Recruit+NEW

= Recruitment Site =

__Introduction__
The Florida State __ University's __ College of Communication and Information has commissioned our team with the challenge of analyzing, promoting, and making recommendations for their new recruitment site. Below this introduction you find a project summary, team member name's and contact info, and other information that pertains to this project.

__Project Summary__
As Recruitment Site Team members, it is our goal to help FSU's __ College of __ Communication and Information enhance the functionality and use of their recruitment site. That said, we have provided (or, rather, will be providing as this project is ongoing) recommendations that will allow their site to cater to their ever expanding target audience. We have also assisted in the __ promotion __, as well as, the analyzing of traffic (or lack there of) to their site. In addition to the aforementioned contributions, we have provided a SWOT Analysis on this wiki to help us recognize any limits we may have as a team, potential threats to our project, and to help us stay focused on our goal.

__Goals__
Our goals are as follows: (1) To make quality and influential recommendations to CCI that will be adopted, (2) implement a unique marketing strategy that produces results (i.e. increases awareness and traffic flow to the recruitment site), and (3) accumulate, interpret, and present the measurable results from our analytics.

__Team Member Information__
Leader: Michale Johnson __ Phone __ : 850 - 272 - 3282 Email: mtj11c@my.fsu.edu Availability: Notes: I can pretty much meet any time. This (Memorial Day) weekend is no good though.
 * Sunday || Monday || Tuesday || Wednesday || Thursday || Friday || Saturday ||
 * yes || yes || yes || yes || yes || yes || yes ||

Member:Stephanie Mears Phone: 727-741-1576 Email: sm09h@my.fsu.du Availability: Notes:
 * Sunday || Monday || Tuesday || Wednesday || Thursday || Friday || Saturday ||
 * all day || all day || after 6 || before/after __class__ || after 6 || all day || all day ||

Member: Jervishia Walker Phone:954-670-6421 Email:jmw09h@my.fsu.edu Availability: Notes:
 * Sunday || Monday || Tuesday || Wednesday || Thursday || Friday || Saturday ||
 * after 3 ||  || 12-6 || before __class__ ||   || after 12 || after 3 ||

Member: Jonathan Wright Phone: 352-702-1584 Email: jjw08d@my.fsu.edu or jonathanwright5.jw@gmail.com Availability: Notes:
 * Sunday || Monday || Tuesday || Wednesday || Thursday || Friday || Saturday ||
 * 10am-9pm || all day || all day || after 7 || all day || 10am-10pm || all day ||

__Timeline__
6/6 - First Meeting, Perform team/project SWOT analysis, make preliminary recommendations

6/13 First Presentation

6/13 - 6/19 Finalize promotion ideas and analytics plan

6/20 - 6/22 Johnson, Walker, Wright began posting flyers on multiple campuses: FSU, TCC, Chipola College (Marianna), Gulf Coast State College (Panama City)

6/21 Mears submitted research about competition (i.e.which schools have IT programs, with website URL's for analyzing)

6/28 - Hooked up with Guerrilla Marketing team at Seminole Discovery to help promote site (passed out flyers).

7/11 Second presentation

7/17 - Submitted Final Recommendations, Copied/Pasted and Uploaded to wiki

8/1 Final presentation

__Team Meetings__
First Meeting: June 6th

Attendance: Johnson, Mears, Walker, Wright - 100% participation!

Our goals in our first meeting were to (1) identify our teams __ S __ trengths and __ W __ eaknesses, (2) recognize any __ Opportunities __ and/or __ T __ hreats that could become apparent before the completion of this project, and (3) establish our preliminary recommendations for the recruitment site.

Goals met! SWOT Analysis and and preliminary recommendations can be found on this wiki (below).

Next Meeting June 13th @Strozier. Topic will be site promotion.

2nd Meeting: June 13th

Attendance: Johnson, Mears - Only half showed up :-( However, Walker and Wright made contact and understand their upcoming responsibilities, yay! :-)

Assigned responsibilities. Johnson - Analytics, Mears - Recommendation Research, Walker - Sidewalk Calk, Wright - Fliers.

No official meeting this week. However, I (Michale Johnson) will contact each member individually so that we can implement plans.

Next Meeting: Sunday June 24th @4: We will implement sidewalk chalk marketing (i.e.draw sidewalk messages promoting recruitment site)

3rd Meeting: June 24th

Meeting/Sidewalk chalk cancelled. The tropical storm rendered the implementation of the sidewalk chalk pointless.

Next Meeting: June 27th / After Class @5

Attendance: Johnson, Walker, and Wright. Mears has left to take a job in Texas.

Team members met after class and decided to get together after the holiday to implement sidewalk chalk. I(Johnson) and Wright will be showing up tomorrow (with flyers), June 28th, for Seminole Discovery to help the Guerrilla Marketing team.

4th Meeting: July 11th

Attendance: Johnson, Walker, Wright

Team members met during/after class and got up to speed on where we are at and what is going to happen in the closing weeks. Ebe will be closing access to the wiki on the 20th, so this will be the final "Meetings" entry. Remaining meetings will take place before/after class.

__SWOT Analysis__
The Recruitment Site team feels that it is important to identify the internal and external attributes of our team and the project in order to anticipate any problems that may occur that could hinder the completion of the project.

__Strengths__
The two strongest attributes of our team are its diversity (age and gender) and web develop0ment experience (HTML, CSS, PHP, JS, etc...). In a project such as this nothing can replace expedience coupled with intricate and diverse perspective.

__Weaknesses__
Coordinating scheduling for team meetings is a great challenge for any project where team members are spread geographically and have different work schedules. We are no different. For example, one of our team members will be moving soon and there contributions will have to be taken through some digital communication, therefore, we will lose valuable face-to-face interaction between all team members.

__Opportunities__
The best opportunity that may be presented from this project may come from the potential adoption of any recommendation, we may give, by FSU's College of Communication and Information. We feel that making, what would be, an active and quality contribution to our school, and more specifically, to our department will be very rewarding in and of itself (not to mention it will look good in our portfolio).

__Threats__
Time! Time! Time! With the shortened Summer semester and considering that we will lose a team member in just a few short weeks, time is an enormous threat to our project. Additionally, adoption and acceptance by the CCI Department loom in the shadows to destroy this project. That is, regardless of our efforts and abilities to overcome the aforementioned weaknesses and threats, if our ideas "suck", :-(, the project will be considered a failure.

Again, our team has taken the time to recognize all of the previous attributes in order to maintain focus, prepare for upcoming and unforeseen issues, and qualify our findings. If we consider the potential problems and limitations, while relying on our positives, we should complete the task at hand and produce a quality end product.

__Preliminary Recommendations__
You will find a list below that contains the preliminary recommendations to the CCI Department concerning its recruitment site. As this project is ongoing, the list will change over time and the final recommendations will be provided in a more formal report and/or PP presentation.

Links should be easy to find and accessible, don't make audience have to find them
 * Move the Twitter API/College Feed!!!!
 * Graphically unappealing and not exciting, this is the IT Department right? Add some pictures...
 * Site logo should be more dynamic, that is, changing pictures, etc...
 * Introductory video, welcoming and inviting
 * Provide information for transfer students, that is, provide, as specific as possible, curriculum guide....
 * Answer the question: "Why IT?"
 * More statistical data, like the link in the first paragraph on home page (excellent strategy Ebe!)
 * Bureau of Labor Statistics

__Final Recommendations__
The Recruit_Project_Report document contains the illustrations referred to here on the wiki.
 * Official copy in Word format has be uploaded to this site. There are two files (Recruit_Report_Preface and Recruit_Project_Report).

Recruitment Site Recommendations: Ways to Improve the Current FSU Recruitment Site

Prepared For: Prof. Ebrahim Randeree 101D Shores Building Florida State University Tallahassee, Florida 32304

Prepared By: Michale Johnson Stephanie Mears Jervishia Walker Jonathon Wright

Date of Submission: August 1, 20112

Preface

 The last twenty years have bared witness to an explosion in human connectivity and communication. Small businesses, corporations, and individuals from all over the world can now advertise, connect, and communicate at the speed of light with seemingly endless <span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 16px;">numbers of potential customers, associates, and friends. However, these new opportunities bring new challenges. One such challenge <span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 16px;">is identifying and reaching every qualified, potential person/student to our universities, in order, to educate and equip them with the <span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 16px;">tools necessary to actively contribute during these remarkable times.

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 24px;">Table of Contents

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 16px;">Preface……………………………………………………………………...….ii

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 16px;">List of Illustrations……………………………………………………...…….iv

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 16px;">Introduction…………………………………………………….…………..….1 I. Design…………………………………………………….………..2 <span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 16px;">A. Strengths/Weaknesses/Recommendations..................................2

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 16px;">B. Design Summary…………………………………………….....7

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 24px;">List of Illustrations

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 16px;">Illustration A.1 – Screen shot of the CCI’s recruitment home page…………………………...….3

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 16px;">Illustration A.2 – Screen shot of the University of West Florida’s IT program’s home page…….4

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 16px;">Illustration A.3 – Alternate screen shot of the UWF IT home page………………………………4

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 16px;">Illustration A.4 – Screen shot of the University of South Florida’s IT program home page……..5

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 16px;">Illustration A.5 – Alternate screen shot of the USF IT home page……………………………….5

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 16px;">Illustration A.6 – Screen shot of the college feed…………………………………………………6

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 24px;">Introduction

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 16px;"> This report examines the design, content, and functionality of the newly constructed recruitment website of The Florida State University’s <span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 16px;">College of Communication and Information (CCI). More specifically, this report identifies the strengths and weaknesses of the sites ability to <span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 16px;">attract and inform potential students of the CCI programs, Information Technology(IT) and Information, Communication, and Technology(ICT), respectively. <span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 16px;">Our team has thoroughly examined the CCI site and comparable competitor websites from within the state, in order, to supply the following assessments*.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">*Note: Any comparisons/contrasts of FSU’s CCI recruitment website may have been made directly to some competitors’ main college or program’s <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">official home page. That is, all assessments have been made on behalf of the recruitment website alone (recruitment.cci.fsu.edu) and not the official <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">CCI site (cci.fsu.edu). Independent recruiting sites for comparable IT programs do not exist or are hard to find.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 24px;">Design

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 18.6667px;">Strengths/Weaknesses/Recommendations

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;"> The overall design and functionality of the CCI website is strong and should be commended. The streamlined flow of pertinent information is almost seamless <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">and impressive. For example, after the home page’s introductory statement, there are brief, yet eloquent, introductions to both respective programs (more on this later). <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">These program introductions contain links to more meaningful and informative pages that flow with the same ease as the former. Any potential student visiting this <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">site should find no flaw or confusion in this site’s present structure. Although the present design has no obvious problems, it should be noted that there are areas of concern.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;"> The most disappointing design element of the CCI site is its very obvious, flat and “non-dynamic” appearance. The site contains no photos and/or videos. Without <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;"> those elements, the site’s appearance does not seem representative of what one would expect from an Information Technology program website from FSU’s CCI. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">For comparison, on pages 3 and 4 you will find screen shots of the CCI site (Illustration A.1) and the University of West Florida’s IT (Illustration A.2 and A.3) respective <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;"> home pages. There is a sharp contrast between the two. At the top of the UWF page, there is a simple, alternating montage of IT related photos which expose the visitor <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;"> to the ideas of the site (and their program) without the visitor having to read a word; while, the CCI’s recruiting site’s header is flat and uninviting. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;"> In addition to UWF, we also examined the approach taken by the University of South Florida. On page 5 (Illustration A.4 and A.5), screen shots have been provided <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;"> demonstrating USF’s ideas. You will notice they have implemented photos of students during class meetings and photos of students conducting their daily activities in <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;"> one of USF’s more visually appealing student lounges and/or places of study. These types of photos allow their perspective students to imagine themselves in those types <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;"> of situations and/or being there in those aesthetically pleasing environments of study. These types of photos’ ability to make such a potentially, personal connection with USF’s <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;"> visitors cannot be understated. Any potential student (or visitor to their site) is likely to see themselves there at/in there college and/or program. Presently, CCI’s site lacks all <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;"> of these qualities.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;"> After viewing the examples provided by UWF and USF, it becomes clear that FSU’s CCI should improve their design to match (at a minimum) or exceed what the CCI’s <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;"> competitors have implemented at this time. It is the recommendation of the Recruitment Site Team that the CCI should implement one and/or both of these approaches for <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">their recruitment site. Tech-related montages/collogues and/or images of students that provide a “personal” connection would enhance CCI’s recruitment site and inure their <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;"> position and ultimate goals.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;"> One of the most appealing design features of the recruitment site is the “College Feed” console. The console implements a Twitter API and invites visitors to the site to join the <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;"> conversation and add comments and/or useful information (more on tis later) and links to the feed. Implementing the console was clever as it provides real-time information <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;"> and updates that can be very useful to any serious potential CCI student. However, there is serious concern about the choice of placement for the console (See Illustration 6). <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">It is currently situated out of sight and near the bottom of each page next to some contact information. Although it looks really nice, its placement lessens the overall appeal and <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">effectiveness of the API.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;"> It is the recommendation of the Recruitment Site Team that the API console and contact information be relocated to a more relevant position on the sites pages. We feel <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;"> somewhere below the “Related Pages” segment (See Illustration A.1) would be perfect as it would streamline all of the additional and informative information (i.e. Related Pages, <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Contact Info, College Feed) in one collective and relevant segment.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Design Summary

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;"> As stated in our introduction, the overall conceptual design and eventual implementation of the CCI recruitment site is strong and deserves minimal reproach. Collectively, the <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;"> Recruitment Site team feels their design is solid, but does indeed need to focus on the areas we have shown with the aforementioned examples. We have no doubt they will continue <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;"> to improve upon what they have done and hope that our suggestions were helpful and will lead to the improvement of some of the site’s design elements.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 24px;">Content <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 18.6667px;">Strengths/Weaknesses/ Recommendations

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;"> As anyone who has ever used the Internet can tell you, the best site design in the world is nothing unless the actual content (information) provided by the site is useful and informative. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">The CCI recruitment site does an excellent job of meeting those explicit standards. For one to understand how we reached this conclusion (and ultimately our recommendations for <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">the content portion), you must understand our approach in dissecting CCI’s site. Simply put, we posed the questions; does this site promote the programs effectively and, more specifically, <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">does it answer the most fundamental question, “Why Information Technology?”

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;"> In this regard, FSU’s CCI goes above and beyond what one might expect. For example, in the first significant paragraph of the home page, the recruitment site provides the most <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">pertinent information any potential student may need. That is, they explain the relevance of the program and, more importantly, the opportunities that their majors provide. Illustration A.7 <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">demonstrates exactly this.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;"> The significance of this subtle introduction cannot be understated. First, any serious potential student/visitor can recognize the practical nature of choosing the IT or ICT major. Secondly, <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;"> the selfless way this information is provided does not give the impression of being “pushy”. That is, the recruitment site provides the facts and not a sales pitch (very clever). The Recruitment <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Site Team feels as if there is little to be done to improve upon this. If anything, we would recommend providing additional examples and explanations that carry the same connotations as <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;"> their opening remarks (e.g. The Bureau of Labor Statistics, []) and ensure the Twitter API is placed in a more visible location as links are sometimes provided by people <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;"> within the FSU community that refer to videos and/or articles that reinforce the recruitment site’s approach. Again, the CCI’s recruitment site answers the most fundamental question <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;"> (the question the Recruitment Site Team asked before we ever looked at this site); why IT?

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 18.6667px;">Content Summary

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;"> Certainly, there were many more aspects of recruiting.cci.fsu.edu that were scrutinized and studied by our team (e.g. the maps that show where CCI graduates are employed over the US, <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;"> the links describing the prerequisite and foundation courses, and the pages describing the facilities). However, all of these elements do nothing but highlight and confirm the aforementioned <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">“content” example. It is the hope of the Recruitment Site Team that our analysis has been helpful and/or useful. It was not our goal to be reassuring or passive in our assessments, but, simply <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;"> put, FSU’s CCI has developed a good product, therefore, criticisms are minimal.