90588 - SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING

Academic Year 2020/2021

  • Docente: Sara Valentini
  • Credits: 3
  • SSD: SECS-P/08
  • Language: Italian
  • Teaching Mode: Traditional lectures
  • Campus: Bologna
  • Corso: Second cycle degree programme (LM) in Business Administration (cod. 0897)

Learning outcomes

Social media is continuously transforming the way consumers interact with each other and firms. The course covers the implications of the evolution of communication on marketing strategy in the new digital environment. Advertisers worldwide will spend increasing amounts of paid media to reach consumers on social networks. According to figures from eMarketer by 2017social network ad spending will reach $35.98 billion, representing 16.0% of all digital ad spending globally.

These new communication channels, however, are presenting significant challenges to marketers in selecting the best strategies to maximize returns. The primary purpose of the course is to analyze and select these plans using tools that can help managers to take decisions. The course adopts a quantitative approach. Therefore, statistical techniques are used to detect to and examine the link between social media strategies, consumer behavior, and firms’ performance. The course will provide the conceptual framework and improve the analytical and creative skills that are necessary to define and develop effective social media marketing strategies. By the end of the course, students will have acquired both analysis and analytical skills that could be applied to support critical management decisions

Course contents

  • Introduction to social media marketing
  • Metrics in social media marketing
  • Assessing the social media marketing effectiveness: Predictive models
  • Establish links to Social Media Performance Metrics: Experimentation and causation
  • The impact of online reviews on customers attitude and behaviors

Readings/Bibliography

ATTENDING STUDENTS

BOOKS

Aaker, Kumar, Day Leone “Marketing Research” edizione 10th, capitolo 13

• Blattberg R.C., Kim B., e Neslin S.A. "Database Marketing" Analyzing and Managing Customers: capitoli 10, 11

ARTICLES

  1. Lamberton, Cait, and Andrew T. Stephen. "A thematic exploration of digital, social media, and mobile marketing: Research evolution from 2000 to 2015 and an agenda for future inquiry." Journal of Marketing 80.6 (2016): 146-172

  2. Ilhan, B. E., Kübler, R. V., & Pauwels, K. H. (2018). Battle of the brand fans: impact of brand attack and defense on social media. Journal of Interactive Marketing, 43, 33-51.

  3. Berger e Milkman “What Makes Online Content Viral?” 2012 Journal of Marketing Research

  4. Berger and Schwartz “What Drives Immediate and Ongoing Word of Mouth? 2011 Journal of Marketing Research,

  5. Tellis, G. J., MacInnis, D. J., Tirunillai, S., & Zhang, Y. (2019). What drives virality (Sharing) of online digital content? The critical role of information, emotion, and brand prominence. Journal of Marketing, 83(4), 1-20

  6. de Vries, Gensler, Leeflang “Popularity of Brand Posts on Brand Fan Pages: An Investigation of the Effects of Social Media Marketing” 2012 Journal of Interactive Marketing,

  7. Manchanda, Puneet, Grant M. Packard, and Adithya Pattabhiramaiah. "Social Dollars: The Economic Impact of Customer Participation in a Firm-sponsored Online Customer Community." Forthcoming, Marketing Science (2014).

  8. Mochon, D., Johnson, K., Schwartz, J., & Ariely, D. (2017). What are likes worth? A Facebook page field experiment. Journal of Marketing Research, 54(2), 306-317.

  9. Mayzlin, Dover, Chevalier “Promotional Reviews: An Empirical Investigation of Online Review Manipulation” August 2012, NBER Working Paper Series,

  10. Moe, Wendy W., and Michael Trusov. "The value of social dynamics in online product ratings forums." Journal of Marketing Research 48.3 (2011): 444-456.

ADDITIONAL READINGS FOR NON ATTENDING STUDENTS

  1. Wendy W. Moe and David A. Schweidel, “Online Product Opinions: Incidence, Evaluation, and Evolution,” Marketing Science, 31 (2012), 372–86
  2. Proserpio, Davide, and Georgios Zervas. "Online reputation management: Estimating the impact of management responses on consumer reviews." Marketing Science 36.5 (2017): 645-665.
  3. Luca, Michael, and Georgios Zervas. "Fake it till you make it: Reputation, competition, and Yelp review fraud." Management Science 62.12 (2016): 3412-3427.
  4. Ya You, Gautham G. Vadakkepatt, and Amit M. Joshi(2015) A Meta-Analysis of Electronic Word-of-Mouth Elasticity. Journal of Marketing: March 2015, Vol. 79, No. 2, pp. 19-39

Teaching methods

The course utilizes 3 main tools: some part taken from textbooks, selected articles and cases, lab session with assignments and, most importantly, two "hands-on" a team work project. You will also use STATA and Excel to analyze data and cases. A description of the team work activity is provided at the end of this syllabus.

1. Team Work Activity:

This is a major project designed to enhance your analysis skills. It requires you to conduct a detailed analysis using statistical techniques, synthesize the findings from that analysis and couple them with creative thought to make a social media marketing decision. You will work in teams on this project. It will culminate in a presentation to the class. This will require the use of STATA and either EXCEL. . Further details on the team work activity  project are provided in the course packet.

2. Lab Sessions:

Two lab sessions are scheduled within the course. During these sessions we will work with actual data and cases provided by companies or retrieved from the web. These sessions are related to specific topics outlined in the detailed syllabus table, and will involve application of predictive modeling tecniques (e.g. regression, lift charts) and field experiment and A/B test tecniques. The purpose of these sessions is to ensure that you will be able to design, analyze and interpret data to support social media marketing decisions.

3.Readings and Cases:

I have assigned readings from the texts and some other sources for each class meeting. They provide necessary background for class discussion. Descriptions of some advanced analytical methods may be difficult to grasp fully at the first reading. Please skim those sections before class to acquaint yourself with the topic and then go back and work through the details after we discuss them in class.

We will also discuss a case that illustrates some of the issues associated to budget decisions across medias. I expect you to come to class fully prepared with a comprehensive analysis of the case and your recommendations. Discussion questions for the case are included in the course packet.

Assessment methods

GRADING SCHEME

Final Exam (sit-in exam) 50%

Team Work activity project 50%

 

Example:

Sit-in Exam grade: 25/30

Team Work activity grade: 30/30

Final Grade: (0.5*30)+(0.5*25) = 27

Final exam:

The final exam will consist of a series of open questions and exercises. The questions will cover the materials and content of the full course indicated in the detailed session program below. The exam will be close-book.

Office hours

See the website of Sara Valentini

SDGs

Responsible consumption and production

This teaching activity contributes to the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals of the UN 2030 Agenda.