Social Media Monitoring Report Business & Marketing Essay

Format
A media monitoring report for a company’s senior executives, summarizing one week of media coverage, analysing challenges facing the organization arising from the coverage, and making at least three recommendations as to how the company should respond with appropriate communication. You will find a US guide to media monitoring at http://www(dot)cyberalert(dot)com/downloads/media_monitoring_whitepaper.pdf
and one on social media reporting here: https://www(dot)talkwalker(dot)com/blog/social-media-report#Download%20social%20media%20report%20examples.
You must choose one of the following organisations to monitor:
• Fonterra
• Air New Zealand
• Pharmac

ASSESSMENT 3: Social Media Monitoring Report

Format

A media monitoring report for a company’s senior executives, summarizing one week of media coverage, analysing challenges facing the organization arising from the coverage, and making at least three recommendations as to how the company should respond with appropriate communication.  You will find a US guide to media monitoring at http://www.cyberalert.com/downloads/media_monitoring_whitepaper.pdf

and one on social media reporting here: https://www.talkwalker.com/blog/social-media-report#Download%20social%20media%20report%20examples.

You must choose one of the following organisations to monitor:

• Fonterra


• Air New Zealand


• Pharmac 

Worth       

30%

Assignment Submission

Upload to Assignment 3 box in Stream

Word Limit:         1500 words (to include 200 word executive summary).  THESE ARE HARD LIMITS – DO NOT EXCEED

Date Due:                    Friday 5 June

Assignment description

Spend six full days monitoring social media mentions of a chosen organisation. This should not limit itself to the organisation’s own posts – you should look at all mentions of that organisation, from different sources.  Take note of where social media commentary leads to follow-up coverage in traditional media such as newspapers, radio or television and include details in your report. However, the focus here is on social media. Set up Google alerts for your organisation’s name and relevant related keywords – but also do a Google search each day to catch mentions that might otherwise escape.  Search social media using relevant key terms and hashtags.  Limit your platform search to Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and Reddit.  Your report must discuss at least three of these platforms.

Begin your information collection on Monday May 13 (or, if you wish, earlier, but no later!) – complete SIX days of collection.  You will need to complete it this early so you will have sufficient time to read through and analyse all of your material.  Organise your collected data carefully, ensuring you record the dates and sources of all mentions.

NB: You will need to assess not just media outputs but the comments and responses to those outputs.  Use some key questions to analyse the information you collect: what are the overarching trends or themes?  What is sentiment of those posting? That is, do they view the company favourably or unfavourably?  What are the most pressing issues for the organisation to communicate a response to?  What might be less urgent ‘sit and watch’ issues? (Note that if a reputation-threatening issue is gathering pace, the company will need to act quickly. This assignment assumes that the company does not face such an issue, but may have to act on other challenges in the short-term).

Write a report for the CEO/Senior leadership team, and keep in mind their perspective as your audience (what do they want and need to know?) at all times. 

The report must begin with a 200 word executive summary (this to be included in the maximum 1500 words).

Set out the report like this:

• Executive summary (see guidelines below)

• Introduction (covering the scope and purpose of the report.).

• Sections for each of the social media platforms or websites you are reporting on, e.g. Reddit, Twitter, Instagram.  Each section should include:

• Mentions (total)


• Primary topic/s discussed in the period


• Sentiment (make sure you assess comments etc)


• Pick-up by traditional media (if any)


• Opportunities or challenges for the company

Please note it’s important to provide clear data in this section, to appropriately ground your recommendations.  Quantification is vital – don’t just say ‘some of the tweets discussed the environment; overall they were positive in tone’ – provide numbers and percentages (socialsearcher.com will produce these).  Be precise.

• Recommendations

These should be based on your assessment of either the opportunities and/or the company’s weaknesses highlighted by the social media commentary. You should also include consideration of what is most important and what is of lesser importance.  Include reasons for your recommendations.  For example, if you are recommending the company respond to a particular sequence of posts on Facebook, explain why you think it is important to do so.

While it may be useful to provide quotes from the social media coverage – or possibly even a screenshot – you don’t have to formally cite these using APA referencing.  It will be sufficient to indicate the platform the quote comes from, and the date of its posting.

Provide a word count at the end of your report.

Guidelines for writing a summary

A summary provides a brief run-down of a lengthy text, discussion, or meeting.  Writing succinct summaries that identify key points but contain no unnecessary detail is a very important skill in a vast array of business and academic settings.  In order to write a good summary, it’s essential to thoroughly understand the material you’re working with first.  Here are some useful guidelines:

• Read the articles (or texts, or meeting notes, etc) to be summarised, and ensure you understand it/them.  Highlighting key ideas as you go can be very helpful.


• Note the subheadings.  If there are no subheadings, identify the key sections or topics of the discussion and create your own suitable subheadings.


• Using those subheadings, jot down a skeleton outline of all the key topics discussed.


• In your own words, write down the main points made about each of the key topics.  (A good way to ensure you’re using your own words – paraphrasing – is to write without looking at the original).


• Write down the key supporting evidence for the main points – but not minor detail


• If you do include a phrase from the original, make sure it’s important enough to be absolutely necessary to include.  Put quotation marks around it and credit the original author (and, if relevant, page).


• Reread the original and make sure you’ve covered all the important points.


• You may have to repeat the process to further prune back to just the essentials.


• As a general rule of thumb, aim for a quarter of the original length – or the length that you’ve specifically been asked for (eg. President Trump reportedly requires all summaries to stay within one page; British Prime Minister Winston Churchill also famously demanded official communications be short – see below)

Here’s an online link to a business-focused article on how to write an executive summary: https://www.wikihow.com/Write-an-Executive-Summary

ASSIGNMENT 3 Report MARKING GUIDE

Marking criteria, Assignment 3

This assignment doesn’t ask you to use academic references.

 BUT I expect writing that is free of all spelling and grammar errors (use a spelling and grammar checker) and is clear and to the point.

By “to the point”, I mean appropriate for and relevant to the situation for which you are writing. For example, in part two of the assignment, you should make sure that the “basic advice” called for covers everything website visitors would need to know to keep themselves and others safe. The advice should be accessible – that is, expressed in terms that readers feel are asking them to do things they are capable of doing.

You MUST use the Message House model for the fourth part of this assignment. You do not have to reproduce the model diagram – just make clear which talking points belong to which parts of the Message House.

Here’s how I will distribute the marks available for this assignment:

• Clear, unambiguous language directed appropriately to the audience concerned -- 20 marks


• News release is tightly written, with no needless words, and quotes included are appropriate to the role of the person quoted. The main news points should be signalled in the introduction and expanded on in the material that follows (“inverted pyramid” style) – 15 marks


• Talking points take into account likely questions and concerns of audiences in the two towns where public meetings are to be held, and provide all the key facts the attendees are likely to need (some imagination can be used here) – 15 marks

Total: up to 50 marks

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Assignment Extensions

Extensions for the written assignments may be granted for exceptional and unforeseeable situations at the discretion of the course co-ordinator. 

Late Assignments

If you miss the deadline and you did not ask for an extension, you may still submit your assignment late. However:

• A penalty of 2 marks out of 100 per day (including weekends) will be applied to the final mark.


• Assignments that are 8-14 days late will receive little, if any, written feedback and may not be returned within the three-week turnaround time.


• If your assignment arrives 15+ days after the deadline, it will not be marked and you will receive a zero grade.