The advent of social media and mobile media devices, such as smartphones and tablets, is rapidly changing human interaction, including business models. Millions of people worldwide are living much of their lives on SNS, such as Facebook, Twitter, Blog, YouTube and LinkedIn in the United States, and Renren, Weibo in China. Global internet users spent more than one fifth of online time on social network sites or blogs. The trend exemplifies that human interaction, including business environment, has being deeply transformed by social media.

This course seeks to address the following four key questions:

(1) What are social media, and how do they transform business models?

(2) What platforms and opportunities do social media provide for business, big or small?

(3) How to analyse and develop social media marketing strategies?

(4) How to cultivate yourself to become a social media researcher and strategist?