Website Application Posts (6 in total – 5% of Grade)

Overview and Instructions – Prof. Anthony Miyazaki

OBJECTIVES

As marketers, we are required to create value for our various clients while helping our own

organizations grow. An important skill that we must master is our ability to convey marketing

ideas, concepts, best practices, and strategies to our various audiences that include our clients,

business partners, colleagues, investors, etc.

At the same time, it is critical to our careers that we demonstrate our expertise via the

communication of our own ideas, concepts, and perspectives with respect to marketing and its

application to various industries, situations, and environments. One of the best ways to do this is

by creating our own content that showcases our knowledge, skills, and experience.

In this program, you will be required to write website application posts (similar to blog posts, but

more professional) that specifically relate to the content presented in each course. This exercise

has several benefits:

 You will better integrate and retain the information that you are learning each week.

 You will enhance your written communication skills.

 You will demonstrate your learning and knowledge to your instructors.

 You will showcase your subject matter expertise to your audiences.

 You will become more confident in your willingness to proclaim your mastery of

marketing to your various audiences.

With respect to marketing, strategic posting of relevant information can help drive traffic to

websites, increase search rankings, position brands (including your personal brand) as industry

leaders, and even help develop stronger customer relationships. Strategic and tactical writing

and content planning can help with website search engine optimization (SEO), website visitor

retention and engagement metrics, and marketing/communication funnel performance.

Thus, your website application posts will serve not only as a course assessment, but also as a

learning experience, a builder of your personal/professional brand, and an application of content

marketing that can be measured via engagement metrics as you gain experience and expertise in

Google Analytics (particularly when you experience your MSM Marketing Analytics course).

SKILLS & KNOWLEDGE

This assignment will enhance your ability to take newly acquired information and transfer it to

your target audiences in a manner that is useful, informative, and engaging. By authoring

regularly-posted content, you will enhance your creative writing talents, build your capacity to

engage and retain audiences, and strengthen your strategic and tactical thinking. As you learn

about various marketing tactics and strategies, you can incorporate what you learn into your

website posts as well.

ASSIGNMENT

Your website posts must go beyond merely reiterating what was covered in the course materials.

They should teach your target audiences how to apply marketing concepts, techniques,

technologies, strategies, etc. to real-world situations for which they have an interest. Although

they may have minor references to other individuals, each post should showcase your particular

knowledge, experiences, and skills.

Tailor the posts to fit within the personal/professional brand or expertise that you are cultivating

within your website and with your other digital and non-digital communications. Developing a

general theme to your posts can be a good way to accomplish this by staying focused on a

particular industry, region, marketplace, or set of audiences.

The tone, style, voice, and mood of your writing is up to you, but you should always consider

what works best to engage your prospective readers. Additionally, to build and maintain your

professional expertise, it is imperative that you do not position yourself as a student by using

words such as “this week in class,” “professor,” “course,” etc. You have free reign to

demonstrate your professional creativity, but be consistent in your positioning.

Each post must follow these guidelines:

 Minimum of 100 words in length.

 Pertain to one of the stated instruction topics based on the week’s course materials.

 Be useful to your target audience.

 Have a compelling original title that will attract audiences.

o This will help with SEO as well as website engagement metrics.

o Tips for creating titles: https://bit.ly/post-titles-1

o More tips for creating titles: https://bit.ly/post-titles-2

Posts should have the following as well:

 At least one active hyperlink that adds substance to your content.

o The addition of relevant hyperlinks can help with SEO, but only do one or two.

o Initially, you may decide to use only external links, but as you upload additional

posts, you should also link to your own relevant prior posts to increase your

website retention.

o Tips for creating effective hyperlinks: https://bit.ly/post-hyperlinks-1

 A relevant image that will attract your audience and add value to the messaging.

o Tips for including images: http://bit.ly/post-images-1

o More tips for including images: http://bit.ly/post-images-2

 Submit the assignment as a PDF

NOTE: Please do not upload your post to your website until you have received a grade or the

assignment may be flagged for plagiarism.

Additional resource material:

 http://bit.ly/post-rules

CRITERIA FOR GRADING

Each submission will be scored out of 5 points possible. Scores across all 6 posts will be

averaged and will be worth 5% of your total grade.

To receive minimum credit, each submission must:

1) Be completed as instructed.

2) Submitted on time on the due date. No late submissions will be accepted for credit.

3) Submitted via the appropriate Canvas assignment link (no emails allowed).

4) Refrain from positioning yourself as a student. To build and maintain your professional

expertise and to avoid appearing as “only a student,” it is imperative that you do not use

words like “professor,” “class,” “course,” or phrases (e.g., “this week we learned

about…”) that infer your role in these posts is one of being a student. Posts that infer

student status will receive grades of zero.

Additional grading criteria:

 Posts should go beyond merely reiterating what was covered in the course materials.

 Posts should teach your target audience(s) how to apply marketing concepts, techniques,

or technologies to real-world problems or opportunities for which they have an interest.

 Posts should have strong conceptual writing with careful thought and consideration of the

intended messaging.

 All posts must be your original work. Plagiarism of any kind can result in a zero grade

for the assignment, the assignment series, potential failure for the course, and/or potential

expulsion from the program.

 There should be no grammatical, spelling, or punctuation errors.

 Posts that completely meet or somewhat exceed the minimum criteria will be awarded 3

points.

 Posts that reasonably exceed the minimum criteria may be awarded up to 4 points.

 Posts that go far beyond the minimum criteria (in quality and not just quantity) may be

awarded up to 5 points.

 No late posts will be accepted for credit under any circumstances. (Thus, it’s far better to

be imperfect on time than to be perfect and late.)

 Grades of “A” are reserved for outstanding work. Work that meets or only somewhat

exceeds standard requirements does not constitute outstanding work.

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