This is part 2 of a post discussing how I taught my Social Media Strategies class this semester at Drake University. I broke the class into nine sections, each with at least one related assignment.
If you haven’t yet read part one, do that first. It goes over the first four sections of the class.
Topic 5: Finding current social media research
We used two different methods to keep up with current social media research.
The first is the Nieman Journalism Lab website, where we looked for stories with the headline “What’s new in social media research.”
The second resource was the Drake University Library’s Super Search, which allowed us to access academic journals with articles on social media research.
Students then turned the academic research topic they studied into presentations for the class – so we all could learn from what each group put together.
Topic 6: Writing an effective blog post
We used this infographic to talk about what makes for an effective blog post.
And we used this template to evaluate blog posts.
Students wrote a blog post on a subject of their choosing, (many of them are on the class blog) and then others evaluated their blog posts using the template.
These were the requirements for the blog post:
- Have a catchy headline that is less than 70 characters and includes the keywords of the post
- Include the keywords of the post in the first paragraph (if it’s a post about Instagram tips, then “Instagram” and “tips” should be in first paragraph)
- Include at least one sharable image or graphic
- Include at least three links
- Be formatted for the web (short paragraphs, subheads, maybe a list and/or video)
- Be between 500 and 800 words
- Include an interview with a professional or a good amount of research
- Have a call to action at the end
Topic 7: Building a social media strategy for a company or organization
For this topic, we talked about frameworks for building a social media strategy that is in line with a company’s goals.
Jabs and right hooks were a big part of this. So was native content. But I also introduced more frameworks.
Here are the frameworks we discussed in class and used for building a strategy.
The final for the class was based on this topic. Students had to pick a business, find out what goals the business is trying to achieve and then come up with a creative social media campaign that would help toward that goal (and fit within the frameworks we discussed).
Topic 8: Why content goes viral
We first watched Jonah Berger’s videos on why things go viral. His method can be remembered using the acronym STEPPS.
Students then brainstormed ideas for content that they thought could be created and go viral at Drake University (meaning that it would be passed around enough that everyone on campus would see it).
Topic 9: Evaluating a new social media platform
This was a unique semester in that it seemed like there was a new social network popping up every week. I blame that $10 million evaluation that Snapchat was given. But it made for a fun semester.
For this, students tested out a new social network of their choice in groups and then applied the Groundswell Technology Test (from our old class book Groundswell).
The answers to these five questions give you an idea whether or not the new technology (social network in our case) has potential to really grow to a critical mass.
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Questions or comments on how I structured the class? Or anything else? Share them in the comments area below. Or connect with me on Twitter.