Social Media Class - Excellent Case Study Examples

Here are a couple of great case studies concerning the use of Social Media for marketing from Fall 2011 MKRG245 students:

Southwest Airlines

Clif Bars

Social Media Marketing Class: Week 12-15

Case Studies, Metrics and your Semester Project

Week 12-13: Case Studies

Zappos is a very successful online shoe and clothing store. They considered by many to be one of organizations that makes the best use of social media. Here is a presentation about Zappos' use of social media. Although it may be hard to get the meaning of all the slides without the narration, the message still rings loud and clear. Despite this, Zappos' Tony Hsieh says he dislikes the term "social media" and (probably jokingly) says that anyone that uses it in front of him at Zappos has to pay him a dollar.

This might be puzzling on the surface. However, as the father of two young women, I hear them speak of the difference between "real friends" and what could be termed "facebook friends". A facebook friend might be fun to communicate with, post some funny videos, like some cool bands, but they are not the people you can count on to be there for you as "real friends" are. Reading about Zappos made me think that perhaps even with companies, there can be your "real friends" and "facebook friends" - taking the word "friend" with a grain of salt. Another way to put it is that social media is only one, and not even the most important way, that Zappos connects with their customers. They are committed to providing great customer service. Social Media is the icing on the cake, used to strengthen the bond with their customers, and not to substitute for good customer service.

Consider Zappos' use of social media as you work on your project. Social Media and web sites in general will be successful when they help both the organization and the customers achieve their goals. Read all the links above, then ask yourself: What do you think Zappos' goals are regarding Social Media? What do you think their customers' goals are for interacting with Zappos? Zappos' success implies that they are doing a good job of addressing these goals.

Assignment: Week 12 and 13

Preparation: Be sure to read all the links in the entry about Zappos. Send me any questions, or post your thoughts/questions to the discussion forum.

For week 12 (Homework 10) - Your task is to do a case study of an organization that you feel does social media well. You can not use Zappos. Consider all of the social media channels they use. Speculate on what you think their goals are, and what you think their customers' goals are, and comment on how effective these channels are in addressing these goals be specific. Include why you think the organization you selected makes good use of social media. Post to your blog. Your case study should be similar to the Zappos case study. Upload the link to the Homework 10 dropbox.

Your assignment for week 13 (Homework 11) is to do the same as for week 12, but with a different organization. Upload the link to the Homework 11 dropbox.

Week 14: Metrics

One adage about business I have heard many times is "If you can't measure it, you can't manage it." It is quite reasonable for any organization undertaking some initiative, such as a social media marketing plan, to want to know if the initiative was effective or not.

How then to measure the effectiveness of a Social Media Marketing Initiative. Is it simply a matter of how many Facebook like's, Twitter followers, YouTube Subscribers? That seems incomplete. To be sure marketing materials need to be seen to be effective. However, the goal of marketing is not just to be seen, but to lead to action.

Another possibility is to look at the overall success of the organization. If after a marketing campaign, sales increase, one may be tempted to give credit to the marketing campaign. However, Correlation does not imply Causality. There are so many factors that goes into a companies' success or failure - some of which are outside of the control of the company. A company could have declining sales, even with a good marketing effort, if, for example, there is a general economic downturn. Perhaps their marketing campaign kept the sales from dropping even more.

So, statistics like Twitter/Facebook/YouTube followers, and gross sales may provide a very simplistic view of the picture, but not the whole picture. Like the fable of the blind men describing an elephant, different measurements give part of the story, but not the whole story. Taken together, management can get a more accurate view by looking at several measurements, then is possible through just one measurement. Here are some resources to start you off in investigating measuring social media marketing:

• Measuring Social Media Marketing in 3 steps
• Measuring ROI on Social Media
• Guide to Facebook Insights

Assignment: Week 14 (Homework 12)

Be sure to read the links I posted concerning measurement. Also, revisit the Interviews I posted. Using Google News find 3 recent (since September 2011) articles about measuring Social Media Marketing. Create a blog post that links to the 3 pages, and summarize each of them. Then, write a paragraph that summarizes your understanding of measuring Social Media Marketing. Upload the link of your blog post to the Homework 12 dropbox. Ask if you have questions.

Week 15: Finish Your Semester Project

Use this week to take everything you have learned in this unit, and the entire semester to finish up your semester project and make it as good as it can be. Please ask me questions, or let me know if you want me to review anything. You may also post the the semester project discussion forum. When you have completed it, upload to the drop box. If you have any difficulties uploading, email it to me at mzellers@lorainccc.edu, then post an entry in the drop box indicating you emailed it.

Final Words

This is the first time this course has been offered at LCCC, and I really enjoyed teaching it. I hope you enjoyed it, and more than that, I hope you learned a lot. I would really appreciate any constructive feedback you have about this class, positive or negative - what worked, what didn't, what you feel the most important things you learned, what you wished was addressed that wasn't or wasn't adequately addressed, what you thought of the materials, what you thought of my use of social media in this class and even what social media do you think I should incorporate into the course delivery (i.e. would it be beneficial for me to have a twitter account for this class?). You can email me. Please feel free to be frank. If you are concerned about anonymity, you can drop off an unsigned note in the business division office, and ask to have it put on my mail box.

Social Media Marketing Class - Week 11 - Twitter and Other Social Media Sites

This week, we want to focus on three things:

• Peer Review
• Twitter and other social networking tools...
• Revising Semester Project

Peer Review

Your first task this week is to be sure you have completed your Peer Review. Email your review to your classmate and post to the Peer Review dropbox. Let me know if you have questions

Homework 9 - Twitter and other social networking tools...

• Create a Twitter account. Even if you already have a Twitter account, please create one just for this assignment. Do this as soon as possible, and post your Twitter username to the Message Board. If you are unfamiliar with how Twitter works, do some research or please ask.
• Follow at least 10 Twitter accounts, broken down as follows:
• One classmate
• Three organizations that tweet about Social Media Marketing
• Three organizations using Twitter to market their products/services.
• Any other Twitter account you want. Celebrity, friend, organization, etc...
• Tweet at least 3 current news links about Social Media... Use a link shortener, such as bit.ly
• Tweet at least 3 tweets about Social Networking sites other than the ones we have reviewed (Facebook, Blogger, YouTube, Twitter, Google +, etc.). Use a link shortener, such as bit.ly
• Re-tweet at least 3 tweets from each the accounts you are following. For at least 1, add your own comments to the retweet.
• Create a blog entry that contains:
  • A link to your Twitter page
  • Rank the three organizations using Twitter to market their products/services, that you have followed, by how effective they use Twitter. Explain your rankings
  • Define some guidelines for the effective use of Twitter
  • Answer the following question: Is Twitter better suited for some organizations than others? If so, what about an organization makes it well suited for Twitter?
  • A summary of the other Social Networking platforms you tweeted about, what benefits they offer their users, and what marketing benefits do they offer to marketers.

Revising Semester Project

Take the feedback I and your classmate has given you, and continue researching and working on Semester Project. Please contact me with questions. Continue to discuss the project on the Message Board.

Social Media Marketing Class - Announcement

I have updated the course syllabus. You can view the updated version in the Course Information folder on Angel. Over the next few days, I will post to Angel what we will be doing Weeks 9 and 10.

Social Media Marketing Class - Week 8 - YouTube

YouTube

For this week, you have two options for your assignment.

Option 1: Create a video and post to YouTube

Create an account on YouTube. Create a video between 2 and 5 minutes that discusses what makes for an effective YouTube marketing video. Post your video to YouTube and add the relevant title, description, category and tags to it. Then, embed your video into a blog entry. Post to the drop box the url of your blog post.

A few things to keep in mind. There is free software to make videos on Windows and on Mac. For Windows, there is Windows Movie Maker and on the Mac, iMovie comes with Mac OsX. If you do not have a camera, you can create a video consisting of still images. If you do have a camera, do not worry if it does not take high quality video. If you have questions, please contact me.

Option 2: Evaluate three videos on YouTube

Find 3 good marketing videos on YouTube. Embed them in a blog post, and write a paragraph about each video explaining why you thought the video was good. Then, summarize your conclusions about what makes a good YouTube marketing video. Format your blog entry using headings and other formatting, to make your post look good, and to help organize the content for the readers. Post to the drop box the url of your blog post.

Remember to continue working on your semester project.

A student sent me this link, along with the following comments:

Mike, in your interview with David Connelly you indicated LCCC is one of the first to offer a social media marketing class . the article goes on to say that academia is taking the subject seriously. Birmingham City University in England is offering a Master's degree in Social Media and that Northeastern University in Boston will soon offer one for master's students in corporate communications.

My response: I hope I wasn't misleading with my statement. I guess what I wanted to say is that Social Media Classes are not necessarily common - maybe "among the first wave" would be a better way to say it..

Social Media Marketing Class - Week 7 - Facebook/Google+

This week, we want to focus on three things:

• Effective Use of Facebook for Marketing
• Comparing Facebook and Google + from a Business/Marketing Perspective
• Start Working on Semester Project

Assignment - Blog Entry

Part One: Effective Use of Facebook for Marketing

For this week, you will need a Facebook account. I imagine many of you already have a Facebook account. I will not ask you to share this account with me, in respect of your privacy. You will need it though, to examine and evaluate how some organizations are using Facebook for Marketing.

First, review all the materials from previous weeks in the class, including your blog entries and classmates' blog entries, concerning what makes for an efective use of Social Media for Marketing. Then review this article about good Facebook Pages.

Finally, find the Facebook pages of 3 organizations that you are interested in. You may need to "Like" the page to view its content. Rank them from most effective to least effective. Explain why you ranked them as you did. Cite any references you use to justify your rankings.

Comparing Facebook and Google + from a Business/Marketing Perspective

Research, then compare and contrast Facebook and Google+ as a tool for business - especially marketing. Specify the advantages and disadvatages of each. Be sure to focus on the use of Facebook and Google+ as business tools, and not just from an individual's personal perspective.

Final Thoughts

Remember, these entries are to be your own words. If you use material from a resource, you need to cite it. Give your post a title that makes it clear to me which assignment it is for. Format your entry using either html or the editing tools available on your blogging platform. If you need help navigating through Facebook, let me know - for that matter, if you have any questions, please ask. When you are done, upload the URL of your blog post to Angel.

Project

There is nothing for you to turn in this week regarding your Project. However, I want to make sure you start working on it as your rough draft is due soon. Make sure you have read the instructions for the assignment and understand each part. Part of creating a Marketing Plan involves research and discussions to determine what needs to be done. For this assignment, use your own knowledge of LCCC, examine what other colleges are doing, and use the discussion forum to ask me questions and discuss with other classmates.