Unit introduction
Social media websites are a popular way for people to communicate and share information with friends and family. People spend a lot of time on social media websites and they give businesses opportunities to interact with people, for example to promote their business, to encourage people to visit their e-commerce site and buy, to provide customer service. You may be familiar with social media for personal use and in this unit you will discover how it can be used in a business context.
You will explore different social media websites, the ways in which they can be used and the potential pitfalls when using them for business purposes. You will develop a plan to use social media strategies for business purposes to achieve specific aims and objectives. You will then implement the plan, developing and posting content and interacting with others. Finally, you will collect data on the business use of social media and review the effectiveness of your efforts.
Understanding how to use social media for business purposes is useful for employment in information technology and in a variety of business sectors. Also, social media skills are closely linked with web and mobile applications development.
This unit gives you a starting point for progression to roles such as social media specialist, content developer and web developer.
Learning aims
In this unit you will:
A Explore the impact of social media on the ways in which businesses promote their
products and services
B Develop a plan to use social media in a business to meet requirements
C Implement the use of social media in a business.
At access your program of study specification Click Here
In small groups of no more than three discuss and create notes on why social media is so popular and why do businesses use it? Why do social media sites change so often and why are new features introduced regularly?
Small-group activity research the background to the main social media sites, including their purpose, growth, popularity, recent or proposed changes, the way businesses use them, etc. Select your favourite social media campaign, prepare to present your findings to the class
Groups present their findings to the class and discuss them
If you could invent a social media feature, what would it be?
how many social media sites learners can name
discuss the different factors that differentiate social media sites
Tutor-led discussion: groups present their findings to the class and discuss them
invent your own social media site, what features, structure and target audience would it have?
Social Media Platform Comparison
http://meyerfoundation.org/sites/default/files/files/SWT-Platform-Comparison-090414.pdf
How social media sites compare as advertising platforms
www.ft.com/cms/s/2/91a471be-ea87-11e4-96ec-00144feab7de.html#axzz4BaKzVWr0
Create a new page in your OneNote class activities and capture research information on the monthly average hours of social media usage. Break your research down further by identifying the data against the platforms and ages.
http://meyerfoundation.org/sites/default/files/files/SWT-Platform-Comparison-090414.pdf
Lead-in: Ask learners why they think social media sites need business users.
Tutor-led discussion: facilitate a discussion about the different ways a business can make use of social media to support their aims and needs. Cover creating an image or brand, promoting products and services, communicating with customers, customer service, and resolving queries and managing issues
Small-group activity: Learners research how businesses make use of features of social media websites to support their aims and needs (e.g. advertising, website and mobile device integration, relationship to search engine optimisation, profile on the sites, usage data and audience profiles). Learners should prepare their findings to present to class
Tutor-led discussion: Groups present their findings to the class and discuss them
Plenary: Initiate a discussion entitled ‘Are adverts on social media annoying or useful?’ Summarise the lesson and use Q&A to establish learners’ understanding.
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A1 Social media websites – Developments in social media affect the way businesses promote products and services |
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Just a Minute - At the end of the lesson teachers ask learners to summarise their learning. The comparison of these summaries against learning objectives informs planning.