Abstract:

This paper introduces the use of service learning to develop social media marketing plans for small rural enterprises. In today's world, social media plans are vital for organizations to fully engage with their audiences. Many small organizations do not have the expertise or resources to implement one. For several years, teams of undergraduate students in a computing capstone social media development course at a rural regional university have prepared social media plans for small rural organizations. The social media plan that students develop is required to meet the client's specific needs, identify audiences, set measurable goals, and describe a minimum of three recommended social media strategies and tactics to reach the identified goals. However, it was observed that often these plans were frequently abandoned by the organizations and not used. The research goals of this project are to study the impact of the interventions in increasing implementation and sustained use rates of social media plans developed through service learning. To help the organizations achieve their social media goals, the initial attitudes towards social media that the organizations had, prior to the implementation of a social media plan, were analyzed using a mixed methods approach. Knowing the businesses baseline perception of social media and their utilization of it enables a better understanding of why the social media plans provided to them are implemented or not. Understanding business perception also aids in the revision of the capstone project itself.

The results of the initial qualitative attitude analysis found the two most common words chosen were time-consuming and necessary. There are both positive and negative words chosen as expected. The most used platform is Facebook. The organizations surveyed can certainly see the potential in social media, as 94% found that social media added value to engaging customers; 86% report that it is a necessity for reaching customers; and 84% recognized that time spend managing their social media is time well spent. However, businesses also found it difficult to use and sometimes lack the time or knowledge to use social media effectively in a business setting, as only 51% used social media channels to conduct business and 47% used social media for gaining feedback from customers. This research provides a baseline for a longitudinal study and adds value to understand how the attitudes towards social media change over time, with the introduction of a social media plan, as well as with external interactions and resources that help facilitate the implementation of these plans.

Keywords:

Computer Science Education, Service Learning, Active Learning, Project-based learning.