We created a survey on development of communication and it was open for answers from 27 April to 15 May 2020. The purpose of the survey was to find out students’ views on the student union’s communication, visibility at the campuses and corporate relations. 95 students answered the survey. The survey on development of communication is part of the action plan 2020 project Accessible and interesting communications.
Backgrounds
91 persons filled out the survey in Finnish and 4 in English. 54% of those surveyed study at the city centre campus, 45% at the Hervanta campus and 1% at Kauppi. Over 50% of those surveyed are in the 4+ years of theirs studies, on the other hand 12% of those surveyed were freshers.
TREY’s electronic communications
Facebook is the most popular social media among those surveyed, but with only a 1% lead to Instagram. In the multiple-choice question, the Facebook content of the student union was viewed notably useful (80%) and of good quality (55%). Many wished for the Facebook content to be more casual and personal.
Advocacy greetings
Advocacy greetings are posted on Facebook every Monday. Advocacy greetings highlight the advocacy work done the week before. 84% of those surveyed reads the advocacy greetings: 52% looks at through the main parts of it to stay up to date, and 32% thinks the format is a
We received many great improvement suggestions to the advocacy greetings, thank you for that! Many wished for concreteness in the contents: how the status of a single student was improved via advocacy work? Personality and faces behind the advocacy work were wished to the advocacy greetings, as well. The amount of text in the picture and the accompanying text divide opinions, and we will change the concept by trying different executions! The advocacy greetings were wanted to Instagram as well, so keep your eyes open and check our Instagram stories in the future too!
Instagram was the second most popular social media. Instagram is a growing social media, so we will invest in it further. 88% of those surveyed follow TREY’s Instagram stories. In the multiple-choice question, the Instagram content of the student union was viewed notably useful (85%), of good quality (50%) and equal (50%). The results of the survey reinforced our knowledge of the fact that Instagram is notably in the favour of international students.
TREY uses Twitter as an advocacy channel and communicates live about the council meetings, for example. In the multiple-choice question, the Twitter content of the student union was viewed notably useful (73%), of good quality (53%) and influential (53%). 72% of those surveyed think the student union publishes content on Twitter just the right amount (72%), on the other hand 27% of those surveyed think there should be more tweets. When asked what kind of content those surveyed would like to see in TREYs Twitter, 75% answered s
Newsletters
TREYs newsletter arrives to our subscribers inboxes in English and Finnish on Fridays. The newsletter highlights the student unions, universitys and our cooperation partners news and current events. You can subscribe to the newsletter in English here and in Finnish here. The newsletter is made using a service called MailChimp.
64% of the survey’s respondants subscribe to TREYs newsletter. In addition 22% subscribe to the educational affairs newsletter and 12% the social affairs newsletter. 77% of the respondents find the newsletters to be helpful. Newsletter overhaul, in which TREY switched to using MailChimp in order to produce more visual newsletters, was found to be an improvement to the previous version of the newsletter. A few ideas were given for improving the newsletters. For example a table of contents was added at the start of the newsletters due to the feedback that TREY received. This makes browsing the newsletters easier.
Website
Finding information from TREYs website is mostly easy according to the survey (36% find the information to be easy to found, 57% say its easy to find most of the time and 7% say it is difficult to find information). There were wishes for more expansive site layouts, but unfortunately these have been found to result in worse website performance and reduced usability. Archiving of old news and blog texts was a shame according to the anserts and TREY has taken efforts to republish old articles. We will also focus on updating the website more frequently, especially the event calendar!
Telegram
In the survey we asked if the respondents would like to receive information from the student union via a Telegram-channel. A channel in telegram is used for one-way informing, and you cannot respond to the messages in there. 59% of the respondents want a Telegram-channel and we will look into using this method of communications during the year 2021.
TREYs visibility on campuses
The survey charted student union’s and its brand visibility on campuses.
Service office
Student unions service desks are currently located in main building of the university’s city centre campus in room D213 (after Alakuppila and the arc wall, at the beginning of the D-hallway) and on the 2nd floor of the main building of Hervanta campus. Establishing a service office in the Kauppi campus is currently being looked at. 40% of the respondents to the survey know where both of the service desks are located, 11% of the respondents don’t know where either of these service desks are. The communication about opening times of the service desks are found to be fitting: 90% of the respondants get enough information about the opening times of service desks, 65% of the respondents look at the opening times via TREYs website and 18% from Facebook posts concerning exceptional opening times.
68% of respondents know where the student union new central office is located. The office moved during February 2020 from Hervanta campuses Rakennustalo building to a more visible place in Hervanta campuses main buildings floors 1 and 2.
Campuses
76% of the surveys respondents feel that the student union is visible enough in their own campus. The amount of visibility should be added to Kauppi campus, especially via organising more events and association occasions there. Getting a service desk in Kauppi will also surely increase TREYs visibility in the campus. Responders oped for more relaxed visibility in campuses via for example stands and coffee events. Student media was also a desirable way for the student union to be present on campuses.
The best forms of student unions visibility in campuses were table triangles (83% of the respondents), different posters (78%), TREY-sheet which is in every campus (62%) and different events (53%). 80% read the student unions monthly table triangle when they happen by it in cafeterias, association spaces or lobbies. 10% of the respondents read it often and another 10% don’t read it at all. The table triangles will be developed into a more ecological for the year 2021 and the content of these triangles will be iterated upon based on the survey.
Corporate cooperation
TREY participates in corporate cooperation with organisations which are student friendly or beneficial to students. Our cooperation is shown by f.ex advertisements in our different communications channels. One of the goals of the survey was to find out what kind of corporate cooperation is fitting and beneficial to the student union and in which channels and what amount of cooperation is considered as appropriate.
Most popular corporate cooperation partners were organisations that do things on behalf of students, for example in the form of student housing and meals (98%), provide discounts and benefits (95%), offer jobs and internship opportunities (78%) and organisations that enrich student life (73%). Unions and interest groups were also seen favourably. The most popular channles for cooperation were the Student Unions Facebook-site (55%) and Facebook-events (47%). 7% of the respondents don’t want to see any cooperate cooperation in the student unions channels. People found to be the amount of corporate cooperation TREY does to be appropriate (38%). 20% of the respondents feel that there could be more corporate cooperation. 26% of the respondents haven’t seen corporate cooperation in TREYs communication channels.
To summarize channels and the amount of corporate cooperation are currently seen as fitting. We will focus on developing our corporate cooperation content-wise to match our values and target group better.
Association actives
In the end of the survey we mapped out the thoughts of association actives regarding the student unions email lists. 60% of the overall respondents were active in an association. The student unions email lists are seen as beneficial and the messages that arrive there are read actively. 87% of the respondants are in the association list, which includes all of the boards of the associations operating within the student union. 58% of the respondants to this part were in TREYs communications list, which consists of communications officers of the associations. This list gets information about the current events of TREY, the university and our cooperation partners and the communication officers pass it on. People belonging to the list with the Syndicate or the chairs of the boards of the associations within TREY consists of 11% of the responders. 83% of the responders read all the messages that arrive to the lists and find them to be useful in their positions. Rest of the responders (17%) read the messages for the most part.
Kyselyn lopussa kartoitettiin järjestötoimijoiden ajatuksia ylioppilaskunnan sähköpostilistoista. 60% kyselyn kokonaisvastaajista oli järjestötoimijoita. Ylioppilaskunnan sähköpostilistat koetaan hyödyllisiksi ja niihin tulevat viestit luetaan. 87% vastaajista on järjestölistalla, johon kuuluvat kaikkien ylioppilaskunnan yhdistysasemassa olevien järjestöjen hallitukset. 58% vastaajista on tiedotuslistalla, jonka kautta järjestöjen tiedotus- ja viestintävastaavat välittävät tietoa eteenpäin ylioppilaskunnalta, yliopistolta ja yhteistyökumppaneilta. Puheenjohtajien listalle kuuluu Syndikaatti eli aine- ja edunvalvontajärjestöjen puheenjohtajat, ja kyselyyn vastaajista listalle kuuluu 11% vastaajista. 83% heistä lukee kaikki listalle tulevat viestit ja kokee ne hyödylliseksi pestissään. Loput 17% lukee listalle tulevat viestit pääosin.
Thank you!
TREYs communications sector wants to thank all the participants of the survey! We got a lot of constructive feedback via which we can improve our work and make the student unions communications even better than before! Changes will be made gradually: in some communications channels the changes will be immediate, others will change in the autumn and yet others during the year 2021. Thank you to everyone who wanted to influence our communications and its development!
– Saana, Aleksi and Ville (TREY’s communications sector 2020)