Social media isn’t just the latest cool thing—it’s a necessary component of leading digital marketing programs. This course explains how to use social networks, such as Twitter and Facebook, blogs, YouTube, message boards and other social media to understand what customers are saying. More importantly, this course helps you to act on that knowledge with smarter digital campaigns in social media and elsewhere that show provable return on investment.

You’ll learn:

  • What kinds of social media there are and how different organizations might need to use social media in different ways
  • How social media marketing is different from other forms of marketing
  • How to use metrics to understand whether social media activities are succeeding or failing
  • Why social media listening is important and how to choose a tool that works for you
  • How social media listening tools work and what their limitations are
  • How to respond to social media conversation
  • How to conduct social media campaigns within an overarching content strategy
  • How search marketing dovetails with social media
  • How social media differs in various global markets
  • How large organizations must address organizational issues to succeed in social media

Social media has many definitions and many uses, and it changes constantly. Learn the various types of social media that can comprise your social media marketing program and recognize the paradigm shift in thinking required to move from traditional advertising-based marketing to successful social media marketing.

There is no shortage of measurements that can be applied to social media, but the purpose of social media marketing is to create sales. Learn how to measure the results of social media activities that produce both online and offline sales.

Some of the biggest value of social media is as market research. Focus groups and surveys can now be supplemented with unprompted customer comments in social media. Social media listening can also be used in Public Relations crisis management, customer service, and in other ways. Learn how social media listening tools work and how you can choose one that meets your organization’s needs.

It’s not enough to listen to what people say in social media—you also need to respond. By understanding what people are saying and doing in social media, you can decide how to change your marketing to suit. Learn how to make blog comments, Twitter discussions, message board updates, and many other forms of social media discussions work for your brand.

Finally we get to the subject that most people think of when they talk about social media marketing! Learn content marketing principles so that you can use social media to get successful marketing messages out there that produce measurable results. Understand how to plan a social media campaign no matter what type of social media you use.

Social media is different when done for a global brand at enterprise scale. It’s not just knowing what to do—it’s about knowing how to persuade an entire organization to change what they already do so that they do social, too. Learn how social media differs in markets around the world and how to change corporate behavior so that your entire organization is succeeding in social media, not just a small marketing team. Understand how to social media works with search marketing to ensure success.

By the end of the course, class participants will be able to:

  • Set realistic business goals for social media
  • Use social listening tools to monitor brand reputation and public opinion
  • Select social media venues and plan social marketing campaigns
  • Measure the success of social media activity
  • Organize and manage a global social media program

Interested in a workshop? Contact me to talk about improving your social media strategy.