Almost every employer, from Nike to Netflix, has a social media presence. Develop the skills and experience you need to meet the growing demand for social media managers across a wide range of industries, and learn how to grow and engage your audiences as a content creator.

 

You'll experiment with your own social media channels, and grow and engage your own digital communities. Learn to create engaging content and use analytics and attribution to prove impact and understand your audience. Develop social media strategies and organic and paid campaigns, combining integrated communications approaches across public relations and digital marketing. Delve into ideas about how to communicate, influence and persuade, and explore what makes content shareable and engaging.

 

Throughout the course, you'll get hands-on experience, including managing social media channels and planning social media and PR campaigns and strategies for real clients. You'll also undertake a week-long placement, building contacts and connections in the industry.

 

You'll study a degree with multiple accreditations: the course is accredited by the Digital Marketing Institute (DMI); our public relations modules are accredited by the CIPR, the industry’s leading body; and the Media Law module is accredited by the National Council for the Training of Journalists (NCTJ). You can graduate with an extra qualification from the NCTJ, proving you are legally and ethically safe to publish content.

 

By the end of this course, you'll have the skills, knowledge and experience you need to pursue a career in social media, content and communications, whether that's as an employee, a content creator, freelancer or digital nomad, or business owner and entrepreneur.

 

Over the three-year degree you'll develop the skills, knowledge and personal attributes that employers are looking for, as you work both individually and as part of a community to develop your experience and confidence. You’ll take part in lectures, workshops, practical projects, client-briefs and presentations, and you’ll also write essays, case studies and critical reflections.

 

In your first year, you'll realign your understanding of social media as a professional business tool. You’ll learn introductory content creation and analytics skills and use them to create content and analyse performance across a wide range of social and community platforms. You'll also learn introductory public relations skills, study media law to ensure you are safe to publish, take a module in journalism to understand essential written communication skills, and take a module in media theory to understand the current debates around digital media.

In your second year, you'll continue to build on your existing skills, creating social media strategies and campaigns for real clients, taking your public relations skills to the next level, learning about data analysis and visualisation for both content creation and social media reporting, and taking a module in short-form video production. You’ll also go on a work placement and take an optional module of your choice.

In the final year, you’ll draw on all of your theoretical and practical social media knowledge and skills to create a social media management project of your choice, which you’ll complete over the course of the academic year. You’ll also consolidate your existing PR skills, complete your training in online community engagement, and take a module in e-commerce video production to complete your degree. By the end of your degree, you’ll have a wide range of skills across social media, content creation and public relations, and will have a body of existing work and work experience to support your transition into your social media career.

 

Assessments include practical projects, critical reflections, case studies, essays and presentations. There is also a Media Law exam as part of the NCTJ certificate.