Social Media Marketing

2014

Prof. Ashwin Malshe



Conversations

Conversations are us
Words are aplenty but inept
Encrypted in each whisper is a message
And thousands in a eeting glimpse


When was the last time you conversed with someone? About anything...that new song you heard on
the radio or the semester that is ahead of you? Anywhereon the phone, in person, on Facebook?
With anyonefriends, parents, siblings, or that random guy on the elevator? Perhaps you are
conversing even now while reading this text!

Conversations are fundamental to our existence. As human beings, we tried hard to achieve the
ability to converse. We invented languagesthousands of themin order to make our
communication efcient (Then we decided that words were too easy: Talk is Cheap). We continued
to converse. Thats how we shared our stories with otherswith those who matter as well as with
those who dont.

The conversations are already happening for agesby hand gestures, sounds, and written symbols.
We evolved from meeting personally to writing letters to making phone calls to sending emails. And
then we evolved again. We created the Internet and online social networks.

This is the latest and the most evolved medium for conversations. This is the social medium. You and
I are already here. Now the rms want to join us too. They were part of our conversations in absentia.
Now they want to take part in these conversations. The question is Will they add value to our lives?
Remember that it is not us who are entering their world; it is the businesses that are knocking on our
doors to let them in our social networks.
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As future employees, you will usher into the corporate world that is desperately trying to understand
the conversations of its consumers. Their focus on social media is not just a fad or a spark in the pan.
There is serious money riding on it. The businesses that ride this trend will survive or even thrive. The
ones left behind will die. You want to join the living, thriving companies. You want to shun the ones
that are dying, decaying.

Embracing social media for businesses is more than just a shift in the communication strategy. It is a
part of the fundamental change in the corporate culture that is antiquated. It demands
transparency, it shuns mistrust. The consumer doesnt want to be treated like a king, rather just a
human being. But treating people like, say people, is the toughest task for the businesses. Their
current marketing strategies are inuenced by industrial manufacturing practices. If the goods can
be grouped together, why cant be the people? ask the marketers. They then segment the human
race into homogenous groupseach person in the segment is the same as the other. They position
their brands in our mindsevery consumer perceives the brand the same way.

This has to change. The businesses have to be more than just legal entitiesnexus of contracts. They
are run by people for the people. It is high time we bring out the human elements within the
businesses in order to converse with the consumers. Remember the consumers have a choice. If they
dont want, they will not include a legal entity in their social networks. Why in the world should we
share our interests with a cyborg? Why should we make our memories, pictures, and opinions,
however plain they may be, available to a non-human? If businesses have to converse with humans,
they have to become human. And converse they must! Because if they dont, they will be left behind
to fade into the oblivion.


Introduction

According to a recent survey of 262 chief marketing officers (CMOs), American companies are
spending 7.4% of the marketing budget on social media. In the next 12 months, this spending will
increase to 10% and over the next five years it will reach 18%. The trend shows that marketers are
emphasizing social media marketing and no more considering it as a hobby.

However, in another CMO study conducted by IBM on a larger sample of 524 global CMOs, lack of a
cohesive strategy for leveraging social media/business emerged as a critical challenge. Similarly, in
an earlier study by IBM, 68% of the CMOs indicated that they were under-prepared for social media.
These survey findings suggest that although companies are convinced about social media
importance and want to invest more, they are still struggling to tame social media. As such there are
many opportunities for an individual with the understanding of social media in todays businesses.

Course Objectives

In this course we will focus on the following:

Why social media have become so important for the future of business
How can social media marketing strategies be constructed and implemented
How to run social media campaigns
The limitations of social media marketing
Measuring the effectiveness of social media strategies
How to be better prepared for social media crisis
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This course requires you to modify the current marketing strategies such as segmentation, targeting,
and positioning. We will learn how the traditional business model of mass production of
communication is meaningless and irrelevant in social networks.


Course Requirements

Regular reading of the course documents. You will construct in your mind your own versions of the
past, present, and future of social media and share with the rest of us in the class.

Attending the classes regularly and participating in the class discussions of two case studies that
will be assigned to you.

Creating and managing your own blog/website, setting up a Twitter account, etc. I will show you
the tools to help you in this. You dont need the knowledge of computer programming to do it.

Reading List

See the schedule for the mandatory reading list. The academic papers are listed below and they are
part of the required readings. Apart from these readings, you might be given news articles and
reports from time to time.

Academic paper 1: Building Brand Community, by McAlexander, Schouten, and Koenig 2002,
Journal of Marketing
Academic paper 2: What Makes online Content Viral, by Berger and Milkman 2001, Journal of
Marketing Research
Academic paper 3: What Drives Immediate and Ongoing Word of Mouth, by Berger and Schwartz
2011, Journal of Marketing Research
Academic paper 4: Seeding Strategies for Viral Marketing, by Hinz, Skiera, Barrot, and Becker 2012,
Journal of Marketing
Academic paper 5: Creating a Measurable Social Media Marketing Strategy for Hokey Pokey., by
Kumar, Bhaskaran, Mirchandani, and Shah 2013, Marketing Science

Here is a recommended reading list:

Books

Contagious: Why Things Catch On, by Jonah Berger (ISBN-10: 9781451686579)
Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die, by Chip Heath and Dan Heath (ISBN-10:
1400064287)
The New Community Rules: Marketing on the Social Web, by Tamar Weinberg (ISBN-10:
0596156812)
Groundswell: Winning in a World Transformed by Social Technologies, by Charlene Li and Josh
Bernoff (ISBN-10:1422125009)
The Whufe Factor: Using the Power of Social Networks to Build Your Business, by Tara Hunt
(ISBN-10:0307409503)

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The Dragony Effect: Quick, Effective, and Powerful Ways to Use Social Media to Drive Social
Change, by Jenifer Aaker and Andy Smith (ISBN-10: 0470614153)
Web Analytics 2.0: The Art of Online Accountability and Science of Customer Centricity, by Avinash
Kaushik (ISBN-10:0470529393)
The Hyper-Social Organization: Eclipse Your Competition by Leveraging Social Media, by Francois
Gossieaux and Ed Moran (ISBN-10: 0071714022)

Websites

Fast Company: http://www.fastcompany.com/
New York Times Business: http://www.nytimes.com/pages/business/index.html

Blogs

Jeremiah Owyang: http://www.web-strategist.com/blog/
Mashable: http://mashable.com/
AMEX Open Forum: http://www.openforum.com/

Grading


Case Studies

There are two cases to be discussed in the class. For each case, the groups are required to submit a
written solution in PPT form (only .ppt or .pptx files) before the class starts. The case will be
thoroughly discussed along with related readings. We will divide the students in groups of 3-4
students. The group composition can be done randomly or you may choose your group-mates. This
will be done on the rst day of the classes. The students who fail to form the groups will be
assigned to groups randomly without any possibility of a change. Two randomly selected groups will
make the presentation in the class, which is not graded.

Class Project
The class project involves working on a real-life problem throughout the 5 weeks period. Each group
will pick a social media campaign and analyze it using the frameworks discussed in the class. The
deliverable is a deck of slides (.ppt or .pptx) to be submitted on the last day of classes. More
information will be given to you on 19 August 2014 during the class.
Case Studies 40% (20% each)
Final Exam 30%
Class Project 30%
Total 100%
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Schedule
Class Date and Time Topic Mandatory Readings
1
19 August
4:45 pm-6:15 pm
Introduction, current state of social
media marketing, trends
Syllabus, Demystifying
social media, What sells
CEOs on social
networking
2
21 August
4:45 pm-6:15 pm
Social Media Workshop
Facebook fan pages, corporate Twitter,
blogs, YouTube, and dashboards
Social networks selection
SAP case study, Social
media? Get serious!
Academic paper 1
3
26 August
9:15 am-12:00 pm
Social media marketing strategy:
Content strategy
Selected chapters from
Contagious and Made
to Stick
Academic papers 2 & 3
4
28 August
9:15 am-12:00 pm
Social media marketing strategy:
Content strategy

Guest Talk 1: Preetham Venkky, KRDS
Selected chapters from
Contagious and Made
to Stick
5
2 September
9:15 am-12:00 pm
Planning a social media campaign,
Gamification
Guest Talk 1: Ting Mao, Facebook
Case study on Maersk
Line
Academic paper 4
6
4 September
9:15 am-12:00 pm
Case study I
Guest Talk 3: Anna Sayre and Charlie
Lowe, Ogilvy & Mather
Social Media Content
Strategy at Ayojak
7
9 September
9:15 am-12:00 pm
Social media metrics:
Metrics that matter
Guest Talk 4: Rachel Poo, TechSailor
Can you measure the
ROI of your social media
marketing?
Academic paper 5
8
11 September
9:15 am-12:00 pm
Dark side of social media
Class exercise
A typology of social
media crises, The true
costs of social media
Case study on Susan
Komen foundation
9
16 September
9:15 am-12:00 pm
Case study II
Guest Talk 5: Olivier Girard, DigiMind
Sephora Direct
10-1
18 September
9:15 am-10:30 am
Wrap up TBA
10-2 16 September
10:45 am-12:00 pm
Final Exam
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