Social Media Marketing Class - Week 4 - Spring 2012

Planning

Numerous proverbs proclaim the value of planning. Here are some I recall:

• Measure twice, cut once
• It's not ready, fire, aim.
• Look before you leap.
• If you fail to plan, you plan to fail.

Poor Planning

Note: Before you think I am laughing at someone's misfortunes, According to The Mythbusters while the story is plausible, it likely originated with an old joke, not an actual event.

While most people acknowledge the importance of planning, many organizations neglect, or do not give it the attention it deserves:

Planning in Marketing

Read this description of Marketing Plans. Pay close attention to the first section. Here is a description of Marketing's 4 P's mentioned in the article.

Social Media Marketing Plan/Strategy

Here are a couple of presentations about Social Media Marketing Plan/Strategy

• Here is an ironically named presentation: You Don't Need a Social Media Strategy
• Creating a Social Media Marketing Plan
  
  

Note: These presentations are foound on Slideshare is a great resource. From their site:

SlideShare is the world's largest community for sharing presentations. With 50 million monthly visitors and 90 million pageviews, it is amongst the most visited 250 websites in the world. Besides presentations, SlideShare also supports documents, PDFs, videos and webinars.

Assignment

A real pleasure associated with teaching a new class in a new field is that experimentation is not just welcome, it is required! And in a class that relates to social media, it only makes sense to use the tools/concepts associated with Social Media. It is another way for the students to become familiar with the material, and it allows me to realize and demonstrate the benefits of the topics we are studying. This week's assignment will be an experiment in Crowdsourcing.

Do the following:

• Review the materials above about Marketing Plans and Social Media marketing Plans
• Go to Slideshare and find one presentation, different than the ones I used, about Social Media Marketing Plans
• If there is something you don't understand, either in my sources, or the one you found, post a question to the discussion board.
• Review the Marketing Plan format - for your Semester Project assignment.
• Create a blog post that contains the following:
  
  • Post to your blog a link to the presentation you found, and your reaction, positive or negative. Does it agree with the sources I posted, or differ?
  • Based on what you learned - from my sources, the one you blogged, ones that other students blogged, and any other resources - discuss what you would change about the Semester Project Marketing Plan Format. Make at least 2 or 3 specific suggestions and support your suggestions with material from the resources you have reviewed.
  • Post what you think of this assignment. Is it a good idea for an instructor to solicit changes to an assignment from his students?
  • Be honest. It is ok to offer constructive criticism. One of the risks of "going social" is that it opens one up, whether a teacher, or an organization, to negative remarks. For social media to be an effective tool, constructive, respectful criticism ought to be welcomed. I genuinely want to make this class, and the materials the best they can be and your feedback can help.
• To be authentic and transparent here, my goals for this assignment are:
  
  • to reinforce the importance of planning
  • for you to learn about Marketing Plans and Social Media Marketing Plans
  • to make sure you have reviewed the project and start thinking about it (hint, hint)
  • to improve the materials and assignments for this course. I may incorporate your feedback into the course/project.