MKTG2001 · Digital and Social Media Marketing
The Complete Study & Assessment Guide · T2 2026Digital and Social Media Marketing
MKTG2001 Digital and Social Media Marketing is the University of Newcastle's second-year Newcastle Business School unit in digital and social-media marketing, and it is assessed entirely by coursework — there is no final exam. The University of Newcastle frames MKTG2001 around three connected tasks that build on one another: an individual Voice-of-Customer Analysis (25%) that uses netnography to read what customers say about two competing brands; a Digital Marketing Performance Analytics assessment (30%) that asks you to build a measurement and KPI framework and interpret real analytics; and a group Digital Marketing Plan (45%, groups of six) that produces a full social-media strategy for the Australian brand with the weakest social performance. The three tasks form a pipeline — the customer insight from the first feeds the metrics of the second, which feed the plan of the third. MKTG2001 is a frameworks-and-evidence unit: the marks live in naming the right model (POEM, RACE, SWOT, SMART, the Valid Metrics Framework), grounding claims in real social data, and writing a clear, referenced argument. One item carries a hurdle — you must score at least 50% in the 30% Performance Analytics assessment to pass the unit — so steady weekly work matters, and the exact mode of that task (the handbook lists a group interactive presentation while some cohort materials describe an individual report) should be confirmed on Canvas and in your course outline. All submissions must be in English, and your MKTG2001 result feeds the GPA that later marketing units build on.
What MKTG2001 covers
MKTG2001 Digital and Social Media Marketing is 100% coursework — there is no final exam — assessed by three connected tasks: a Voice-of-Customer netnography (25%), a Digital Marketing Performance Analytics assessment (30%, which carries a 50% pass hurdle) and a group Digital Marketing Plan (45%). This eleven-chapter map follows the teaching schedule from the POEM media model and RACE planning through customer-engagement analytics, social listening, search-engine marketing and mobile, showing how each week's framework feeds the assessment pipeline. Use it to see which chapter powers which task.
How MKTG2001 is assessed
| Component | Weight | Format |
|---|---|---|
| Voice of Customer Analysis (A1) | 25% | Individual; netnography / Voice-of-Customer analysis of two brands; due ~Week 6 |
| Digital Marketing Performance Analytics (A2) | 30% | Build a measurement/KPI framework and interpret digital-marketing performance; the handbook lists a group interactive presentation while some cohort materials describe an individual report — confirm the exact mode on Canvas; due ~Week 10 |
| Digital Marketing Plan (A3) | 45% | Group (groups of 6); a full digital & social-media marketing plan for the Australian brand with the weakest social performance; due ~Week 13 |
Engagement rate vs follower count: picking the weaker brand for the plan
- +1State the taught formula. Average engagement rate = (Comments + Likes + Shares) / Followers × 100. Follower count on its own is a reach/exposure figure, not an engagement figure.
- +1Brand A: interactions = 120 + 1,850 + 30 = 2,000. Engagement rate = 2,000 / 50,000 × 100 = 4.0%.
- +1Brand B: interactions = 80 + 900 + 20 = 1,000. Engagement rate = 1,000 / 20,000 × 100 = 5.0%.
- +1Interpret. Brand A has 2.5× the followers of Brand B but a lower engagement rate (4.0% vs 5.0%), so a larger audience is interacting less. Follower count is a vanity metric; the engagement rate is the actionable one.
- +1Decide. On engagement rate, Brand A is the weaker social performer, so under a SWOT-driven selection it becomes the focal brand for the group Digital Marketing Plan — the plan targets the brand with the most headroom to improve.
Key terms
- POEM (Paid / Owned / Earned Media)
- The media taxonomy taught in Week 1. Paid = advertising and paid search you buy; Owned = channels you control (website, brand page, app); Earned = coverage others give you (word of mouth, reviews, mentions, shares).
- RACE planning framework
- The unit's master digital-planning spine: Reach, Act, Convert, Engage, preceded by a Plan step. It structures the group Digital Marketing Plan into awareness, interaction, conversion and retention tactics.
- Social Media SWOT
- A Strengths / Weaknesses / Opportunities / Threats audit of a brand's social-media position, used to pick the weakest focal brand and to justify strategy choices in the assessments.
- SMART objective
- An objective that is Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic (some materials say Relevant) and Time-delimited — the required form for every objective written in the analytics task and the plan.
- Valid Metrics Framework
- An AMEC-adapted progression — Exposure, Engagement, Influence, Impact, Advocacy — that maps metrics to objectives, so you choose KPIs that track a real business outcome rather than vanity counts.
- Netnography
- Kozinets' adaptation of ethnography to online communities: listening to and interpreting public user-generated content to surface the Voice of the Customer. It is the core method of the individual Voice-of-Customer task.
MKTG2001 FAQ
Is MKTG2001 hard?
It is more about steady application than difficulty. There is no exam and little heavy maths — the arithmetic is engagement rates, CTR and simple ROI — but the unit is broad and cumulative: the Voice-of-Customer task feeds the analytics task, which feeds the group plan. Students who keep up with the weekly frameworks (POEM, RACE, SWOT, SMART, the Valid Metrics Framework) and set up the tools early tend to find MKTG2001 manageable and score well against the HD/D/C/P bands. The load spikes around the group Digital Marketing Plan, so start the group early.
How is MKTG2001 assessed?
MKTG2001 is 100% coursework with no final exam. There are three connected tasks: a Voice of Customer Analysis (25%, individual netnography of two brands), a Digital Marketing Performance Analytics assessment (30% — confirm on Canvas whether your cohort runs it as a group presentation or an individual report), and a group Digital Marketing Plan (45%, groups of six). Weights total 100%. Confirm the exact task specifications, weightings and due dates on Canvas and in your course outline / course profile, since offerings can differ.
Does MKTG2001 have a hurdle?
Yes — the University of Newcastle handbook attaches a 50% pass requirement to the 30% Digital Marketing Performance Analytics item: you must score at least 50% in that item to pass the course, regardless of your total. The other two tasks carry no hurdle. All submissions must be in English (a non-English submission scores zero). Because the hurdle sits on one item, do not treat the analytics task as the one to coast on — confirm the current rule on Canvas and in your course outline before you plan your effort.
Can AI help me with MKTG2001?
Yes, as a study aid. Sia is an AI tutor trained on how MKTG2001 is actually taught and assessed — it can explain the RACE framework, walk an engagement-rate or social-ROI calculation step by step, show how a netnographic categorisation turns user-generated content into a Voice-of-Customer insight, and check your reasoning on a practice case. It explains the method and does not complete a graded assessment for you; University of Newcastle academic-integrity rules and the unit's GenAI policy still apply, so use it to learn and always confirm the rules on Canvas.
Do I need the textbook, and what should I set up early?
The prescribed text is Zahay, Roberts, Parker, Barker & Barker, Social Media Marketing: A Strategic Approach (3rd ed, Cengage, 2023); confirm the current reading list on Canvas. Set up the free tools the workshops use as soon as they are introduced — a Meta Business Suite / Facebook business page, a Rival IQ free trial and a Google Analytics 4 demo account — because the analytics task and the plan both need real data. Form your group of six early via myUni/Canvas, since the 45% plan depends on it.
How to prepare for the assessments
Treat MKTG2001 as a pipeline, not a set of isolated weeks: the Voice-of-Customer task (A1) feeds the analytics task (A2), which feeds the group Digital Marketing Plan (A3), so keep one running brand pair from early in the term and reuse the evidence across all three. Each week, take that week's framework and apply it once to your chosen brands — sort their channels into POEM, write one SMART objective inside RACE, run a Social Media SWOT, compute an engagement rate and a share-of-voice figure — so by the time each task is due you already have worked material. Because the 30% analytics item carries a 50% hurdle, prioritise getting the metric-choice logic right: for every objective, name the Valid Metrics category and the KPI that actually tracks it, and avoid vanity metrics. Set up Meta Business Suite, Rival IQ and a GA4 demo account the week each is introduced, form your group of six early, and confirm every weight, mode and due date on Canvas and in the course outline. When a framework or a calculation will not click, ask Sia to re-explain that single step a different way and to set a fresh practice case in the same style — it teaches the method and checks your reasoning, and it never substitutes for your own graded work.
Your AI Business & Marketing tutor for MKTG2001
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