The proliferation of social media platforms has provided endless opportunities for marketers to learn more about their consumers through this dynamic online environment. This course explores the role of social media within the context of global marketing. Social media is a powerful tool that can be used effectively in the pursuit of value creation for organisations and brands. Students will learn the different types of social media and how and where to leverage the variety of platforms to engage with different audiences.

This is an online course of 10 credits. This requires 100 hours of student-centred learning. Unlike a face to face course, online learning can be divided into directed and guided learning, rather than contact and non-contact hours. What is described as a lecture is, in fact, a series of teacher led activities (TLA) or directed teaching, such as direction to reading, video, audio, case studies or other resources.

Please refer to the post graduate Prospectus for further details: http://www.gla.ac.uk/postgraduate

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The summative assessment consists of the following two elements:

1. Individual Report of 1500 words associated with achieving ILOs (1) (2) & (5).

2. Individual Project Outputs of 1000 words featuring the planning and development of social media posts associated with achieving ILOs (3), (4) & (5).

This course aims to evaluate the role of social media within marketing and critically evaluates the challenges and opportunities in developing consumer. Many organisations and brands are finding it difficult to understand the nature and boundaries of social media and find it a challenge to create effective marketing communication strategies. Social media is now the primary avenue for consumers to search for product and service related information, trends and other topics of interest. Hence, understanding consumer desire for connecting with like-minded individuals through imagery, texts and blogs is of paramount importance for organisations and brands in developing content that stimulates interest and creates an intention for engagement through online communities. This course will allow students to evaluate the role of social media within marketing, review the opportunities and challenges organisations face in understanding consumer consumption of content through social communities and how best to develop strategies to ensure future growth within a rapidly evolving environment. It will also provide practical use of digital analytical tools to aid decision making.

By the end of this course students will be able to:

1. Critically, review the development of social media and its impact upon the marketing environment.

2. Evaluate the challenges and opportunities of social media from an organisational/brand and consumer perspective.

3. Critique the organisation/brand and consumer use of social media through evolving social communities.

4. Plan content that will drive engagement within social media communities for a specific organisation/brand.

5. Evidence high quality skills in written communication.

Students must submit at least 75% by weight of the components (including examinations) of the course's summative assessment.