Sarah Moreau

Spring 2021 – Evaluation Techniques for Professionals

In Evaluation Techniques for Professionals, we learned how to ethically conduct research, analyze research results and develop our own surveys to receive answers that help guide our decision making, and one of our assignments was to create a survey based in Qualtrics.

During this semester, I was also promoted to promoted from Senior Community Liaison to Communications Supervisor, and my school work took on a new levity. In my new role, I would have more responsibility and more autonomy to implement a communication strategy for the Oakland County Board of Commissioners.

In fall of 2022, I was able to put what I learned during Evaluation Techniques for Professionals into practice, particularly because of my leadership position. I wanted to understand what commissioners wanted to see from the communications team and how we could better serve them. I developed a survey and used the results to revamp our communication strategies, including more a more Board-focused storytelling strategy across our channels.

Fall 2021 – Catalyst Thinking in the C-Suite

For this course, “C-suite” has a double meaning. Yes, the idea of the class was that it would prepare us for higher level leadership and supporting those in the C-suite, however it prepared us for these opportunities through exercises in communication, collaboration, consistency, character, conviction, community, culture and change. The final assignment for this course was a personal development plan.

I put many of these goals into practice and tweaked a few along the way. By the spring of 2022, the chief of staff of the Board and I had re-written the team’s job descriptions and rolled them out as a way of resetting expectations. We also uncovered career paths that had previously been not been communicated to teammates and explained to them how they could use those to progress in their roles. I set regular meetings with teammates to help build my relationship with each of them, and as mentioned above, hosted a brainstorming session fall 2022 which has driven my team in a new strategy since. Together, I set goals with them individually, and during the budget process, I worked with the chief of staff to ensure there was funding for all of us to pursue professional development opportunities.

Summer 2022 – Strategic Message Development

This Facebook awareness campaign project brief was created as the final project in strategic message development. Through this course, we put together a project brief based on “storyscaping,” which a way to create immersive experiences that solve the challenge of connecting brands and consumers.

I have used this project, along with the commissioner communication survey, to update our approach to the Board’s Facebook page. In addition to putting the creative storytelling ideas into practice, including more infographic content and driving audience members to our page from other platforms, with the intention of organic growth.

Summer 2022 – Social Media Storytelling

In Social Media Storytelling, I took the Facebook awareness campaign project brief one step further and created a social media plan that built upon the project brief’s strategy. Using what I learned in this second course, I crafted a plan that incorporates an objective, goals, measurement, key messages, content ideas and an outline of possible risks.

Since developing this plan, the Board has launched the first round of Facebook ads for a paid follow campaign. In addition, we have experimented with content that focuses on commissioners and their work to really demonstrate what the Board’s role is in the community and will measure whether that increases engagement.