Social Media Marketing Report-Need a bit of help

Hey guys,

I wasn't sure where to post this but I figure it is better to ask people actually in the industry. Currently in uni (yes I know if I am making money I shouldn't bother with uni and just focus on IM but I do have good reasons for wanting to get that lousy piece of paper) and am taking a class called information systems. Our main assignment is to write a report about uses of information systems in business, one of the options was "The future use of Social Media". If you have been in IM for even 5 seconds you would know it is almost impossible to even guess this stuff so I approached the teacher and had a bit of a talk with him. 10 minutes later he tells me to forget that option and make my own for the report and that he looks forward to hearing the presentation/report. In all honesty I wasn't expecting that but I decided to go with it but I am having a bit of trouble separating the fluff from the facts.

To sum up: After "winning" an argument with my lecturer I am creating a business report about Social Media Marketing.

This is the topic and the weighting of each section:
Topic Marks
Executive Report 5
Technology Description 25-description of social networking-broad,
Industry evaluation 10-evaluate the industry at it?s current position, it?s impact, it?s uses and it?s disadvantages
Status of technology 10-how it is held or perceived by the customer.
Business context 15-how to implement it in a business context.
Implementation issues 10
References 5
Presentation 20

I am having a bit of trouble actually describing the technology, or rather describe it enough for it to get as many marks as possible. industry evaluation is tough in the current market, that issue with facebook, and implementation issues might be a little tough.

What I am really looking for is concrete sources to use. My main plan for the assignment is to do a live case study for about 2 months (because I only have 8 weeks left before it is due otherwise I would do it for about 3 months) of a brand new website with brand new social media accounts.

I know this isn't really usual for black hat world but if anyone can offer any advice I would appreciate it and of course I will post the report on here as something you can use in your sales pitch for those tough clients.

For "Status of technology" I'd use some survey data that you conduct yourself as well as quote some individuals from reputable companies who offer social media services if they're interested in participating.

As for describing it, to elaborate more I guess you could talk about the core functionality and then mention some terminology like for twitter it would be followers, retweets, hashtags etc.

gritts said:

For "Status of technology" I'd use some survey data that you conduct yourself as well as quote some individuals from reputable companies who offer social media services if they're interested in participating.

As for describing it, to elaborate more I guess you could talk about the core functionality and then mention some terminology like for twitter it would be followers, retweets, hashtags etc.

Click to expand...

Hmmmm I had actually never considered that. While doing the surveys is a pain in the ass and time consuming if I just limit it to a sample of 10 or so businesses (in the local area there is about 20 or so) then I could at least get an accurate representation. I might also include some business who have used SSM vs those who haven't .

Describing it is difficult, on my draft right now I have only gone into the different platforms and haven't gone over any of the terminology. Still if I can stretch that out to 1000 words or so that should get me the marks.

Thanks for the advice