For this assignment, you will be required to complete a brand audit of three social media platforms for a particular brand. Full instructions can be found here.

This is an INDIVIDUAL assignment - you are required to do this work on your own. Plagiarism software will be used to ensure this is your own, unique content.

This assignment is due Jan 24 at 11:59pm. There will be NO extensions.

In case you are unable to download this file, I have copied and pasted the information below:

BUSN 10102

ASSIGNMENT #1

SOCIAL MEDIA COMMUNICATION ANALYSIS

OBJECTIVE:

In this assignment, youll take a look at a popular brands social media platforms. From there, youll assess how effective you think their messaging is: what works? What doesnt work? What could the brand do differently? What platform do you prefer for the brand and why? The goal is to think critically about how a business uses social media to connect with customers (potential customers) and discuss your findings in a clear, concise report.

Remember: you are looking at this from a business perspective, not your own personal perspective as a consumer. This is NOT about whether or not you like the brand or their content, its about your analysis on their social media marketing.

If it helps, pretend you are hired by the brand to assess their social media and help them figure out what is working and what isnt. Is the content useful? Pretty? Eye-catching? Thought-provoking? Poorly-written? Are there spelling mistakes? Do you like the photos the brand uses or would you choose something else? These are all the sorts of questions I want you to consider when writing up your summary report.

I do not want you to google how these companies perform, and then just copy that into a report. I want your own thoughts and analysis.

STEP 1:

Choose one of the following brands:

Starbucks

Wendys

Toronto Blue Jays

Nike

Michael Kors

Note: NO brands other than those in this list are permitted for this assignment unless prior permission from the professor

STEP 2:

Evaluate THREE social media platforms associated with the brand: Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, Twitter, LinkedIn, Snapchat, YouTube, etc

For your evaluation, consider factors such as these:

• Target audience who is the brand trying to connect with? (men, women, millennials, mothers of young children, rich people, students, seniors, etc)
• Engagement - is the brand trying to get people to respond in any way? Do they pose questions in their posts? Do they ask people to respond somehow?
• Responsiveness do they have conversations with their audience? Do they answer questions or address negative feedback?
• Amount of posts how often do they post? Too much? Too little? Is their content current?
• Giveaways: do you notice the brand giving anything away to followers (promo codes, special deals to those who follow their accounts etc)
• Topics - what topics does the brand address on their platforms (politics, social events, industry related topics, fashion, the environment, animal welfare, eco-issues, war etc)
• Images/writing are the photos thought-provoking? Useful? How is their writing are there errors and repetitiveness?

NOTE 1: you do not need to answer all the above questions. These are just suggestions for what you should be looking for in your analysis. However, you should look at a minimum of THREE of the above to do a thorough analysis.

NOTE 2: For each factor you analyze as shown above, select 2-3 pieces of supporting evidence to back up your claim. For example, if you say that your brand targets millennial males, copy and paste at least two different posts (for example, a tweet or Facebook post) that clearly illustrates this statement. If you say that the brand uses humour or polls to connect with followers, show me an example of this etc. You can simply take a screen grab of the post or drag and drop it into your assignment.

STEP 3:

After youve assessed THREE different social media platforms, write a 3-5 paged paper summarizing your thoughts and findings. Follow the below layout to organize your paper.

Section 1: Brief introduction of the brand and why you chose it (do not give me a history of the brand. This introduction should only be about 3-4 sentences).

Section 2: Platform 1. Write your assessment of the first platform you chose, including the factors you addressed from Step 2 and the supporting evidence for each of those factors.

Section 3: Platform 2. Write your assessment of the second platform you chose, including the factors you addressed from Step 2 and the supporting evidence for each of those factors.

Section 4: Platform 3. Write your assessment of the third platform you chose, including the factors you addressed from Step 2 and the supporting evidence for each of those factors.

Section 5: Summary. In this section of your paper I want to hear your own voice and perspective on the brands social media platforms. Do you like what theyve done? What would you change? Did you expect anything different? Did anything surprise you?

This is your section to explore your own thoughts and really show some critical thinking about how brands use social media.

Note: DO NOT say, I liked everything the brand is doing and think theyre doing great.

Other tips:

• Keep the paper organized
• Double check spelling & grammar (there are marks for clarity)
• Only summarize the brand BRIEFLY in the opening of the paragraph (a few sentences maximum)
• Create a PowerPoint OR Word document
• Dont miss the deadline or a ZERO will be awarded for this task. NO exceptions unless prior permission from professor.