BA (Hons) Social
Media Management

COURSE MODULES

Year 1

Introduction to Social Media A

This module will equip you with skills in video production, photography, and graphic design, enabling you to research audiences, develop brands, and create engaging content, ultimately equipping them with strategic social media management.

Introduction to Social Media B 

This module will teach you about audience research, brand development, and content creation. It will cover academic and industry concepts, focusing on social media communication and factors affecting engagement. Upon completion of this module, you will have a solid understanding of the social media landscape, content creation and analytics skills.

Essential Media Law and Regulation 

This module will prepare you to be a legally and ethically-responsible publisher, whether in print, online, broadcast, or social media platforms. You will learn about anonymity, libel, privacy, copyright, and contempt of court in journalism. You will also explore court reporting, copy checks, and ethical code application, including The Editors' and Ofcom codes.

Essential Journalism

This module will give you a broad introduction to the role of the journalist and the practical skills required for news, magazine, fashion and sports journalism. You will learn how to find and research a news story, track down sources, conduct interviews, identify angles, write headlines and intros and structure stories in a coherent way. You will also be given an introduction to using analytics and social media to promote stories and understand their reach.

Popular Culture 

In this module, you will explore popular culture from sociological perspectives, focusing on cinema and television drama, literature, popular music and celebrity, food, shopping and street culture, and cyberculture and new media. You will learn about the roles and influence of popular culture on daily life, using various sociological approaches.

Community Engagement 

This module will introduce you to online communities and the role of community managers. It explores co-existence, evolution, growth, moderation, participation, engagement, and success measures. You will learn how to create digital communities and analyze existing ones, preparing for strategic business, marketing, and public relations communication.

Introduction to PR Theory and Practice 

This module offers an introduction to the theory and practice of public relations, enabling you to position PR within a business context. It traces the emergence and development of PR through analysis of case studies and theoretical models, and will introduce you to key skills in planning, strategy, team working, news release writing and communication skills across a range of media.

Digital Image Creation for Visual Branding 

This module will equip you with experience in publication, editorial tasks, grid techniques, advanced typography, image manipulation, and multi-page document design. You will also delve into visual branding and identity creation for brands.

Research Methodology 

This module aims to teach you the significance of research in today's world. You will learn various concepts, theories, and techniques of quantitative and qualitative communication research methods, enabling critical thinking and effective research responses.

Year 2

Practical PR, Strategy and Theory

You will enhance your understanding of PR theory, critical planning models, research importance, and case studies to create effective PR strategies for clients or organisations. You will also learn about ethical codes and the societal impact of public relations activity.

Data Analysis and Visualisation

This module focuses on data analysis in social media management, exploring data sets and analytics to identify trends. It covers data analysis, statistics, spreadsheet functions, and software. It also enhances content creation skills, focusing on visual and interactive methods for specific audiences and platforms.

Social Media: Theory and Practice

This module teaches you how to develop and implement a social media strategy using professional scheduling software and analytics tools. It covers creating and pitching campaigns, audience research, attribution methods, ROI, social listening, and hashtag tracking. It also focuses on data analysis in social media management, statistics, spreadsheet functions, and software, and enhances content creation skills for specific audiences and platforms.

Ready Player One: Operating within the Streaming Industry

You will learn about the livestreaming economy, a rapidly growing media sector. It covers product launches, live reveals, events, and storytelling. You will also gain a better understanding of content creation, audience relationships, branding, planning, ethical practices, and broadcast regulations, enhancing their understanding of the industry.

Social Media Marketing

This module will give you an overview on effective social media marketing techniques and strategies to cultivate high user engagement on the internet and mobile devices.

Placement and Practice

This module offers a comprehensive understanding of the social media industry, covering commercial, organizational, marketing, and publishing aspects. It includes a week-long industry placement, seminars, guest talks, and independent research. You will develop employability skills, create digital CVs and cover letters, and build an online professional identity.

Year 3

Advanced Public Relations

The module enhances your understanding of PR principles and the economic value of corporate reputation, its implications, and community relations. It covers the complexity of corporate communications, internal and external communication, employee engagement techniques, and implementing PR campaigns for real-life clients.

Advanced Community Engagement

This module focuses on community engagement in crowdsourcing using social and digital technology. It covers methods to encourage participation, impact of identity, motivations, gamification, influence, and crowd user types. It also discusses how to moderate crowd contributions, manage legal and ethical risks, and how crowdsourcing can build awareness, engagement, loyalty, and innovation.

Social Media Management Practical Project A

This social media project is a final year module that combines content creation, strategic communications, community management, public relations, and data analysis skills. It focuses on developing an original idea for a strategic social media project, demonstrating high-quality content production, research, strategy development, audience engagement, data analysis, and theoretical approaches. The project will be presented to lecturers and peers.

Social Media Management Practical Project B

This social media project is the culmination of the content creation, strategic communications, community management, public relations and data analysis skills you have developed throughout your degree programme. The initial idea will be pitched to both lecturers and peers in a presentation at the end of the first semester. Throughout the presentation and production process, you will be supported through a series of one-to-one personal tutorials and tailored group workshops to reinforce, enhance and develop your existing skills as a social media manager.

Branded Content and E-commerce Video

This module will provide you with the opportunity to further develop a range of video production skills, optimised for online usage, that will increase your awareness and knowledge of branded content and current trends in ecommerce. Successful participation in this module will further enhance your production skills, whilst focusing on a growth area of employment, and freelance enterprise. You will work on live briefs which will enhance the skills needed to work with clients and build commercial relationships.

In-Company Training

This module enables you to apply your learning beyond education, develop strategies, and merge with industry through internship reflection, enhancing critical thinking, communication, and identifying relevant professions.