Provided by Dr. Zifei Fay Chen at University of San Francisco

1. COMS490 Social Media Strategies for Public Relations (Fall 2017) Dr. Zifei Fay Chen
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University of San Francisco, Department of Communication Studies
COMS 490 (Topics in Communication Studies)
Social Media Strategies for Public Relations (#COMS490fall17)
Social Media Analytics Exercise
Purpose of the assignment
This mini-analytics assignment is designed for you to practice the Meltwater social analytics tool
and to enhance your social media analytical skills. It also aims to help you prepare for the social
analytics element in your final project. The assignment mimics the report that a public
relations/marketing agency would provide for clients on a weekly (or bi-weekly) basis.
Instructions
Conduct a mini-analysis of Ben & Jerry’s performance on social media using Meltwater. Below
is a brief step-by-step instruction to generate the dashboards on Meltwater:
 Build a search for Ben & Jerry’s on Meltwater
o To limit the scope of your analysis, only search for Ben & Jerry’s performance on
Twitter and set the timeframe as between September 1 to September 15, 2017
o Think about the possible search terms (other than “Ben & Jerry’s”?)
o Create a Monitor dashboard for Ben & Jerry’s based on your search
 To have insights on competitor performance, also build a search for Haagen-Dazs
(United States) for comparison
o Limit your search for Haagen-Dazs to Twitter and set the timeframe as between
September 1 to September 15, 2017
o Think about the possible search terms (other than “Haagen-Dazs”?)
o It’s optional whether you create a “Monitor” dashboard for Haagen-Dazs or not,
as this is only for comparison
 Build a Benchmark dashboard to compare the performance of Ben & Jerry’s and Haagen-
Dazs on Meltwater
Deliverables
Each team will share the same Meltwater account. You may use the account together and help
each other navigate the platform. However, you need to create your social analytics report and
submit your assignment individually.
Create a social analytics report for Ben & Jerry’s performance from September 1 to September
15, 2017. You report should include the following information.
 Purpose of the briefing
 Method of your analysis: How did you do it? Where did you get the information? Provide
a brief description of the search terms verbatim as well as the scope of social media
platform (“where”) and timeframe (“when”)
 Background: Basic information of Ben & Jerry’s Twitter activity (current numbers of
followings, followers, tweets, etc.—metrics you can obtain directly by visiting the
Twitter page). Provide some information on Haagen-Dazs US’ Twitter activity too for
comparison.

2. COMS490 Social Media Strategies for Public Relations (Fall 2017) Dr. Zifei Fay Chen
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o Note that in a complete report, more information from organizational research is
needed, but this mini-analytics report only requires the above.
 Consumer insights
o Overall impressions. Any notable changes? If so, how?
o What are people talking about? Any issues and trends? Sentiment? Provide
example quote(s) if necessary.
o Identify top posters: Who are they (organizations, individuals)? How influential
are they? What kind of tweets do they generate? Theme? Sentiment?
o Any other information you would like to include, based on what we learned from
class (prominence, tonality, etc.)?
 Competitor insights
o What is the share of voice (SOV) between Ben & Jerry’s and Haagen-Dazs?
o What is the competitive landscape when it comes to themes, sentiments,
influencers, etc.? Think about what we learned in class.
 Conclusion and insights/key takeaways
Grading rubric
Your mini social analytics report will be graded based on a 100-pt scale. The following rubric
will be used:
 Quality of content: Clarify of analysis, rigor of report, and ability to drive insights based
on the analysis. Note that I’m not just looking for things copied and pasted from
Meltwater dashboard. You will need to summarize and interpret what the dashboard told
you based on what we learned in class. (70 pts total, 4 levels—excellent/70 pts, good/65
pts, okay/55 pts, poor/45 pts or lower)
 Language, grammar, and proper use of text vs. graphs (25 pts total, 4 levels—
excellent/25 pts, good/20 pts, okay/15 pts, poor/10 pts or lower)
 Proper format: including formatting, submission requirements, page limit, etc. (5 pts
total, 3 levels—meeting all/5 pts, missing only one/3 pts, missing more than one/0 pt)
Format and Submission
 Please keep your assignment between 1-4 pages. This page limit requires you to provide
top line, important analytics information with great clarify. Divide your analysis into
different sections and use bullet points in your descriptions. Include graphs when
necessary. You may paste the graphs and charts from Meltwater, but should also consider
re-creating them for better clarity if deemed necessary.
 The paper should be formatted in single space, using 12-pt Times New Roman font on a
letter-size paper with 1 inch margins all around.
 Format your report as if you were working for a public relations/marketing agency (see
additional info and resources for the template; do consider making it visually appealing).
 Please submit your assignment to Canvas in PDF (preferred) or Word by the deadline:
Thursday, September 28, 12:45 p.m. Hard copies are not required.

3. COMS490 Social Media Strategies for Public Relations (Fall 2017) Dr. Zifei Fay Chen
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Additional Information and Resources
If you need more instructions on how to use Meltwater to build the dashboards:
 The following video is an example showing you how to conduct social search on Barry’s
Bootcamp in San Francisco for May 2017 and display how to create a monitoring
dashboard: https://www.screencast.com/t/YmlQJaE3pkO
 The following video is an example showing you how to create a benchmark dashboard
comparing Barry’s Bootcamp to 24 Hour Fitness and Crunch Fitness:
https://www.screencast.com/t/67aR4ivALj
 This following video shows you how to export a media exposure widget from a
monitoring dashboard. The widget can be exported as a PDF or JNG image and emailed
to you as raw data or Excel analytics: https://www.screencast.com/t/F1WikAhJN
Example of graph accompanies with descriptions (source: Meltwater):