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This is a four-year version of our popular BA (Hons) Social Media Management course, with an integrated foundation year. Create great content from video to graphics. Understand analytics and develop tactics, social campaigns, and strategies to reach and engage audiences and build brand reputation. Get the skills and experience for your social media career.
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.
In the first year – the foundation year – you'll study five modules. After completion of this foundation year, you'll then move on to BA (Hons) Social Media Management three-year degree.
On this degree, you’ll learn by doing. You’ll build your own creator channels, grow digital communities, and develop strategies and content for real-world businesses and audiences. You’ll create reports and use digital and social media metrics to analyse and evaluate work that shows real impact. You’ll take part in client projects, working both individually and in teams on live briefs, pitching ideas or putting them into action.
In your first year, you’ll sit one media law exam, ensuring you’re legally safe to publish content. Sometimes, you’ll delve further into ideas and research about how influence and persuasion work on social platforms or how we can optimise the spread of information, and you’ll present your ideas in formats that suit you – whether that’s in writing, video, or in a presentation.
Most teaching happens in practical workshops, supported by one-to-ones, placements and occasionally lectures.
In your final year, you’ll shape your own ‘masterpiece’, a major project that reflects your skills, interests and ambitions as a content creator and social media strategist.
Assessments include practical projects, critical reflections, case studies, essays and presentations. There is also a Media Law exam as part of the NCTJ certificate.
There are many key skills that journalism students need to learn, including interviewing, writing, shorthand, and digital storytelling on social media. Senior Lecturer and National Council for the Training of Journalists (NCTJ) Media Law board member, Carole Watson, explains why learning the law is also essential for any accomplished reporter.
Find out why learning the law is essential for any accomplished reporter
A few years ago, the idea of being a ‘Social Media Manager’ would have been almost laughable – how hard can it be to ‘manage’ your notifications!? Social media is so much more than taking selfies, instagramming your breakfast or sharing memes on Facebook though; it’s a powerful business tool that's resulted in an explosion of exciting jobs and careers.
Find out where a degree in social media can take you
We don’t currently display entry requirements for United States. Please contact the Student Admin team on studentadmin@sunderland.ac.uk or 0191 515 3154.
Entry requirements are provided for guidance only and we may offer you an entrance interview which will help us determine your eligibility for your chosen degree. This enables us to consider making you an offer if you're perhaps a mature student who's been out of education for a period of time, or you've gained significant knowledge and skills through employment rather than traditional education.
Eligible entry qualifications:
If you're unsure of whether you think you might be suitable for the course, please contact us.
**If you've studied for a GCSE which has a numerical grade, you'll need to achieve a grade 4 or above. Equivalent alternative qualifications are also accepted, such as Level 2 Key Skills in Communication and Application of Number.
If English isn't your first language, please see our English language requirements.
The annual fee for this course is £9,535 if you're from the UK/Ireland/EU settled/pre-settled.
Undergraduate fees are set according to rules from Government in line with forecast inflation. The fee for your first year of study for 2025/26 will be £9,535. You will pay tuition fees for every year of study. Fees may increase every year based on the Retail Price Index.
If you're a full-time UK/Irish/EU settled/EU pre-settled student, you may be eligible to receive financial support to cover your fees for the full four years. UK and EU settled students may also be eligible to receive a maintenance loan.
Please note, this course isn't available to international students.
Learn more about settled status, pre-settled status, special discounts, visa requirements, and Common Travel Area (CTA) agreements for the Republic of Ireland applicants in our Help and Advice article.
Take a look at the scholarships and bursaries that may be available to you.
This information was correct at the time of publication.
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.
Our 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.
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.
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 include video and e-commerce entrepreneur, Dr Alex Connock, and Good Morning Britain news editor, Neil Thompson.
You'll complete a week-long placement in your second year, but you can get support from the Employability and Enterprise Hub 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.
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 Twitch stream ImpliedLies, and online community What the Flix, which helps viewers find the best shows on Netflix – both created by our current students as part of their studies.