Your assignment for this week is to create a Storify. This is a very open-ended assignment.
Just tell me a story using the tool.
Your story must include at least 15 nuggets of social media. Use all the tools available to you, including text transitions.
Write up a blog post and link to your Storify post so I can see it.
This is due before class on Nov. 10.
Tags: assignment, storify
Your final project in this class is to develop a social media presence for a brand.
You can choose the brand, but it must be something that isn’t yet on social media or has never used platforms that it has claimed.
It can be an association here on campus, like an academic department or an RSO, or a local business. You must seek the brand’s permission to create an official social media presence and then hand off the responsibility to that group.
You must create three social network presences for this brand. Two of the three can certainly be Twitter and Facebook, but also identify a third place that it makes sense for your brand to be. You don’t have to use Twitter and Facebook, but those are certainly the most basic.
This project is due on Dec. 1. We will again be presenting in class that night in 10-minute blocks. Yes: These must be 10-minute presentations.
To turn this project in, provide a blog post on the whole social media philosophy with links to all the content that you discuss.
Some guidance:
Tags: project
Hopefully your projects are coming along well. Remember all the things we’ve talked about in class as you form these into a post on your blog. Some points to remember:
Tags: project
Write up a blog post to accompany the apology video you recorded in class on Thursday that addresses the following:
Tags: apology, crisis control, netflix, video
Before you come to class on Oct. 20, write a blog post about two apps that you’ve been using this week on your iPad or other mobile device.
One of those apps should be from a news organization. The other should be a national brand that has created a mobile app. Try and find one here that we might not know about or maybe doesn’t have obvious mobile opportunities.
Critique the apps. Who are these companies trying to reach? How social are these apps? How do they interact with the larger Web? Is the company monetizing the app? Should they be?
This post is worth 15 points.
Part one
For this assignment, your group will be creating a SCVNGR trek with five challenges.
All of the challenges must be contained inside the area defined by Bellows Street on the north, East Campus Drive on the east and West Campus Drive on the west and south.
One of your group members must post and send me the link to a blog post where you describe each challenge in your trek, what is required of the gamer and give me the answer.
This activity is worth 40 points.
Part two
Each of you must individually write a blog post identifying a use of this SCVNGR game for a brand or event. What could it offer them?
Come up with a list of possible challenges for them to include.
This blog is worth 10 points.
All of this is due before class on Oct. 20.
This is the blog post that is due before you come to class Thursday.
Write up a post on how all these changes to Facebook (Ticker, Top Stories, Timeline) will affect brand pages going forward.
Also: Pick a brand and come up with an app that the brand should create to infuse its content or message here on Facebook. Think about how some of the early applications are being used, like songs from Spotify or recipe recommendations. How would a clothing store use that? Or a news org? Or a candy maker?
Part 1: 80 points
For your first project, identify a successful social media campaign and tell us how it was executed.
To do this, you’ll have to interview the person or people behind the campaign.
To be sure, the word “successful” here could mean a whole lot of things. We’ve talked about this in class when we talked metrics. That can be part of your discussion with the person/people behind the effort. What metrics did they follow closely? What did they use to deem it a success in-house? Get them to share hard numbers with you.
Please punch holes in their claims, though, too. You don’t have to be their cheerleader. We’ll all learn more if you’re able to find ways they could have done things better or if you find that they’re relying on unsound metrics.
Start by reaching high here. If you can find a successful social media campaign from a company like Nike or General Motors, reach out to them. They should be thrilled to chat about their successes.
It might be the company itself behind the campaign or more likely a third-party social media firm.
I would get started on this now. Tracking down people to talk to will be the hardest part of this. You will need every day that you have to make sure this is moving along smoothly.
If you’re unsure about the campaign you’ve chosen, shoot me an e-mail and I can help you decide if it’ll be a dead end or not.
Your final product to me will be a post on your class blog. Write this as you would any paper — make it engaging, but academic in nature — but also include relevant links, images, videos and any other Web materials that make sense with your campaign analysis.
Your post must be at least 500 words and must include an interview with someone at the firm responsible for the campaign.
This is due Oct. 27 before class. In class that night, you’ll be presenting your findings in 10-minute blocks.
Part 2: 20 points
During the next four weeks, identify a missed social media opportunity for a brand or news organization.
This can take infinite forms, but keep your eyes on headlines the next few weeks and one will pop up.
It can be something obvious such as a Chrysler-like or Red Cross-like social media snafu. Here, you identify the opportunity missed in the clean-up and offer different, concrete steps the brand should have taken.
Or it can be something like a big breaking news event that wasn’t embraced by the local media on social media. Be realistic with this one, though. Don’t develop a counter plan for an organization like the Morning Sun and call for the work of four or five staff members. They don’t have that many boots on the ground at any one time.
File this one as a separate blog post and make it at least 200 words.
This is also due Oct. 27 before class begins.
Tags: project
The following assignments are due before class on Sept. 22. No need to e-mail me the links. Just have them posted to your blog by that time and I’ll find it.
Assignment 1: Take the Twitter account you selected in class on Thursday and evaluate it for several days. What is the goal of this Twitter account? Who do you think is updating it? What is the tone of the account? How conversational is it? Can you think of anything this account can do to improve? How often are they including links to their content when posting? Links to other content?
Assignment 2: Respond thoughtfully to the video we watched in class on the origins of YouTube and sharing on the social Web. What surprised you? What applications do you think it has to the rest of the social Web?
Assignment 3: This one is extra credit. If you’re around, watch the Charlie Sheen roast on Comedy Central on Monday night. Do so with a second screen fired up and explained here by Mashable. How did they integrate the social Web into the show?
Tags: assignment, twitter
Here are the two videos we watched in class on Thursday from Michael Wesch at Kansas State University:
Tags: history, social media, videos, youtube
