Social Media Strategy – COM 421
syllabus | schedule of events

Fall 2018

All items are due at the beginning of class on the date listed. Readings/Viewings should be completed before class. Deliverables are due at the beginning of class. Some collaboration assignments appear on this schedule. Others will occur in class. Please note that some links require login to our course resources online.

Tues. August 28 – Our first exploration of social media strategy

Thurs. August 30 – Social Media 
Before class, (1) review the syllabus, (2) set up all social media accounts, (3) join the Facebook group, (4) select dates for social media experiment 1.
Readings/Viewings: 

• Our Syllabus
• Tuten & Solomon, Chapter 1
• Pariser (2011) “The Filter Bubble” [TED Talk]

Tues. September 4 – Motivations for Going Social
Readings/Viewings:

• Tuten & Solomon, Chapter 2
• McArthur (2015) “Altruism meets participatory video”
• Paul (2018) “College Students would give up their privacy for free pizza“

Thurs. September 6 – Social (Me)dia
Bring your completed Social Media Self Inventory to class.
Readings/Viewings:

• Chen (2017) The Ultimate Guide to Personal Branding

Tues. September 11 – Network Structure 
Readings/Viewings:

• Tuten & Solomon, Chapter 3
• Jacobson & Mascaro (2016) “Movember: Twitter conversations of a hairy social movement”

Thurs. September 13 – slight interruption from #hurricaneflorence

Tues. Sept. 18 – Influencers
Bring to class (1) your “How Much are your tweets worth?” Estimate, (2) Your LinkedIn Network Map
Readings/Viewings:

• Bacon (2012) “Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon” [TED Talk]
• Articles on Social Media Influencers via Social Media Today by Kirsty Sharman
• Abidin (2016) “Influencer Selfies as Subversive Frivolity”

Thurs. September 20 – Social Media Marketing Strategy
Readings/Viewings:

• Tuten & Solomon, Chapter 4
• Rokka, Karlsson, & Tienari (2014) “Managing employees and reputation in social media”

Tues. September 25 – Social Media Audit
Bring a first draft of your Social Media Experiment 2 to class. 

Thurs. September 27 – Tactical Planning & Execution
Before class, submit Social Media Experiment 2
Readings/Viewings:

• Tuten & Solomon, Chapter 5
• Eventbrite (2016) “A Visual Guide to Social Media for Events”

Tues. October 2 – Executing Social Media Tactics
Be sure to submit your tactics before class today (see guidelines).
Readings/Viewings:

• Additional Readings to be announced

Thurs. October 4 – Exam 1

Tues. October 9 – Fall Break (no class)

Thurs. October 11 – Midterm Check-in
Social Media Experiment 3 begins after class today

Tues. October 16 -Social Community
Social Media Experiment 3 ongoing
Readings/Viewings:

• Tuten & Solomon, Chapter 6

Thurs. October 18 – Creating Social Community
Social Media Experiment 3 ongoing
Readings/Viewings:

• McArthur & White (2016) – “Twitter Chats as Third Places”

Tues. October 23 – Social Publishing
Before class, submit Social Media Experiment 3
Readings/Viewings:

• Tuten & Solomon, Chapter 7

Thurs. October 25 – Publishing Tutorials
Before class, complete a social publishing tutorial via FB/FBLive and comment on at least 4 others.
Readings/Viewings:

• American Society of News Editors (2011) “Best Practices for Social Media in the Newsroom”
• Explore the Sprout publishing web content for ideas that resonate.

 Tues. October 30 – Social Entertainment
Readings/Viewings:

• Tuten & Solomon, Chapter 8
• Facebook Games
• Best Social Party Games
• PokemonGo
• The ARG Reddit

Thurs. November 1 – Social Entertainment
Readings/Viewings:

• Play (at least) 2 social games from two different genres for (at least) 30 minutes each
• Auverset & Billings (2016) “Relationships between Social TV and Enjoyment”

 Tues. November 6 – Social Commerce
Readings/Viewings:

• Tuten & Solomon, Chapter 9
• Six Social Shoppers [Infographic]

Thurs. November 8  – Social Commerce Analysis
Bring a draft of Social Media Experiment 4 to class with you
Readings/Viewings:

• Rodriguez, Peterson, & Krishnan (2014) “Social Media’s Influence on Business-to-Business Sales Performance”
• Croft (2013) “An ethnographic study of consumer networks in social media”
• Additional Readings to be announced

Tues. November 13 – Social Media Analytics
Before class, submit Social Media Experiment 4
Readings/Viewings:

• Tuten & Solomon, Chapter 10
• Kallas (2018) Free Social Media Monitoring Tools

Thursday November 15 – Social Media Analytics, continued
Readings/Viewings:

• Lin, Keegan, Margolin, & Lazer (2014) “Dynamics of Shared Attention on Twitter during Media Events”
• Additional Readings to be announced

Tuesday November 20 – Social Media Metrics
Readings/Viewings

• Tuten & Solomon, Chapter 11
• Sprout Social: Social Media Analytics Tools

Thursday November 22 – Thanksgiving Holiday (no class)

Tuesday November 27 – Metrics
Readings/Viewings:

• Hu, Manikonda, & Kambhampati (2016) “What We Instagram”
• van Osch & Cousaris (2014) “Social Media Research”
• Additional Readings to be announced

Thursday November 29 – Social Media Roundtables
Bring to class a first draft of Social Media Experiment 5
Readings/Viewings:

• Additional Readings to be announced

Tuesday December 4 – Social Media Roundtables
Bring to class a revised draft of Social Media Experiment 5
Readings/Viewings:

• Additional Readings to be announced

Thursday December 6 – Social Media Roundtables
Before class, submit final version of Social Media Experiment 5
Readings/Viewings:

• Additional Readings to be announced

Tuesday December 11 – Review & Course Wrap-Up

Friday December 14
Final Exam @ 12:00-2:30 pm