online public relations 5001buspr

FACULTY OF BUSINESS AND LAW LIVERPOOL BUSINESS SCHOOL

Online Public Relations 5001BUSPR

Module Handbook 2011-2012

Module leader

Module leader: Mike Swain

E-mail: [email protected] Skype: mikeswain

Twitter: PRDegreeatLJMU Facebook: http://on.fb.me/nP5z9F

mailto:[email protected]

http://on.fb.me/nP5z9F

5001BUSPR ONLINE PR LIVERPOOL BUSINESS SCHOOL

2


3

TABLE OF CONTENTS

1 MODULE SUMMARY ........................................................................................ 4

2 ASSESSMENT .................................................................................................. 5

2.1 Assessment 1: Use of social media to transfer information and knowledge. 5

2.2 Assessment 2: Contribution to the Module Blog .................................. 6

2.3 Assessment 3: Groupwork: Company Social Media Evaluation. ........ 6

3 TEACHING SCHEDULE ................................................................................... 9

4 LEARNING SUPPORT .................................................................................... 10

5 REGULATIONS ............................................................................................... 11

6 STUDENT FEEDBACK ................................................................................... 11

7 ACADEMIC IMPROPRIETY ............................................................................ 11

8 SUGGESTED READING ................................................................................. 12

9 APPENDIX A: ‘WORLD OF WORK’ (WOW) – GRADUATE SKILLS ............ 13


4

1 Module summary

The Online PR world is one that according to some academics and practitioners has fundamentally changed the nature of PR practice itself, (Wright and Hinson). It is therefore a very important part of the PR degree. One of the challenges faced by looking at Online PR from an academic perspective (we are at university after all) is that there has been very little work done by academics in placing Online PR within a recognized theoretical framework. Frameworks are important not only for academics (it makes it easier for us to understand and for you as students to develop an understanding) but also for practitioners as it enables them to view how they are applying technologies in a broader context and if there’s a framework in which to work it is possible to be able to provide the answers to the question of ‘well how effective is what we’re currently doing with Twitter, Faceboook etc…”. The module will mainly look at the use of the online environment in communicating with external stakeholders. However in semester 2 we will have a brief look at an undervalued use of social media, namely how it can be used to engage internal stakeholders. The aim of the module is defined as providing “students with a practical and theoretical understanding of the technologies that have impacted on PR practice.” The module will therefore aim to provide students with a good theoretical background in which they can ‘place’ online PR within the context of an organizations PR strategy and a good practical knowledge of how this is applied and to evaluate whether it ‘works’. To build practical knowledge students will be expected to create accounts in Twitter, write, develop and post Blogs using industry standard software and, in the second semester, evaluate the social media strategy of a real company. By the end of the module each students should e able to demonstrate through the assessments that they are competent in the following learning outcomes:

1. Demonstrate knowledge of the impact of the internet on PR practice. 2. Assess the effectiveness of online communication channels for PR practice 3. Develop tools for assessing the Online PR landscape. 4. Knowledge of the application of Online PR tools for stakeholder engagement To enable students to be fully engaged with the module it will be necessary for the students to create accounts in Twitter and Facebook. All students will be expected to follow PRDegreeatLJMU on Twitter (http://twitter.com/ ) and ‘like’ the module Facebook page – ‘Online PR.’ (https://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Online-Public-Relations/145661482155544 ).

http://twitter.com/

https://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Online-Public-Relations/145661482155544


5

2 Assessment

The module 5001BUSPR Online PR will be assessed in a number of ways.

2.1 Assessment 1: Use of social media to transfer information and knowledge.

The aim of this part of the assignment is to get students to use social media in identifying relevant information and to use social media to transfer this information and knowledge to your stakeholders. You will be required to produce 5 tweets by the 6th December. Each tweet must be a link to an article which you have found which is of relevance to the subject area of Online PR. To submit this part of the assignment you will need to create an account on Twitter (http://twitter.com/ ). For information on what Twitter is watch: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ddO9idmax0o To notify the module leader that you have ‘tweeted’ you will need to let the module leader know. To do this finish your tweet with @PrdegreeatLJMU. The module leader will be using twitter as a means of communication, specifically in relation to advising students of any relevant information that will be of use. It will therefore be necessary for all students on the module to follow PRDegreeatLJMU. 5 tweets until Tuesday 6th December. Marks awarded for: link relevance (topic) and quality (authority, currency. Also marks awarded according to use of 140 characters – how effective are the posts in describing the link content in less than 140 Characters. Remember it will be less than 140 as you’ll have to put in the characters @PRDegreeatLJMU so that the twitter account can pick it up. As part of the assignment each student will be expected to produce a set of references for the individual tweets. This will be done by creating a new page on the module blog and entitle it in the following form: A Student, 12345, twitter assignment references. The references will be electronic and you will follow conventional Harvard referencing:

CARROLL, L. (2011) The hunting of the Snark, an agony on eight fits. [online] USA. Island Multimedia. Available at http://www.islandmm.com/island/snark.htm [Accessed 3rd February 2011] The deadline for submission of the assignment 1 will be Wednesday 16

th November 2011.

This part of the module will be worth 15% of the overall module mark. Please note: keep a copy of your references in PDF or word form.

2.1.1 Marking Scheme for Assignment 1:

Submission of tweets (including notification of PRdegreeatLJMU) 10% Article relevance to subject area (online PR) 15%

http://twitter.com/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ddO9idmax0o


6

Quality of article: Currency : 15% Authority: 15% Tweet reflects content of the article: Relevance: 15% Good use of 140 characters: 15% References: To Harvard standard 15% Total: 100%

2.2 Assessment 2: Contribution to the Module Blog

This part of the module assessment will be worth 25% of the overall module assessment. The second assessment will be a 1500 word essay answering the following question: “How has the interactivity of web 2.0 changed PR practice?” The essay will then be posted to the module blog: http://5001buspronlinepr.wordpress.com/ password: 5oo1BUSPR. To hand in and notify the module leader that the blog has been created and finished please use your twitter account to notify the module leader of this by notifying @PRDegreeatLJMU. Please remember to keep a copy of your essay in word on your JMU M: Drive

2.2.1 Assessment 2: Marking scheme

Introduction 10% Definitions 10% Critical discussion 60% Conclusion 10% References to Harvard standard 10% Hand in date:11:59 p.m.Wednesday 30

th November 2011.

2.3 Assessment 3: Groupwork: Company Social Media Evaluation.

Aim The aim of the assignment is to give students real world experience of dealing with aspects of an organisations Online PR strategy. Background information. You will be working in project teams. The team membership is non negotiable and not open to change. As well as experiencing real world companies, the aim of the assignment is to replicate real world working. Most organisations are based around small teams, often task or project based. The team membership would be made of individuals with the necessary skills to enable the task/project to be completed. The task is the objective, whether you like individuals within a team is irrelevant to the project that needs to be completed. Real world working involves working with individuals with whom you may have no personal affection. How well you collaborate with such individuals is all part of working in the real world. Part of the marking scheme is based around collaboration as evidenced within the Wiki. I will be looking for task identification and task allocation. There are aspects of the assignment which can be easily split up for individuals to work on. Alternatively your team may decide to break down the task into specific subject areas.

http://5001buspronlinepr.wordpress.com/


7

It’s basically up to you. The main objective is completion of the task; how you do it is up to your team and the way you decide to manage the project. The companies have all very kindly volunteered. The majority are SME’s. This means that you will be in contact (probably) with the Managing Director of each company. Remember they are individuals who are running their own business, time is very important to them so please don’t waste it. This is an opportunity for you to develop your Online PR skills and develop relationships with local and national companies. It will also showcase what you as PR students are capable of thereby increasing your reputation and the value of the very degree for which you are studying. You will be given contact details for the company, including main contact name, email address and phone number. Once this has been given and your team assigned you may begin! It will be your responsibility to set up an initial meeting with the company. This initial meeting needs to have taken place by Friday 3

rd February; the companies are aware of this date and will be in contact if no contact has taken place.

This will be to introduce yourself and your team and to find out from the company what their requirements are and who their stakeholders are. I would like this meeting to take place remotely using VOIP software such as Skype (www.skype.com). The IM labs will be made available for you to set up initial meetings with the company and to use webcams. There will be a workshop early in the second semester devoted to a discussion of the assignment. The assignment is broken into various parts

2.3.1 Assignment details

1. Stakeholder analysis a. A brief description of the company, who they are, what they do, where they are going. Can be listed as organisational objectives. (250 words). b. A list of the organisations stakeholders briefly detailed and analysed in the context of Online PR. (250 words). 2. Social Media Evaluation a. Richness. An evaluation of the companies use of social media in relation to: i. Engagement. Are the companies fully exploiting the capabilities of social media to listen and develop online conversations? (500 words) ii. Content. Are the companies fully exploiting the capabilities of social media to bring rich content such as videos, podcast etc to their stakeholders? (500 words) b. Reach. An analysis of how social media can reach the companies stakeholders. Must be directly linked to stakeholder requirements as discussed in 1.b. above. (500 words) 3. Development and implementation of two social media tools/apps/channels to meet stakeholders’ requirements as discussed in 2.a and 2.b. This could be simply setting up a Facebook page and a Twitter account. If the company has existing social media accounts, investigate any further (and possibly) newer technologies that can ‘reach’ their stakeholders. The area of the assignment that is a chance for you to showcase where you think social media is going and its implications for companies. (brief description and justification 250 words.) 4. Website Evaluation a. SERP Evaluation. A quick evaluation of where the company comes in an organic SERP. (250 words) b. SEO. This will be an evaluation of the website in order to optimize it’s design for visibility when being indexed by search engines. (500 words). i. Keywords ii. Navigation iii. Links c. Content. This is an evaluation of the content of the website. Need to link directly with stakeholder analysis and evaluate according to the website: i. Readability. Is the language right for the main stakeholder audience? (250 words) ii. Usability. How easy is it to use? (500 words) 5. Reflective blog. To be written on Module Blog: http://5001buspronlinepr.wordpress.com/ A blog showing evidence of reflective writing. Could be a diary of thoughts of the team members during the project. (Minimum 250 words.) Full details on blog development and writing will be given.

http://5001buspronlinepr.wordpress.com/


8

6. Development and use of Wiki. This will be used by students to show how the tasks have been allocated to individual team members. Wikis will be set up by the tutor on BlackBoard. Evidence of communication will also be presented. Assignment submission. The assignment will be submitted in a number of formats 1,2 and 4 (as above) will form the basis of a report. The report will appear as a team effort and will be jointly published. The wiki will be used to identify individual area for marks. You may wish to break down tasks for individuals or you may wish to view the work as a team effort and be marked accordingly. You must evidence this allocation in the Wiki; otherwise I will assume it’s a team effort and mark as a team effort. Obviously allocation of individual work must be fair across the team, for example one student couldn’t be allocated work worth 20 marks while another is allocated work worth 15 marks. The written part of part 3 will also be included in the report with links to the social media applications used. 5. The reflective blog will be written by individual team members. One blog per team. 6. The wiki will be available on BlackBoard and will provide evidence against which marking will take place. Submission date for all parts of the assignment:

2.3.2 Assignment 3: Marking scheme

Stakeholder analysis:

A description and brief analysis of the organisations main stakeholders. 1. Company objectives: 2.5

2. Company stakeholders 2.5

Social Media Strategy Evaluation

1. Evaluation of current social media strategy (include all channels)

a. Richness

i. Engagement 10

ii. Content 10

b. Reach 10

2. Development of two new social media tools relevant to assignment organisation. 20

Website evaluation

1. SERP Evaluation 5

2. SEO

a. Keywords 5

b. Navigation 5

c. Links 5

3. Content

a. Readability 5

b. Usability 5

Reflective Blog 5 Collaboration as evidenced by the Wiki. Task allocation 5 Communication 5 Total /100


9

3 Teaching schedule

Workshops: Tuesdays 9-11 IT Suite B Group 1, Tuesdays 12-2 IT Suite B Group 2 Date Workshop

4th Oct Module introduction

11th Oct Information, Knowledge and other important stuff

18th Oct The Internet and PR 1

25th Oct The Internet and PR 2

1st Nov A strategic framework for Online PR

8th Nov Porosity

15th Nov Transparency

22nd Nov Richness and reach

29th Nov Communication channels for Online PR

6th Dec Assignment peer review.

Semester 2

Week Workshop

9th Jan SEO

16th Jan SEO

23th Jan SEO

30st Jan Usability and accessibility

6th Feb Usability and accessibility

13th Feb Directed Learning Week

20th Feb Social Media Evaluation

27th Feb Social Media Evaluation

5th March Internal communication and social media

12th March Assignment work




10

4 Learning support

Copies of all handouts and relevant support material will be made accessible on Blackboard, which students may download as required. Where appropriate handouts and additional reading will be made available at the workshops, and digital learning materials (e.g. electronic news articles, videos, podcasts, etc.) will be posted on Blackboard. However please note that lecture materials may not be made available to students in hard copy format but will be available to download from BlackBoard the day before the actual lecture. Lecturers are available for discussions during workshops; however, one-to-one office meetings can easily be arranged via email or phone. Contact details are available on the front cover of this module handbook. Note that in many circumstances one-to-one meetings may not be required; many student queries can be resolved via email or over the phone. Students are reminded that university is not like school. Students are expected to engage in a large degree of independent study and reading to supplement their learning at lectures and labs. A list of suggested reading is provided in section 10; but this list is by no means exhaustive and you are encouraged to read outside it where possible. As well as use of BlackBoard students will be expected to like the Online PR Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Online-Public-Relations/145661482155544 ), as well as following PRDegreeatLJMU on Twitter.

https://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Online-Public-Relations/145661482155544


11

5 Regulations

The module is assessed by coursework only. There are no examinations but there are assignments which you must submit by the dates specified above to Campus Office. The Faculty of Business & Law operates strict regulations for the submission of coursework and extensions to these deadlines are not normally permitted without an accompanying Personal Mitigating Circumstances (PMC) form. If you cannot meet these deadlines, please discuss this with Mike Swain, the module leader at the earliest opportunity.

6 Student feedback

Feedback for the assessment part of the module will be provided within three weeks of the hand in date. This will be in the form of a feedback sheet which will be emailed to you. Lecturers invest a significant amount of time producing students with critical feedback. It is therefore important that students make an effort to collect it when it is made available. Feedback is extremely important as it informs students of where they might have performed poorly, but also where they performed well. Students cannot expect their academic work to improve if they have no idea where their submissions have gone awry. Feedback sheets on individual pieces of coursework will be emailed to students within three weeks of the assignment deadline. Additionally feedback will be provided in tutorials on student’s individual or collective performance when attempting tutorial exercises.

Collect and read your feedback carefully! Build on the criticism!

Feedback will be available on all courseworks within three weeks of the original assignment hand in date.

7 Academic impropriety

It is good academic practice to use proper sources and literature (e.g. books, journal articles, etc.) when producing reports, essays and other university work. The expectation at university is that students should read widely and incorporate this literature into their work. However, it is important that the work of authors is properly referenced. This demonstrates that students are informed about their area of study, but also allows others to verify the sources that students may have used. It is also necessary avoid instances of plagiarism and to acknowledge the work of others. Resources used for the Online PR assessments should therefore be presented in Harvard style (both within the text and in a reference list). Particular attention should be paid to the proper referencing of any sources used.

Plagiarism and other forms of academic impropriety are disciplinary offences and will be dealt with under the terms of the University regulations. Further information on academic impropriety can be found at: http://www.ljmu.ac.uk/StudentServices/81924.htm.

http://www.ljmu.ac.uk/StudentServices/81924.htm


12

8 Suggested reading

(As this is a level two module you will be expected to read widely around the subject and look for materials

beyond this list). Further readings will be given in lectures & tutorials. You are expected to be regularly

searching for journal articles and news stories. The nature of the subject matter in this module if fast

moving and students are expected to take a proactive approach to current awareness.

CIPR website: http://www.cipr.co.uk/

Chaffey, D (2009). E-Business & E-Commerce Management: strategy implementation and practice. 4th ed.

FT/Prentice Hall.

Chaffey, D & Wood, S.(2005). Business Information management. FT/Prentice Hall.

Couzin, G & Grappone, J. (2008). Search Engine Optimization: an hour a day. Wiley.

http://www.yourseoplan.com/ Companion website for the above.

Fortune 500 Business Blogging Wiki http://www.eu.socialtext.net/bizblogs/index.cgi

Holtz, Shel (2010). The Shel Holtz Blog. http://blog.holtz.com/

Mill, D (2005). Writing and editing online. Elsevier.

Kitchen, P (1997). Pubic Relations: principles and practice.

McGovern, G (2002). The web content style guide. FT/Prentice Hall.

(also see www.gerrymcgovern.com )

McGovern et al (2002). Content Critical. FT/Prentice Hall

NewPR.com http://www.thenewpr.com/wiki/pmwiki.php

Online PR website http://www.online-pr.com/index.html

Phillips, D & Young, P.(2009). Online Public Relations: a practical guide to developing an online strategy in

the world of social media. Kogan-Page CIPR.

PR Communications blog http://pr.typepad.com/pr_communications/

Scoble,R & Israel, S (2006). Naked conversations. Wiley.

Theaker, A (2001). The public relations handbook. Routledge.

Jacob Nielsen – Use it .com http://www.useit.com/

Wright and Hinson 2009

http://www.cipr.co.uk/

http://www.yourseoplan.com/

http://www.eu.socialtext.net/bizblogs/index.cgi

http://blog.holtz.com/

http://www.gerrymcgovern.com/

http://www.thenewpr.com/wiki/pmwiki.php

http://www.online-pr.com/index.html

http://pr.typepad.com/pr_communications/

http://www.useit.com/


13

9 Appendix a: ‘World of Work’ (WoW) – Graduate skills

WoW stands for LJMU’s “world of work” initiative. The WoW initiative is unique to LJMU and aims to ensure that students graduate from the institution as prepared as possible for a competitive employment market. It also provides students with an opportunity to attain further qualifications to supplement their degree. Students will receive detailed information about how to get involved in WoW throughout their time at LJMU, but particularly in level one.

Aside from assessing your learning on module topics, every module that students study will simultaneously assess a series of ‘graduate skills’. These graduate skills are those which students can occasionally fail to acquire while at university. For example, a fine arts student is unlikely to graduate from university with proficient report writing skills. Of course, this is an extreme example; but it nevertheless illustrates the point that even the best students can graduate from university without some basic skills which are essential to have in a competitive employment market.

Further information on WoW is available at: http://www.ljmu.ac.uk/WoW/

http://www.ljmu.ac.uk/WoW/

online public relations 5001buspr

Documents