(UPDATED 1/15/2025)
Best Ways to Reach Me
- Canvas Messaging (preferred)
- Email: spencer_ross@uml.edu
- Phone: x45305, WhatsApp
Basic Course Information
- Course Meeting: Tuesdays/Thursdays 9:30a-10:45p, PTB 130
- Office Location, PTB 232 (If on campus)
- Office Hours: Tuesdays/Thursdays 12:15-1:45pm or make an appointment on Calendly
- Canvas Course Section
Table of Contents
- What’s this course about?
- What materials will you need?
- How will you be evaluated?
- What’s being evaluated?
- My course policies
What’s this course about?
The emphasis of this course is on understanding consumers’ social interactions, examining the various social media channels available to marketers, learning how to build social marketing strategies, and practicing how to track their effectiveness.
What should you be able to know after successfully completing this course?
| GOALS | OBJECTIVES |
|---|---|
| You’ll know/understand: | You’ll be able to: |
| How to differentiate between social media for personal use and social media for professional use. | Define social media marketing. |
| Evaluate differences between your own social media behaviors and brand/company social media behaviors. | |
| Apply professional standards to social media use. | |
| The theories and concepts behind social transmission of information that makes social media marketing different from traditional marketing. | Discuss the workings of social networks and how these networks augment marketing communication. |
| Discuss the role of social influence as a function of social transmission. | |
| How to use social media as an effective tool for strategic marketing planning. | Create clear goals and objectives for a social media campaign that creates awareness, consumer consideration and conversion. |
| Align target markets according to platform characteristics. | |
| Design a creative campaign that accounts for social media budgeting. | |
| How social media platforms vary in their tactical execution. | Identify the critical features of key social media platforms. |
| Create platform-specific content that is relevant to target markets and communities on social media. | |
| Leverage an understanding of social media platform features in the face of platform disruptions. | |
| Make decisions regarding which platforms to include in a social media campaign. | |
| Why strategic measurement is important to determine the effectiveness of social media marketing. | Identify social media KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) to determine the effectiveness of a social media campaign. |
| Link KPIs to strategic objectives. | |
| Monitor and evaluate the successes of a social media campaign using KPIs. |
What materials will you need to be successful in this course?
Text AND SIMULATION
Essentials of Social Media Marketing (2024), Charello, with Social Media Simternship (bundle), Stukent. $130 for the bundle ($150 a la carte ($80 for the book, $70 for the simulation). ISBN 9780999630242
I’m mindful of the costs of student textbooks when assigning them; they need to be beneficial to justify those costs. Each of these components is reasonably priced by itself and, as a bundle, saves about 13%. Social media is a topic that is constantly evolving and, with this text, you get indefinite access to a text that the publishers update every two years. This means it can be used as a long-term resource beyond the course– even as social media evolves. As well, there will be graded reading assignments from it for each assigned. The Simternship simulation will provide hands-on practice of concepts we discuss and will be graded as well.
Additional information on how to navigate the Stukent platform can be found here: Navigate the Stukent Platform
Canva
Canva is a basic graphic layout and design tool to create digital marketing content. The Canva Design School has a number of modules to help you create social media content. You are more than welcome to use other tools to create content, however, this is a good free one if you don’t have prior experience.
CANVAS
Welcome to the first semester using Canvas! I’ll post links and readings here, as well as assignment submissions here, the gradebook will be here, etc. I know that we’re all figuring it out, so will give grace to everyone in using it (in return I’m hoping you’ll be flexible with me as well as I figure out what’s where and what I can do/not do compared with other tools.
Additional Readings
As business students, you should naturally be visiting business related news sites (e.g., WSJ, FT, Bloomberg, Mashable, Business Insider, Social Media Examiner) and coming to each class ready to share articles and events relating to marketing topics. Part of your course engagement grade will heavily depend on being able to present, discuss, and debate these current marketing topics.
How will you be evaluated?
Summary (Points)
| Assignment | % Contribution to Course Grade |
| Check Your Understanding (14 @ 1%) | 14 | Simulation Rounds (12 @ 2%) | 24 |
| Personal Branding Assignment | 10 |
| Course Engagement | 10 |
| Manning BeHub Research Credits | 2 |
| Teamwork on Social Media Plan | 15 |
| Teamwork on Social Media Presentation | 20 |
| Project Peer Evaluation (online link) | 5 |
Performance Scale (Points)
| Excellent to Good | Satisfactory | Unsatisfactory but Passing | Failing |
|---|---|---|---|
| 94 – 100 = A 90 – < 94 = A- 87 – < 90 = B+ 84 – < 87 = B | 80 – < 84 = B- 77 – < 80 = C+ 74 – < 77 = C | 70 – < 74 = C- 67 – < 70 = D+ 64 – < 67 = D 60 – < 64 = D- | 0 – < 60 = F |
What’s being evaluated?
INDIVIDUAL WORK (60%)
Check your Understanding (14 @ 1% = 14%)
Low-stakes (but they add up– do none of them and the highest grade you could get in the class is a B!) assignments at the end of each chapter in the Stukent text. The point of these assignments is to evaluate your reading comprehension and ensuring you’re keeping up with materials for classtime.
SIMTERNSHIP SOCIAL MEDIA SIMULATION (12 rounds @ 2% = 24%)
The Simternship Social Media Simulation has you developing and executing social media strategy for the fictional Buhi Supply Co. (pronounced “Booey”). Each round, you’ll be required to spend some of the company’s social media budget to achieve social media goals. Different rounds will focus on different objectives. You’ll get various types of feedback that you can use for the next round and each round will be graded. The point of the Simternship Simulation is to help you a) practice strategy, tactics, execution, and measurement of social media strategy in the confines of a simulated environment b) gain knowledge to leverage later in applying it to a live client with real-world business challenges.
Personal Branding Assignment (10%)
There will be an assignment that relates to personal branding on social media– particularly as you develop a professional career. The assignment is designed to have you think strategically about how you present yourself as a potential employee (or entrepreneur) and apply what you’re learning to your own career development. The point of the personal branding homeworks are to have you evaluating how social media for personal use differs from social media for professional use.
Course Engagement (10%)
Communication skills are extremely important in marketing (after all, it’s one of the things we do!), which is why I grade course engagement on active participation and contribution, not mere class attendance (you’ll note I don’t have a formal attendance policy). I also expect everyone to actively engage in class discussions, any class exercises, and make quality contributions/discussions on Canvas. All of this counts as engagement. And since this class is going to run partially like a social media marketing agency, being a contributing member of the team is extremely important!
Therefore, course engagement is a function of: (in-class active participation + outside-class on Canvas)*(volume)*(quality). Both inside and outside of classtime, I encourage us to work hard to create and maintain a supportive, respectful, and empathetic environment. While I’ll help guide you, the class should be a thought lab to express your critical and analytical thinking, while also considering the backgrounds of others in and out of the class.
While you must be present in classes to be able to participate in them, I guarantee attendance alone will not earn a full 10% engagement mark (for example, attendance but no participation may earn closer to 80% while no attendance but a lot of participation may earn closer to 70%). Your involvement and participation are vital to the success of yours and your peers’ learning experiences; consistency and quality matter. I encourage actual, real discussion in and out of classtime. The point of course engagement is to foster communication and collaboration skills with peers, as well as to actively engage the content, both inside and outside class lecture.
Manning BeHub (Behavioral Hub) Research Credits (2%)
You’re required to participate in at least 2.0 credits of Manning BeHub research studies (or, if you choose, see me for an alternative credit task) as part of your course grade. 2.0 credits is approximately 2-4 studies in a semester (1.0 credit = 1% of final course grade). Most studies take between 10-20 minutes per study. If you accumulate credits for my course in excess of the 2.0, up to an additional 2.0 credits may be awarded as extra course credit
Many studies will be online studies that can be done at home, though occasionally, in-person “lab” studies will be offered for credit or other incentives. I’ll send out announcements on Canvas to the class as the BeHub periodically announces new study availability. You may also direct BeHub questions to me as one of its co-administrators. Study availability may be ongoing through the semester. However, studies are usually only open for limited periods of time before they expire and are then unavailable for participating credit. Please make sure you participate in studies before they are closed. The point of participating in research studies is that these studies will help your professors (including me) generate knowledge and insight about business, as well as give you firsthand experience of how business research is conducted
TEAM WORK (40%)
TEAM WORK ON Social Media Plan (15%)
The culmination of the course is a social media plan that ties together the course goals. We will be working with real local businesses as our clients. Different teams will work with different clients, but each team will function like a social media marketing agency, with groups within the teams having different functions. Your groups will then contribute to the team’s social media plan. This plan will be due by the end of the semester and will incorporate everything you’ve learned
The groups will be ~5 members and there will be different points where teams will work on something and then we’ll critique/discuss strategy as a whole class. If there is a problem within the group, you should inform me as soon as problems arise.
Groups may meet with me during any class workshops or outside class. If there’s a problem within the group, you should inform me as soon as problems arise, not the week before deadlines. The point of the social media plan is to showcase written communications skills, to work on interpersonal skills in a teamwork collaboration, and to demonstrate social media strategy, execution, and evaluation in a cumulative fashion.
TEAM WORK ON Social Media Presentation (20%)
Your team will contribute to a 30-40 minute pitch of your social media marketing plan. In contrast with the plan, which should have a lot of written strategy, the presentation is an opportunity to bring your plan “to life” with a presentation of the content. The point of this presentation is to demonstrate oral communications skills in a visual presentation that communicates to a client, in cumulative fashion, how to use social media as an effective tool for strategic marketing planning.
Online Peer Evaluation (5%)
A link to a rigorous online peer evaluation form will be distributed in the last week of class. Failure to submit the evaluation by the assigned date will be an automatic “0” (zero) for your own evaluation score, as I use your peers’ scores to calculate your own evaluation grade. If you can’t be bothered to give your peers their scores, I won’t be bothered to calculate your score.