University of International Business and Economics

International Summer School

MKT 205 Social Media Marketing

Instructor: Haithem Zourrig
Email: haithem.zourrig@uregina.ca
Credit: 2 units

Course Description

The course is designed to provide a broad understanding of social media marketing. The course
exposes students to the implications of social media as well as opportunities and challenges for
marketers, businesses and organizations. Special emphasis will be given to a large array of social
media applications and tools used in the marketing of product, services, and corporate image.
Topics include (but not limited to) social communities (e.g. social networking websites, message
boards, forums, wikis), social publishing (e.g. blogs, media sharing websites: video, photo, audio,
etc. and bookmark sharing), entertainment (e.g. social media game-based marketing, virtual
reality, and entertainment communities), social commerce (e.g. reviews and ratings, social
shopping websites) and social media metrics (i.e. measurements of success and effectiveness).

Learning Objectives

1. Describe the scope of social media marketing and identify current and emerging trends.
2. Explain how consumers interact socially and how this impacts product/service
evaluations and company image
3. Examine the dark side of social media
4. Design social media strategies.
5. Examine the interrelatedness and convergence of social media platforms with traditional
marketing channels.
6. Examine the methods used to evaluate the effectiveness of social media presence and
campaigns.

Learning Outcomes

Upon satisfactory completion of the course, students will be able to:

1. Identify key issues, challenges and opportunities for evolving social media tools
2. Use social media tools to reach marketing and communications objectives.
3. Use effectively social media tools with an awareness of legal and ethical implications.
4. Participate effectively in collaborative learning on social media projects
5. Work on real-world projects and build a business online presence.
6. Evaluate the effectiveness and success of social media use

1/7
Readings/Resources

1. Required Textbook
Title: Social Media Marketing
Publisher: Pearson/Prentice Hall
Authors: Tracy Tuten, Michael R. Solomon
Edition: 1/E
ISBN-10: 0132551799 • ISBN-13: 9780132551793©2013

2. Required online resource:

Social Media Examiner Blog (Stelzner, M©) available at:[http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/]
This online resource provides meaningful insights on various social media topics to be discussed
in weekly-classes. The online resource is updated daily, students are expected to browse on this
online resource, every week, read a content, pick some ideas, news, illustrating the week-lecture
topic. Students should bring their findings to the class, share and discuss its content with the
class to earn participation credits.

3. Optional online resources:

To learn more about specific topics other supplemental online resources could be used. Here are
some examples:
http://technorati.com/
http://www.sethgodin.com/sg/
http://www.chrisbrogan.com/
http://www.splashmedia.com/blogs/
http://www.likeable.com/blog/
http://www.marketingtechblog.com/
http://heidicohen.com/
http://pushingsocial.com/
http://www.thesaleslion.com/
http://blog.hubze.com/
http://www.jeffbullas.com/
http://www.viralblog.com/
http://socialmouths.com/blog/

Class Approach

Class format includes a combination of lectures, in-class discussions, case study, client-projects
and presentations. Much of this course is interactive and in-class participation is highly expected.
The course will primarily be conducted on lectures-discussion basis. Because active classroom
participation is an important component of the learning process, students are strongly encouraged
to attend each class and to complete each day’s readings before attending the class. A major time
of each class will be spent in reviewing the reading material and discussing topics on social
media retrieved from online references such as Social Media Examiner Blog (for more details
see required and optional online resources sections). All topics are tightened to the concepts
covered in the textbook.

2/7
Plagiarism

Turnitin software will be used to conduct originality check on students’ assignments and projects.
Turinton compares submitted papers against a very large database, which includes: web pages,
previously-submitted student papers and Databases of electronic books and articles. Identifying
high similarities to content will be considered as plagiarism.

Grading Rubrics:

Weekly Participation (15%):

Students are expected to thoroughly and substantially contribute to lectures and discussions at
least 5 times (in 5 class sessions out of 10). Students are expected to bring meaningful examples,
illustrations to the class, retrieved from the online resources (see required and optional online
resources) on topics discussed in the lecture to earn full participation credit. Brief/ short/ out-of-
topic comments, will not be eligible to earn participation credits.

Social media client proposal- project (25%):

Students will work in small groups and will be placed in a consultancy role to prepare a client
proposal for a social media plan. The client proposal is a semester-long project, its purpose will
be to provide input and direction to increase the social media presence of a real existing LOCAL
small business.
Students are free to choose any local small business they want but they should make sure to
choose one that has a minimum of social media presence of product/brand or service to analyze.
Students could use a large array of social media sites and tools in their proposal such as (but not
limited to): Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, Instagram, LinkedIn, Pinterest, and Vine. However
students should support and justify their choices of the selected vehicles or channels.

Students are required to form small groups of 2 to 3 students earlier (before the second lecture)
and pick a local small business for the project. The final paper should be 20 pages (minimum)
double spaced, including figures and exhibits (could also include links/screenshots, etc.). The
paper should cover at least the following rubrics, but students could add to these:

Social media case study (25%)

The Pizza Hut case “Boosting Pizza Hut Digital Ordering and Digital Public Relations” (to be
posted on UR Courses) discusses some challenges related to the use of social media to promote
digital ordering and raising funds for donation. In this case study, students are challenged to
combine their knowledge and creativity to come with practical and well-sound marketing
solutions.

Students are asked to create:

(a) An integrated marketing campaign using all direct and interactive channels including
Pizza Hut’s-owned and earned media channels; social media (e.g. Facebook, Twitter,
Youtube, etc.), e-mail, rss feeds, Pizza Hut website, and Product reviews, with a goal
of increasing the number of orders driven through a Pizza Hut’s Mobile App.
(b) A public relations campaign to recruit donors and raise money for the World Hunger
Relief Campaign. In your campaign you need to think about emphasize how digital

3/7
 ordering blends with digital public relations to support raising money. Your challenge
is to recruit 100.000 new donors and to raise nearly 2.5 million.

The general criteria that will be used for evaluation purposes include (but are not limited to):
 Is the audience successfully targeted?
 Are social media tools used effectively?
 Do the campaigns converge to the outlined challenges: generate and increase digital
orders and acquire donors?
 Are the marketing campaigns truly integrated?
 Is the choice of metrics appropriate for measuring the success of the campaigns?
 Are the campaigns creative and original, while fitting within the budget?
 What is the anticipated impact?

Some important points:

a. Budget
Objective and task approach remains the best budgeting approach, whereby the students should
consider primarily the objectives set out for the campaigns, the tasks to be performed to achieve
these objectives and the cost estimates for performing each task. Overall, the students are
expected to build the budget from a logical base. A well stated, actionable objective should
include the following characteristics:
 Be specific,
 Be measurable,
 Specify the desired change,
 Include a time line,
 Be consistent and realistic (given the resources).

b. Digital consumers and Target audience

Students should consider:
 What are the relevant demographic, psychographic and behavioral characteristics of the
segments in planning a social media campaigns?
 What are the social media habits of the segments?
 What content do they have to share with the target audience?

c. Social Media metrics

What metrics could Pizza hut apply to measure the effectiveness of the campaign?
Students are expected to come with a set of social media metrics to assess the campaigns
performance. The list of possible social media metrics may include (but are not limited to)
number/frequency/growth of:
 Fans, Followers, Friends,
 Tweets, Retweets, Shares,
 Likes, Favourites, Ratings, testimonials,
 Comments, Posts (blog posts, photo posts, video posts, etc.),
 Subscriptions (RSS, podcasts, etc.),
 Traffic/ visits/ views,
 Applications Downloads/ installs, embeds,
 Time spent with social pages,

4/7
  Online ordering originating from Facebook,
 Online sales originating from other social sites,
 Mobile applications downloads,
 Mobile application usage rate,
 Online contributions to raise funds originating from Facebook, other social media.

In addition to quantitative measurements, it is also possible to come with some qualitative

metrics that assess what is said in a text in good or bad such as (positive or negative) feelings
and emotions.

Overall, the proposed metrics should be suitable to assess the extent to which the campaigns is
close to achieve objectives, and also to compare Pizza Hut social media efforts compared to
competitors ones, especially in terms of presence and buzz, on which Pizza Hut is not well
positioned (see section 3 in the case study).

Template for analysis

Your analysis should be in an “executive summary” format. Use bullet points wherever you
think that format adds value. It should be no longer than 10 pages, typed, and single-spaced on
bulleted areas and 1.5-spaced on paragraph areas. Your case solving should follow 4 general
headings in the paper:
(1) Brief summary of current situation (do not rehash the entire case) – provide your “take”
(2) Key problem(s) or issue(s) that need to be addressed as well as secondary problems, with
supported with evidence as to why you believe these deserve attention
(3) Campaigns that you have developed:
- An integrated marketing campaign to boost orders and sales
- A public relations campaign to recruit donors and raise money for the World Hunger Relief
Campaign.
(4) Your recommended action plan, including implementation, and metrics

Final exam 35%:

The final exam is comprehensive and may reference all text and in-class content, including in-
class discussions.

Special Needs: If a student may have a need for special accommodation due to a physical and/or
learning disability, please contact the Coordinator of Special Needs Services at 585-4631.

5/7
 Section: 317 – 001 W- from 07:00 p.m. to 09:45 p.m. Room TBA
(Schedule Subject to Revision )

Date Topic What is Due

W-Jan 06 Course introduction: 1. Textbook: read chapter#1

syllabus review; 2. Online resources: search for one example of a company, brand
requirements and grading or product, etc. to illustrate one topic/concept to be discussed in
rubrics chapter #1.

The Horizontal Revolution

W-Jan 13 Strategic Planning with 1. Textbook: read chapter#2

Social Media 2. Online resources: search for one example of a company, brand
or product, etc. to illustrate one topic/concept to be discussed in
chapter #2.
3. Setting up groups: send an e-mail to the instructor with your
names and student ID. After the deadline, students will be
assigned randomly and no change requests to the groups will be
accepted

W-Jan 20 Social Consumers 1. Textbook: read chapter#3

2. Online resources: search for one example of a company, brand
or product, etc. to illustrate one topic/concept to be discussed in
chapter #3.
3. Client proposal: deliverable#1(Introduction)

W-Jan 27 Digital Communities 1. Textbook: read chapter#4

2. Online resources: search for one example of a company, brand
or product, etc. to illustrate one topic/concept to be discussed in
chapter #4

W-Feb 03 Social Community 1. Textbook: read chapter#5

2. Online resources: search for one example of a company, brand
or product, etc. to illustrate one topic/concept to be discussed in
chapter #5.
3. Client proposal: deliverable#2( Introduction)

W-Feb 10 Mid-Term Exam Review all material discussed in-class & Chapters 01 to 05

W-Feb 17 No Class: winter break

W-Feb 24 Social Publishing 1. Textbook: read chapter#6

6/7
 2. Online resources: search for one example of a company, brand
or product, etc. to illustrate one topic/concept to be discussed in
chapter #6.
3. Client proposal: deliverable#3 (social media marketing
objectives)

W-Mar 02 Social Entertainment 1. Textbook: read chapter#7

2. Online resources: search for one example of a company, brand
or product, etc. to illustrate one topic/concept to be discussed in
chapter #7

W-Mar 09 Social Commerce 1. Textbook: read chapter#8

2. Online resources: search for one example of a company, brand
or product, etc. to illustrate one topic/concept to be discussed in
chapter #8.

W-Mar 16 Social Media for 1. Textbook: read chapter#9

Consumers Insights 2. Online resources: search for one example of a company, brand
or product, etc. to illustrate one topic/concept to be discussed in
chapter #9.
3. Client proposal: deliverable#4(Social media zones and vehicles)

W-Mar 23 Social Media Metrics 1. Textbook: read chapter#10

2. Online resources: search for one example of a company, brand
or product, etc. to illustrate one topic/concept to be discussed in
chapter #10.

W-Mar 30 Course Review 1.Review all chapters and prepare questions

2. Client proposal: deliverable#5 (FINAL report including the
implementation plan and metrics).

W-Apr 06 Social Media Projects 1.PowerPoint presentations (Groups 01, 02…, &10)
2 Client proposal: deliverable#6( PowerPoint slides)
3 Case study analysis: written case

TBA Final exam Review ALL material discussed in-class, Chapters 01 to 10

(Room and time TBA)

7/7