Blog Assignments

Objective

Blogging is an important tool for digital marketing, and it is also one of the easiest methods for publishing online. Blogging allows the student to build online presence, and the class to engage in intellectual discourse virtually. Moreover, Blogspot.com offers opportunities to easily feature display advertisement on the blog which allows the student to gain hands-on experience in online advertising. In this course, blogging replaces some of the traditional paper assignments for these reasons:

• Develop student competency in this important tool for digital marketing
• Cultivate student experience in online display advertising
• Provide opportunities for building the student’s online work portfolio
• Facilitate intellectual discourse in the digital space

 Spring 2014 student blogs are available here.

Instructions

Account Set-up: The student must create a Gmail account, and use Gmail’s blog function (i.e., Blogger or sometimes called Blogspot) to create a new blog for all blog assignments. This account is for individual assignments and must be different from the Gmail account used for the GOMC/AdWords team project. If the student already has a Gmail account, they may either use it here or create a new account specifically for this class. You should then use the account to create a new blog dedicated to the BUS572 course. Submit your account username and blog address to the BUS572 instructor by filling out this short form here.

During the coursework period, the student must turn the AdSense function on as a way to practice running online advertisement as part of a Display Network. The purpose of this assignment is to enable the student to experience the topic of Display Advertising in the most direct fashion. In fact, assessing the performance of Display ads, discussing how relevant the ads are to the content of your blog post, or critiquing the value of AdSense ads can all be excellent topics for the blogging assignments. The student is free to turn off AdSense after all blogging assignments for the course are complete. If the student has strong objections to this assignment, please discuss with the instructor.

You should turn on AdSense after you have completed your first blog post. The AdSense function does not work until you have content on the blog. This is because AdSense runs based on keyword match algorithm which can't run when there's nothing on the blog to match!

Schedule: Please follow the assignment schedule available on the course website to post the biweekly individual blog post using your individual Gmail account.

Blog Post Content: The individual blog post (25 points) must meet the following criteria

1.       [20 points] Each post must contain four paragraphs, each worth 5 points. The first two paragraphs must address the two most important concepts that you have learned during the current Session. The third paragraph must address the most important skill or skillset that you have acquired during the current Session. The last paragraph is where you reflect on your personal learning journey during the current Session, what you find rewarding versus challenging, and your learning goals for the next Session.

Each of the first three paragraphs must address these three elements:

a.      [2 points] What: Definition of the concept/skill under discussion. Provide a definition and a specific example to illustrate it.

b.      [2 points] So What: Explain why the concept/skill is important in your opinion, how it is useful, and its key implications for digital marketing in the global marketplace.

c.       [1 point] Question: Do you have any outstanding questions concerning the concept/skill? Do you question the validity or value of the concept/skill? Are there potentially negative consequences of applying the concept/skill? Do you disagree with the course materials in insightful ways? Do we need to challenge implicit assumptions of the concept/skill? Would you caution the reader on potential issues? Offer one or two questions or concerns for the reader to respond to.

2.      [1 point] Each post must contain at least one image that visually illustrates the essential message of the post. This image can be your own image file uploaded to the blog account, or a link to an externally hosted image file. When linking to an external image, you must indicate the source of the image clearly in the post.

3.      [1 point] Each post must contain at least one external link, properly formatted (meaning that the “http://…” should not be visible to blog readers; use appropriate anchor text).

4.      [1 point] Each post must be tagged properly. Individual Blog 1 must be tagged with the BUS572-1 tag, Individual Blog 2 must be tagged with the BUS572-2 tag, and so on. In addition, you should also tag the blog post with keywords relevant to its content.

5.      [1 point] The post must be properly formatted. Pay attention to the overall look and feel of the post. Is the title descriptive, brief, and effective? Is the font size and type consistent throughout the entire post? Is the size of the image proportional to the side of the post? Overall is the post easy for the reader to enjoy?

Comment [1 point]: In addition to posting, the student must comment on at least one post other than the student’s own during each blogging Session. Comments should be meaningful and of significant substance. “I love this!” or “Great idea!” is not an example of a meaningful comment The comment must address questions raised by the post author, extend the post in meaningful ways, or call central ideas of the post to question in a critical manner.

Grading Rubric

1.      Content (40%) – Relevance and Logic

Relevance (20%): The content must relate to the Session’s course content, including assigned readings, class discussions, EIA activities, and project work. The content of the post/comment must apply to the content of the coursework in a directly clear manner. Please reference source materials in APA style.

Logic (20%): The content must also demonstrate logical integrity and your critical thinking skills. Does your work make sense? Are the arguments reasonable? Are reasons based on objective evidence and sensible logic? Are answers written in a cohesive and comprehensible manner?

Also, make sure you observe the legal guidelines that apply to blogs.

2.     Insight (30%)

Does your post/comment illustrate critical understanding of course materials? Have you developed new insights as a result of this part of coursework? Do you disagree with the course materials in insightful ways? Does the post/comment illustrate difficult concepts in creative ways? Did you answer a question in an unconventional way? Did you do something that would pleasantly surprise your classmates or instructor? Of course, your creativity must be sensible and reasonable within the context of this course.

3.     Writing (30%)

Is the post/comment free of technical or editorial issues? Is the post/comment compliant with APA style requirements? Is the post/comment easy to read? Are the paragraphs constructed with appropriate topic sentences? Are flows between paragraphs logical and meaningful?

Does the post/comment stand-alone and assume little contextual knowledge (e.g., “yesterday I met a paid search specialist” assumes knowledge of the date of the post. Instead this sentence is much more easier to understand because the date is explicitly defined “On January 1, 2014 I met a paid search specialist.”) 

Overall the post/comment should follow tips for effective blogging available here.