Before You Start
Every semester begins with a mock client project. This is your training ground — a real project scope with a real client relationship, before you take on an outside client. Read this first.
Client projects are the hardest thing you'll do in DCS — not because of the technical work, but because of everything around it. Scheduling meetings professionally. Taking good discovery notes. Sending a follow-up email the same day. Presenting your work when the client can push back in real time.
The mock client project puts all of that in front of you at the start of the semester, in a lower-stakes environment. You can make mistakes here. You can learn what a real project lifecycle feels like before a real outside client is depending on you.
The client is your instructor — but the relationship is real. Show up prepared. Communicate professionally. Deliver actual work. These habits transfer directly to every other client project you'll run at APEX.
- Project Launch — Set up the project, create your professional infrastructure (Slack channel, calendar events, scheduling email), and log everything in the APEX Professional Dashboard.
- Discovery & Research — Prepare for and run a discovery meeting with Russ as your client. Then audit APEX's actual social media accounts and document what you find.
- Strategy & Content — Use your audit findings to recommend a strategy. Build a 4-week content calendar and create sample posts for each content pillar.
- Presentation & Delivery — Present your full recommendations to the client in a structured meeting. Incorporate feedback. Deliver a final package of documents.
Discovery Meeting — The first formal meeting with a client. Your goal is to understand their goals, audience, constraints, and definition of success — not to pitch anything yet.
Social Media Audit — A structured analysis of a brand's existing social media presence. You're measuring what they're doing, how it's performing, and what's missing.
Content Pillar — A recurring theme or category of content. Most brands organize their social presence around 3–5 pillars (e.g., Student Work, Program Culture, Industry Connections).
Content Calendar — A scheduled plan for what gets posted, when, and on which platform. It's the bridge between strategy and execution.
Engagement Rate — (Likes + Comments + Shares) ÷ Followers × 100. A rough measure of how much an audience actually interacts with content. More meaningful than follower count alone.
Brand Voice — The consistent personality and tone a brand uses across all communications. Is APEX formal or casual? Inspirational or informational? Defining this is part of your strategy work.
This project generates real portfolio artifacts across multiple Standards. Watch for the "Send to Portfolio" button throughout the playbook.
Client relationship artifacts — discovery meeting notes, follow-up emails, the presentation itself.
Social media audit, strategy document, content calendar, and sample posts.
Scheduling emails, calendar management, Slack communication, and final delivery email.
Log this project in the APEX Professional Dashboard. Practice using it throughout — you'll use it all semester.
This project runs over three class periods (2 hours each). Some work — especially the audit research and Canva designs — can happen between class days. Use this as your target, not a hard rule.
Project Setup
Name your project, define your team's roles, and capture the basics. This information will anchor everything you build from here.
Every professional project has defined roles. Assign these before your first meeting so everyone knows their lane. Roles can overlap on small teams.
Professional Infrastructure
Before you do any research or creative work, set up the professional scaffolding every real project runs on. These are Standard 5 skills — and they're habits professionals build early.
Every project at APEX has its own Slack channel. This keeps communication organized and separated from general class conversation.
Every confirmed date goes on the team Google Calendar immediately. This is non-negotiable on real client projects. Include: event name, location (or video link), and any prep required in the description.
Scheduling a client meeting via email is a professional skill. You are not texting your instructor — you are emailing a client. The email should be clear, professional, offer specific times, and use a proper sign-off.
Study this template, then write your own version in the field below. Do not copy it word-for-word — personalize it with your team name, real dates, and your own voice.
Open the APEX Professional Dashboard and create a new project entry for this mock client project. The Dashboard is your semester-long professional record. Practice using it now so it becomes habit.
Checkpoint: Discovery Prep
Before your client discovery meeting, check in with Russ. This is a pre-meeting alignment — make sure your questions are sharp, your roles are clear, and you know what you're trying to learn.
Bring these questions to the checkpoint
- Look at our discovery question list — are we missing anything important for a social media project?
- Who is leading the meeting and who is taking notes? Do you know your roles?
- What's the one thing you most need to understand after this meeting to move forward?
- How will you send the follow-up email, and who owns it?
Client Discovery Meeting
This is the most important meeting of the project. Your goal is not to impress the client — it's to understand them. Leave with clear answers to why, who, and what success looks like.
- What are the primary goals for APEX's social media? (Recruit students? Showcase work? Build community? Stay connected with alumni?)
- Who is your target audience? Who do you most want to reach — prospective students, current students, parents, community partners, alumni?
- Which platforms feel most important to you right now? Which feel like they're not pulling their weight?
- What content has performed best in the past, even informally? What do people respond to?
- What content do you wish you could do more of but haven't?
- Are there any constraints we need to know about? (Student photo permissions, approval processes, brand guidelines, content Russ doesn't want posted?)
- How often would you ideally like to post on each platform?
- Who currently manages the accounts and what does that workflow look like?
- What does "success" look like for you after this project? How will you know our strategy worked?
- Is there anything about APEX's brand or voice that's non-negotiable?
Take notes during the meeting. Don't rely on memory. Even if another team member is the primary note-taker, write down what you hear. Bring these notes back to this field after the meeting.
Send a follow-up email within 24 hours of every client meeting. It should: thank them for their time, summarize the key decisions made, and list clear next steps with owners. This is Standard 1 client relationship territory — and it signals that you're a team they can trust.
Social Media Audit
Before you recommend anything, you have to know what's already there. A social media audit is structured observation — not opinion. Document what you see, then draw conclusions.
- Follower count & growth trend
- Post frequency (per week/month)
- Content mix: photos, Reels, carousels, Stories
- Average likes & comments per post
- Top 3 performing posts — why did they work?
- Grid aesthetic / visual consistency
- Bio: clear? link in bio useful?
- Story Highlights: exist? organized?
- Hashtag strategy used?
- Brand voice: consistent?
- Page follower/like count
- Post frequency
- Content types: links, photos, videos, events
- Avg. engagement per post
- Top performing posts — themes?
- Page completeness (About, hours, etc.)
- Events section used?
- Response to comments/messages?
- Audience feel vs. Instagram — different?
- Follower count
- Post frequency
- Content types: updates, associate spotlights, articles
- Avg. engagement per post
- Top performing posts
- Company page completeness
- Professional tone consistent?
- Alumni / partner content present?
- Industry keywords in profile?
Engagement rate is the most useful metric for comparing how well content actually connects with an audience — especially when accounts have different follower counts.
Calculate this for each platform. Compare across platforms. A platform with low follower count but high engagement may deserve more investment than one with large but passive following.
After analyzing each platform, write a brief summary of your overall findings. What are the biggest strengths? What are the most urgent gaps? What opportunities are being missed?
Strategy & Theme
The audit told you what exists. The strategy tells you what should exist — and why. This is where research becomes recommendation. Write it clearly enough that the client can act on it without you in the room.
Who are you actually trying to reach on social media? Be specific — "everyone" is not an answer. Most programs have 2–3 distinct audiences with different needs.
Content pillars are the 3–4 recurring themes your social presence is built around. Every post should connect to at least one pillar. This creates consistency and makes content planning faster.
The pillars below are starting suggestions for APEX — adjust them based on what you learned in discovery and the audit. Document your final pillars in your strategy document.
Showcase actual projects, client deliverables, and finished work. The proof that APEX associates do real things.
Behind-the-scenes, team moments, cohort activities, and what it actually feels like to be an APEX associate.
Industry partner spotlights, alumni updates, career paths, and professional skill highlights.
Community clients, partner organizations, events, and ways APEX connects with Waukee beyond the classroom.
Consistency in visual style and tone is what makes a brand feel like a brand — not just a feed of random posts. Define both before you build the content calendar.
Checkpoint: Strategy Review
Before you build the calendar and create posts, review your strategy direction with Russ. Catching a misaligned strategy here saves hours of rework later.
Walk through these before the meeting
- Are our content pillars actually connected to what the client told us in discovery — or are they just guesses?
- Does our visual direction align with APEX's actual brand? Can we show examples?
- Is our posting frequency recommendation realistic for an associate team to maintain?
- Does the strategy address what the client said success looks like?
Content Calendar
The content calendar is where strategy becomes a schedule. You're not just planning what to post — you're building a sustainable system the client can actually use after you're done.
Build a 4-week content calendar covering all platforms. Each row represents one planned post. Include these columns:
- Date
- Platform (IG / FB / LinkedIn)
- Content Pillar
- Post Format (Photo, Reel, Carousel, Story)
- Caption Theme / Hook
- Visual Concept / Photo Direction
- Status (Planned → In Progress → Ready → Posted)
- Hashtag set
- CTA (Call to Action)
- Link to design file (Canva)
- Who's creating this post
- Approved by (client sign-off)
Posting at the right time increases the chance your content actually gets seen. These are industry benchmarks — actual best times vary by audience. Note them in your strategy doc alongside the calendar.
9–11am & 2–4pm
Avoid Mon morning & weekends
10am–1pm
Engagement drops on weekends
8–10am & noon
Strictly weekdays
Sample Posts
Design 3–5 example posts — one for each content pillar — that show the client exactly what their feed could look like. These are proof-of-concept, not final content. But they should be polished enough to post tomorrow.
For each post, document all of the following — in your presentation deck and in your portfolio artifact:
- Platform (Instagram, LinkedIn, etc.)
- Post format (photo, carousel, Reel cover)
- Visual design (link to Canva)
- Content pillar it belongs to
- Full caption (written out completely)
- Call to action
- Hashtag set (Instagram)
- Rationale: why this post, for this pillar?
Captions are not one-size-fits-all. Adapt your voice and length to each platform's audience expectations.
Use this space to document your posts before you finalize them in your presentation deck. Write the key details for each below.
Checkpoint: Content Review
Before you present to the client, do a final review with Russ in your instructor role — not your client role. Make sure your deliverables are complete and presentation-ready.
Walk through these before your presentation
- Is the calendar usable? Could Russ pick it up tomorrow and post from it without asking questions?
- Do the sample posts actually look like APEX content — or do they look generic?
- Does the strategy connect back to what the client said in discovery? Can you point to specific evidence?
- Are your captions written in APEX's voice — or yours?
- Is your presentation structure clear? Does it tell a story from audit → strategy → calendar → samples?
Client Presentation
This is your moment. You've done the research, built the strategy, and created the content. Now you present it professionally and handle feedback in real time. This is what client work actually feels like.
A professional client presentation has a clear arc. Your total time should be 20–30 minutes, including Q&A. Divide it roughly like this:
- Introduction (2 min) — Who's presenting. Briefly restate what you were hired to do. Set the agenda so the client knows what's coming.
- Audit Findings (5 min) — Walk through what you found. Strengths, gaps, engagement data, platform comparisons. Use your audit document as a visual reference. Don't read from it — talk through the highlights.
- Strategy Recommendation (5–7 min) — Present your audience definition, content pillars, visual direction, voice, and posting frequency. Connect each decision back to something from discovery: "You told us your top priority is recruiting — that's why we built this pillar."
- Content Calendar Overview (3–5 min) — Walk through the 4-week calendar. Don't read every cell — show the logic, the variety, and how pillars are distributed. Explain the status flow.
- Sample Posts (3–5 min) — Show each designed post. Read the caption. Explain the pillar it supports and any platform-specific choices you made.
- Questions & Feedback (5–10 min) — This is the most important part. Listen more than you talk. Take notes. Don't be defensive.
Clients will push back. That's not failure — that's the job. Your response to feedback says more about your professionalism than your presentation slides.
Final Delivery & Wrap
Incorporate the client's feedback, finalize your deliverables, send the formal delivery email, and close the project. This is how real projects end.
Before you send the delivery email, make sure every document is complete, polished, and organized in a shared Google Drive folder.
The delivery email closes the project professionally. It gives the client one place to access everything and signals that you're organized, thorough, and trustworthy. Write and send this even if you handed things off in person.
Before you close this out, spend five minutes reflecting. These answers inform your portfolio entries and help you grow from each project.