CCIA Final Report

Members:
Tiarra Lowery, Tatiana Peralta, Brooke Jones, Meagan Ashner,
Jordan Latham, Huong Cao, Stephanie Gomez, & Giovanni Salvatori
Introduction
The following report outlines the problems, goals, strategies, and tactics used to improve CCIAs

public relations involvement. As a group, we compiled research to develop concrete suggestions for

CCIAs social media presence and website aesthetics. We created multiple PR materials which can be

implemented by the company such as pitch emails and infographics. Since CCIA did not wish for these

PR materials to be implemented by us, we created hypothetical evaluations for each tactic.

Problem
CCIA has been a leading voice for the technology industry for around 40 years. Despite its

highly experienced background and significant historical impacts, the association has not attracted a

respectable number of social media followers. After reviewing CCIAs social media platforms, the GMU

CCIA group determined that the firm had not effectively crafted a clear social media message that could

reach a wide variety of audiences and simultaneously trigger engagement. The main website focuses on

the quantity of information, rather than its aesthetic, making it difficult to understand what services that

CCIA provide, and how the association stands out from similar associations within their field. The

primary challenge is to create a representative online presence that accurately captured the personality of

CCIA, while also remaining visually pleasing to potential visitors. The group also felt that a revamping of

the CCIA online presence would significantly boost the number of visitors, the details of which are

explained in this report.

Goal
The goal of this plan was to provide practical strategies and tactics that CCIA can easily execute

to increase the number of online followers and resulting engagement, as well as enhancing their social

media appearance.
Strategy
The critical strategy of this project is: redefine CCIAs online media to portray them as highly-

experienced tech lobbyists and to increase awareness of their skills. In March 2017, GMU CCIA group

spoke with Ms. Heather Greenfield, Director of Communications of CCIA. She shared with us how,

despite their organization being around the longest, they were not as well known in comparison to other

internet advocacy groups. Upon reviewing CCIAs main website and researching the organization, we

came to realize that the existing information was interesting, but could be better organized so to draw in

more types of audiences. So, our group decided to use infographics, social media, and provide website

recommendations to make CCIAs advocacy information simpler to comprehend. We only produced

drafts of our work, since the client did not wish for us to implement our strategies.

Specific Strategies:
1. Offering audiences interactive information about CCIA to increase online traffic and engagement

2. Creating explicit social media content that can reach a wide range of audiences and display

CCIAs online persona.

3. Enhancing social media appearance to increase online traffic and attract potential followers

Suggested tactics:
1. Providing website recommendations to enhance social media presence

2. Drafting sample pitch emails to TV and radio stations that are interested in technology

3. Drafting a dozen sample tweets and Facebook posts to increase engagement and number of

followers

4. Creating infographics to inform the public about CCIAs accomplishments

5. Offering suggestions on writing explicit social media content and selecting visuals to reach and

attract a wide range of audiences

Tactics

Twitter Planning
Developed by:
Brooke Jones

Twitter planning mainly had to do with CCIAs support of their members regarding various

issues. The way to best convey this support is to use hashtags to draw peoples attention, providing a

unique aspect for the public to focus on. The tweets can promote the client in several ways. First, it helps

to show how CCIA addresses relevant issues in regards to their members and their publics. Second, it

helps to make their presence more established. Third, it was all about CCIA making themselves appear

more accessible to the public.

Tweets
Some of the main issues that CCIA addresses are the topics of immigration and antitrust. There

are policy and tech leaders who have vested interests addressing immigration. It involves the travel ban

and dealing with immigration status in regards to member employees to support diversity in the tech

industry, for example. Antitrust is another important topic. This is mainly due to companies like

Facebook dealing with privacy concerns with users information.

Hypothetical Evaluation

If the tweets are effective, the engagement would be impacted in several ways. It may draw in

Sample tweet: "We became the advocate of openness, fairness, making sure it's a fair playing
field."-Pres. Ed Black #protect #fairuse #competition

tech people, those who work in the media, and the general public. These people would be likely

followers. They may want to look more into CCIA based on the tweets to learn more about them. They

may also want to consider their website and see how CCIA impacts the issues that most matter to people.

The links on the tweets as well as the hashtags may lead them to other resources that address the issues

CCIA focuses on.

Then the retweets and likes would draw in a lot of attention. It would be enough for CCIAs name

to get a lot of mentions. This would also help for their company, name, and brand to be better known. The
retweets could help get followers and the general public into a discussion. Then it could potentially attract

certain media outlets who may want to mention them more and draw their followers to them. This would

allow CCIA to better connect with their audience in a relatable way on relevant issues.

Social Media Recommendations

Developed by:
Huong Cao

Per the MOU, the GMU CCIA group has come up with social media recommendations to meet

two goals, the first being to improve CCIA's social media presence by producing a dozen rough draft

content posts for both Facebook and Twitter. The second is to provide strategic and tactical

recommendations for using social media to attract potential members to CCIA.

Suggested tactics used on CCIA's Twitter and Facebook

1. Tactics for Twitter:

We suggest CCIA creates tweetable quotes from using experts' opinions. Quotes add a

conversational tone to tweets and easily trigger active discussion.

We recommend that CCIA utilizes visuals to enhance their Twitter presence. Specifically, CCIA

should use no more than two illustrated photos for each "story" or event. Photos should be taken from

different angles and display varying actions and emotions, which will add a human element to tweets.

A sample photo displays actions.

 2. Tactics for Facebook

We propose writing social media content with more clarity as if CCIA writes for people who have

little to no knowledge about the news it shares. Clear communication allows audiences to process

messages quickly.

CCIA should prioritize the 5 Ws (Who, What, When, Where, Why) in each message and put

increased emphasis on the Why. For example, instead of simply saying please register for our upcoming

event, CCIA can offer little information why the event is helpful to attendees (why audiences should

know about the news CCIA shares or actions the association has taken).

CCIA can use first-person when writing messages. For instance, instead of addressing CCIA's CEO

is speaking at XYZ event, CCIA can announce: We are happy to see (name of individual) speaking at

XYZ event. Glad to have his/her our voice heard! We also suggest the use of a call to action. However, a

compelling call to action often goes with its why.

To illustrate our tactics, we offer CCIA two sample Facebook posts:

We were excited to welcome nearly 100 participants, including numerous antitrust attorneys, to our
launch panel discussion on Internet Platforms and Competition Policy. Like our page to get regular
updates on our work!

(This sample post is written in the first person and includes a call to action.)

What needs to be done to save the free flow of data in EU? Check out a highlight video of a debate
where participants address the best approach to enable data flows within EU!

(This sample post offers audiences the reason why they should watch the video, what the video is about,

and a call to action)

Hypothetical Evaluation

The tactics above can be evaluated by the number of social media engagement (likes, shares, and

comments) of the social media content created by using these tactics.

Pitch Emails
Developed by:
Giovanni Salvatori and Tatiana Peralta

CCIA has media trained professionals who would be willing to talk on news outlets in regards to

CCIA related topics. One of our strategies was to create more awareness on what CCIA is and what they

do to create awareness. We used CISION, a software which helps PR professionals find producers to

pitch e-mails too and called companies to find out who their best contact was to email our technology

pitches to. We found a total of eight producers on networks such as C-SPAN, Bloomberg, and BBC who

would be the main point of contacts for technology pitches. We were also able to find a local radio station

since the D.C area is very aware of this kind of legislation. The biggest challenge was finding the

producers and contact information for the right people we wanted to reach.

We covered the topics of net neutrality, cybersecurity, and patent reform. These were all topics

which were discussed with CCIA and currently relevant in what they were covering at their offices. In

order to make the pitch less bland, we included how each issue could affect the every-day consumer. Net

neutrality keeps our internet fair. Cybersecurity is a huge concern, especially with Brexit happening in

2017. There are several landmark cases on patent reform and with the U.S being one of the brightest hubs

for technology many of these issues could affect our future as a nation in the tech world.

The pitch is shorter than normal pitches so the producers can quickly pick up on what our

message is. We also included links to articles written by reputable news sources on the issues we want to

get on air. Since most of the staff is media-trained, we would attach the contact sheet provided by the

client with our e-mails. However, the email lists Heather as the main point of contact for anyone

interested in taking the pitch. We included the information about CCIA at the end after discussing with

the client that most people arent going to care who CCIA is until after they read the pitch.
Hypothetical Evaluation

Pitches would be evaluated on the number of responses and interviews we would get after

sending the pitch out to the eight producers.

THE PITCH EMAIL

Hi [Insert Name],

I hope you are well!

The tech world is ever-expanding and changing, so it is important to stay up to date on all the
evolving issues. Below are three topics which we believe will be the most impacting this upcoming year,
including Net Neutrality, Brexit, and patent reform. Currently, technology is a bright spot for the U.S, and
some of the introduced legislation could affect whether it continues to be that. Attached is a list of our
experts who would be happy to share their opinions on these topics.
Net Neutrality helps keep all web traffic the same, and in the first half of 2017, it will be a big
topic to watch. The newly appointed FCC Chairman may try to undo the policy currently in place.
Without Net Neutrality, consumers could suffer, since certain companies could pay to have their websites
promoted over others. Internet user could lose their right to privacy and would be subjected to a digital
world controlled by large companies. Check out the upcoming 2017 Net Neutrality 'showdown'.
The exit by Britain from the EU could have serious implication for cybersecurity, since the EU
allows for development and progress of that field. Britain has opposed many of the rules and regulations
that the EU has placed on technology, so their policy after the separation will have an extensive impact on
European markets. Check out how Brexit affects technology.
With the coming year, the Supreme Court will be hearing several landmark cases on the issue of
patent reform, specifically on the prevalence and ubiquity of so-called patent trolls. These approaching
cases will have long-standing effects on both the average consumer and large business, so the outcome
will be of interest to many different parties. Kraft and patent rolls.

ABOUT CCIA:
The Computer & Communications Industry Association began in 1972. Its advocacy decades
ago against some of the tactics used by incumbents like IBM and AT&T led to actions by the Justice
Department that resulted in the rise of the software industry and competition that enabled the growth of
cell phones, the internet, apps, other IT startups and better prices for consumers. It remains committed to
open markets and competition and now represents a range of technology companies in Washington, D.C.
and Brussels. These include internet companies like Google and Facebook, internet access companies like
Sprint and Dish, and e-commerce sites like Amazon and eBay.
To interview CCIAs Washington, D.C. or Brussels staff please contact Communications Director
Heather Greenfield at: hgreenfield@ccianet.org. Thank you.

CONTACTS FOR TECHNOLOGY PITCHES

C-SPAN:
Michele Remillard, Executive Producer, Washington Journal mremillard@c-span.org
Handles all pitches for C-SPAN, the best point of contact.

NPR:
Alexi Horowitz, Assistant Producer, NPR ahorowitz@gmail.com
Not the official NPR e-mailed but best contact person for NPR pitches

WTOP-FM:
Jamie Forzato, News Director http://jforzato@wtop.com
All news producer

BLOOMBERG
Ben Steverman Staff Writer bsteverman@bloomberg.net

BUSINESS INSIDER
Rob Price UK Technology Reporter rprice@businessinsider.com

BBC
David Lee Technology Reporter dave.lee@bbc.co.uk

FORTUNE
Adam Lashinksky Technology Editor adam_lashinsky@fortune.com

Infographics
Developed by:
Meagan Ashner, Stephanie Gomez, and Tiarra Lowery

Infographic #1: Social Media Infographic

(Meagan Ashner)
 This infographic is intended to be posted on CCIAs social media to increase traffic to their

Facebook page and website. The design was created on Canva.com and features bold colors to grab

attention and an intriguing headline to garner interaction and clicks. The infographic outlines five topic

areas of which CCIA is most known for-- Fast and Affordable Internet Access, Silicon Valley, Modern

Cell Phones, Net Neutrality, and Copyright Rules. The infographic includes a lot of information in a small

space, making it ideal for social media posts. The language is simple and easily digestible for audiences

who may not be as familiar with what CCIA does. CCIAs members can also share this graphic to

promote their work and their relationship with CCIA.

Hypothetical Evaluation
This infographic can be evaluated by how many people like, comment, or share it on social

media. Facebook analytics can determine whether the post is driving traffic to their page or website also.

Infographic #2: Fact Sheet

(Stephanie Gomez)

The second infographic entitled, "Strong Technology Policies Equals a Freer Society" emphasizes

how innovation and access to information have increased and made the internet more accessible. This

tactic highlights CCIA's mission and how they have fought to keep the internet open, less restrictive,
copyright and the amount of impact they have had throughout the years. Similar to the other infographics,

it will be used on their website, social medias and shared through emails.

Hypothetical Evaluation

This product would be evaluated by the number of shares the infographic gets and how the target

audience receives the infographic which could be through a hyperlink that is connected to tweets,

Facebook/Instagram posts and emails. Ultimately, looking at the number of shares that are geared towards

a specific and measurable goal.

Fact Sheet
(Tiarra Lowery)

This fact sheet can be used to showcase the history of CCIA. It connects their current services to

practices which they have performed in the past. This tactic showcases CCIAs 40 years of experience
within the technology advocacy field. It presents a simple idea of what CCIA is and their history. It can

be used in coordination with the social media posts and shared freely on their websites.

Hypothetical Evaluation

This would be evaluated based on the numerical likes or retweets in coordination with the social

media posts. It could also be evaluated by how many times it was downloaded from their main website.

Website Recommendations
Developed by:
Jordan Latham

CCIA expressed they were not happy with their website and believed it to not accurately

represent their brand to the sites visitors. They believed the current state of the website (pictured below)
would undermine or at least create a significant obstacle for the new traffic driven to their site due to the

aforementioned tactics. I was tasked with creating a list of suggestions for CCIA to use in their future

redesign of their website.

(CCIA Homepage; http://www.ccianet.org)

One of the first things I suggested was to re-organize the site, or at least the home page. While

tech policy can be a dense subject with more text-heavy content than visuals, the CCIA home page should

still invite curious, information seeking people in without making them uneasy with a significant amount

of text when they first visit the site.

(CCIA Homepage; http://www.ccianet.org)

Above is the section of the homepage where news links and blog posts are featured. This is what

visitors see when they scroll past that first part, as my first picture indicates. The multi-column layout

CCIA currently sports is more in line with a more visual subject, such as photography. Because there is

little to no help from visuals and/or color distinctions (subjects I speak on later in this section), the

columns are the only thing separating big sections of texts, and the result is the information blending

together.

Also, part of the CCIA brand is how long theyve been active in tech policy, so they are rightfully

proud of all theyve accomplished since 1972. One of the requests they made of me was to find a place to

house their timeline of accomplishments. I suggest removing the rightmost widget column and

featuring a highlight reel of the most significant events in CCIA history. A more extensive/detailed

timeline would, of course, be featured on the websites About section.

 The overall style of the website should also be tweaked to reflect a simplified layout. A move to a

cleaner, more minimalist design would give CCIA that simplicity which would be easier to maintain as

well as aid the sites viewers in finding what they need on the site without becoming overwhelmed.

Below is a list of what CCIA could follow to achieve this look that I am suggesting.

(http://designinstruct.com/visual-inspiration/web-design-inspiration/clean-website-designs/)

A good example of the design I am suggesting would be the Internet Creators Guild:
 (https://internetcreatorsguild.com)

One other element the ICG uses well is in how they color their website. One of the not-so-helpful

things that occurs on the CCIA homepage is that there are only two colors - white and dark blue - with the

only other color being widgets or the main picture slide show. However, that slide show has little context

and the view doesnt understand why these pictures are being highlighted amongst the sites content. I

have made suggestions to add captions to clear up this confusion, but there still needs to be a change in

the color scheme. I came up with a few options for CCIA to consider:

The Vibrant color scheme would convey CCIAs active status in their advocacy. Two colors keep

it simple, but a light and dark versions of those colors give enough diversity to provide distinction. While

this scheme conveys excitement and activity, the very same attributes can be read as childish.
 The Cool color scheme is more relaxed and confident than the Vibrant colors, especially as seen

through the difference of the greens. While this color scheme can come off as more intelligent than the

Vibrant colors, it also is more subdued and basic.

Lastly, I have the Professional color scheme. It utilizes the same two colors as the current

website, but introduces two new, neutral colors. Mimicking the colors one would see in an office, the

Professional color scheme would speak to CCIAs vast experience in the field. However, given the nature

of tech policy, these colors could also easily read as dull and boring.

I listed the good and bad attributes of each color scheme for the client as I did above, so they may

weigh the alternatives against the overall image they wish to convey about their brand. All design

suggestions were intended to give general guidelines to future website designers without majorly

changing the content already housed on the CCIA site.

Hypothetical Evaluation

While most new interest on the website cannot be totally separated from the traffic driven in by

the previously mentioned tactics, CCIA can measure how successful their redesign is by monitoring

which parts of the website's users interact with over a course of a three to six-month period. I suggest this
time frame, because it would increase the likelihood the new engagement could be removed from curious

website regulars simply checking out the new features.

Conclusion

After concluding our PR evaluation and presenting CCIA with suggestions and materials to

improve their online presence, we have a complete report to present our findings and work. If

implemented, these PR tactics, as aligned with our goals and strategies, can improve CCIAs social media

following, spark general public interest in the organization, and make the information more accessible to

a wide range of audiences.