Social Media Marketing Class - Week 2 - Spring 2012

Readings/Preparation

The goal of this week is to begin thinking about what makes for effective social media marketing. First of all, read through the series of interviews I did with a group of people about how they use social media for marketing. The people on this list are involved in a wide range of activities. As you read the words of this diverse group, try to look beyond the differences for common themes regarding how social media can be used effectively for marketing.

Next, read through the first week's posts on your classmates blogs. Links to the blogs will be posted as the week 1 assignment is turned in (hence, the importance of turning in on time).Look at what your classmates say, what resources they found and linked to, the examples they posted, and their comments about the examples. Do your classmates posts seem in agreement with the interviews or in disagreement?

Then do some online research to see what the "experts" say about effective social media marketing. I say "experts" because there are many folks out their claiming to be "experts" trying to sell their seminars or consulting services. That being said, you can find a lot of good information online about how to be effective with social media marketing. For any site you use, you should evaluate its reliability. Again, consider whether what you read confirms or conflicts with the other things you have read.

Lastly, look at examples of organizations using social media for marketing: look at one or two examples in 3 or so different social media sites... i.e. all your examples should not be from facebook. Do the examples seem effective or not? Why?

Assignment

After you have done all the readings/preparatory activities, create a blog entry that lists 5 or so general guidelines for what makes for effective social media marketing. You can either specify things to do, or things to avoid doing. Support each item on your list with a few links to resources you found in the readings/preparatory activities. Upload the url of the blog entry you created to Angel