Buhi Bags: A Social Media Simulator

Over the course of this semester, our Principles of Social Media class has been working on an assignment that allows us to explore what it would be like to manage a professional business social media account. As we progressed through the simulation, we were given promotions and tasks that increased in difficulty, requiring more skill. The company whose social media accounts we manage is Buhi Supply Co., a bag company selling products such as backpacks, purses, wallets, satchels and duffels. The simulation is run exactly like a real business, giving us the experience of managing different social media platforms and collaborating with others to market the product.

The first tasks we were assigned as social media assistants (eventually managers) involved analyzing social media brand guides, audits and other resources to determine which strategies worked best for our company. One of the most important resources was data about which social media platforms perform best based on how we market them and who our target audiences are. We were required to create organic posts for the platforms of our choosing using a budget to market our bags. We could be as creative as we wanted with captions and pictures. As we progressed, we were asked to create paid social posts, setting a daily budget for the advertisements. These posts also required us to select specific target audiences. Lastly, we needed to work with influencers to drive more conversions and increase popularity for our posts. We negotiated with influencers of varying influence levels (micro, macro, or mega—higher popularity means higher costs) and chose strategies to maximize post performance. By the end, we had to incorporate all three approaches—organic posts, paid posts and influencer partnerships—while staying within budget and maintaining high-quality advertisements. An additional task was responding to emails or messages from coworkers and customers, ensuring proper communication.

Based on how our posts performed in terms of conversions and engagement, we were ranked alongside our classmates. A higher ranking indicated better outcomes for our posts, and a lower ranking reflected the opposite. We were ranked for each round of the simulation and given an overall ranking at the end, reflecting our performance throughout the entire simulation.

I think this simulation was an excellent way to help us understand the responsibilities of a social media manager and how to create posts that target specific audiences and generate conversions. Learning how to work with influencers was probably the most challenging part for me, especially with a limited budget and the high compensation demands for their services. I particularly enjoyed the paid social posts because I could get specific with the audiences I was targeting. It was also interesting to see that some platforms that didn't perform as well for the company sometimes generated larger profits than the ones that usually performed well.

Overall, I learned a lot from this simulation and wish there was more to practice and explore. However, I believe the basics were well-covered, and I now have a stronger understanding of working in the world of social media.