Competencies

• Analyze the evolution of social media standards and practices and how it relates to the potential need for regulation of social media, along with ethical concerns.
• Evaluate psychological theories and their insights into the widely varying opinions and attitudes that are expressed through social media.
• Compare and contrast new social media marketing trends with more traditional forms of advertising.
• Assess the development of societal standards in relation to social media and how this can alter social norms in everyday life.
• Integrate the positive and negative effects of social media making global communication easily accessible.
• Design a personal plan to use social media to benefit the student both personally and professionally as well as minimize online mistakes and their impact.

Instructions

Social media use is critical to a dynamic and competitive brand, whether that brand is something you sell, a group home, a non-profit organization, or your self-image. This project will get you thinking about effective ways to shape your social media tools to make the most of your brand, to keep consumers talking and thinking about your brand, and to get interaction from those you seek to sell to or to help. You will take a look at what you post to social media, possible responses or reactions you will receive, as well as use social media trends and society controls to keep your brand meeting your goals.

Your final project should include a plan for the following: how you will utilize a minimum of four social media sites; what your target audience will be; your use of contacts, outreach, and advertising best practices; your posting do’s and don’ts; and explanations of your choices using the sources from the course and others you find.

If you have a real business, brand, or site to work on, you can start by putting the site profiles into the four social media sites you have chosen (e.g. Facebook, Twitter, etc.). Screenshots will work for these that you have really made. If you don’t really have a business or brand, you do not need to create faux profiles. However, you should write the information you would include in your profile for each one.

In summary, your plan should contain:

• An introduction to your brand or company
• Your social media goals and general goals for the brand
• An analysis of the market comparables — similar businesses/nonprofits/brands, including what has been successful and what hasn’t worked for at least 3 good comparable brands
• Discussion of societal norms for those comparables. What seem to be the “rules” they follow? Is there open or tacit regulation you’ve noticed? Include how you can expand your influence globally by overcoming potential language and culture barriersÂ
• An analysis of advertising and its necessity along with the type of advertising you would do and why
• An outline of the audience you intend to reach and how to reach them. Be sure to take into account the factors that are in play when attempting to reach an audience that includes a wide range of ages (consider generational differences)
• A plan for how to use your contacts and add new ones when publicizing and staying connected
• A plan for each of four social media sites, including profile information and posting ideas
• Analysis of any of the theories you would use
• A conclusion

Your project lengths will depend on how much depth you put into your analysis of each section, but to give you a general idea, several paragraphs for most of the bullet points is a good length, and should result in a total of around 10 pages.

ADDITIONAL INSTRUCTIONS FOR THE CLASS

Discussion Questions (DQ)

• Initial responses to the DQ should address all components of the questions asked, include a minimum of one scholarly source, and be at least 250 words.
• Successful responses are substantive (i.e., add something new to the discussion, engage others in the discussion, well-developed idea) and include at least one scholarly source.
• One or two sentence responses, simple statements of agreement or “good post,” and responses that are off-topic will not count as substantive. Substantive responses should be at least 150 words.
• I encourage you to incorporate the readings from the week (as applicable) into your responses.

Weekly Participation

• Your initial responses to the mandatory DQ do not count toward participation and are graded separately.
• In addition to the DQ responses, you must post at least one reply to peers (or me) on three separate days, for a total of three replies.
• Participation posts do not require a scholarly source/citation (unless you cite someone else’s work).
• Part of your weekly participation includes viewing the weekly announcement and attesting to watching it in the comments. These announcements are made to ensure you understand everything that is due during the week.

APA Format and Writing Quality

• Familiarize yourself with APA format and practice using it correctly. It is used for most writing assignments for your degree. Visit the Writing Center in the Student Success Center, under the Resources tab in LoudCloud for APA paper templates, citation examples, tips, etc. Points will be deducted for poor use of APA format or absence of APA format (if required).
• Cite all sources of information! When in doubt, cite the source. Paraphrasing also requires a citation.
• I highly recommend using the APA Publication Manual, 6th edition.

Use of Direct Quotes

• I discourage overutilization of direct quotes in DQs and assignments at the Masters’ level and deduct points accordingly.
• As Masters’ level students, it is important that you be able to critically analyze and interpret information from journal articles and other resources. Simply restating someone else’s words does not demonstrate an understanding of the content or critical analysis of the content.
• It is best to paraphrase content and cite your source.

 

LopesWrite Policy

• For assignments that need to be submitted to LopesWrite, please be sure you have received your report and Similarity Index (SI) percentage BEFORE you do a “final submit” to me.
• Once you have received your report, please review it. This report will show you grammatical, punctuation, and spelling errors that can easily be fixed. Take the extra few minutes to review instead of getting counted off for these mistakes.
• Review your similarities. Did you forget to cite something? Did you not paraphrase well enough? Is your paper made up of someone else’s thoughts more than your own?
• Visit the Writing Center in the Student Success Center, under the Resources tab in LoudCloud for tips on improving your paper and SI score.

Late Policy

• The university’s policy on late assignments is 10% penalty PER DAY LATE. This also applies to late DQ replies.
• Please communicate with me if you anticipate having to submit an assignment late. I am happy to be flexible, with advance notice. We may be able to work out an extension based on extenuating circumstances.
• If you do not communicate with me before submitting an assignment late, the GCU late policy will be in effect.
• I do not accept assignments that are two or more weeks late unless we have worked out an extension.
• As per policy, no assignments are accepted after the last day of class. Any assignment submitted after midnight on the last day of class will not be accepted for grading.

Communication

• Communication is so very important. There are multiple ways to communicate with me: 
  • Questions to Instructor Forum: This is a great place to ask course content or assignment questions. If you have a question, there is a good chance one of your peers does as well. This is a public forum for the class.
  • Individual Forum: This is a private forum to ask me questions or send me messages. This will be checked at least once every 24 hours.