COURSE NUMBER: MBA267.11
This course is cross listed with the EWMBA Program.
Please note the unorthodox format of this course which
meets all day on two Sundays.
COURSE TITLE: Social Media Marketing
UNITS OF CREDIT: 1.0
INSTRUCTOR: Zsolt Katona
E-MAIL ADDRESS: zskatona@haas.berkeley.edu
CLASS WEB PAGE LOCATION: http://faculty.haas.berkeley.edu/zskatona/someclass.html
MEETING DAY(S)/TIME: Sundays, 9:00 – 5:00PM, on September
16 and October 7
PREREQUISITE(S): MBA206
CLASS
FORMAT: Mix of case discussions, lectures, and guest speakers.
REQUIRED
READINGS: Cases, Course Reader.
BASIS FOR FINAL GRADE:
Mixture of class participation, individual and group exercizes.
ABSTRACT OF COURSE'S
CONTENT AND OBJECTIVES:
This is a 1-unit
compressed version of last year's 3-unit class. The course takes an in-depth
look at social networks, social media platforms and online advertising to offer
students an advantage in many positions involving marketing, consulting and
brand management both on the buyer and seller side of social media. Students
with an interest in entrepreneurship will also find the course useful as new
businesses often rely on social media marketing.
Social media is
continuously transforming the way consumers interact with each other and firms.
The course covers the implications of the evolution of communication on
marketing strategy in the new landscape where traditional and digital media
coexist and interact. While advertising spending on traditional media has
recently declined, increasing amounts are spent online in addition to unpaid
media. These new communication channels, however, are presenting significant
challenges to marketers in selecting the best strategies to maximize returns.
The course covers a number of topics including
•
The differences
and interaction between traditional and social media
•
Two-sided markets
and social media platforms (including verticals such as gaming, shopping and
entertainment)
•
Basic theory of
social networks online and offline (graph theory, sociology, information
diffusion)
•
Consumer behavior
and digital media
•
Best marketing
strategies for paid and unpaid social media
•
Implementation,
analytics and measurement of ROI
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH: Zsolt Katona is Assistant Professor
of Marketing at the Haas School of Business. Before joining UC Berkeley in
2008, he received his PhD in Marketing from INSEAD. Prior to that, he had
studied mathematics and he completed a PhD in Computer Science in his country
of origin, Hungary. Zsolt's current research focuses
on how the Internet and especially social media transform marketing. He studies
how the new technologies enabling wide-spread social interaction affect the
firm’s marketing strategies. His research has been published in the top
academic marketing journals including Marketing Science, Journal of Consumer
Research and the Journal of Marketing Research.