This assessment requires you to keep a blog to help develop your reflective thinking skills as well as your understanding of social media marketing knowledge. Weblogs or blogs have become increasingly popular since the commencement of Web 2.0 technologies. By using blogs as an assessment piece in this unit, you will have the opportunity to increase your academic knowledge of the subject area as well as your digital literacy skills.

The task is to pick 6 of the unit readings provided on Moodle and comment on what you have learned from the reading. These articles can either be prescribed or recommended. Reflection is about expressing your opinions and feelings which is an important prerequisite for deep and meaningful learning.

Each blog entry should consist of three elements:

1) a heading stating which unit reading you have chosen to write about (APA referencing style);

2) a brief summary of the reading and

3) reflective comments on what you have gained from its content and how you may use it for in your future study or career. You may also wish to comment on any theories, issues and challenges that were conveyed in the unit readings. Blogs should be a maximum of 300 words in lengths per chosen unit reading. It is best that you start your blog summaries as early as possible in the semester. In total your blog should have 6 entries (correspond to the 6 readings you picked) and be up to 1,800 words in total.

Blog entries will be regularly checked by the lecturer to check on student progress and provide formative feedback. The blogs will be assessed on presentation of information, depth of thought/expression, and lengths of blog entries. For each of the six blog entries, you will receive up to 5 marks, totaling 30 marks.

Content (3 marks)

• Summary may include any background information on the reading, review and evaluation of any theories, issues and challenges conveyed in the unit readings.
• Reflective comments on what you have gained from the reading’s content and/or how you may use it for in your future study or career.

Format of blog (1 mark)

• Heading stating which unit reading you have chosen to write about
• Length of blog entry

Presentation of information (1 mark)

• Good grasp of standard writing conventions, i.e. spelling, punctuation, and grammar
• Sentences and paragraphs are well constructed

A company’s online presence is demonstrated through its engagements and interactions on social media sites. The aim of this assessment is to enhance your knowledge of how social media networking site can be used to increase awareness and to establish connections with their audience. You are to make a presentation which involves identifying a tourism organisation (i.e. tourism attraction, tourism operator, accommodation provider or tourism destination marketing organisation) of your choice and examine how the tourism organisation uses social media to engage with their target markets. You are required to review only ONE social media networking site (i.e. Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Flickr, etc) even though a tourism operator may use more than one site.

The presentation should cover the following sections:

Outline who the potential audience of the social media site is and why the content of the social media site might be useful to this audience or not. It might be helpful to consider questions such as: who is likely to use the information, when are they likely to use it, where are they using it (desktop vs. mobile), how long are they likely to use the information for?

Outline what types of content is used by the social media site and state what the frequency of updates is, i.e. textual information about products and services, previous customers’ reviews, audio-visual content, integration with other social media such as Pinterest or YouTube, and links to organisation’s website or blog.

Investigation and discussion of how the social media site engages with its social network audience. This information can be gained by checking how content is interacted with:

1. Conversation rate – The number of conversations or comments per post.
2. Amplification rate – The number of re-shares or re-tweets per post.
3. Applause rate – The number of likes, favourite clicks or +1 per post.
4. Follow up on action – Did audience follow up on any actions the organisation asked them to take?

Provide any recommendations on how the chosen tourism organisation could enhance their social media presence.

Ensure that you demonstrate evidence of having read relevant literature (refer to your readings on Moodle).

Instructions

There are no limitations on the number of slides. However, you must deliver your presentation within 10 minutes. The last slide should contain a list of references that have informed your presentation.

On-campus students will deliver your presentation in class on 23.03.2017.

Distance students will record a sound or video file of your presentation, and submit the file on Moodle on 23.03.2017.

Slides should follow this structure:

• Presentation title and student information slide
• Introduce of your chosen tourism organisation (setting and background information)
• Outline of potential audience
• Outline of types of content
• Discussion of social media networking site’s engagement
• Recommendations to enhance social media presence
• Reference list

Presentation content (10 marks)

• Scope and quality of content
• Outline of potential audience
• Outline of types of content
• Discussion of social media networking site’s engagement
• Recommendations to enhance social media presence
• Evidence of having read relevant literature
• Reference list

Process – Visual aids (5 marks)

• Clarity and design of presentation
• Concise and well-structured
• Innovation and creativity

Process – Presentation skills (5 marks)

• Pace of presentation
• Speech clarity
• Professionalism and enthusiasm

The aim of this assessment task is to develop a comprehensive social media marketing plan using the latest theory. Having a plan in place improves an organisation's chances of success in executing their social media marketing goals.

The first step is to decide on a tourism organisation, (i.e. tourism attraction, tourism operator, accommodation provider or tourism destination marketing organisation).

Secondly, conduct an assessment of this organisation’s current social media presence.

Thirdly, you are then to develop a social media marketing plan to help the tourism organisation to build or grow their social media presence.

The social media marketing plan should be no longer than 2,500 words in length and include the following structure:

Title page with student information

The title page will include the name of your chosen tourism organisation, your name, student id number and lecturer/tutor name and course name and code.

Table of contents

The table of contents will present each section of the SMM plan, including sub-headings, with their appropriate page number(s). Sections should be numbered with page number (e.g. 1.0 Introduction on page 1). Do not use page numbering for the title page and the table of contents itself.

Introduction (approx. 200 words)

The introduction should present a brief description of the chosen tourism organisation and the tourism product/service/experience that is the major focus of this SMM plan. In addition, aims and structure of the report should be presented.

Target audience analysis and outline of the organisation’s current social media environment (approx. 500 words)

The target audience profile needs to be researched in a manner that gives the reader of your SMM plan a better understanding as to who you will be directing the proposed social media communications at. The outline of the current social media environment should outline what types of social media the organisation is currently using and other key metrics to measure social media presence, including

- Reach: Indicates the number of followers, fans, group members.

- Company posts: How often the company posts on each social media platform

- Average response time: Assesses response time to user comments on the company’s social media platforms

- Sentiment analysis: Indicates the number of positive or negative mentions on each social media platform where the organisation has a sizeable presence

3-5 Social media goals/objectives (no more than 500 words)

Students must present and explain 3 (minimum) to 5 (maximum) social media goals/objectives for their SMM plan with quantifiable targets and timeframe for achievement. These social media goals may include strengthening brand awareness, driving word-of-mouth recommendations, acquiring new customers, encouraging purchase behaviour or conducting market research. Think about, and justify, why you may chose particular goals for this target audience. Use of additional sources of information to help support the discussion is expected.

Determine strategies to achieve the goals (approx. 500 words)

Think about the desired outcomes that you would like to achieve with your social media goals and identify the strategies best suited for helping to achieve these outcomes. Strategies could include influencing the target market with videos and podcasts to feature new experiences; interacting with consumers via Facebook and Twitter to improve brand recognition; engaging customers to drive eWOM recommendations; and establishing vibrant brand communities where customers can post questions. Consider the 8 C’s of Strategic Development (see Lecture 3) which are guidelines for constructing social media marketing strategies.

SMM plan and monitoring (approx 500 words)

Select the platform-specific tactics to successfully execute the social media goals and justify your use of the tactics based on how this best communicates with your target audience. Tactics could include customising the content of the social media platform to best engage with target audience; determining the frequency of updates per day; creating special offers; using Facebook Ads to generate traffic to the company website, etc. Lastly state how progress of your social media marketing plan will be monitored.

Conclusion (no more than 200 words)

In your opinion, why do you think it will be possible to achieve each of your chosen social media goals? Briefly outline the target audience, each of the social media goats and the social media strategy adopted to explain your answer.

Reference list

The SMM plan should include at least ten (10) sources of information from a combination of scholarly academic journal articles, academic textbooks, trade journals and websites. All sources listed should be in alphabetical order and be cited in the main body of the SMM plan using the

APA referencing style.

Content knowledge (35 marks)

• Introduction (3 marks)
• Target audience and social media presence analysis (6 marks)
• 3-5 Social media goals/objectives (5 marks)
• Strategies to achieve the goals (4 marks)
• SMM plan and monitoring (6 marks)
• Conclusion (3 marks)
• Evidence of having read relevant literature (5 marks)
• Referencing (3 marks)

Organisation of report structure and writing style (15 marks)

• Table of contents (1 mark)
• Structure and sequence of ideas is logical (3 marks)
• Good use of headings to guide the reader (3 marks)
• Good grasp of standard writing conventions, i.e. spelling, punctuation, grammar (4 marks)
• Sentences and paragraphs are well constructed (4 marks)