#bsocialf16 course calendar

About the Course Calendar

Assignments and readings are due on the day they are listed. For example, Walls, Hobbs, Coates, and Braun should be read for 9/6. The calendar is subject to change, so please be sure to check it daily.

week 1: Beginnings / Course Themes

T 8/29: Introduction to the course, the fellows, and the Beautiful Social Research Collaborative; Sinek on the Golden Circle (first 7 minutes); Skills Survey (see your SJU email; complete in class or by 10:00pm tonight)

Assignment for Thursday, 9/1
Click through the course web site, getting familiar with the layout and read the Syllabus carefully. Come to class with any questions you might have.

If you do not yet have a Twitter account, please sign up for one at http://twitter.com. Twitter works best (especially for our purposes) when the username is professional and you are authentic. For example, my username is: billwolff (http://twitter.com/billwolff), and I use my full name to show who I am. My account is unlocked. Please sign up with a professional username and keep your account unlocked. We’ll be using Twitter in a professional way so there is no need to keep anything private. Make sure you have your username with you. The shorter the username the better and please avoid underscores (_); they are hard to type on smartphones.

Create an Instagram account, as well, if you don’t yet have one using the same professional criteria as described for Twitter.

Read Lambert on storytelling (see Readings page), “6 Nonprofits On Instagram Who Are Getting It Right,” and watch Mia’s Story:

While reading the non-profits article, click on each mentioned non-profit’s username and spend time reading their posts. Be prepared to discuss how what is happening on the Instagram pages and in the video might be or are examples of what Lambert calls digital storytelling.

H 9/1: Discuss Lambert, Instagram, Mia’s Story; Client Placement Reveal; Meet with Team
Hand out the Social Media Documentary Assignment

Assignment for Tuesday, 9/6
Read selections from Braun, Coates, Hobbs, and Walls. Braun, Coates, and Walls, are from memoirs; Hobbs is from an autobiography of a man named Robert Peace. While reading, I’d like you to think about the lives of each of these individuals and pay attention to how you respond to each one. What is your initial reaction? What might you have assumed beforehand and how did that change (if it did) while reading? What were the contexts of their childhoods? What opportunities did each of the individuals have? Braun went on to found a global philanthropy; Walls and Coates became successful authors; Robert Peace went to Yale before dying young. Can (or should) we draw any conclusions about the texts based on that knowledge?

Read through the Social Media Documentary Assignment, start following your classmates on Twitter and Instagram, and begin live-tweeting your work by tweeting 8 passages that were particularly meaningful to you, two from each reading. I’d also like you to use your classmates’ tweeted passages as conversation starters by replying to 4 of those passages in ways that create a conversation. Original authors, continue that conversation.

We will discuss the readings and your tweets in class on Tuesday.

week 2: Getting Started and Storytelling

T 9/6: Fellows Panel; Braun, Coates, Hobbs, and Walls; Golden Circle
Hand out the Project Team Assignment

Assignment for Tuesday, 2/2
Please read Aaker & Smith (2010) and Vaynerchuck (2013) [there are two Vaynerchuck essays, so be sure you are reading the right one), which can be found on the Readings page. Watch the videos It’s Not Over and America and the one in this tweet:

Continue live-tweeting the readings as you have for the last two homework assignments. Here, I’d you to make connections between the three videos and Aaker & Smith, Vaynerchuck, and Lambert. In particular, think about the fact that the first two videos are viral successes and the latter is a 15 second composition designed for Twitter. Be sure to reply to each other and make your tweets conversation starters and continuations.

H 9/8: Aaker & Smith (2010) and Vaynerchuck (2013), It’s Not Over; America
Hand out Story of Learning Assignment

week 3: Interviewing and Staging

Assignment for Tuesday, 9/13
Please read the Story of Learning Assignment, which we didn’t get a chance to discuss today. We’ll discuss it first thing Thursday.

The texts for this week are going to be about interviewing and the power of stories. We’re going to be borrowing our interview techniques from the oral history field, which advocates for open-ended interviews.

Please read Portelli (2006) and Turkel (2006). The scans of the readings aren’t great, I’m sorry to say. Please also listen to significant portions of Studs Turkel’s oral history interviews with Dawn Kelly:

Joseph Moore:

and Leola Spann:

I’d like you to think about what you’re read and listened to in relation to Mia’s Story and It’s Not Over. Tweet about ways you think the kinds of interviews advocated and exhibited here could lead to the kinds of narratives told in the those videos. What is t about the oral history process that results in such meaningful statements? Also live-tweet about other questions, thoughts, and concerns you have with the texts.

T 9/13: Portelli; Turkel; and Turkel examples
H 9/15: Setting up the interview space
Team Identity Due on GoogleDoc by 11:00pm

week 4: Site Visits and Reasons Why / BP: TCCWB

T 9/20: Class Canceled for site visits; you may still meet with your project team
My Story Up Till This Moment due by 11:00pm
H 9/22: Site visit reflections Class Canceled to work on projects

Friday, 9/23: Team TCCWB Blog Post Due

week 5: Jena Lee Nardella’s Story

Assignment for Tuesday, 9/27
Please read pages xiii-66 in Nardella’s book. Find her organization online and check out their various online spaces. Think about their use of online spaces and social media. How does they web site tell a story itself (not just link to stories)? How do they use Twitter, Instagram, and other social media spaces to tell stories. Tweet your thoughts about Jena’s book and the storytelling aspects of Blood:Water’s online spaces.

Continue working on your Background Research and note the new deadline: Tuesday, 10/4.

If you have yet to complete the first part of your Story of Learning, My Story up Till This Moment, please complete that. Remember to complete your weekly Story of Learning Update.

I’m looking forward to talking with you all about your site visits and the start of Nardella’s journey.

T 9/27: Nardella pages xiii-66

Assignment for Thursday, 9/29
Please read pages 67 – 105 in Nardella’s book, Vaynerchuck’s (2001), “How Everything has Changed, Except Human Nature,” and “Why You Should Give Yourself Permission to Screw Up” by Heidi Grant Halvorson. They are all pretty fast reads.

While reading, I’d like you to tweet about Nardella’s experiences (from the start of the book to page 105) make real or challenge the ideas expressed by Vaynerchuck and Halvorson.

I’d also like you to start keeping an individual list of tips and tricks for success when working with clients and completing client projects.  Use Jena’s experiences, the other readings we’ll be completing this semester, and your own experiences to construct the list. You can start with what we discussed today in class:

H 9/29: Nardella pages 67 – 105; Halvorson
Client Background Part B Due in GoogleDoc

week 6: Jena Lee Nardella’s Visit / BP: Alex’s & TCCWB

T 10/4: Nardella pages 115 – 194; Jena Nardella visits class
Client Background Part B Due in GoogleDoc by the start of class.

Jena Nardella University-wide talk: 6:30 pm 7:00pm in the Foley Center

H 10/6: Nardella Pages 199 – 256

week 7: Midterms / No Blog Post

T 10/11: No Class, Fall Break

Assignment for Thursday, 10/13
Please read pages pages 1 – 65 in Walter (2011), which is all about designing for emotion. Though the book is about web design, I’d like you to try to connect it to Aaker & Smith’s (2010) Principles and Characteristics of engaging social media campaigns and Vaynerchucks (2013) characteristics of great stories. Then, I’d like to look again at Vaynerchuck’s discussion of consistency (Part 6) and think about the relationship between consistency and emotion. Watch these videos designed for social media–Janelle; Karen Macek; Roxie; War Hero–and tweet about those two ideas—emotion and consistency within them. Other than the content of the stories, what aids to the emotional engagement?

H 10/13: Walter (2011), Designing for Emotion, pages 1-65; Consistent Design; Janelle; Karen Macek; Roxie; War Hero. Four Up. design-for-emotion-handout.pdf
Discuss Story of Learning part 1

week 8: Assessment Conferences / BP: Fair Food

Assignment for Tuesday, 10/18
Please read the short reading by Hlinko (2012) on social media multipliers. Go through the last 100 or so tweets, Instagram posts, or Facebook Posts and try to identify your own multipliers. Who is forwarding your messages most? Then, go through your client’s Twitter feed and see who their top multipliers are. We’ll discuss these chapters in class in relation to the Social Media Analysis part of the semester project.

If you haven’t been keeping up with your Story of Learning Weekly updates, this is a great weekend to catch up with them. You can also start working on your Midterm Story of Learning, which we will discuss first thing on Tuesday.

In preparation for your interview set-up how-to with me, please read How To: Interviewing and Interacting in a Professional Environment on the Beautiful Social blog by Team TCCWB. We will be following their discussion exactly. Also watch the following video on using lighting deflectors for outside photography:

T 10/18: Hlinko and Social Media Analysis
Discuss Story of Learning part 1
Discuss Social Media Analysis Report Part of Semester Project
H 10/20: TBD
F 10/21: Story of Learning Part 1 Due

week 9: TBD / BP: Jax

T 10/25: Class cancelled for conferences, but you may still meet with your teams
H 10/27: Class cancelled for conferences, but you may still meet with your teams

week 10: TBD / BP: Soapbox

T 11/1: Work in class in groups
H 11/3: Work in class in groups

week 11: TBD / BP: Alex’s and Fair Food

T 11/8: Work in class in groups
H 11/10: Bill in Chicago; work in groups
Social Media Analysis Draft Due
Client Project Draft Due

week 12: Site Visit 2: Clients to Campus / BP: Soapbox and Jax

T 11/15: No class due to client visits
H 11/17: No class due to client visits

week 13: TBD / No Blog Post

T 11/22: Work in class in groups
H 11/24: No Class, Thanksgiving

week 14:

T 11/29: Work in class in groups
Discuss Client Case Studies and Final Documentary Video
H 12/1: Work in class in groups

week 15: TBD / BP: Jax and Fair Food

T 12/6: Group Work; Lemonade Stand
Final Client Project and Social Media Report due by 11:00pm
H 12/8: Course evals; Group Work

Monday, 12/12: Client Case Study due by 11:00pm
Tues, 12/13: Documentary Video due by 11:00pm
Wed, 12/14: Final Stories of Learning Due by 11:00pm
Friday, 12/16: End of Semester event at Urban Art Gallery

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