Saturday, January 28, 2012

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

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.

Saturday, January 21, 2012

Social Media Marketing Class - Week 3 - Spring 2012

Marshall McLuhan

Marshall McLuhan is a visionary that studied how the media effects individuals and society. His concepts are important to consider when studying any medium. We will use some of his concepts as we consider the impact of Social Media and its application to marketing.

My Overview


Items cited in my video

Cultural Icon - scene from "Annie Hall"



On "The Medium is the Message" (one of his most famous quotes)

Each medium, independent of the content it mediates, has its own intrinsic effects which are its unique message.

The message of any medium or technology is the change of scale or pace or pattern that it introduces into human affairs. The railway did not introduce movement or transportation or wheel or road into human society, but it accelerated and enlarged the scale of previous human functions, creating totally new kinds of cities and new kinds of work and leisure. This happened whether the railway functioned in a tropical or northern environment, and is quite independent of the freight or content of the railway medium. (Understanding Media, NY, 1964, p. 8)

What McLuhan writes about the railroad applies with equal validity to the media of print, television, computers and now the internet. "The medium is the message" because it is the "medium that shapes and controls the scale and form of human association and action." (Understanding Media, NY, 1964, p. 9)

from http://marshallmcluhan.com/common-questions/

Additional Materials about McLuhan

Assignment

Review the materials on this page about Marshall McLuhan and his key concepts. Find other resources about McLuhan. See if anyone else has applied McLuhan's Tetrad to topics relevant to this class: the Internet, Web 2.0, Social Media, Social Media Marketing. Gather your thoughts, and attempt to apply McLuhan's Tetrad to Social Media and Social Media Marketing. Discuss with your classmates your thoughts on our classes' message board within Angel (our course management system). Finally, create a blog entry that discusses McLuhan's Tetrad and Social Media/Social Media Marketing, supporting your thoughts with links to resources. When you are done, post the url of your entry to the drop box
in Angel.


Saturday, January 14, 2012

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

Saturday, January 7, 2012

Social Media Marketing Class - Project - Spring 2012

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 for Lorain County Community College's Business Division. 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 LCCC's Business Division. For this assignment, I will be considered as the representative for the Business Division, 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 that LCCC's Business Division 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 LCCC's Business Division'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 LCCC Business Division'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 LCCC's Business Division 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 PoorFair Good
Rough Draft0-3 points: 0-2 sections of the plan addressed in adequate detail4-6 points: 3-4 sections of the plan addressed in adequate detail7-10 points: 5-7 sections of the plan addressed in adequate detail.
Peer Review0-1 points: Review not done, or inadequate in most respects2-3 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 PoorFair Good
Objectives0 points: missing or vague1 points: incomplete or vague2 points: complete and specific
Target Audiences0 points: missing or vague1 points: incomplete or vague2 points: complete and specific
Review of Social Media of Similar Organizations0 points: missing or vague1-2 points: incomplete or vague3 points: complete and specific
Relevant Goals of Target Audiences0 points: missing or vague1-2 points: incomplete or vague3 points: complete and specific
Proposed Content0-1 points: missing or vague2-3 points: incomplete or vague4-5 points: complete and specific
Proposed policies concerning Transparency, etc0 points: missing or vague1-2 points: incomplete or vague3 points: complete and specific
Metrics0 points: missing or vague1 points: incomplete or vague2 points: complete and specific
Presentation0-1 points: missing - lacking in content and poorly designed2-3 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 Class - Week 1 - Spring 2012

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:

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?