GSM 573 Mktg - Age of Social Media
Social media has changed the way people live and communicate. Businesses are not only reacting and responding to these changes in their marketing plans, but their marketing plans are funding innovation and thus driving a lot of the behavioral change they must in turn adapt to. This course is about how marketing has changed in light of the invention of social media, the role managers play in future change. It aims to arm students with the information every manager needs to compete in the marketing landscape of today and tomorrow. We will address a company's ability to respond, engage, participate and shape the way the customer community they build mobilizes to not only purchase their products and services, but also to behave in the greater world. We explore how companies participate in that discussion, and thereby live up to social, environmental and ethical missions in a greater sense. The overall goal of this course is to expose students to a next generation way of thinking that empowers them to not only leverage new media channels in marketing plans, and measure their effectiveness, but also to advance problem solve and build operating processes that enable them to integrate "new media mindset" in everything they do. Many of the specific topics we will discuss have business and social implications - from the data that is gathered and how it is stored and used, to the freedom of speech a business grants (or doesn't grant) its customers, to new media integration with traditional methods, to the way feedback gathered through social methods are employed in a company's operations and marketing. Students will discuss cases and review testimonials from real-life practitioners to study online marketing theory from strategic planning to process development to practical application.