When I registered for Public Relations Theory and Practice, I immediately started brainstorming what a successful student-run Public Relations campaign looks like to me. My mind went blank, and I realized I didn’t have much to work with. Walking into the first day, I still pondered what I could work on. After being assigned to my group, we brainstormed, and we all felt the same passion about one thing: mental health.
We realized we had to be narrow and think of what impacts mental health: social media, homework, family, friends, and so much more. None of us are professionals in anything other than being teenage girls, but we all seemed to have the same outlook on how physical fitness impacts mental health. From there, Let’s Move IC was born.
Our idea seemed challenging, but we were motivated by a bright color palette and never-ending content ideas, and our commitment to creating welcoming fitness spaces on campus. After conducting a survey to find out more about Ithaca College students, we were ready to launch.
Most students feel held back by their academic workload, which isn’t anything we can control. But we can share information to show them that there is no limit to resources or spaces on campus to practice movement in any capacity. Similarly, 61.5% of people who spend 7+ hours a day on screens do not go to any on-campus fitness events. Research we conducted also says that increased usage of cell phones had a negative relationship with physical activity, which led to participants with the highest phone usage rates being less physically active and having worse cardiovascular health. After seeing and correlating data, we were only motivated more.
Our posts were consistent, cohesive, and colorful, and we accumulated an impressive amount of followers after the first week. Throughout the project, we got more creative and started to take more risks with our content and how frequently we posted. Although we learned that gaining traction doesn’t always come with a positive feedback; we were mentioned in a negative post on Yik Yak about our lack of body inclusivity, sparking another motivator for our account and overall campaign ideas. Body dysmorphia and unhealthy habits are prevalent on social media right now, and we wanted to make sure people of all bodies are acknowledged and celebrated. No one deserves to feel unrepresented or unappreciated.
Then our professor, Jen Huemmer, offered a challenge. She announced to our class that if we received fifty thousand views on a post, we didn’t have to take our final exam. I consider myself a social media connoisseur, and I immediately started thinking of what sounds on TikTok were trending. I landed on one that was popular at the moment, and in the video mentioned the challenge. Within twenty-four hours of posting on Instagram, we did it. We hit seventy-five thousand views in less than twenty-four hours. My team couldn’t believe it; no one else in our class was even close to this. We reached accounts not even in the area, and gained followers who aren’t IC students. This was a huge accomplishment for us, and we didn’t even care that we didn’t have to take the final; we felt famous! We started getting recognized on campus and praised for our hard work.
As the semester comes to a close and our time as students in Public Relations Theory and Practice comes to an end, my team and I have to reflect on our time. I am very fortunate to have worked with such an amazing group of women. Callie, Ava, and Greta, I thank you for your resilience and creativity and for being amazing partners on this project. To Professor Huemmer for building such a welcoming environment and for encouraging out-of-the-box ideas, your support was a huge part of our success. And to our followers, thank you for letting us take our class project to the next level. We hope you stick around and always keep moovin’ n groovin’.