• 1. Discuss how models, concepts and theories in the curriculum relate to core topics of the course.
• 2. Identify and argue for the most fitting models, concepts and/or theories applied to analyze concrete case situations related to the topics of the course, especially when applied to topics presented in the home assignment.
• 3. List and critically reflect on the pros/cons as well as possible inherent contradictions of models, concepts and theories when applied to specific issues, especially when applied to issues presented in the home assignment.
• 4. Based on a portfolio of own contributions, demonstrate the ability to reflect on own activities, interactions and related learnings throughout the course and argue for their substantiveness and relevance for the final assignment.

This is an "Advanced Course" in the category of "Master Thesis Prepatory Courses". The intention of this course is to give you a deep understanding of how and why social media platforms are “social” and the implications of this for companies, for instance, in terms of engagement levels and brand loyalty. A cornerstone to provide this understanding is the assignment that you begin to develop from the very beginning of the course and where you collect your own primary data (mandatory). So this is not an ordinary course, but focus on the assignment work as the key learning process. Working with your own data, will provide you with hands-on experiences of what real worlds challenges users tend to face and realistic scenarios concerning managerial implications. The course lecture topics provide inspiration for your project, for instance, in terms of videos, slides and other course materials. A core focus of the course is to apply scientific methods when collecting your own primary data instead of just describing the rapidly shifting technical tools and potential practical marketing tools. Tools and platforms arise and disappear quickly, but an understanding of how and why users engage on social media platforms and its implication for companies in terms of, e.g., loyalty is long lasting and can be applied across platforms; also when new platforms develop in the future.

Consumers are increasingly present on social media platforms. This provides large opportunities for sharing and co-creating company-related content. The social media landscape constantly changes and new categories and platforms form separate socio-cultural spaces, which adds complexity and underlines the importance of understanding this “landscape” better. Furthermore, traditional marketing channels are becoming more and more cluttered and inefficient. Thus, it is an obvious move for companies to develop a presence on existing relevant social media platforms. It is important to understand that social media platforms form the basis for many different types of socio-cultural spaces that mirrors individual and collective consumer identities and where users participate for very different reasons. For instance, Facebook in the interaction space among friends as opposed to a Facebook Brand Page are very different spaces with different norms and traditions for interaction. Thus, these spaces are characterized by specific communication cultures, which entails the application of very particular communication strategies by those parties that are active on the social medium; and eventually social media specific positive and negative discourses. This also means that different types of company interventions and communication are welcomed with different strength leading to different types of relationships between the brand and consumers as well as to different attitudinal and behavioral outcome, for instance, Liking as compared to (long term) loyalty. If companies wish to focus on methods where content and mutual exchange on social media platforms are developed based on users’ own initiative, it is important to understand what aspects of identity seeking motivates consumers to engage in more permanent interaction and co-creation.

The course topics are designed to support your assignment work and include the following: 1) User’s perceptions of advertising and their motivation to engage on social media 2) Self-representation and self-expressive brands on social media 3) Blogs, crowdsourcing - and brand communities 4) Integrated Marketing Communication and 5) Multi-stakeholder branding.

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