This is a semester-long project designed to get you some exposure with how companies communicate with their consumers on social media.

Your work will be ongoing in the form of a single blog post each week and will culminate in a brief report to the class at the end of the term about some of the things you’ve been observing and thinking about.

How to begin:

Step 1:

Create a page on your ePortfolio. You could call it BLOG-PROJ.

Step 2:

Start thinking about what companies you might like to follow and why. What products are you a fan of? Make a list of 10 products and determine which company makes the products.

Step 3:

After you have spent some time considering which products you might like to follow, email me your top 3 choices. I’ll do my best to honor your top choice, but it may not always be possible.

Due this by____Sunday, Sept. 10_________

Step 4:

Once you have your product locked in, start following it—on Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram, etc. What does that mean? For our purposes, it will mean observing their social media expressions 2 x over the week and poking around their feed for about 10 mins or so. Then make a note of the kind of exchanges you’re noticing. How would you describe the tone of the company voice? And the followers? How does the company address concerns of the consumers?

Take a screen shot of what you notice (trends? “moves”?) and summarize the consumer-customer exchanges in 150-200 words; label and post both summaries and screenshots on your BLOG-PROJ page. To earn credit, post a link of your BLOG-PROG page by Sunday 11:59 pm of each week. I’ll include a BLOG-PROG link in our scheduling starting in week 3.

Step 5:

During the last few weeks of class you’ll revisit your BLOG-PROG and gather your thoughts about the kinds of communication you’ve observed. Think about how the company makes the case that “the customer is always right”—or do they? You’ll give a brief report to the class at the end of the term.