OVERVIEW

From the summer of 2022 to April of 2024, I served as president of the UW-Stout Women's Volleyball Club. Over during the COVID-19 pandemic, none of the sport clubs on campus were very active due to restricted contact. In 2022, after only one year with the club, I was elected president. Not having any guidance from our previous leadership team, I was left to figure out everything on my own.

After taking on the position, the one aspect I knew for certain was that we had to grow our membership numbers if we wanted to remain an active club. Like I said, COVID-19 really destroyed the club and any reputation we had on campus. No one knew what our club was or how we operated.

Because of what I have learned about design and digital marketing at Stout, I was confident I could grow our club's reputation through active social media campaigns. The club had social media accounts on both Instagram and Facebook prior to the pandemic, but the owners of those accounts had long-since graduated and took the account credentials with them.

BACKGROUND

Often times because clubs on campus are student-led, their marketing materials don't have much thought put into them. But, I wanted our club's social media pages to build our reputation on campus as an organization people want to join and be apart of.

Thus, our pages needed to be inviting and approachable, but also credible. It was important to us that it was clear we took time and put thought into our posts. No one wants to be apart of an organization that looks like a joke, especially a sport club in a society that highly values sports and athletic ability.

We are also given a website through the university with the power to design it however we want using the website builder. I saw an opportunity to direct potential members and family members to this website to learn more about us and feature our events. At the time when I was elected president, our website was not user-friendly nor personalized to us in any way.

In September of 2023, we created a social media team of officers to pass down the accounts in the coming years. With Stout having such a focus on art and design, there are many girls on the team with design experience to keep the accounts running smoothly and cohesively.

FINAL DESIGNS & WEBSITE

I established a cohesive social media presence through a combination of the UW-Stout athletics colors, quality photos, and a fun, energized tone of voice.

The website was built on UW-Stout's involvement platform, CONNECT. Using the website builder, my goal was to welcome site visitors to the club and inform on what the group was and how to join. The target audience was important because it changes throughout the year. In early September, we are aimed at new student and new players. After tryouts, during the season, we are aimed at mostly parents and family members as our site is the one-stop-shop for all player information, schedules, and contacts.