Please note, this course is only available for group registration. Contact me to learn more.

Welcome to Social Media In Action!

This course will teach you the basic functions of social media as a tool for organizational or personal success. Strategy and implementation of social media marketing looks different in every scenario. Therefore, this course is not designed to teach you a particular method of social media marketing, but to give you the tools and confidence you need to design your own approach. Through this experience, will learn how to think like an expert in social media marketing, how to relate to the individuals and departments that are part of the process, and most importantly, how to integrate new social media developments into your own environment.

Requirements and Resources

This course is designed to be an intensive hands-on experience. Students are required to have access to the Internet through a computer and preferably a mobile device as well. Instead of buying a textbook, students may expect to pay for access to certain social media aggregation and distribution platforms. These will be selected by the class or groups of students as they become necessary for certain projects

Your primary resource for this class will be your mind, your peers, and your professor. You can expect high levels of interaction with your classmates and with your instructor, especially around the group projects. Supplemental books and resources may be shared with the class as they become relevant to the projects you are involved with.

Although much of class time is dedicated to group discussions and projects, students will likely need to continue these projects outside of class through both online and in-person meetings. If you need help finding a place to meet or run into problems as a team, please come up with a creative solution and utilize the professor as a resource if needed.

To keep up with what the class is doing and share information, the class will choose a hashtag. The professor may post assignments and host discussions asynchronously via selected social media channels. He/She can also be reached at [insert contact details here].

Assignment Purpose

The purpose of graded assignments is to gauge student mastery of the learning and reflection process relative to the subject. Students are encouraged to make revisions to any assignment that does not receive full points.

Each project is worth 20 points for a total of 100.

Assignment Details

  1. SMT (Social Media Tool) Presentations

Individual students will prepare an overview of a social media tool they are unfamiliar with. This presentation should be 3-5 minutes long and include information about how to use the tool, who uses it, what features it offers, and scenarios in which it would be helpful. Presentation feedback is provided by the audience using two questions: what was helpful about the presentation? How can the presentation be improved? Students may comment on the content or the method of presentation.

  1. Nonprofit Research and Strategy Assignment

Beginning in week 2, individual students will research and write a report on a local nonprofit that includes a description of the organization, its goals, methods of achieving the goals, and the potential for using social media to support these goals. Students will explain why they chose to suggest certain social media strategies for this organization.

  1. Nonprofit Presentation

Within their teams, students prepare a presentation on a nonprofit. Presentations should include any relevant information from assignment 2 and should define a social media strategy for that organization to the class. The audience and professor will provide feedback on the content and style of the presentation using questions developed by the class. Members of each team can choose to analyze this feedback together or separately and from this feedback prepare a reflection paper explaining the thought process behind their methods and why they believe certain aspects of their overview, strategy, and/or presentation were successful or not. Grades will be assigned on the basis of this reflection paper.

  1. Corporate Social Media Presentation

Within their teams, students will research a company that they believe uses social media effectively. Presentations will provide an overview of the company and how social media supports the company’s goals. How social media fits with the marketing strategy

Grading methods are the same as for assignment 3. If students invite a guest presenter, possible topics of social media should include: cultural implications, working as a team, nonprofit vs. for profit strategy, or skill development resources. Students will facilitate the Q/A panel and reflect on their experience with the event.

  1. Class event Feedback Reflection Paper

The final project for the class is marketing and facilitating an event in week 15 that presents the class findings about social media to the nonprofits served during the semester and to other guests who want to improve their social media strategy. Event guests rate the helpfulness of the event and what they learned. Students will individually prepare a reflection paper analyzing the feedback and suggesting possible improvements. Examples of questions used for the paper include: What worked? What didn’t? Can you explain why? What would you do differently next time? How?

To continue reading, please click below for the Sample Class Outline

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