Create engaging content from video to graphics. Manage social media channels and develop strategies and campaigns for brands, using analytics to grow and engage your audience. Build skills as a content creator and excel in a career in social media.
Overview
Almost every employer, from Nike to Netflix, has a social media presence. Develop the skills and experience you need to meet the growing demand for social media managers across a wide range of industries, and learn how to grow and engage your audiences as a content creator.
You'll experiment with your own social media channels, and grow and engage your own digital communities. Learn to create engaging content and use analytics and attribution to prove impact and understand your audience. Develop social media strategies and organic and paid campaigns, combining integrated communications approaches across public relations and digital marketing. Delve into ideas about how to communicate, influence and persuade, and explore what makes content shareable and engaging.
Throughout the course, you'll get hands-on experience, including managing social media channels and planning social media and PR campaigns and strategies for real clients. You'll also undertake a week-long placement, building contacts and connections in the industry.
You'll study a degree with multiple accreditations: the course is accredited by the Digital Marketing Institute (DMI); our public relations modules are accredited by the CIPR, the industry’s leading body; and the Media Law module is accredited by the National Council for the Training of Journalists (NCTJ). You can graduate with an extra qualification from the NCTJ, proving you are legally and ethically safe to publish content.
By the end of this course, you'll have the skills, knowledge and experience you need to pursue a career in social media, content and communications, whether that's as an employee, a content creator, freelancer or digital nomad, or business owner and entrepreneur.
Why us?
- This course is accredited by the Digital Marketing Institute (DMI), the global standard in Digital Marketing Certification. As part of this accreditation, you'll study an Associate Level qualification that will provide you with the foundations of digital marketing
- Work alongside our RTS and CIPR award-winning content creators, media law experts, and public relations practitioners who have industry experience with companies including Sky, Grazia, The Guardian and Daily Mirror
- Superb industry contacts with regular masterclasses, educational trips and links with YouTube and Twitch entertainment company The Yogscast
- Cutting-edge kit and facilities including high-end video, stills and 360 cameras, photography studios, radio studios, mediaHUB newsroom, gaming and VR facilities, 4K TV studio for livestreaming, 200-seater cinema
- Our Media and Film Studies courses (which include BA (Hons) Social Media Management) are 11th in the UK (Guardian University Guide, 2023)
- Modules ‘Introduction to PR Theory and Practice’; ‘Practical Public Relations: Strategy and Theory’; and ‘Advanced Public Relations’ are accredited by the CIPR, the industry’s leading body
- Opportunities to meet staff from BBC Newcastle and Tyne & Wear TV, and get involved with international award-winning Spark Sunderland community radio, all based in our dedicated Media Centre
- Career and entrepreneurial development support and opportunities from Sunderland Futures, the Marketing Hub and Enterprise Place. Our graduates currently have social media, community management, public relations and content creation roles at Ubisoft, Tombola, Sunderland City Council, SAFC, Rangers TV, What Culture, Stylist, MTV, Elle and more
Course structure
Over the three-year degree you'll develop the skills, knowledge and personal attributes that employers are looking for, as you work both individually and as part of a community to develop your experience and confidence. You’ll take part in lectures, workshops, practical projects, client-briefs and presentations, and you’ll also write essays, case studies and critical reflections.
In your first year, you'll realign your understanding of social media as a professional business tool. You’ll learn introductory content creation and analytics skills and use them to create content and analyse performance across a wide range of social and community platforms. You'll also learn introductory public relations skills, study media law to ensure you are safe to publish, take a module in journalism to understand essential written communication skills, and take a module in media theory to understand the current debates around digital media.
In your second year, you'll continue to build on your existing skills, creating social media strategies and campaigns for real clients, taking your public relations skills to the next level, learning about data analysis and visualisation for both content creation and social media reporting, and taking a module in short-form video production. You’ll also go on a work placement and take an optional module of your choice.
In the final year, you’ll draw on all of your theoretical and practical social media knowledge and skills to create a social media management project of your choice, which you’ll complete over the course of the academic year. You’ll also consolidate your existing PR skills, complete your training in online community engagement, and take a module in e-commerce video production to complete your degree. By the end of your degree, you’ll have a wide range of skills across social media, content creation and public relations, and will have a body of existing work and work experience to support your transition into your social media career.
Assessments include practical projects, critical reflections, case studies, essays and presentations. There is also a Media Law exam as part of the NCTJ certificate.
Part-time study
If you study this course on a part-time basis, you will typically complete 40-80 credits in a year, rather than the 120 credits of full-time students. All modules are taught during the daytime and you will be studying alongside full-time students.
Facilities
You’ll study in the David Puttnam Media Centre, which has a 4K TV studio and gallery which you will use for live-streaming on social media. You also have access to radio studios, video editing suites, gaming and VR facilities. You can get involved in award-winning community radio station, Spark Sunderland which is based in the building, and create online and social media content for our fashion, news, sport and culture websites in our mediaHUB. You can also join our CineClub which screens films in our 200-seater cinema.
Career ready
This degree will equip you with the skills you need to be a social media manager across a wide range of businesses and organisations – working in social media means you can work in almost any sector that you’re interested in, or you can choose to work for yourself.
You’ll also have the skills and qualities to pursue a career in other social media, content creation, community management and public relations roles, and you’ll have work experience and a media law qualification to help set you apart.
Graduates working in social media and PR have been employed by companies including Ubisoft, Tombola, Sunderland City Council, SAFC, Rangers TV, What Culture, Stylist, MTV, Elle and more.
Real-world experience, right on-campus
During the course, you’ll be working on live briefs for real clients, developing social media campaigns and strategies, PR campaigns and branded video marketing campaigns.
In our mediaHUB you can create social content and develop strategies for our public-facing fashion, sport, news and culture websites and award-winning community radio station Spark.
You also have the opportunity to get involved in the Marketing Hub which matches students with marketing clients. You can get support from The Enterprise Place to develop your own social media business ideas with office space and funding.
Superb industry links
The academics teaching you on this course are RTS and CIPR award-winning content creators, media law experts, public relations practitioners, tv producers, journalists and industry researchers, and have excellent relationships across a broad range of social media, fashion, sport, PR and media industries.
We have links with Rich Keith from Yogscast who also runs influencer marketing company Fourth Floor. Our faculty’s visiting professors also include video and e-commerce entrepreneur Dr Alex Connock and Good Morning Britain news editor Neil Thompson.
Work placements
You will complete a week-long placement in the second year but you can get support from our dedicated careers team Sunderland Futures to set up work experience, get an industry mentor and even find relevant paid work at any time during your degree. We regularly get offers for our students to take on placements and internships and work on CV-boosting projects. We’ve had opportunities to work with travel bloggers, create social media campaigns for stately homes, create videos for food companies and much more.
Become a content creator and strategist
During the degree, you'll work on creating content and strategies for your own social media channels and communities, as well as projects for real clients. Have a look at North East brunch Insta channel BrunchNE1 which was featured in Living North's "one-to-follow" section, Twitch stream ImpliedLies, and online community What the Flix which helps viewers find the best shows on Netflix – all created by our current students as part of their studies.
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