BUS-S 326 Web and Social Media Analytics
Given that spotting social media trends and understanding web traffic is intrinsic to online presence, this course focuses on retrieving and analyzing social media data and web analytics to monitor and improve the performance of web services. The course starts with technical understanding and practical applications of social network analysis and includes topics: social media data acquisition, network representation, network visualization, centrality measures, network cohesion, affiliation network, network grouping and clustering. Using tools (e.g., R, Gephi, NodeXL), students learn applications of social media analytics including semantic tree analysis, social influencer identification, and other data analytics with social media data. Next, the course delves into managerial understanding of web analytics measures and operations to perform web performance optimization and includes topics such as: Google Analytics, Search Engine Optimization (SEO), Landing Page Optimization, and AB Testing. Using tools (e.g., Google Analytics, with alternative extensions to R), students learn applications of web analytics.