Social Media Analytics

Abstract

Course Description Social media plays a key role in campaigns and the daily work of marketing, public relations and advertising researchers and professionals. This class will integrate the growing research in the area with the social media practices in these industries. This class will focus on the three underpinnings of a successful social media activity: Analytics, Listening and Engagement. Analytics: Understanding social media metrics, measurements and evaluations. In studying social media, one objective of this class is to help students make a conceptual shift from thinking about groups of primarily passive audiences to individuals who consume, create and exchange content. This calls for a focus on patterns of interactions among users on social media to identifying communities and influential users within topical contexts. Some of the applications that will be used are Facebook Analytics, Twitter Analytics, Excel and NodeXL (for network analysis). Strategic listening: We will use a range of social media monitoring services and data collection tools to follow targeted social media conversations. This availability of large data requires a strategic and prioritized listening. Strategic listening means monitoring posted content in the context of users’ social interactions, focusing on key users and communities. We will use Brand24 as a social media monitoring/listening tool. Engagement: Students will work throughout the semester to evaluate social media presence and activity of an organization of their choice. Students will study the social media environments of oncampus clients, evaluate the success of their activity and write a report.