Dr Yun Chen talks about how your digital business can work with the University of Salford

Have you heard about digital business transformation? Here at Salford we have and we want to be part of the process that helps transform your digital businesses. Do you want to know how our students work with internal and external partners?

I am Dr Yun Chen and I run two modules working closely with industry bringing our undergraduate students within the digital business transformation process. My Mobile App Development module is a great example. This year our students developed real applications and more importantly, they worked with our established industry partners Apadmi and Sigma too benchmarking their skills against industry standards.

Could your business benefit from a number of fresh pairs of eyes looking at your app development project needs? Like you, I know that mobile devices are one of the most popular channels that help people engage people with digital businesses activities. This means it is really essential now to make sure that students understand not just the mobile technologies and theories of design but also its implementation in the real world. Let me tell you more about how Salford Business School does this.

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“The rise of fractal politics” was first submitted to the Nine Dots Prize in response to the question, “Are digital technologies making politics impossible?” The essay was written as a thought piece prior to the announcement of the 2017 UK General Election.

Dr Gordon Fletcher

Fractal Politics

In this essay “the rise of fractal politics” describes the current state of development in advanced capitalist economies. This is a development that has been accelerated by digital technologies while also describing wider ranging changes in contemporary society and politics (Marcuse 2002). Equally, many of these social and political changes have themselves become possible because of digital technologies (Rosa 2013). This is the ever-present reminder that technology is both a product of the society that produces it and a key agent for its change (Laszio 1992).

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Dr Aleksej Heinze

This year has offered some dramatic lessons in the power of social media. Twice, people have confounded predictions to vote for ideas which have targeted emotional responses.

Now we have President Donald Trump, and the UK Government scrambling to navigate a path out of the European Union.

As 2016 draws to a close, a shooting in Washington at a pizza restaurant – the so-called pizzagate incident – exposed just how dangerous and how effective those emotional appeals on social media can be.

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Dr Gordon Fletcher asks is the Social Media Bubble about to burst?

Social Media Bubble questions resurface whenever Social Media attracts bad press. For example, claims that paid ads receive low levels of engagement, or that social media is a waste of time for marketers are contributing to this thinking.

These statements appear to have practical support. Twitter recently announced redundancies and as a result its panicked users feared that the service was shutting down. One of Twitter’s headline purchases, the video service Vine, was also recently closed. A decision that, for some, served to reconfirm their fears.

Can this combination of actions be seen as signal that the social media bubble is bursting?

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Nim Tennakoon, MSc Digital Marketing student

Before I started my Search and Social Media Marketing module (SSMM), I did not consider optimising my digital profiles or worry about the ranking of my name in Search Engine Results Page (SERPs). Knowing what I know now this is one reason as to why I study Digital Marketing at Salford.

Most of us have social media profiles such as Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. I actually have more than 5000 friends on Facebook! Even my Facebook page has more than 2000 likes. On Instagram I have nearly 3500 followers. For a long time I was active online posting around twice a day. But only recently I have started to understand the theoretical and financial values behind it.

Once I began to appreciate the theory of social media marketing I became fascinated. Did you know I am what you might call in digital marketing a micro-influencer?

It’s true! I have now even read some studies that suggest users like myself with smaller follower numbers actually have higher engagement rates on social media compared to some Megastars. Therefore, people like me with similar followings can be of huge benefit to online brands.

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Huzayfah Bukhat, BSc (Hons) Business Information Technology Graduate

Like many other graduates who recently graduated in the summer of 2016, I started to search for that ‘dream job‘ and in my instance – The first job. How to get a graduate job will depend on you and your personality and here is my way…

Every graduate had the same attitude and drive as me. And this meant that I needed to up my game.

As part of my final year, I learnt how to target employers using social media networks. I had already created a personal website as part of my BSc Business Information Technology program but this needed optimising to further target employers.

I would write blog posts regarding project management, web design and business analysis to build an online network and also show employers that I understand my field and what I am passionate about. It was writing these blog posts that helped me to understand what career path I wanted to take – business analysis. Here are my seven steps on how to get a graduate job:

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Dr Gordon Fletcher

There is no questioning the phenomenal rise of Pokémon Go app into our collective consciousness. The evidence is significant. Just two examples include, Pokémon Go app claims more players than Twitter users in the US and is the most downloaded app in its first week ever. Perhaps even greater evidence of the scale of this free game’s impact is the rapid appearance of criticism of the game’s mechanics.

Whether we are avid players or puzzled spectators the sudden collective awareness of this game certainly exceeds that of any other mobile app.

The combination of Nintendo’s well known characters with Niantic’s reality gaming engine has resulted in something that is compelling in itself, has broad appeal to a range of audiences and has already changed the day-to-day behaviour of many thousands of its most regular players. All of these factors have brought digital marketing related business opportunities for large and small businesses – as well as entrepreneurial individuals. We have entered the age of PokeBusiness.

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Alex Mellor, Medley Academy Co-Founder

You’ve done it. You’ve finally done it. Three years at University have come and gone in a flash. You’ve spent thousands of pounds, you’ve endured thousands of hours staring at PowerPoint presentations and you’ve spent what felt like thousands of hours in the library, juiced up on Red Bull. But, it’s all amounted to something. You’ve got your degree! But what’s next… Are you looking for some careers advice?

I joined a highly successful social media start-up – Social Chain – pretty early on. During my 18 months at the company, we hired A LOT of staff. I watched the company grow from 6 to 40+, all of these staff members were under 28 years old (the average age was 21). When we hired, we never ever went off academic credentials, who had the ‘best degree’ from the ‘best university.’

We hired based on drive, determination and knowledge of the space.

Here are four tips from me on how to use the summer months to gain the advantage over fellow graduates and to land that dream job:

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James Swann Digital Marketing

Do you need to join an online marketing course to get the right tools for your business? For anyone who grew up in the last twenty years or so, digital or online marketing is just another thing that happens. Yet for the rest of us (those with a few more wrinkles) it’s still a major phenomenon that has changed the way businesses of all shapes and sizes go about publicising their goods and services to potential customers locally or in the wider world.

Despite online marketing having been around since the nineteen nineties (arguably earlier) there are still many small and medium sized companies that are out of touch with the digital world and who require guidance in order to make full use of advertising and selling online. Unsurprisingly this has seen the emergence of many new digital agencies specialising in online and wider forms of digital marketing, such as marketing through mobile phone apps and interactive media.

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How 3D printing works

How does 3D printing work? Have you heard abut 3D printing technologies? There are lots of things you could print. We have already been printed a few things already, like a duck, a Salford ambition sign and a butterfly clip!

Recent improvements and falling prices of 3D printers meant that the technology is more accessible to everyone. . 3D printing works by a layer-by-layer creation of physical objects based on digital files that of their design. Nowadays, 3D printing technologies have become an affordable and viable tool for business and consumers. So, how can 3D printing transform online retailing?

Retailers can sell blueprint design plans that consumers can purchase on the web and print at home or at 3D print shops. 3d printing has become very popular and industry in its own right since the world’s first 3D print shop opened in Zurich in 2012.  Since then more pops up opened in Munich and Vienna in 2014. These shops have begun to offer bespoke final prints and designs can be adapted to improve and modify functionality. Also, electronically transmitting digital design printing have no tax costs. Nike has marketing its first athletic shoe with 3D-printed components to download and templates for shoes that can be printed out overnight. Besides industry and business, 3D scanning and printing can be used for educational purposes in schools and universities. Teachers and students can creatively combine engineering, maths, design process and history. 3D printing is also starting to revolutionise manufacturing in a wide range of industries.

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