Knowledge and Understanding.

1. Critically discuss the evolution of online marketing strategies and the latest trends and practices.

2. Critically discuss and evaluate websites based on their search and social media optimisation and digital presence

3. Critically evaluate the principles and processes involved in developing integrated marketing communications, including the impact of technology and other environmental influences on marketing communications and the media.

4. Analyse the benefits, problems and challenges faced by businesses in using various social media marketing communication tools within complex global environments.

Transferable/Key Skills and other Attributes.

On completion of this module students will have had the opportunity to:

5.    Improve their planning, organising and time management skills

6.    Improve their research skills and data analysis

7.    Develop their analytical and problem solving skills

8.    Practice using initiative

9.    Develop effective written and oral communication skills

10. Work both individually and collaboratively to solve a given problem

a)    Create an optimised personal digital profile sufficient to apply for a job of your choice. This has to include a number of social media profiles based on your justifications and one compulsory optimised blog post.

b)    Document your work in an Individual assessment report which should include:

a.    Analysis

b.    Plan

c.    Combination of work done

The topic of the blog post should be focussed around:

“How my time at Salford Business School prepares me for a career in X*?”

*X is to be your career of choice.

Individual Assessment Report structure:

Analysis – 50 marks:

You must conduct a Search and Social Media Marketing analysis for those key skills and attributes that are desired by potential employers, in an area where you would like to work. This should include the keywords for main industry specific skills, key influencers and individuals who would make employment decisions or help in your application process.

For the top ten of your competitors you should conduct a thorough evaluation of their strengths and weaknesses in terms of their use of professional social media profiles – how often do they engage? What are their forms of engagement? What can you learn from their behaviour using social media profiles analysis tools and techniques.

Based on your analysis develop your personal benchmarks that you would like to attain within the given time and set up monitoring processes.

This section can include: literature review (at least five references to relevant academic research articles, reports and books) of latest thinking on keyword research methods and analysis methods of social media influencers. A tabular extract from Keyword Research. A tabular justification of keywords selected, screen shots of current competitors ranking for your primary keyword terms. You can use different tools such as Google Keyword research tool, Google Trends, Google Insights for Search etc.

For social media profiles analysis you could select main profiles and evaluate the frequency of their engagement as well as the top networks and the type of information produced and consumed.

Plan – 25 marks:

Based on your analysis, you must produce a Search and Social Media Marketing strategy for 12 months and a practical SSMM plan that identifies you as an individual who is looking for to establish a career in this field and therefore become a recognisable “brand”. This would include your online profile development with a view to being identified by employers as their preferred candidate of businesses who might be interested working with you – if for example you are planning to be self-employed etc.

This section can include: –

Literature review (at least five references to relevant academic research articles, reports and books) on digital strategy development and thinking of legal and ethical implications of you being online. Map out your target audience and how you will target particular networks and groups to channel your overall communications. Your long-term plan or strategy – what it is that you want to be known for and how this will help you in your future career.

Key SMART objectives – for your strategy implementation – using the Specific, Measurable, Achievable Realistic and Time bound indicators. These can be justified with industry benchmarks or examples of other profiles that you are using as a “template” or “guide” for your personal identity.

Critically justify the selection of specific Social Media Services. For example, if you choose Twitter – how will it help your employment or business development? If you have chosen LinkedIn – why have you joined it and how do you link it to Twitter if at all and why?

A Gantt chart – indicating the main tasks you will be engaged in to implement your SSMM plan with clear starting dates and it should start with the day the assignment was handed out and end in a year.

Risk Assessment – outline the main risks, their potential impact and how you are going to monitor and mitigate these.

Practical plan implementation – 25 marks:

As part of this process you have to implement your plan, an aspect of which has to be at least one optimised blog post, which will allow you to be noticed by the industry. Consider creating a profile on free platforms such as http://my.mastersindigitalmarketing.org which allows you to install and customise a WordPress blog. Please show evidence of amplification.

One of the key criteria for your assessment is the implementation of as many SSMM techniques as appropriate for your Search Engine Results Page (SERP) positioning. For example, how you have approached search engine optimisation, social media (including video, audio, etc.) or mobile opportunities. The more of your profiles you manage to rank on the first three pages, the higher your chances of being noticed. The keyword for the SERP positioning is your “first and last name” for example “Aleksej Heinze” or “Tahir Rashid”. At least one other primary keyword for which you have to optimise your profiles is that related to the industry that you have identified in your plan.

Based on your self-assessment you should draw conclusions on your performance and reflect how your profile could be improved.

This section can include: –

Based on your plan (primary and secondary keywords) demonstrate how you put the theory into practice by developing and optimising your profile using appropriate online channels.

Screenshots of SERPS before and after you have started your project highlighting your digital identities and explaining how this will benefit you in the long term.

Screenshots of your different profiles and indication of how you have used your keyword research to optimise on-page and off-page assets. For example, how you wrote your Twitter profile description and used the primary keyword in the choice of your user name and linking to your other online properties.

If you are using LinkedIn how you completed your professional profile and how you identified the relevant user discussion groups etc.

For the blog post you could take a screen shot and highlight in the code the positions of your keywords and their importance in helping you to rank for a particular keyword.

Self and Peer assessment

(Total: 100 marks)

The attached guidance is in addition to the general assessment criteria guidelines for degree classifications contained in your programme handbook.  Your attention is also drawn to the University of Salford policy on plagiarism and referencing and you should make reference to the University study guide web site www.edu.salford.ac.uk/studyskills

A 10% penalty will be imposed for every 100 words over the word limit

AskUS

The University offers a range of support services for students through askUS.

Academic Misconduct

The University takes all forms of academic misconduct seriously.  This includes plagiarism, asking someone else to write your assessment for you or taking notes into an exam. You can find out how to avoid academic misconduct here.

Assessment Information

If you have any questions about assessment rules, you can find out more here.

Personal Mitigating Circumstances

If personal mitigating circumstances may have affected your ability to complete this assessment, you can find more information about personal mitigating circumstances procedure here.

What are your secondary keywords (SK)? (3 terms max)

Social Media profiles identification and integration with prospective audiences e.g. cross-linking of all social media properties and integration within a “theme” appropriately chosen for the “business” plan.

Number of connections / followers / tweets on topic etc/ Klout score etc

Anchor text from relevant resources, Clear call to action – for example RSS subscribe, tweet, share, like etc. Is content original? Check via www.copyscape.com

Outstanding

Excellent

Very Good

Good

Fair

Adequate

Unacceptable

Critical use of theory. Original thinking developed and applied in terms of methods used, data collected and insights gained.

A high number of relevant tools used and relevant data is generated and integrated with theories to inform your analysis.

More than 3 references (by different authors) per paragraph offering multiple interpretations of the same point being made.

A number of relevant tools used and relevant data is generated and integrated with theories to inform your analysis.

More than 2 references (by different authors) per paragraph offering multiple interpretations of the same point being made.

Good range of academic sources and industry articles.

Most methods are used as discussed in lectures with little self-reflection.

Tools for digital profiles analysis are well considered and the most relevant tools are used to inform the analysis.

More than 2 references (by different authors) per paragraph mainly descriptive points being made

Some use of descriptive grey literature review to justify techniques used and highlight the latest developments.

Data produced through tools but not analysed or presented in an irrelevant way and does not clearly support decisions made.

More than 1 references (by different authors) per paragraph mainly descriptive points being made

Use of descriptive literature review to describe techniques used.

Data collection is not always clear or well documented and referenced. Very descriptive and superficial use of tools.

More than 1 references per paragraph, mostly websites and online resources used

Descriptive literature review to justify techniques used, taken at face value.

Data used is limited and not always relevant to analysis.

No or inappropriate references, descriptive points being made

50

No or limited focus in terms of aim and objectives.

Descriptive use of literature to justify techniques used. References are predominantly websites based.

25

Social media profiles are outstandingly optimised for relevant subject areas and networks. Evidenced through high Klout scores, integrated approach of cross linking and optimised up-to-date profiles. Outstanding evidence of creativity and individuality of the profiles engagement implementations.

Blog post uses all taught and self taught elements to outstanding level for on-page and off-page optimisation techniques. Extensive high quality links profile (10+ external links) to the blog posts from a number of different properties with naturally varying anchor text.

Social media shares of the blog post 10+ per network

Blog post domination of the first SERP for your PK and SK and a variety of networks (e.g. YouTube, SlideShare etc). High number of links to the blog, engagement on the blog comments and high relevant variety of social sharing of the blog on social networks.

Social media profiles are excellently optimised for relevant subject areas and networks. Evidenced through high Klout scores, integrated approach of cross linking and optimised up-to-date profiles.

Blog post uses all on-page and off-page optimisation techniques as covered by the course.

Good evidence of natural link building (7+ external links), in addition to social media mentions.

Social media shares of the blog post 7+ per network

Blog post domination of the first SERP for your PK and SK. High number of links to the blog, engagement on the blog comments and high relevant variety of social sharing of the blog on social networks.

Social media profiles are very well optimised for relevant subject areas and networks. Evidenced through Klout scores, integrated approach of cross linking and optimised up-to-date profiles.

Blog post uses most on-page and off-page optimisation techniques.

Good evidence of natural link building (4+ external links), in addition to social media mentions

Social media shares of the blog post 4+ per network

Blog post domination of the first SERP for your PK and SK. A number of links to the blog, engagement on blog comments and relevant variety of social sharing of the blog on social networks.

Social media profiles are optimised for relevant subject areas and networks. Evidenced through Klout scores and optimised up-to-date profiles.

Blog post uses some on-page and off-page optimisation techniques.

Good evidence of natural link building (2 + external links) in addition to social media mentions

Social media shares of the blog post 4+ per network

Blog post domination of the first SERP for your PK. A number of links to the blog, engagement on blog comments and relevant variety of social sharing of the blog on social networks.

Mostly the implementation follows tasks set during the module with little evidence of individual study.

Social media profiles are fairly optimised for relevant subject areas and networks. Evidenced through fair Klout scores and optimised up-to-date profiles.

Blog post uses minimal on-page and off-page optimisation techniques.

There is one external links in addition to social media mentions

Blog post domination of the first SERP for either PK or SK. A number of links to the blog, fair level of engagement on blog comments and relevant variety of social sharing of the blog on social networks.

Social media shares of the blog post 1+ per network

Mostly the implementation follows tasks set during the module with little evidence of individual study.

For the blog post, the on-page optimisation is reasonable and does take into account many basic on-page optimisation techniques.

Limited use of independent reading and experimentation with tools and techniques which could help in optimising these profiles.

Social media shares of the blog post 1+ per network

For the blog post, the on-page optimisation is limited and does not take into account many basic on-page optimisation techniques.

Blog posts content is very text heavy and has little original research and value to an audience. Not much linking to other sources and engagement with audiences.

Social media shares of the blog post 0 – 1 per network

25

Analysis

1. When deciding on your keywords use more than one data sources and be critical about the validity of data and method you are using for keyword selection – use academic as well as grey literature to justify your points
2. Download the keyword researched data into excel spread sheet to see competition levels not “High”, “Low” or “Medium”
3. For each of your Keywords justification is needed based on– Relevance, Specificity, Competition and Popularity
4. Where analysing competitors in your field state why you choose a particular network
5. Don’t forget to include in the appendices a sample job description
6. Take screenshots of your SERP before and after the optimisation process
7. Take screenshots of all the diagrams or data produced by the tools you use to inform your competitors research

Plan

1. You should have generally only one aim
2. Use SMART objectives – each objective should be one sentence.
3. For your plan – Gantt chart does not end in at the end of this module – since you need to really think about your employability and job market
4. Risk assessment – please use the table format

Practical

1. For the practical blog post example make sure you include the exact keywords targeted
2. Everyone should include the self-assessment form in the appendix of your assignment
3. Where you can use screenshots for example SERPS – do make sure that you are not logged in to Google