Business Communication and Social Media

Dr Qian Wang joined the Centre for Open Learning as a Teaching Fellow in 2021.

Her teaching experience is mainly in business-related courses. Besides her work at the Centre for Open Learning, Dr Wang has taught modules on Global Challenges for Business, Research Methods, Marketing, and Academic Writing at the University of Edinburgh Business School. She also worked as a Lecturer at the University of Stirling Management School, where her primary responsibility was supervising postgraduate students’ dissertation projects.

Dr Wang’s research interest is in the area of services and healthcare marketing. In particular, recent research examines consumer value co-creation and its impact on well-being.

Dr Wang completed a PhD at the University of Edinburgh Business School, and holds a Master’s degree from the University of Liverpool

The course is aimed for students interested in understanding how technology has changed business communication and how social media platforms provide firms with the opportunity to target their messages to different stakeholders. Students will be introduced to some of the key concepts of business communication as applied to digital marketing campaigns. In addition, the course will provide an overview of the methods employed to measure the effectiveness of business communication in social media. 

The course is organised into two parts. In the first part, students will learn about the foundations of business communication in social media, including concepts such as stakeholder theory, dialogic theory, and the components of a digital marketing campaign. The second part will focus on social media as a global phenomenon and look at different examples, such as Facebook, YouTube, LinkedIn, and Twitter. It will also consider how different social media platforms complement each other, and students will learn how to analyse the engagement achieved with marketing campaigns on these platforms. 

The course will be taught through a combination of lecture, group work and tutorial discussion. Practical exercises will allow the students to reflect on the characteristics of the different social media platforms and how these can be used to achieve companies’ goals. In addition, students will learn how to measure the effectiveness of a digital marketing campaign. The tutorials will allow them to learn from their peers by holding group discussions and working together in the analysis of different case studies. 

Week 1 - Week 3

• Monday - Friday (10:00-13:00)

Week 4 

• Monday - Thursday (10:00-13:00)

• The course will be assessed through a 2500-word essay. In preparation of the essay, students will be encouraged to submit an essay plan of up to 750 words on which feedback will be provided. 

On successful completion of this course, students will be able to:  

1. Demonstrate a basic knowledge of the functionalities of different social media platforms. 
2. Describe the key elements of a digital marketing campaign. 
3. Identify the digital position of a business and how to improve their visibility online. 

The course fee does not include accommodation during your study. Please see our Accommodation section for more information. 

To ensure your experience at the University of Edinburgh's Summer School is memorable, we encourage students to embrace the city and its culture and take part in the variety of social activities available.

More about our social programme activities >

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