SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING (ONLINE) - 2025/6

Module Overview

Social media marketing is an emerging and rapidly developing discipline with substantive changes periodically occurring in industry and academic research. While much of social media marketing is focused on the promotional mix, it also is used for customer care, research and more. The field has shifted from one focused on the influence of individual consumers in social channels to one including bots, AI, and influencers. This module provides students with both academic (theories and concepts) and practical grounding underlying strategic decisions for the use of social media for marketing and the implications of the emerging developments in the area. Discussions, study cases and examples will bring these theories to life.

Module provider

SOL - Surrey Business School

Module Leader

KARANGI Sheena (SBS)

Number of Credits: 15

ECTS Credits: 7.5

Framework: FHEQ Level 7

Module cap (Maximum number of students): N/A

Module Availability

Semester 2

Prerequisites / Co-requisites

None

Module content

• The social media environment.


• Social consumers.


• Group influences in social media.


• Social media marketing strategy.


• Tactical planning and execution.


• Social community, publishing, entertainment and commerce.


• Social Media Analytics.


• Ethics in Social Media Marketing.

Assessment pattern

Alternative Assessment

None

Assessment Strategy

The assessment of the module will take place in two parts as detailed below.
The summative assessment for this module consists of:

• MCQ (In class test online) (LOs 3 and 4)


• Individual Report (LOs 1 and 2)

Formative feedback
The online seminars will offer opportunity for students to receive formative feedback on topics covered and the assessment to help improve students understanding on topics and performance in their assessed work.

• During the live sessions, the requirements of each assessment component and the feedback process will be explained.


• As the live sessions are built around topic-specific group exercises, students do not only benefit from the module leader but also receive peer evaluations.


• A Q&A and feedback session is provided for each assessment component.

A detailed marking scheme is provided for students at the beginning of semester together with the assessment details. This allows students to identify what is expected of them. The marking scheme outlines the percentage figures for each assessment component. This is also essential as it allows for consistency in the marking process.
Summative Feedback 

• Summative feedback, explaining what students did well and less well, will be published on Canvas once the marking process of the group assignment is completed.


• Generic feedback, including a statistical breakdown, will also be posted on Canvas so that students can gauge their own performance in relation to the whole cohort’s performance.

Module aims

• Provide an in-depth knowledge of the fundamental terminology, concepts, models and theories underpinning social media marketing.
• Enhance student critical analysis skills in marketing practice and propose relevant social media practices to adopt.
• Equip students with technical and practical skills in areas such as writing for social media, planning content calendars, creating social media ads and ad campaigns and running analytics reports.

Learning outcomes

Methods of Teaching / Learning

The learning and teaching strategy is designed to provide structured formal learning through the online environment. By actively engaging in the full range of guided learning activities students will explore the fundamental concepts, tools and theories of the module to create new knowledge and build on existing experience. The live learning sessions are designed to provide students with the opportunity to learn through the application of skills, discussion and peer learning. Students are invited to contribute to discussions from their own background and experiences and are encouraged to be actively involved in problem solving, thus developing their own judgments, opinions and critical thinking. Students are expected to utilize independent learning to deepen their knowledge and skills in core areas of interest.

Indicated Lecture Hours (which may also include seminars, tutorials, workshops and other contact time) are approximate and may include in-class tests where one or more of these are an assessment on the module. In-class tests are scheduled/organised separately to taught content and will be published on to student personal timetables, where they apply to taken modules, as soon as they are finalised by central administration. This will usually be after the initial publication of the teaching timetable for the relevant semester.

Reading list

https://readinglists.surrey.ac.uk
Upon accessing the reading list, please search for the module using the module code: MANM587

Other information

Employability: Digital marketing skills are in high demand across the world and the scope of what is/can be done in this space is constantly evolving. The programme is closely aligned with industry expectations of specific skills needed to work in any organization with a digital presence. Thus, overall graduate employability is wider as graduates are not limited to one industry but can apply their digital skills across various industries. Each student is supported to develop a unique set of individual, interpersonal and professional skills, which are relevant to their discipline and career/entrepreneurial ventures.
Sustainability: It can be said that the very nature of Digital Marketing as a discipline may contribute to dematerialization and consequently lowering carbon footprints. Overall, sustainability is factored into the content of the module.
Digital capabilities: Digital capabilities are at the heart of this programme. Students will develop capabilities in social media planning and analytics.

Programmes this module appears in

Please note that the information detailed within this record is accurate at the time of publishing and may be subject to change. This record contains information for the most up to date version of the programme / module for the 2025/6 academic year.