As part of the formal assessment for the programme
you are required to submit a
Strategic Social Media Audit and Campaign Plan
.
Please refer to your Student Handbook for full details of the programme assessment
scheme and general information on preparing and submitting assignments.
Learning Outcomes:
After completing the module, you should be able to:
1. Critically analyse the business and marketing environment using a range of
analytical approaches and evaluative techniques.
2. Explore the impact of social media marketing on marketing communications and
advertising at an advanced level with underpinning research.
3. Design an advanced marketing plan, supported by wider literature and theoretical
frameworks to demonstrate an understanding of social media marketing tools and
techniques to generate effective advertising.
4. Analyse and assess the most effective and innovative social media tools to ensure
an organisation’s long-term survival.
5. (GA) Effective Communication. Effectively communicate both, verbally and in
writing, using a range of media widely used in relevant professional context. Be
IT, digitally and information literate.
Assignment Task
Working as a social media marketing consultant, you have been asked by the
client organisation to produce a social media audit and a strategic social
media campaign plan to drive brand awareness and grow sales.
Further information about the client organisation will be provided through a
supporting client brief during the module.
Social media audit and a campaign plan – (report format)
This should include:
Background context
•
Outline the background context, including some introductory information on the organisation
and the industry in which it operates.
• Critically evaluate wider social media marketing trends within the industry itself.
•
Note:
Two social media marketing trends must be presented and justified with supporting
evidence in class (for BL) and on the class forum (for DL) in week 4 of this module. More than
two trends should be evident in your final assessment.
Social media audit – Inventory
•
Check which platforms are being used currently
•
Check how often they are being used and for what types of activities?
Social media audit - Current performance analysis
•
Assess the performance of each social media channel used.
•
Determine what has been working well and where the organisation is falling short.
•
Check engagement metrics (followers, likes, shares, retweets, responses) from the social
media channels.•
Critically evaluate the effectiveness of the organisation’s content strategy and reflect on how it
is contributing to its current performance.
•
You may also consider the activities of competitors and what can be learned from their use of
social media.
Campaign Plan - Opportunities for improvement
•
Summarize your key findings from the audit.
•
Outline your recommendations for improving the brand’s social media performance and
achieving your client’s goals.
•
Outline the specifics around how you intend to carry out your social media campaign.
•
You must include a 2-week content calendar for the social media channels.
•
You may also consider the role of brand ambassadors and influencers in amplifying your
message/s.
•
What other activities do you suggest your client to undertake in order to maximise results with
limited budgets?
References
•
Marks for references will be embedded within the sections above. References
across different sources are expected with quality, range, and extensiveness being key factors
for success in this area. References should also include datasets (indexes, statistics, industry
reports etc). The currency of the data (how recent is the data) and the triangulation of
references (cross referencing data to add further justification to points) are critical.
Clients Brief: The Midlands Hurricanes
The Midlands Hurricanes Rugby League Football Club (RLFC) is located in the UK’s second city of Birmingham. The
Hurricanes play in the Rugby Football League's Betfred League One division, which is situated immediately below the
Betfred Championship and Betfred Super League.
Before changing their name to the Hurricanes, the team was known as the Coventry Bears, and been pioneering the sport
of rugby league in the West Midlands for many years as a highly successful amateur and semi-professional team. Their
major honours include winning the National League 3 title in 2004 and the Rugby League Conference in 2002.
The Hurricanes' mission is to unite the rugby league community while expanding the club. You can find out more about the
club
HERE
https://midlandshurricanes.com/
What is Rugby League?
Rugby league is one of two major codes (styles) of rugby football (with the other being rugby union). It is a full-contact
sport that is played by teams of thirteen players and originated in 1895 in Yorkshire England. The then Northern Rugby
Football Union (for rugby league) gradually altered the game's rules from the Rugby Football Union (RFU) in order to create
a faster and more entertaining match that would attract spectators, who provided revenue for the organisation and its
members.
Current Situation
Rugby league has a large following in northern parts of England, as that is where the game originated and has the largest
number of clubs. However, the game is steadily growing in other parts of the country as well. In the Midlands, part of that
growth has been down to clubs such as the Hurricanes.
Due to the club’s relocation and rebranding from Coventry Bears it has had to build a fanbase from scratch, trying to
introduce the sport of rugby league to those who may not be previously familiar with it. The opportunity the club saw was
to try and convince supporters of Birmingham and wider Midlands sports clubs such as football fans, rugby union fans,
cricket fans etc. that rugby league was an entertaining option to get their sports fix.
Before in Coventry they usually had 400-500 people, attended games, now just 140-150.
Although they have made great progress with this, there is still considerable room for improvement as they would like to
drive their overall brand awareness and grow ticket sales for matches. They see social media as being a key driver in
achieving this.
There are other teams in League One that are located outside northern England and have followed a similar path such as
North Wales Crusaders-https://www.nwcrusaders.co.uk/
and
Cornwall- https://cornwallrlfc.co.uk/.
Requirements
The club requires the development of a social media audit and campaign plan to drive overall brand awareness and grow
match ticket sales. For further information about the exact requirements for the audit and campaign plan please see the
assessment brief.
Budget
The club has limited resources for marketing and as such most of the social media work and overall marketing
communication is carried out by a part-time employee. Much of the marketing budget is taken up by the wages of this
employee.
Whilst the social media audit and campaign plan should focus upon recommendations that are free, paid suggestions can
be included, however the benefit of these must be fully explained.