Instructor: Dale Blasingame

Live Zoom: July 31, 3 p.m.

social media images

Description
In this module, you will learn more about the creation and teaching of a social media class. There will be a hands-on exercise to put yourself in the shoes of your students. Finally, we will take a sharp left turn and discuss the challenges of teaching a drones class.

A Note Before We Begin
If you are interested in teaching a class related to social media or expect to teach a class like this at some point, you have to immerse yourself in it. This doesn’t mean you have to be an expert on every single platform, but you should have enough experience to discuss content strategies on each of them. I cannot stress enough to make sure you’re comfortable creating content on Facebook, Instagram, Instagram Stories, Twitter, Snapchat, Pinterest, YouTube and TikTok. (That’s the list for now, at least.) As researchers, it’s easy to get sidetracked by data. Analyzing data is important for students to learn, don’t get me wrong – but it’s not enough. We’re doing a great disservice to students by only focusing on analytics or focusing on the wrong type of data. Most of the jobs they’ll apply for are based around content and content strategy. Students need to understand the give and take between engagement analytics and content. Scraping Twitter for a research report is not a skill the vast majority will use in the real world, for instance, unless they have a niche job in a newsroom.

Social Media Content
We would normally start our in-person time by sending you out to create social media content based on a mission for an organization, like Texas State University. We can’t really do that in this setting, but let’s get some practice with Instagram anyway. Learning how to produce content with visuals is an important aspect of social media. There’s no substitute for this beyond experience!

Imagine that your department wants to produce content about students and faculty summer life in quarantine/isolation/pandemic on their Instagram account. What are the visuals that could best capture that topic?

Remember, content on the Instagram platform carries expectation of quality photos, creative captions, relevant hashtags and geo-tags.

First, create a public Instagram account, if you don’t have one already. (It can be a dummy account if you don’t want to be on the platform or don’t want to have a public account for the long term)

Spend some time over the next few days roaming your environment and gathering potential social media visuals. Be safe, don’t go anywhere you don’t feel comfortable. There are plenty of options to tell at home! Don’t feel like you have to include anything that makes you uncomfortable, but be creative with your visuals. Collect as much content as needed to accomplish the following goals:

  • Post two photos and captions to your timeline. (Remember to explore relevant hashtags and use geotagging. If you feel up for it, make the second photo a photo album.)
  • A four-part Instagram Stories story. Use the platform to tell a story with a beginning, middle and end. You can use photos, video or a combination of both. (We realize many of you have likely not used Instagram Stories before. Get creative! Use location tags, emojis, text etc.)
  • If you would rather try a different platform (say SnapChat or TikTok), give that a try with the general assignment of creating content about summer life in the pandemic.

Once you’re finished with your posts, submit your Instagram username (other platform account, if you used something different) to the #socialmedia Slack channel. That way we can view everyone’s work.

Analytics Reports
A key portion of my Advanced Social Media and Analytics course is the analytics report assignment. I provide relevant portions of the client’s engagement data to my students, who then use Canva or a similar program to design a report. So that’s what we’ll do right now!

I’ve posted client analytics for June in the Slack channel, just to use as a hands-on exercise. I’ve also included a few versions of the client logo. I always use this first release of data and resources to discuss with students the confidentiality of client data and respect for client resources. Our client this summer, the Common Experience, knows I’ve provided these resources to you, as well, and they’ve approved using them for this exercise.

Here are the videos I sent to my students this summer, walking them through the data and how to design a report in Canva.

Exercise Instructions

Design an analytics report in Canva or a similar graphic design program. Each platform will be its own page in your report, but the design can be similar.

For this report, we will focus on the client’s Facebook and Twitter accounts. 

Facebook
All data should be rounded to one decimal point. You will need the following information:

  • Title, logo and date range
  • Number of followers (1,669)
  • Number of posts from May 1-31
  • Average reactions per post from May 1-31
  • Average comments per post from May 1-31
  • Average shares per post from May 1-31 
  • Highest performing post with screen grab and context to explain why
  • Demographics information:
    • Gender breakdown
    • Age breakdown (genders combined for top three age ranges)
    • Top five cities where most followers are located

Twitter
All data should be rounded to one decimal point. You will need the following information:

  • Title, logo and date range
  • Number of followers (3,165)
  • Number of tweets from May 1-31
  • Average likes per tweet from May 1-31
  • Average replies per tweet from May 1-31
  • Average retweets per tweet from May 1-31 
  • Highest performing tweet with screen grab and context to explain why

Some averages may be a true zero. That’s okay. Just denote it in the report. Once you’re finished, download your report as a pdf – and upload it to the #socialmedia Slack channel.

Friday’s Zoom Call

When we meet on Friday, we’ll break our discussion into two sections: Social Media and Drones. I have quick presentations on how to create/teach each type of class. Then we’ll spend the bulk of our time together in an “Ask Me Anything” discussion. Based on previous bootcamps, this has been what the fellows got the most from. So have your questions ready to go!