MKT 345- Assignment 3

MKT345 - Individual Web Page and Twitter Social Media Assignments

The assignment is to design a personal web site that will be used as a tool to promote your

career. In today’s world, with jobs changing all the time, as well as companies assigning

projects to outside teams that consist of individual consultants (project outsourcing), it is unlikely

that many people will start and end their careers with the same organization.

One approach is to think of you as a one-person consulting company. During different times of

your career you may be steadily employed as a full-time employee for a company, and/or take

on projects on a client-by-client basis. Either way, you need to think of you as a brand.

This assignment is designed to get you started on utilizing the internet and social media to

establish a brand image for you and to promote it. The idea is that this web site should be the

hub of all social media marketing activities for your personal brand.

Using the traditional communication model, you are the sender. Your target audience consists

of all potential employers who are interested in hiring people with similar skills as the ones you

have. The web site, as well as all other social media tools that you are using and are linked to

the site are the message you are sending, encoded in the language of internet marketing. The

responses you want for the audience of your web site is to:

1. Perceive you along the personal brand image you are promoting

2. Find the web site interesting, and visit it again

3. Spread positive information about you, and your web site.

4. If they have no job available for you at the time, to keep you in mind for the future.

5. If they have a job available for someone with your skills, to invite you for an interview.

The specific design of the web site is your decision. You can use any software you want for the

design. Some of the tools are discussed in more detail in the power point presentation by Dr.

Toole which can be found in the AVP of module #1. Here is a quick summary of the things you

want to keep in mind:

1. Your web site should be easy to navigate

2. The purpose of your web site should be clear to the audience

3. It should be aesthetically pleasing

4. It should include your contact information

5. It should include your resume

6. It should have links to all social media that can add to your qualifications (for example

LinkedIn).

7. It should have a blog. In the blog you need to have at least 3 blog entries for

professional purposes. We will discuss them below.

8. It should have a link you your Twitter account. You will need to send 3 tweeter

messages related to the topics of your three blogs.

9. It should have a section that displays some evidence of your skills and

accomplishments. This section is essentially a portfolio and testimony of achievements.

10. You can add any other section(s) that may cover personal hobbies, activities and

interests, as long as they do not contradict or distract from the brand image you are

trying to promote. If done properly, such a section can add to the brand image.

The information can be any combination of text, video, pictures or audio that gets the job done.

There are no restrictions.

Assignment deadlines:

By the end of module #1 (Sunday midnight) you need to submit a short (no more than one

page) document that includes the following:

1. An identification of the industry and type of job you want to focus on. Essentially it is a

description of the career path you want to pursue or are already pursuing.

2. A detailed description of the personal brand image that you are trying to promote via the

web site. What are the impressions, thoughts, and images about you that a visitor to

your web site should take away after exploring it?

After the submission, your instructor will provide you with some feedback to clarify any

questions, or issues that may arise.

By the end of module #3 (Sunday midnight) you need to submit a document including the text

of your first blog and tweeter message.

By the end of module #5 (Sunday midnight) you need to submit a document including the text

of your second blog and tweeter message.

By the end of module #6 (Sunday midnight) you need to submit a document including the text

of your third blog and tweeter message.

You will receive feedback on all of them. This feedback is designed to help you revise them and

improve them so by the time you include them in your web site they will be more effective in

promoting your personal brand image.

You are free to select any topic you want for your blog. Ideally you want a topic related to the

career you are pursuing, because your audience will be interested in that. Your blog should

demonstrate that:

1. You are someone who has deep knowledge about the industry/career you are focused

on.

2. You are someone you is keeping up with the latest developments

3. You are someone with critical thinking who can look at events or issues, and go deep

into them and provide original and creative insights.

4. You are a good writer and can communicate very well both in a medium length format

such as a blog, or a very short one such as twitter.

Ideally, you would like your web site visitors to become engaged with your blogs.

1. At the most basic level you want the readers to go beyond the title and actually invest

the time to read the blog

2. At the second level of engagement, you want your readers to have a positive experience

and to feel that they got some valuable information, something they can use directly or

trade as social capital. If the second level has been achieved, the readers are very likely

to return to the blog.

3. At the third level you want your readers to actually pass on the link to your blog to their

friends and acquaintances via social media.

4. Finally, at the highest level of engagement, they will do all three previous levels, but they

will also invest time to respond to your blog and participate in discussions.

Some of the things you want to keep in mind when you write your blogs are:

1. Start with an attention-capturing title

2. Provide a brief summary of the topic you will be discussing. Do not try to deal with

multiple topics in a single blog. Stay focused.

3. Provide a brief explanation why this topic is relevant to your audience. In other words,

why should they care?

4. Describe briefly how this topic has been dealt up until this point.

5. Provide your original thoughts, critiques, interpretations, and solutions to the issue at

hand. This is where you should be providing original, innovative, and valuable content.

6. Finally, invite comments, be polite and courteous, and update your blog frequently.

Your tweeter messages should capture the essence of the topic you discussed in your blog, and

make it likely that people will respond and re-tweet. The essence is a cool title and creativity in

the selection of every single word.

By the Thursday midnight of module #7 you need to submit the brief document about the

goals of your website and the link to your website as part of the discussion for module #7. The

idea is that you will use the feedback of your class mates to improve your website when you

submit it at the end of the semester. Essentially the other students in the class function as a test

market for your website.

By the end of module #8 (Sunday midnight) you need to submit a document including the

following:

1. An identification of the industry and type of job you want to focus on. Essentially it is a

description of the career path you want to pursue or are already pursuing. This would be

an updated version of the document you submitted at the end of module #1 based on

your instructor’s feedback.

2. A detailed description of the personal brand image that you are trying to promote via the

web site. What are the impressions, thoughts, and images about you that a visitor to

your web site should take away after exploring it? This would be an updated version of

the document you submitted at the end of module #1 based on your instructor’s

feedback.

3. A description of how you designed your web site, and why you think that the design and

content you provided will generate the desirable personal brand image perceptions

among the target audience. Your instructor will obviously look at your website, but this

part of your document explains your thought process on why you made the particular

choices that show up on the website.

4. The link to your website. Your website at this point should include the updated blogs and

tweeter messages based on the instructor’s feedback.

5. Your cell phone contact in case your instructor needs to reach you due to any technical

difficulty with accessing your website.

Grading Rubric

Social Media Assignment Points for each

submission

Total points

Blogs

12 36

Twitter Messages 3 9

Personal brand image (website) 5

Final Document (website) 15

Aesthetics of website 10

Navigation of website 10

Creativity (website) 15

TOTAL 100

On a 100 point scale, the points are allocated as follows:

3 Blogs: 12 points each for a total of 36 points

2 points for the relevance of the topic, 2 for an attention-capturing title, 2 for the quality of

explaining/describing the topic and/or how it has been dealt in the past, and 6 on the original

thoughts, topic analysis, and contribution of the student.

3 Twitter messages: 3 points each for a total of 9 points

The 3 points will be assigned based on the eye catching title and attention grabbing content.

The three twitter messages should map the three blogs on a one-to-one basis and provide a

summary of the creative contribution of the student for each blog.

Description of the career path and desirable personal brand image: 5 points

The points are given based on parts 1 and 2 of the final document. The allocation is based on

how clearly the goals have been communicated,

Part 3 of the final document: 15 points

The points will be given based on the clarity of communicating the ideas as well as how solid

are the arguments between the content and style decisions that the student made and the goals

of the website that these choices are supposed to achieve.

Aesthetic aspects of the website: 10 points

The points will be given based on how elegant and stylish the website is. It should be pleasing

to the eye without being excessive.

Ease of navigation, contact information and call to action: 10 points

Points will be assigned based on how easy it is to access all information, and how it is

structured visually. Visitors should be able to grasp with a quick look all relevant information.

Relevance of content of the website, and creativity of presenting it: 15 points

This captures all professional testimonials, portfolio, skills and accomplishments, but also any

other additional personal information that may reinforce the brand image. It focuses both at the

content and the creativity of presenting it.