Social Media Marketing Class - Fall 2012 - Project

Introduction

Any project that is not trivial requires planning. It is my experience that this is where many projects fail. Skilled people can work very hard and still create something ineffective if it was not understood from the start what needed to be done. Therefore, in this and all of my courses, I stress planning. Planning does not require that every detail be worked out in advance, and, to be sure, plans need reworked and changed as a project evolves. However, those working on a project must have a clear idea of the goals of the project, or their efforts will likely be wasted.

Your Project

For your project, you will create a Marketing Plan either for Lorain County Community College's Web Development programs, or, with my approval, an organization of your choosing. The project will be done in two phases - the Rough Draft and the Completed Version. See syllabus for due dates. Here is some information about the Web Development Programs. For this assignment, I will be considered as the representative for the  programs, so ask me any questions - through any of the communication methods listed for this class. For this assignment, the deadlines will be more strictly enforced.

Marketing Plan - Format

Use the following template for your Marketing Plan.  You will need to write a paper (.doc, .docx, .rtf, Google Docs, or .pdf format) and create a slideware presentation (.ppt, .pptx, or Google Docs).

For your presentation, assume the presentation will be accompanying a speaker - although in an online class, you won't actually present it. Review standards for good presentation design.

Your paper should include the following sections. Your presentation should summarize the highlights and need not contain every section.

• Objectives - List at least 3 specific objectives the organization would want to achieve via their Social Media Marketing
• Target Audience Groups - List at least 3 different groups of people the Social Media Marketing would be geared towards
• Review of Social Media of Similar Organizations - Review and document what similar organizations are doing regarding Social Media Marketing
• Relevant Goals of Target Audiences - What do you feel the target audiences hope to achieve through interacting with the organization's social media... include 2 goals for each group
• Proposed Content - identify which Social Media channels should be used. For each channel describe:
• who would create posts
• how often posts would be created
• general description of content included
• how the content aligns with the organization's objectives
• how content aligns with Target Audience Goals
• anticipated issues
• Proposed policies concerning Transparency, etc - suggest policies concerning what should be posted/what should not be posted, how to handle negative comments and other issues relating to transparency
• Metrics - how should the organization measure whether their Social Media Market efforts are effective - be specific

Marketing Plan - Rough Draft

For the rough draft, you will turn in a draft of your marketing plan. For the rough draft, you do not need to turn in the slide presentation, just the paper. You will then be assigned another student's paper to peer review and offer feedback. You will post your rough draft to the drop box. I will email you someone else's draft. You will email the other student your feedback and upload your feedback to the peer review drop box. See the syllabus for due dates.

Criteria

Component	Poor	Fair	Good
Rough Draft	0-3 points: 0-2 sections of the plan addressed in adequate detail	4-6 points: 3-4 sections of the plan addressed in adequate detail	7-10 points: 5-7 sections of the plan addressed in adequate detail.
Peer Review	0-1 points: Review not done, or inadequate in most respects	2-3 points: Review is vague, incomplete or lacking in insight	4-5 points: Review is insightful, detailed, specific and complete

Note: For the rough draft, you will get credit if you address the parts of the section described in the template, as long as a sincere effort is made. You will be given feedback by me and from a fellow student. The aim is to have good material in the final version.

Marketing Plan - Completed

Here is the rubric:

Criteria

Component	Poor	Fair	Good
Objectives	0 points: missing or vague	1 points: incomplete or vague	2 points: complete and specific
Target Audiences	0 points: missing or vague	1 points: incomplete or vague	2 points: complete and specific
Review of Social Media of Similar Organizations	0 points: missing or vague	1-2 points: incomplete or vague	3 points: complete and specific
Relevant Goals of Target Audiences	0 points: missing or vague	1-2 points: incomplete or vague	3 points: complete and specific
Proposed Content	0-1 points: missing or vague	2-3 points: incomplete or vague	4-5 points: complete and specific
Proposed policies concerning Transparency, etc	0 points: missing or vague	1-2 points: incomplete or vague	3 points: complete and specific
Metrics	0 points: missing or vague	1 points: incomplete or vague	2 points: complete and specific
Presentation	0-1 points: missing - lacking in content and poorly designed	2-3 points:good content or good design	4-5 points: good content, good design

It is possible ideas from your Marketing Plan will be used!

I will create a video describing the project in more detail in the upcoming weeks.

The books: Social Media Marketing: An Hour a Day and Social Media is a Cocktail Party, were useful in developing this assignment

Social Media marketing - Fall 2012 - Week 1

Welcome

Welcome to the class. Here is a short video describing some aspects of the class. The volume is low - my apologies.

It is very likely that all of us are at least somewhat familiar with some aspects of Social Media. This first week, our focus will be on examining Social Media in more detail. It is important for us though, to have a solid understanding of the technical and social factors at work that have given rise to Social Media.

Person of the Year

Since 1927, Time Magazine has selected the Person of the Year (formerly titled Man of the Year.)

"TIME's Person of the Year is bestowed by the editors on the person or persons who most affected the news and our lives, for good or ill, and embodied what was important about the year. Source

The winners are a prestigious group that includes: Winston Churchill, Franklin Roosevelt, Ronald Reagan, Martin Luther King Jr., and Mohandas Gandhi. Source

Two of recent winners are quite curious:

• Time Person of the Year - 2006
• Time Person of the Year - 2010

These awards are emblematic of the power and potential of Social Media in many aspects of life. Read through the articles about the awards to get a greater sense of just what the power of Social Media is. While different Social Media platforms were created for different reasons, as the use of Social Media has grown, organizations have sought to use it as a marketing tool to promote their efforts. In this course, we will explore the use of Social Media in Marketing.

Background

The following provide some background information on the technologies and social factors at work in Social Media.

A great starting point is to read this article about Web 2.0. Web 2.0 is sort of an umbrella term that describes how the web has evolved. It deals with both the evolving technology and the changing mindset.

Here are some videos, which discuss Social Media, and its influence, in an entertaining manner. One focuses on blogs which is relevant to the first Homework Assignment.

 

Assignment

Create a blog using any of the sites available including blogger, wordpress, tumblr or any other blogging platform. You will be using this blog in your Homework Assignments this week and in future weeks. Creating a blog is fairly straightforward; please ask if you have any questions. Be aware, your blog will be available to the general public on the internet, be careful with your privacy. My suggestion is that you use your first name and last initial on the blog.
After you create your blog, I want you to research on the web and find resources about Social Media Marketing. Then, create a post to your blog similar to this post, except focused on Social Media Marketing. I do not expect you to create a video as I have done - though you are welcome to if you wish. I do expect you to have identified a few reliable resources on the subject, and create an entry that combines a summary of what you have found, your own thoughts and links to these links. When you have completed the entry, post the url of your blog to the drop box in Angel (our CMS).

Your blog entry should include:

• Links to sources about Social Media Marketing
• A summary in your own words about what you found
• Some examples of how organizations use social media for marketing - your thoughts on the examples - Do you the organizations are effective in their use of Social Media? not effective? why?