This is an online-only course: Distance mode including performance assessment.

Today's marketers and researchers are faced with an enormous amount and variety of data that consumers share through social media - from interactions with companies and product feedback via text messages, to images and videos posted by branded experiences on Instagram, Snapchat or TikTok. At the same time, companies also strive to interact with their customers on various social media channels by producing compelling and relevant multimedia content for their target audiences.

Despite their ubiquity, marketing scholars have only just begun to explore the rich insights multimedia data can provide, and to understand the factors that make text, image, and video content successful and viral on social media.

This project-based applied course will

1. provide the theoretical foundations on social media marketing. We will cover the what, why, and how of major current approaches, including management of paid, earned and owned social media channels, social network theory and virality of content, influencer marketing, metrics to measure success on social media, (machine learning) approaches to analyze and identify successful text messages, image types, and video elements

2. give an hands-on workshop in storytelling and creating compelling video content. In cooperation with Ingmar Bartels, Content Director of the Campaigning Bureau, one of the most successful political and social media campaign agencies in Europe, you will get an overview of different storytelling techniques, evaluate challenges in creating messages for different social media channels, and get an introduction in video content creation using state-of-the art software.

After the theoretical kick-off sessions, you will choose a research question concerning a current trend in social media marketing (e.g., how to do successful marketing on TikTok). In a team of international students, you will break down the research question story based on a literature search, craft a compelling story and create content to tell the story. The end product of the group project is a “youtube”-style video of approximately 5-10 minutes length. Contacts to digital experts and digital practitioners as potential interview partners can be provided. In a final session, all videos will be presented and discussed.

After completing the course, students will have gained some proficiency in analyzing successful multimedia content on social media. Moreover, students will be familiar with concepts and theoretical foundations underlying consumer behavior on social media, as well as practical tools to develop their own social media content and successful storytelling.

In particular, students will have acquired knowledge in

• success factors of social media marketing with regard to text, image, and video data
• critical thinking skills to analyze and interpret media messages
• metrics to measure engagement and success on social media
• compelling content marketing and storytelling techniques, adopted to various social media channels
• working with video creation software

In addition, you will have developed your professional skills in developing a synthesis and story from a research question, creative thinking, and working in teams.

Participation in all sessions is mandatory. You may miss up to max. 20% of class hours, but please note that content is build-up in a modular way. Thus absences should be minimized to ensure your optimal learning outcomes.

• Self-study (reading of scientific articles and own researches of articles, blogs, and videos to prepare group project topic)
• Lectures and in-class discussions on theoretical foundations
• Hands-on workshop in cooperation with the Campaigning Bureau on storytelling and multimedia design
• Team presentation of video outcomes

Your grade will be the sum of the following components (max. 100 points)

• Literature quiz: 30 pts
• Project work: 60 pts (video analyzing a current trend in social media marketing, 5-10 min total)
• Peer evaluation of group work: 10 pts

The literature quiz is graded at the individual level, while the project work is graded at the group level. The peer review is used to assess the individual contribution of each group member to the group project.

Grades are as follows:

90 pts or more: 1 (= excellent), 80 pts or more: 2 (= good), 70 pts or more: 3 (=satisfactory), 60 pts or more: 4 (= sufficient), 59 pts or less: 5 (= fail). 

No specific analytical skills and software knowledge required; affinity for social media a plus.

E-Mail: christina.schamp@wu.ac.at