Reading assignments for each class will be posted on the Course Community Site. You are responsible for checking the site for reading assignments and for submitting a reading summary at the beginning of class.
Unless otherwise stated, a hard copy of an assignment is due in class at 5:30 p.m. on the day noted in the course schedule. Some assignments are submitted online, either via email at brandon.lausch@temple.edu, through an online submission form (such as Google Docs), or as otherwise assigned.
Final project overview/outline
Introduction
An essential component of social media management is informally or formally auditing a brand or organization’s social media presence, benchmarking it against competitors, analyzing how its channels could be improved, and suggesting specific, evidence-based ways to enhance content. That’s exactly your assignment for the final, team-based project in MIS3538.
Twelve teams, consisting of five students each, will engage in a real-world consulting exercise for a local brand or organization. The project requirements and timeline are as follows:
Assignment 1: Client interview and summary
Deliverable: Single-spaced interview summary (in a narrative format) of no more than two pages. Provide an overview of who you talked to (name, title, organization), key points they raised, elements of the conversation you found especially illuminating or surprising, and initial hypotheses on how your team could be the most helpful to your client, either in helping to overcome real/perceived challenges, exploring new channels, enhancing content, improving customer service, etc. Be sure to also identify, with your client, main competitors (at least 4-5), as you will be engaging in competitive benchmarking for your second deliverable. Please include a brief overview of your client’s competition in your interview summary.
Due: 5:30 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 27 (hard copy)
Points: 10
Overview: Schedule a conference call or in-person meeting with your assigned client to get on-the-ground perspective about the challenges and opportunities associated with your client’s social presence. This is the only time to formally engage your client until final presentations/report, so make the best use of your client’s time! Be prepared with an outline of questions. Call and/or show up on time, and stick to the allotted time you agree to (should not exceed 45 minutes). Be sure to record your conversation so you can reference it later!
Questions can be up to you, but here are some guiding principles to keep in mind:
What is your client’s brand voice/brand identity? How is that expressed on social?
What channels does your client use? How frequently do they post? What types of content? What channels, if any, are they exploring?
What is typical engagement per post, per channel? What has been your client’s best-performing content? Why?
What are the most important metrics to your client and/or to your client’s leadership? What metrics are they tracking and reporting?
What primary goals for social does your client have? How do those goals support key business objectives?
What human or financial (do not push for specifics) resources does your client use to support social? How easily can your client create or obtain high-quality multimedia assets? What social media management software do they use?
How important is customer service via social? What are the most frequently asked questions?
Who are your client’s main competitors? How much competitive benchmarking or social listening is your client engaging in?
What creative risks would your client like to take? What are potential pitfalls or non-starters?
Assignment 2: Content audit and competitive analysis
Deliverable: Three to five pages, single spaced, of a narrative content audit broken out into the four categories listed below and focusing on what we have covered so far this semester: brand voice/content generation; engagement; online reputation management/customer service; and social monitoring/listening. Also add a miscellaneous category for any findings not related to those categories and/or for topics we have yet to cover (boosted/paid social, SEO, crisis communications, global social media).
For your competitive analysis, follow the same directions as above for your client’s primary competitors. Choose no fewer than three competitors to analyze and no more than five.
That means your content audit and competitive analysis will be between 6-10 pages total, single spaced, not including exhibits. You should include an appendix of exhibits to illustrate your findings. Please reference each exhibit as an in-text citation or footnote wherever it is mentioned in your paper. You should include eight exhibits (four pertaining to your client’s content and/or digital presence, and four pertaining to your client’s competitors).
Due: 5:30 p.m. Thursday, March 12
Points: 20
Overview: This is a two-part process: Auditing your client’s social channels and online presence, and then doing the same exercise for its primary competitors (as identified by your client during your interview).
For part one, review approximately the past six months of your client’s social content and digital footprint.
Keep these questions/considerations in mind to help guide your thinking and writing:
Brand voice and content generation
What channels are being used, how frequently is content being posted, at what times of day or night is the content being posted, and how often/effectively is multimedia being used? How relatable, genuine, emotional and/or distinctive is the content? Does the client have a consistent brand voice and/or editorial style? If so, how would you describe it? Does the client incorporate newsjacking, trending hashtags, memes, cultural moments and/or stunts into its content? Are there clear calls to action (CTAs)? Do they link to any brand journalism/content marketing initiatives and/or a company website? If so, are the CTAs effective? Is user-generated content being leveraged? Does the client leverage any influencers or brand ambassadors?
Engagement
What are the most popular type(s) of posts, and why do you think that is? Least popular? What do engagement metrics look like (likes, comments, shares, etc.)? Does the client like and/or respond to comments? If so, what is the style and frequency of its replies?
Online reputation management/customer service
What does your client’s Google My Business/Knowledge Panel/Google Q&A look like? Have they claimed their business listing, listed hours and location(s), photos, etc.? What is their average star rating? How many reviews do they have? Do they respond to reviews, both negative and positive? Are the responses timely and genuine, or are they templated? Also look at your client’s general social presence. Do they have compelling social profile photos and cover photos (or videos), distinctive bios, consistent color usage, etc.?
Social monitoring and listening
What are people saying about your client, either via reviews on Google or social channels, via direct mentions or replies, or in online conversations that aren’t necessarily directed at your client? What is the volume, substance and sentiment of these conversations? On what channels are these conversations happening?
Miscellaneous
Are there major channels (YouTube, LinkedIn, Snapchat, TikTok, Spotify, Nextdoor, etc.) not being used at all or not being leveraged enough? Is your client using every element of its channels (e.g., Instagram Stories and IGTV if active on Instagram)? Any findings pertaining to boosted/paid social, SEO, crisis communications, global social media?
For part two, review approximately the past six months of your client’s competitors, both their social content and digital footprints.
Generally ask yourselves the same questions as above, but do so with learnings from your client’s interview responses, content, engagement and ORM in mind. Compare your client’s brand voice and content generation to its competitors. Are they posting more or less frequently? Getting more or less engagement? How does their brand voice and multimedia compare to competitors? Compare and contrast your client to its competitors in the five categories listed above for the content audit (brand voice/content generation; engagement; ORM/customer service; social monitoring/listening; and miscellaneous).
Assignment 3: Creative brief
Deliverable: Single-spaced summary (in a narrative format) not exceeding two pages. Citing findings from your client interview, provide a brief summary of the opportunity or challenge you will address via the social media content you plan to produce for the next assignment. Citing findings from your content audit and competitive analysis, as well as any other lessons you’ve learned thus far in the course, explain why your suggested approach is the best pathway for your client to take. Then describe what social content you will produce, answering the five Ws (and one H): Who, what, where, when, why, how.
Your creative brief does not necessarily have to solely recommend “traditional” social posts. If you feel your client would be best served by acquiring social media management software, and part of your next deliverable will be drafting a step-by-step guide of how to draft and schedule posts within the platform, be sure to outline that in your creative brief.
Due: 5:30 p.m. Thursday, March 26
Points: 15
Overview: Here are some questions to guide your writing:
Who on your team will be producing your content, and what target audience(s) will it be created for?
What type(s) of content do you plan to produce, and for which platforms? Will you be creating photos, videos, infographics, GIFs/memes, suggestions for user-generated content, newsjacking/localizing posts, influencer posts, etc.? Be specific and focus your goal. I’d prefer that you pursue one or two types of content very well instead of trying six different things.
Where will you be gathering this content? Through social monitoring or listening strategies? Will you be gathering assets on your own?
When will you be gathering these assets? Hopefully this will be spaced out over a few weeks. Do videos or photos need editing? If so, how long do you expect that take? Who has the technical proficiency on your team to accomplish this?
Why are you pursuing this content? This should be answered through your summary of what opportunity/challenge you’re addressing for your client and the data-driven insights (client interview, content audit, competitive analysis, and other course material) that led you to your recommendation.
How will you gather content for your sample social posts? I will highly value any team’s commitment and creativity to gather content by visiting your client’s location(s) to gather assets and/or suggesting mockups that are as authentic as possible (e.g., posing with one of your pets if your client is the SPCA or getting photos of a teammate running in the city if your client is Philly Runner), so be specific in summarizing how you plan to produce as much authentic (or authentic-looking) content as possible.
Obviously, keep in mind any potential permissions you might need to go on site to any of your client’s locations to avoid questions/confusion/disruption.
Assignment 4: Sample social posts
Deliverable: Thirty social posts aligned with the recommendations in each team’s creative brief and based on research from the client interview and content audit/competitive analysis. These social posts should be submitted electronically in whichever way your team feels is most appropriate, but they should NOT be posted publicly. For example, you could send screencaps of draft posts or a Word document containing responses to reviews. If you are creating video content, links to the video files are required so that the instructor can gauge production quality. Please include a paragraph introduction to provide context/explanation for your submission.
Due: 5:30 p.m. Thursday, April 16
Points: 30
Overview: This is finally your chance to be creative, strategic and authentic to your goals for your client by creating ideal social posts! These posts should align directly with the recommendations contained in your creative brief and should be supported by the evidence and insights you gathered from your client interview, as well as your content audit and competitive analysis.
Considering the realities of social distancing, creation of these posts will not require going to your clients’ locations. You can create mock content, if needed, using stock photography or other assets available online to demonstrate the style or aesthetic of the content you would create if you were able to gather assets by visiting your client’s business/organization.
Assignment 5: In-class presentations (featuring clients as observers)
Deliverable: Group presentations
Due: In class Thursday, April 23
Points: 15
Overview: Project teams will deliver a presentation of no more than 10 minutes to describe the steps they’ve taken during the semester-long final project. Use approximately five minutes to discuss the findings from your client interview and content audit/competitive analysis, as well as the recommendations from your creative brief. Then take five minutes to display a representative sample of your suggested social posts to your classmates. A good range is 5-10 posts.
Explain how and why you produced these posts, and please conclude with key lesson(s) learned from this consulting project. Not all team members have to speak. If your team prefers, you can select a spokesperson or two to deliver the presentation.
Here is the lineup of presentations. Note that we will likely run a few minutes behind this schedule if there are questions/comments from any clients who attend, as well as time for transitions from team to team.
Your clients will be invited to attend the presentation if they’re interested/available to do so.
Presentation schedule:
Insomnia Cookies—5:35 p.m.
Temple University—5:45 p.m.
Visit Valley Forge—5:55 p.m.
Saxbys—6:05 p.m.
Philadelphia Inquirer—6:15 p.m.
Greater Philadelphia Diaper Bank—6:25 p.m.
The Bourse—6:35 p.m.
Walnut Street Theatre—6:45 p.m.
Philadelphia Parks & Recreation—6:55 p.m.
BOK—7:05 p.m.
Philadelphia Runner—7:15 p.m.
Pennsylvania SPCA—7:25 p.m.
Assignment 6: Final report
Deliverable: Final report
Due: Email to instructor and your client by 5:30 p.m. Thursday, April 30
Points: 10
Overview: Your final report is a full compilation of each final project deliverable. Please include a cover page with all team members’ names. Following that will be your client interview summary; the content audit and competitive analysis, including exhibits; the creative brief; your suggested social posts; and your final presentation slides.
If needed, the final report can contain multiple attachments. For example, it is acceptable if your cover page, client interview summary, content audit/competitive analysis, and creative brief are all contained in a Word doc but your suggested social posts (especially if they contain GIFs or videos) are attached as separate files, and that your final presentation is attached as a PowerPoint.
The key is that all deliverables are submitted and clearly labeled.
Please note that a portion (of up to 5 out of 10 points) of your final report grade may be based on the results of peer-feedback surveys that will be emailed to the class. To be clear, the peer-feedback surveys may affect only deliverable No. 6, not grades for previous deliverables.