Syllabus Social Media Marketing Spring 2011

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S S o o c c i i a a l l M M e e d d i i a a M M a a r r k k e e t t i i n n g g A A s s h h w w i i n n M M a a l l s s h h e e MKTG 480F Spring 2011

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This is the syllabus for my Social Media Marketing course. Feel free to share it with others. Just acknowledge the source--me!

Transcript of Syllabus Social Media Marketing Spring 2011

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SSoocciiaall MMeeddiiaa MMaarrkkeettiinngg

AAsshhwwiinn MMaallsshhee

MKTG 480F

Spring 2011

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Table of Contents

Table of Contents ......................................................................................................... 1

Prologue ......................................................................................................................... 2

Introduction .................................................................................................................. 4

Course Requirements .................................................................................................. 4

Recommended Reading List ....................................................................................... 5

Books ......................................................................................................................................... 5

Websites ................................................................................................................................... 5

Blogs .......................................................................................................................................... 5

Case Studies .................................................................................................................. 5

Group Project ................................................................................................................ 6

Project Report ......................................................................................................................... 7

Grading .......................................................................................................................... 8

Letter Grade Translation .................................................................................................... 8

Schedule ........................................................................................................................ 9

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Prologue Conversations are us Words are aplenty but inept Encrypted in each whisper is a message And thousands in a fleeting glimpse When was the last time you conversed with someone? About anything...that new song you heard on the radio or the semester that is ahead of you? Anywhere…on the phone, in person, on Facebook? With anyone…friends, parents, siblings, or that random guy on the elevator? Perhaps you are conversing even now while reading this text! Conversations are fundamental to our existence. As human beings, we tried hard to achieve the ability to converse. We invented languages—thousands of them—in order to improve the efficiency of our communication (Then we decided that words were too easy: “Talk is Cheap”). We continued to converse. That’s how we shared our stories with others—those who matter as well as those who don’t. The conversations are already happening for age—by hand gestures, sounds, and written symbols. We evolved from meeting personally to writing letters to making phone calls to sending emails. And then we evolved again. We created the Internet and online social networks. This is the latest and the most evolved medium for conversations. This is the social medium. You and I are already here. Now the firms want to join us too. They were part of our conversations. Now they want to take part in these conversations. The question is “Will they add value to our lives?” Remember that it is not us who are entering their world; it is the businesses that are knocking on the doors of our social networks. As future employees, you will usher into the corporate world that is desperately trying to understand the conversations of its consumers. Their focus on social media is not just a fad or a spark in the pan. There is serious money riding on it. The businesses that ride this trend will survive or even thrive. The ones left behind will die. You want to join the living, thriving ones. Embracing social media for businesses is not just a shift in the communication strategy. It is a part of the fundamental change in the corporate culture that is antiquated. It demands transparency. The consumer doesn’t want to be treated like a king, rather just a human being. But treating people like, say people, is the toughest task for the businesses. Their current marketing strategies are influenced by industrial manufacturing practices. “If the goods can be grouped together, why can’t be the people?” ask the marketers. They then segment the human race into “homogenous groups”—each person in the segment is the same as the other. They position their brands in our minds—every consumer looks at the brand the same way. This has to change. The businesses have to be more than just legal entities—nexus of contracts. They are run by people for the people. It is high time we bring out the human elements within the businesses in order to converse with the consumers. Remember the consumers have a

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choice. If they don’t want, they will not include a “legal entity” in their social networks. Why in the world should we share our interests with a cyborg? Why should we make our memories, pictures, and opinions, however plain they may be, available to a non-human? If businesses have to converse with humans, they have to become human. And converse they must! Because if they don’t, they will be left behind to decay and fade into the oblivion.

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Introduction In a recent survey of the 100 largest Fortune Global 500 companies, public relations firm Burson-Marsteller (www.burson-marsteller.com) found that more than three-quarters (79%) of the top 100 companies are using at least one of the four social media platforms: Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, or corporate blogs. The study reported that people are following companies for news and information about the company, products, and promotions, to offer feedback, and to engage customer service. In another study, eMarketer1 reports that the US social media advertising spending will hit $2.0 billion. Clearly, social media marketing has emerged as an important marketing strategy. In this course we will focus on understanding the following:

Why social medium has become important for the future of business How can social media marketing strategies be constructed and implemented What changes in the corporate culture are required What the limitations of social media marketing are How to (or try to) measure the effectiveness of social media strategies

This course requires you to modify the current marketing strategies such as segmentation, targeting, and positioning. We will learn how the traditional business model of mass production of communication is meaningless and irrelevant in social networks. Course Requirements

Reading, and lots of it. I will make available tons of articles every week. You are expected to construct in your mind your own versions of the past, present, and future of social media and share with the rest of us in the class.

Carrying out a real life social media marketing project for a local business. More details about the project are given below. You should be able to design and implement a social strategy that involves different aspects of marketing strategies. You may need to overcome barriers within the organization and recommend changes in other aspects of the business such as human resources.

Attending the classes regularly and participating in the class discussions of case studies that will be assigned to you from time to time.

Creating and managing your own blog/website, setting up a Twitter account, etc. I will show you the tools to help you in this. You don’t need the knowledge of computer programming to do it.

1 http://www.emarketer.com/Article.aspx?R=1007869

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Recommended Reading List We don’t have a required textbook for this course. Books

“The New Community Rules: Marketing on the Social Web,” by Tamar Weinberg (ISBN-10: 0596156812) “Groundswell: Winning in a World Transformed by Social Technologies,” by Charlene Li and Josh Bernoff (ISBN-10: 1422125009) “The Whuffie Factor: Using the Power of Social Networks to Build Your Business,” by Tara Hunt (ISBN-10: 0307409503) “The Dragonfly Effect: Quick, Effective, and Powerful Ways to Use Social Media to Drive Social Change,” by Jenifer Aaker and Andy Smith (ISBN-10: 0470614153) “Web Analytics 2.0: The Art of Online Accountability and Science of Customer Centricity,” by Avinash Kaushik (ISBN-10: 0470529393) “The Hyper-Social Organization: Eclipse Your Competition by Leveraging Social Media,” by Francois Gossieaux and Ed Moran (ISBN-10: 0071714022)

Websites

Fast Company: http://www.fastcompany.com/ New York Times Business: http://www.nytimes.com/pages/business/index.html

Blogs

Jeremiah Owyang: http://www.web-strategist.com/blog/ Mashable: http://mashable.com/ Six Pixels of Separation: http://www.twistimage.com/blog/

Case Studies, Articles, and Reports We will discuss case studies, articles, and reports from time to time. I have listed these readings in the schedule. You are expected to have read and analyzed the material even before you come to the class. In case you did not read them, and therefore couldn’t participate in the class discussion, you will lose the points assigned for the cases, articles, and reports.

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Individual Assignment There will be one individual assignment during the semester. It will require you to describe a real life case of application of social media marketing strategies. The case can be a success or a failure. The report that you will submit will have the following structure: Brief introduction about the business and the products Why they decided to take social media route Description of their strategy The discussion about the outcome—success or failure Recommendations You will not need to take my approval for this paper before you start working. The report will be written in Times New Roman 12 point font size in double-space. The minimum length of the paper is 4 pages and the maximum length is 5 pages. You can also make the report as a presentation with videos and other web links embedded. This presentation should follow the same above format but there are no restrictions on the font, size, and number of slides. You can either submit the report as a Word file or a PowerPoint file but not both! Also, you don’t have to make any presentation to me. The individual assignment report is due on 5:00 PM, Tuesday, March 1, 2011

Group Project We will divide the students in groups of 5. The group composition can be done randomly or you may choose your group mates. This will be done in the first week of the classes. Each group has to work on a real life project for a local business. You don’t have to look for the businesses; I will get the projects for you. You are expected to start working on the project from the first week. The project will advance in the standard fashion:

1. You will meet the business owners to understand their business, the current business environment, their objectives for the long term, and what they want to achieve in the short term.

2. Based on this meeting, you will outline the objective of your social media strategy. Note that there will not be any specific action identified at this time. For example, you need not say that the objective is to get at least 500 fans on Facebook page.

3. You will meet the business owner to clarify that all of you are on the same page. At this point you are expected to make your course objective very clear to them. You should be focusing only on the social media marketing aspect of their business.

4. In order to get a better understanding of the project you may have to conduct surveys to understand what people think about the business.

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5. You will design a social media strategy for the business and present it to the class in the first week of April.

6. You will implement your social media strategy with appropriate evaluation plan in place.

7. In the second week of May you will make a presentation to the class and perhaps to the business owners where you will discuss the status of your project, how the social media strategy is being implemented, what the different performance measures are, and how the businesses should handle the strategy going forward.

The group project carries 50% of your overall grade, which means that this is a very important part of your overall performance. The group as a whole will get the same grade for the project. However, your peers will evaluate you on a scale of 1 to 10 points. Your score on the group project will then be multiplied by your peer evaluation score. For example, if you get 50 points on your group project but your group mates give you only 5 out 10 points on peer evaluation, your score from the project will be 50×(5/10) = 25 points. The group will create and maintain a blog of their group project. The blog will be updated at least once a week and disseminate information about their progress. The group may choose to use Twitter in addition to the blog. Project Report As part of your group project, you will submit a written report along with all the supporting material such as survey questionnaire (if used), raw data, etc. The report will be comprehensive. It will detail all the steps you have taken to complete the project. Ideally, you should start working on the project report right from the first week so that all the details about the project are captured. The project report will be 12-15 pages double-spaced excluding all the tables, figures, graphs, and bibliography. You have complete liberty to choose the format of your report. However, it should be professional looking since you are giving it to a business owner. The project report is due on 5:00 PM, Tuesday May 10, 2011

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Grading The following is the scheme for grading Task Points Notes Group Project 50

Proposal Presentation 10 March 15 and 17 Final Presentation 10 May 10 and 12 Project Report 30 Due on May 10 by 5:00 PM

Individual Assignment

20 Due on March 1 by 5:00 PM

Class Participation and Case Studies

25

Attendance

5

Letter Grade Translation

Letter Grade Total Points A ——— 95% and above A- ——— From 90% to 95% B+ ——— From 86% to 90% B ——— From 82% to 86% B- ——— From 78% to 82% C+ ——— From 74% to 78% C ——— From 70% to 74% C- ——— From 65% to 70% D ——— From 60% to 65% F ——— Below 60%

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Schedule Day Topic Readings Activity

Jan 25 Introduction Syllabus

Discussion about the course Expectations from you Overview of the project

Jan 27

Overview of marketing strategy and how marketing has changed in the Internet era

Chapter 17 from “Kellogg on Marketing” “The Social Side of the Internet”

Understanding the differences between the traditional and the new age marketing

Feb 1 Introduction to Social Media Marketing

Chapter 1 from “New Community Rules” “Tribalization of Society”

Defining social media marketing

Feb 3

How people communicate The spread of social media

Chapter 1 from “Share This!” “Twitter Power: Tweets as Electronic Word of Mouth” “The Effect of Word of Mouth on Sales”

Understanding the power of word of mouth How social media can be used for word of mouth communication

Feb 8 How business culture will change-Part I

Chapter 3 from “The Whuffie Factor” “Social Media Can Change The Corporate Culture” from Six Pixels of Separation blog Case study on Dell

Looking at the changes required in the organization to embrace social media marketing

Feb 10 How business culture will change-Part II

Chapter 4 from “The Whuffie Factor” Chapter 5 from “Hyper-Social Organization”

Feb 15 Social media strategy—The beginning

The dragonfly body from “The Dragonfly Effect” Chapter 5 from “The Whuffie Factor”

Building social media strategy from the scratch

Feb 17 Social media strategy—The beginning

Chapter 3 from “Share This!” Chapter 2 from “New Community Rules” Case study on SAP

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Day Topic Readings Activity

Feb 22 Understanding the tools: Corporate Blogs

Chapter 5 from “New Community Rules” Chapter 5 from “Groundswell”

Hands-on learning Feb 24 Understanding the

tools: Twitter Chapter 6 from “New Community Rules”

Mar 1 Understanding the tools: Facebook, Linkedin, etc.

Chapter 7 from “New Community Rules”

Mar 3 Understanding the tools: Widgets and geolocation

Chapter 6 from “Groundswell”

Mar 8 Guest lecture TBA Mar 10 Open office hours Discussion with Ashwin

Mar 15 Presentations Brief description about the business and its products Challenges faced by the business Your plan for the social media strategy Mar 17 Presentations

Mar 29

Grabbing attention in a crowded market place

Engage from “The dragonfly Effect” Chapter 7 from “The Whuffie Factor” Using multimedia

Mar 31 Using photos, videos, and podcasts

Chapter 11 from “New Community Rules”

Apr 5

Social media metrics: Part I

Chapter 11 from “Hyper-Social Organization” Chapter 16 from “The New Language of Marketing 2.0”

Understanding social media metrics Can we compute the ROI yet? Introduction to social media dashboards

Apr 7 Social media metrics: Part II Chapter 9 from “Web

Analytics 2.0” Apr 12 Social media metrics:

Part III

Apr 14 Social media in product development and innovation

Chapter 17 from “Hyper-Social Organization”

Linking social media marketing with R&D and HR

Apr 26 Social media in talent acquisition and development

Chapter 18 from “Hyper-Social Organization”

Apr 28 Future Chapter 8 from “Socialnomics”

Discussing where we go from here

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Day Topic Activity May 3 Guest speaker TBA May 5 Open Office Discussion with Ashwin

May 10 Presentations Progress since the last presentation Final plan Implementation Metrics Future

May 12 Presentations

Contacting Ashwin

Here are all the ways in which you can contact me

Office AA219 Office Hours TBA Office Phone 607-777-6280 and 607-205-8766 Website

www.ashwinmalshe.com

Blog

http://ashwinmalshe.wordpress.com

Twitter

http://twitter.com/ashwinmalshe

LinkedIn

http://www.linkedin.com/in/ashwinmalshe

Facebook Page

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Social-Media-Marketing/140544266003347?ref=ts