So­cial Me­dia Mar­ket­ing (on­line course)

Course content

This course provides expert knowledge about how individuals and brands engage with social media and analyzes key topics related to developing effective social media strategies.

Based on this knowledge, students develop a case-specific research question, integrate it into a wider conceptual framework, decide what research approach is most appropriate to empirically investigate this question, and then execute a small-scale research project (by collecting and analyzing relevant data) to derive conclusions and managerial implications. The final output is an assignment of max. 15 pages. Essentially, working towards the assignment is the key learning process of the course.

In contrast to other courses, where the assignment is carried out at the end, in SMM the assignment is conceptualized from the very beginning and is being developed and refined through several activities as the course evolves. Thus, the course can be considered a resource hub that enables students to work in the domain of social media with a case and topic of their own interest in an informed and organized way. The course is self-paced, allowing student to follow their own timeline. However, it

offers several structured activities and tasks that students can voluntarily take to support the development of their assignments. These activities are not mandatory.

Students must use theories and concepts from the reading list as a starting point and may extend beyond the curriculum, according to the case at hand. The process of working with your own research data provides hands-on experience of current, real-life challenges. It is mandatory that the final assignment be based on empirical work (qualitative or quantitative) that uses either primary or secondary data.

The course is research-based and, therefore, it primarily relies on most recent, cutting-edge research published in leading scientific business journals.