Dr Aleksej Heinze

Is it ever possible to keep up with the constantly changing nature of Digital and Social Media Marketing?

The answer is – YES, with continuous professional development. This comes in many forms and for an industry that relies on online content there are plenty of online resources to keep those “grey cells” active.

One of the latest courses is a Digital and Social Media Marketing MOOC.

This most recent offering from Salford Business School (part funded by the European Union) has been developed through a JEMSS project partnership of universities in Europe. The partnership draws on consultation with digital marketing recruitment specialists The Candidate Ltd and the leading European Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) provider – Iversity.

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Android HQ (CC) by Dan H

Google have decided to stop providing security updates for older Android Operating System devices, which could account for 60% of users, over a billion mobile phone and tablet users. There was no official announcement to notify all the users affected and suggest a way forward.

A smart phone operating system (OS) is essentially the software that provides the “brains” for a device that makes the phone “smart”. Like a book without content, a mobile phone without an operating system is not much use.

Android phones and tablets have grown exponentially in popularity since 2009 when android only had 4% of the market. Since 2014, it has become the dominant player with over 84% market share when comparing the main six competitors on the market. This is at the time when smart phone penetration is reaching new levels with 70% of population predicted to have access to a mobile device by 2017. This is one of the reasons that mobile application development is increasingly taught at universities on courses such as our Business Information Technology course.

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Prof Kurt Allman

The Scottish Referendum on independence marked a significant milestone in the United Kingdom’s Union journey. Just pulling back from the brink of a brave new world, Scotland decided that the whole was greater than the sum of the parts.

Whilst the outcome was, personally speaking, contrary to what I had anticipated, the process shone a spotlight on what many south of the border but north of Watford had been contemplating: The current command and control of central government was not sufficiently democratic nor insightful to address the pressing needs of England’s regions and cities – calling for devolved government.

What was apparent after the Scottish referendum, and all the public soul searching on the arguments of economic security and political ideology was that this would ignite discussion and debate over the next few years across the UK. In this forthcoming debate I hoped that the arguments wouldn’t be so polarised as presented on the main media outlets on the run up to the independence referendum, but rather much finer grained discourse based on carefully calculated benefits and risks associated with devolved powers.

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Aleksej Heinze

What should business school academics and those aspiring for a career in a business and management field focus on? The classic four P’s:

• Publications (high quality journal articles),
• Pounds (research income),
• PhD students (the graduation of successful PhD students) and
• Presence (engagement in conventional press, keynotes etc.) are constantly being extended.

In REF 2014 for example, the change was the introduction of Impact – namely, evidence that research has made a difference in the real world and in REF 2020 it is the importance of open access.

18th December 2014 is the date when the results of REF 2014 are published. However, the work has already been done and individuals who were involved in the evaluation process have reported to their units of assessment – the one most relevant to UK Business Schools is Unit 19 – Business and Management Studies.

So, what are the lessons for UK based academics post REF 2014?

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Dr Morven McEachern

The University has identified social impact and social value as core elements of our mission through the new University Strategic Plan. Our commitment to social business and its values has resulted in the University being awarded the Social Enterprise Mark – only the second university in the UK to achieve this public recognition.

The Social Enterprise Mark is the only international certification for social enterprises and it enables the University of Salford to differentiate itself from other Universities by proving we are working or ‘trading for people and planet’, reinforcing the University’s brand values.

What does Social Enterprise Mark mean to students and staff at the University of Salford?

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Big Chip Awards Winner

Salford Business School’s success with digital enterprise continued this week with winning the Little Chip Student Award 2014. It is one of the two Salford Business School’s projects short-listed for the Big Chip 2014 Awards.

The Big Chips are far and away the biggest digital awards outside of London and the longest running in the UK in their 16th year. They are organised by trade association, Manchester Digital for all things digital – from mobile apps to social media, from animation to websites to digital brand.

Salford Business School’s Centre for Digital Business submitted two projects, one a student Live Project and one a European research project. The two projects provide advice for Small and Medium Sized Enterprises (SMEs) and students about the use of social media for international business development.

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Cyberbullying

Despite the potential damage of cyberbullying, it is alarmingly common among adolescent and teens. According to the i-SAFE foundation:

• Over half of adolescent and teens have been bullied online and about the same number have engaged in cyberbullying
• More than 1 in 3 young people have experienced cyberthreats online
• Over 25 percent of adolescent and teens have been bullied repeatedly through their mobile phones or the Internet
• Well over half of young people do not tell their parents when cyberbullying occurs

Do you know what cyberbullying is? Do you know how to prevent it?

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European Search Awards 2014 winners

The Passport to Trade 2.0 (P2T2) project website businessculture.org wins the European Search Awards 2014!

The European Search Awards is an international competition celebrating the very best in Search Engine Optimisation (SEO), PPC (Pay-Per-Click), Digital and Content Marketing from around the world.

Search Engine Optimisation was chosen as the main strategy to attract visitors to the businessculture.org project website. The optimisation was successfully undertaken by a European partnership of five universities and three small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).

How did this SEO strategy allow the P2T2 team to win the ‘Best use of Search – Third Sector’ at the European Search Awards? Read more…..

Digital marketing skills brainstorming session

Expanding your business online to international markets is one of the key growth areas for organisations. But how does this growth work? What skills should you and your business have in order to capitalise on this great international business opportunity?

Developing the latest skills and knowledge needed to grow a business online in international markets is the core focus for the creation of a new joint Master’s course in Digital and Social Media Marketing. This course is being developed by Salford Business School in collaboration with four European university partners, expert digital marketing recruitment agency The Candidate and international advertising agency Ilyan.com. The new course is an extension of the Salford based MSc Digital Marketing that focuses on international business.

So, what international digital marketing skills have we identified so far as important in developing your international sales growth online?

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