Rose Ferro
Office K218, Fall River

Bristol Community College
Rose.Ferro@bristolcc.edu
(774) 357-2027

CIT 170 Home

Welcome to CIT170 (Digital Experience Management)!

Course Description: Digital Experience Management combines traditional web content management and customer experience management. Students will explore software options that manage relationships with customers including interacting with websites and social media, chat, email, phone and other options. Topics include web analytics, content personalization, digital asset management and marketing automation. Three lectures hours per week. Instructional Support Fee applies. 3 credits Spring

This website will be updated often and will be your resource for learning about weekly homework assignments, quizzes, etc. Be sure to check it frequently! If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me via email. I am available for in person meetings as well (please send me a request if my office hours are not conducive to your schedule). I look forward to having you in my class and I look forward to a successful semester!

Topic #11: Final Report (due 5/18)

As your final exam, I would like you to write a 4-5 page report (double spaced, not including your cover page, references, etc.) that summarizes what you have learned in this course throughout the semester and how it relates to your career goals. I would like you to highlight any new or enhanced skills that you learned an how you feel they many be helpful to you moving forward.

As you wrap up this semester, I am also interested in your overall opinion of this course. Identify the things you like most, least, and things that you would change and why. Please keep in mind that your feedback is required, however, it will have no bearing on your overall grade. It is simply a survey that would help me improve this course for future semesters.

Your final exam / report (and course feedback summary) should be sent to me in separate MS Word documents within the same email. Please feel free to let me know if you have any questions. It was a pleasure having you in my class.

Topic #10: Working with Social Media Firsthand (due 5/11)

Continue to develop your social media profiles. Send links and screenshots providing me with the connections you've made as well as a summary of the success and/or challenges you have encountered. As a  reminder, please be sure that your social media pages are clearly indicated as a fictitious business.

Topic #9: Final Project Prep Continued and Working with Social Media Firsthand (due 4/28)

Based on the business that you chose to create for your final project (and the feedback provided to you), you will be creating a business profile using the three social media preferences that you identified as part of your Topic 7 assignment submission. It should be noted (and clearly identified) within each of your social media outlets that you are referencing a fictitious business. Please use a generic username and password that you would not mind sharing with me if necessary. You are welcome to create a new email account if you would like to use it as reference for all of your new social media accounts to avoid blending it with an already existing account. That decision is entirely up to you. You are not required to make any purchases for the purpose of this assignment.

Upon creation of your accounts, begin populating your sites with "realistic" data as well as begin utilizing it as intended per your business strategy. The goal is to experience these tools from the business side and explore the potential for content personalization, web analytics, etc.

Once you create your social media business platforms, email me with the information that I would need in order to view each one (i.e. web address). From this point forward, you should be reviewing, analyzing, updating and evaluating your weekly actions (no less than three significant actions - posts, follows, etc.) for each social media platform each week.

Final Project Preparation: Given that you will be managing your social media platforms no less that three times a week (per platform), I would like you to keep a journal of your progress. This journal should identify the date of your post, a summary or list of the actions taken (per platform), accompanying screenshots, a reflection of what you learned (things that did or did not work for you), as well as what you would like to explore further. You should have no less than two journal entries per week. This journal will be collected as part of your final project submission.

Resources

Topic #8: Business Selection and Final Project Prep (due 4/21)

This week I would like you to brainstorm about the type of industry / business you would like to focus on for your final project. The business you choose, should be fictitious in nature, but have a realistic business model that may be similar to another business that is already in existence. For example, I may choose to open a pet store that may be a mix between Petco, Melissa's Pet Depot, and Pet Supplies Plus but have it's own unique offerings to differentiate from the competition.

With that said, I would like you to come up with your own business idea. Send me the name and detailed summary of the business you would like to utilize for this ongoing project. Identify at least four similar businesses that do exist and could be considered as potential competitors. For each of the competitors, summarize their business models, provide me with their web addresses as well as identify your business' similarities and unique differences. Please also identify the following details of your business:
  • Sector of Industry: Private/Public, Profit/Non Profit
  • Type of Business: Financial, Consumer Product, Service Based, etc.
  • Size of Business: Small, Medium, Large, How many employees are there?
  • Target Audience: Business Professionals, Children, Senior Citizens, Government Agents, etc.

Your documentation should be written in MS Word and submitted via email. Please don't hesitate to reach out if you have any questions. 

Topic #7: Exploring Social Media and Traditional Customer Touch points (due 4/5)

Part 1: Exploring the Variety Social Media Platforms

I would like you to research and identify at least 7 commonly utilized social media platforms for marketing communication. Identify each one, provide a brief synopsis of each as well as provide the source of your research and/or the direct URL for the social media platform.

Part 2: Exploring the Variety Social Media Platforms in Depth

Of the 7 social media marketing platforms you identified in part 1, I would like you to select 3 of which you would like to explore in depth. Document all of your findings, as well as clearly identify your preferred in depth research selections, in a Word document and submit them via email upon completion using the course required email subject. Your next assignment will be based on your selections. Please be mindful of this grace period before your next assignment is posted.

College Status UPDATE

As you may already be aware, the college is making decisions on how to move forward with the semester as they received updates from the health and higher education authorities. Please note that, given that this is an online course, I will continue to post assignments as initially scheduled. With that said, I will be using Spring Break as an opportunity to get caught up with the feedback that I may owe you. Please do not hesitate to reach out should you have any questions or concerns. Please also be sure to check your Bristol email, ongoing, for additional updates.

Topic #6: Marketing Automation (due 3/15)

Part 1: How to Conduct Effective Online Searches

Read the following Search Engine Tutorial (http://www.sc.edu/beaufort/library/pages/bones/bones.shtml)
Note: You do not need to complete any of the assessments posted to the tutorial website.

Part 2: All About Marketing Automation

This week, I would like you to explore the concept of Marketing Automation. Using the techniques that you learned on how to conduct effective searches online, I would like you to research the term Marketing Automation.

Using MS Word:

  • Elaborate on the meaning of the term.
  • Identify tools used to provide this service (pros and cons of at least 4 different tools). Please include at least 2 free options.
  • Based on your intended final project, elaborate on how Market Automation could be used in your intended business. If you feel that it could not, be sure to indicate that as well as explain your feeling as to why or why not.
  • Be sure to cite your sources.
  • Upon completion, submit your completed MS Word document via email.

Please note that you should be receiving additional feedback soon. Please don't hesitate to reach out should you have any questions. Thank you for your patience!

Topic #5: Digital Marketing and Final Project Preparation (due 3/5)

Part 1: All About Digital Marketing

This week, I would like you to explore the concept of Digital Marketing by reading the following article What Is Digital Marketing? which elaborates on the following key areas:

  • What is digital marketing?
  • Why digital marketing?
  • Digital Marketing Examples
  • What does a digital marketer do?
  • Inbound Marketing vs. Digital Marketing: Which is it?
  • Does digital marketing work for all businesses?
  • What is the role of digital marketing to a company
  • What types of digital content should I create?
  • How long will it take to see results from my content?
  • Do I need a big budget for digital marketing?
  • How does mobile marketing fit into my digital marketing strategy?
  • I'm ready to try digital marketing. Now what?

Part 2: Final Project Preparation (Rough Draft)

As we further explore the variety of concepts covered in this course, I would like you to begin brainstorming ideas for your final project which will entail developing a Digital Experience Management plan. To help you begin, I would like you to identify what type of real or fictitious business for which you would like to develop your plan. Some things to consider and identify as part of your submission:

  • Sector of Industry: Private/Public, Profit/Non Profit
  • Type of Business: Financial, Consumer Product, Service Based, etc.
  • Size of Business: Small, Medium, Large, How many employees are there?
  • Target Audience: Business Professionals, Children, Senior Citizens, Government Agents, etc.

Using MS Word, submit a one page summary identifying the type of business (and examples related businesses) that you would like to focus on as part of your final project. Again, this may be a real or fictitious business. As part of your submission, I would also like you to identify the components (based on what you have learned thus far) that you would include in your Digital Experience Management plan.

Additional Resource to review: Why Digital Marketing? (eText)

Topic #4: Personal Brand Identity (due 2/26)

Similar to the research you conducted last week, this week you will be focusing on personal brands. There are many famous individuals that rely on their personal brand to market themselves and/or their personal businesses. I would like you to identify some individuals that have been successful in this venture as well as those that have not been as successful (or may be on the cusp of success but have not yet become a household name). To give you an example of someone who fall into the category of success would be Kylie Jenner.

Topic #3: Exploring the Terms Brand and Business/Corporate Identity (due 2/16)

In order to manage a customer's (or one's own) digital identity, it is important to understand what defines a brand and business identity. This week, you will be exploring these terms and learning about how they relate to the digital environment.

Topic #2: Intro to Digital Experience Management (due 2/5)

In order to manage a customer's digital experience, it is important to understand what defines a digital experience. This week, you will be taking a critical look at your own, personal interaction with the digital world and providing me with your own evaluation as it pertains to the perspective of the customer.

Topic #1: Intro Survey (due 1/30)

Welcome to CIT 170. You should have received an email from me with your first homework assignment. Please email your completed survey as well as your resume to me by 1/30. Should you have any questions, please do not hesitate to reach out. As a reminder, my email address is at Rose.Ferro@Bristolcc.edu.

Reading Assignments: