Tag Archives: Digital Marketing

MSc in Digital and Social Media Marketing

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Thinking about a career in Digital Marketing? Looking to make the move into Marketing but don’t know where to start? Then Lancaster University’s new MSc Digital and Social Media Marketing is for you!

What makes it different?

Our MSc in Digital and Social Media Marketing has been designed with industry in mind. Your teaching team will include real-world industry practitioners, alongside academic experts with published research on many of the topics covered in this course. From content management and SEO to social media engagement and influencers, this course will equip you with the skills you need to thrive in any digital-related role.

What will I study?

In the first term, you will study alongside our MSc Marketing students, learning the fundamentals of Marketing at postgraduate level, including topics such as consumer behaviour and research methods. In the second term, you will study modules exclusively focused on digital marketing, including an expanded module on digital marketing and social media in practice, and a dedicated module on influencer marketing.

These brand-new modules have been designed exclusively for this course, with case studies and examples based on the module leaders’ real world industry experience. While working on your studies, you will also create a digital portfolio, which will form part of your assessment, and will also serve as a useful tool to make you more employable and give you that edge in a competitive jobs market.

Who can study this degree?

This degree is suitable for anyone with a good 2:1 undergraduate degree. So whether you are from the arts and humanities, or perhaps you studied computer science or even engineering, you are welcome to enrol on this course.

The only proviso to this is that if you have already done Marketing at undergraduate level (or indeed, if you have already completed several Marketing modules at undergraduate level), we recommend you apply for the MSc Advanced Marketing Management. Be reassured, there is plenty of digital content on the Advanced Marketing Management degree as well. I know because I teach it!

Where can I find out more?

You can find more information about the course in our online postgraduate prospectus.

As programme director, I am more than happy to set up an online meeting with anyone who think they might be interested in taking this course.

If you have any questions, you can also send me an email: m.ryder@lancaster.ac.uk, or message me on LinkedIn.

About me

Dr Mike Ryder is lecturer in Marketing and Programme Director of the MSc Digital and Social Media Marketing. Prior to his life in academia, Mike spent 10+ years working in a range of content and digital roles in video games, healthcare and higher education. His website is www.mjryder.net.

Dr Mike Ryder

A sector in crisis: a systematic analysis of care home websites in Lancashire, UK

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Back in 2022 I conducted some research into the digital marketing practices of care homes in Lancashire, UK. Such is the slow pace of academic publishing, I have decided to publish what I found here on my website (July 2024), in the hope that authorities might use this report as a motivator for change. While some of the examples I found in 2022 have been updated, I notice that many still have not changed some two years later. This is incredibly worrying, especially given the legal ramifications, and impact on patient choice.

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The perils of academic conference accounts

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It’s quite the trend in academia these days to set up a series of ‘conference accounts’ on social media to promote said conference and bring together all related materials. However, these accounts are rarely (if ever) worthwhile and can actually detract from what should be your primary marketing goal; namely to promote the work of the wider organisation to which your conference is attached. Continue reading »

Why are academics so obsessed with posters?

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I’ve been involved in higher education for some time now – both as a student and an employee – and still to this day it surprises me just how obsessed some people are with posters.

And by posters here I don’t mean posters to stick on the wall; no, rather I mean posters to send out by email or for users to download from social media or a website. Got a conference coming up? Make a poster and send it to your mailing lists. Got an event? Make a poster and upload it to your blog.

But the thing is, pdf posters just aren’t made for digital media. Here are some of the reasons why:

  • Posters are not SEO-friendly. Their content is not searchable online.
  • Errors are difficult to correct. If you have a change of date or change of venue, you can’t just go out and edit all the posters you’ve already sent out into the ether.
  • Posters are not mobile-friendly. Large files are slow to download and impact on a user’s data allowance. They also don’t make for easy reading on a mobile device.
  • Posters can be time-consuming to create. They are not an efficient means of communication and can often be overlooked by a time-starved audience.

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