answer the “why”. Why is it so important to engage micro-influencers and why should the firm’s clients care about micro-influencers?
Deliverable: The XN student created a concise, comprehensive 1300 word white paper the firm could distribute both internally to help their employees truly understand the value of the company’s services to their clients, and externally to prospective customers to introduce the concept of micro-influencers.
Sponsor Feedback: “Working with the student was a dream and huge asset. She went above and beyond expectations. She took a relatively abstract concept of micro-influence (with minimal direction) and ran with the project to produce a quality white paper.”
Project #2: Workflow Development to Analyze Student Success for Education Startup
Description: This education startup was in its very early stages of development and focused on coming up with a curriculum for its students and developing its operational processes. To be successful long-term, management knew they must collect data on their students’ experiences and satisfaction rate to constantly evaluate their offerings based on this feedback. The XN student’s project involved creating a plan for collecting this data from students.
Deliverable: The student’s final plan included recommendations on the metrics that management should measure, sample surveys to send the students, a schedule for when these surveys should be sent, and a best practices analysis on how to administer the surveys.
Student Feedback: “Just working with my project sponsor and getting to observe and experience his professionalism and communication style was a great lesson.”
Project #3: External Communication Strategy Analysis and Recommendations for a Nonprofit
Description: Managers of a small nonprofit knew that external outreach and communications, particularly digital and social media, were essential for success and asserted that their current strategy was not effective. The XN student was asked to analyze the current communication and outreach strategy, research best practices relevant to the target audience and internal capabilities, and summarize recommendations for management.
Deliverable: A one-page matrix with rows representing engagement tools currently used (website, Twitter, email newsletter, Facebook, LinkedIn) and columns listing problems with current deployment, possible solutions, and proposed frequencies of use, with literature cited to support the student’s recommendations.
Sponsor Feedback: “The student worked hard to understand our need. He was very coachable and provided us with a valuable product.”
Project #4: Human Resource Strategy for a Multi-Billion Dollar Technology Devices Company
Description: The performance management team at a multi-billion dollar technology devices company wanted analysis of the company’s brand – but not to prospective customers but instead to prospective employees. When people were evaluating different places to work, the team wanted to understand the company’s value proposition to these people. The XN student was asked to compare the company’s brand and value proposition to industry competitors and come up with recommendations.
Deliverable: The final deliverable was a slide deck that the student presented to the performance management team; the student used five different criteria to analyze the company’s employee branding and compared to five competitors. The slides included screenshots of the competitors’ website to highlight differences. For each criteria, the student gave a specific recommendation.
Student Feedback: “It is a very good program. I received great support from the XN team as well as the sponsor. I appreciate this opportunity.”