Introductory description

Social media is an ever-evolving and innovative space that, despite its increasing ubiquity, is not well understood from a strategic marketing perspective. In this age of social media and digital disruption, how has (or has not) marketing strategy, and marketing communications changed? And how do social media fit in to a company's traditional Integrated Marketing Communication Strategy? This module will address these issues and look at the current consumer landscape and the strategic opportunities (and challenges) that it affords marketers who are concerned with how to efficiently and effectively communicate about their brands with their target markets. We will study new social media and digital channels from a strategic marketing perspective.

Module web page

Module aims

Outline syllabus

This is an indicative module outline only to give an indication of the sort of topics that may be covered. Actual sessions held may differ.

Overview of how marketing has changed in the Internet era, understanding the differences between the traditional and the Internet era marketing;
Introduction to Social Media Marketing and defining social media marketing;
How people communicate, the spread of social media; understanding the power of word of mouth and how social media can be used for word of mouth communication and branding;
How business will adapt to social media marketing: changes required in the organization to embrace social media marketing;
Social media strategy and understanding the tools: Blogs, Twitter, Facebook, Linkedin, etc;
Social media in new product development and innovation
Selecting and combining appropriate social media tools for stages of the customer journey
Understanding how to use social media as a tool for insight into changing customer needs

Learning outcomes

By the end of the module, students should be able to:

• Demonstrate a comprehensive understanding of theoretical perspectives and issues related to practical applications of the concepts and analytical frameworks
• Demonstrate a comprehensive understanding of social media concepts and theories to obtain fresh insights into firm-specific case studies.
• Demonstrate a comprehensive understanding of social media alternatives for their contribution to marketing objectives.
• Critically evaluate concepts, frameworks, models and theories pertinent to the use of social media by marketing firms.
• Demonstrate developed analytical skills through the evaluation of cases to identify managerial and strategic insights into the social media practices of firms.
• Persuasively present findings from analyses and clearly present and defend well-reasoned recommendations.

Indicative reading list

Li, F., Larimo, J., & Leonidou, L. C. (2021). Social media marketing strategy: definition, conceptualization, taxonomy, validation, and future agenda. Journal of the Academy of Marketing science, 49(1), 51-70.
Li, J., Abbasi, A., Cheema, A., & Abraham, L. B. (2020). Path to Purpose? How Online Customer Journeys Differ for Hedonic Versus Utilitarian Purchases. Journal of Marketing, 84(4), 127-146.
Dost, F., Phieler, U., Haenlein, M. and Libai, B., (2019). Seeding as Part of the Marketing Mix: Word-of-Mouth Program Interactions for Fast-Moving Consumer Goods. Journal of Marketing, 83(2), pp.62-81.
Lanz, A., Goldenberg, J., Shapira, D. and Stahl, F., (2019). Climb or Jump: Status-Based Seeding in User-Generated Content Networks. Journal of Marketing Research, 56(3), pp.361-378.
Melancon, JP, Dalakas V. (2018). Consumer social voice in the age of social media: segmentation profiles and relationship marketing strategies. Business Horizons. 61, 157-167.
Shore J, Baek J & Dellarocas C (2018). Twitter is not the echo chamber we think it is. MIT Sloan Management Review, Fall issue, Frontiers. Research insights.
Voorveld, H.A., (2019). Brand Communication in Social Media: A Research Agenda. Journal of Advertising, 48(1), pp.14-26.
A number of online resources/blogs would be recommended in order to keep up with the latest news in the social media world, such as (but not limited to):
TechCrunch: http://www.techcrunch.com
Mashable: http://www.mashable.com

Research element

Conduct research on a firm’s social media practices and appropriately interpret findings from such research to arrive at well-supported recommendations.

Subject specific skills

Demonstrate development of practical frameworks and topical concepts which will provide an awareness of analytical frameworks and their application to strategic branding issues
Conduct research on a firm’s social media practices and appropriately interpret findings from such research to arrive at well-supported recommendations.

Transferable skills

Demonstrate clearly developed written and oral arguments drawing upon primary and secondary data analyses and the academic literature.
Demonstrate effective problem solving skills.
Demonstrated developed teamwork skills