Manic

In the space of a few weeks everything has gone in so many directions. It’s crazy to try and adjust to life after education! I have started working for now and it’s taking some getting used to. Although, I have got a workshop next work to find out what it’s like working with young people in a residential home, so I am excited! Can’t really believe they took the time out to look at my application form (took about 5 hours) and call me days later! I am super excited! I am also moving this weekend, not packed, not organised one bit! For the first week it will be a full house.. a pregnent lady, a horse (my dog) snake, my partner and her other half! I have so many things to do, but I feel like I have so many opportunities coming my way. All trial and error at the moment. Up and down days, such an emotional wreck! 

The Use Of Berger’s Contagious in Our Campaign

Our campaign is about student loneliness, and it is not recognised as much as it is for other social issues. In our group, we had experienced loneliness one way or another so it was something we could take about and relate our personal experiences too. The question that is asked within Berger’s Contagious Book is why are things talked about. He outlines 6 main factors that should be thought about during the making of a campaign, they are known as STEPPS;

• Social Currency
• Triggers
• Emotion
• Public
• Practical Value
• Stories

When it comes to social currency, this refers to how good or important something makes us look for sharing it. We want to look bright and knowledgeable so we are more likely to talk about those things that make us look good. This campaign is aimed at students as they may feel relief that a campaign has been set up to get everyone thinking about how students really feel. A minority may think that students have no problems, and they are happy all the time, they live on campus have loads of friends and go out all the time, when in reality it isn’t like that. We wanted to highlight the need to notice that students can feel lonely, which will affect their well-being and even their studies.

When it comes to triggers, this refers to association with something you have seen or head. For example, peanut butter is highly associated with jelly, and so the mention of the former often ‘triggers’ the thought of the latter. Increasing the chances that they will be both talked about and influence our behavior, and it will then trigger people to spread the word. So for example, in our campaign video it is a video walking near the bridge and into university where no one is around. So when students and others have seen this campaign, when they go into university for a lecture or sit down to do some work we hope that they will think of our video and our campaign in regards to student loneliness.

Emotion refers to videos, images, blogs, etc that bring out emotionally feelings that may be both positive and negative such as; excitement, anger or anxiety. Therefore through emotional attachment the campaign is more likely to be shared by others. The way we have tried to evoke emotion in our campaign is to show how it is sad that students are lonely, and there a misconception on how we are in a cohort. It needs more attention.

One of the factors identified is public, which refers to how important something is that is in the public eye. This triggers people to talk about it, so at the moment the Kardashians and the Jenners are constantly in the media and on their social networking sites. People have start to do something called ‘The Kylie Challenge’ were people are trying to get their lips as big as possible whether that be through fillers or using plastic bottles or glasses to such their lips in too for as long as possible. We have created a hastag for twitter (#saynotostudentloneliness) and used it on our blog, campaign video, facebook page and posters in order to spread the word, and let people know that if they want to talk about to use the hashtag. We have also contacted the university to spread the word. When I tweeted the hashtag with some facts, a speaker from the TED organisation retweeted it which was exciting, so I contacted him to help in the promotion of the campaign.

Practical value refers to the fact that people like to be helpful to others, and so anything that is particularly useful is more likely to be shared than that which is less so. This helps things go viral, when we share we care!

When it comes to stories, this refers to the fact that people tend to enjoy telling and hearing stories. Which is interpreted into a narrative and this means that it is more to be shared than those that are just presented as information. On our blog we have a few stories of how students have felt lonely and sometimes if it is made a little bit personal it helps people to relate to the campaign.

By using these main factors throughout the process of our campaign, we hope that it will be very successful.