Lakeview-Fort Oglethorpe students take third in statewide marketing competition

DECA Faculty Advisor Dewayne Watkins and Lakeview-Fort Oglethorpe students pose with Ecolink representatives Brandon Pelissero and Rhace Smith. Clockwise from bottom left are Pelissero, Watkins, Smith, Jake Reid, Jonathan Anderson and Deandra Rowe and Hannah Rae. (Contributed photo)
DECA Faculty Advisor Dewayne Watkins and Lakeview-Fort Oglethorpe students pose with Ecolink representatives Brandon Pelissero and Rhace Smith. Clockwise from bottom left are Pelissero, Watkins, Smith, Jake Reid, Jonathan Anderson and Deandra Rowe and Hannah Rae. (Contributed photo)
photo DECA Faculty Advisor Dewayne Watkins and Lakeview-Fort Oglethorpe students pose with Ecolink representatives Brandon Pelissero and Rhace Smith. Kneeling front from left are Roy Chapmen, Jake Reid and Smith. Standing from left are Prem Patel, Jonathan Anderson, Pelissero, Nikki Parker, Deandra Rowe, Watkins, Hannah Rae and Thomas Broyles.(Contributed photo)

It's not unusual for teens to be glued to social media, but it isn't often that their time spent tweeting and posting earns them an actual profit.

Lakeview-Fort Oglethorpe High School students recently harnessed the power of social media to earn themselves $725 by snagging a third-place spot in a statewide competition hosted by Ecolink, a Georgia-based company that supplies eco-friendly chemicals to businesses nationwide.

The competition, called Anaheim or Bust!, was aimed at students who are part of the Distributive Education Clubs of America, an international organization that prepares students for management, marketing and entrepreneurship positions.

DECA students from 14 schools were challenged to use social media to promote Ecolink and one of its products across an array of selected platforms such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube, among others. Students were ranked based on their level of engagement with the online community. The more original content, like photos and videos, they posted, the more points they were awarded. And the more shares, likes and retweets their posts got, the higher their standings soared.

With only 75 DECA students in their small school - compared to the hundreds on other teams - the students at LFO knew they were at a disadvantage.

"But we like to win," said Deandra Rowe, a junior at LFO and public relations officer for the club.

The students started out the competition strong and kept that momentum going. They got the word out about Ecolink's biodegradable degreaser RIP-TIDE, created short video infomercials encouraging other students to pick up trash to keep the environment clean, and gifted anyone who followed all of their media platforms with either a muffin or lollipop.

Though the projects were spearheaded by the four DECA students in the school's entrepreneurship class, they made sure to get everyone - even their faculty adviser Dewayne Watkins - involved.

"That's what they said they liked a lot [about our videos]," Deandra said. "That you didn't see the same three faces over and over again."

With points weighed against the number of students at each school and the full support of their classmates, LFO was the only school that made the leader board all five weeks of the competition.

"As a school, it shows how hard that we do work for the stuff that we have," said Deandra.

Two Ecolink representatives visited the school December to alert the students of their prize: $500 for placing and an additional $225 for dominating the scoreboard. The money will go toward travel fees for DECA students planning to attend the organization's International Career Development Conference in Anaheim, Calif.

"Doing this has helped all of us realize that social media is a lot bigger than we all think," Deandra said. "It just showed us that social media isn't always bad; it can be used for a very good purpose."

The school's DECA program will be formally awarded the prize money at the DECA State Career Development Conference in February.

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