0478 - Using Social Media in Business (Self-Paced)

Course Description

One of the biggest challenges for business owners is finding new customers. Over the past decade, some business owners have leveraged social media to do just that. Whether you are a social media novice or a seasoned veteran, this course will give you a solid foundation in social media marketing and how to use social media for business No matter your goals, social media is a game changer for businesses in today's globally connected environment. So, whether you are looking for a new way to market your business or simply want to better understand social media, this social media in business course will empower you for future success.

• Describe the basics of online marketing and how social media works
• Identify the main objectives for using social media in your business
• Select the right social media platform(s) that align with and support the identified business objectives
• Demonstrate the ability to set up and configure the most popular social media platforms
• Develop a process to test, measure, review, and continuously improve the effectiveness of your social media efforts
• Automate social media activities, leveraging tools and strategies to streamline processes

• Confidently promote yourself as a social media marketer
• Immediately apply what you learn in the lessons to promote your business and generate new leads
• Gain the knowledge and abilities to implement a "SOCIAL" process to increase your business's awareness, engagement, and sales
• Master the art of using social media to promote a business and track your results - a skill most struggle to do successfully

• This course can be taken on either a PC, Mac, or Chromebook.

• PC: Windows 10 or later.
• Mac: macOS 10.6 or later.
• Browser: The latest version of Google Chrome or Mozilla Firefox are preferred. Microsoft Edge and Safari are also compatible.
• Microsoft Word Online
• Adobe Acrobat Reader.
• Software must be installed and fully operational before the course begins.

• Email capabilities and access to a personal email account.

Lesson 1 - Developing a Social Media Foundation. In this lesson, we're going to build the foundation you'll use for social media to grow your business. You'll discover the definition of social media, learn about its characteristics and see what it can do for your business. Then, you'll explore the various types of social media and focus on the ones that offer the greatest benefits. We'll examine the right way to use social media to develop relationships and drive new leads into your business, and explore a step-by-step process for ensuring that social media works for you.

Lesson 2 - Creating Your Social Media Strategy. In this lesson, you'll see how you can build a strategy for using social media to grow your business. First, you'll discover what a strategy is and why it's important to have one for your social media efforts. Then, you'll gain an understanding of the critical elements of any social media strategy. Finally, we'll examine the steps needed to plan, build and execute a social media strategy that's customized for your business and that will help you to expand awareness, gain more clients and increase your sales.

Lesson 3 - Building Your Social Media Organization. This lesson demonstrates how to develop a social media organization that will help you be as effective as possible. First, you'll choose from the various platforms and select the ones that will serve your business best. Then we'll explore how to build a simple social media organization diagram to document and guide your social tactics. Finally, we'll examine how you can transform your simple diagram into a more detailed electronic file and add elements as your business grows.

Lesson 4 - Crafting High-Quality Content. In this lesson, you'll learn how to produce social media content that engages your followers and entices them to comment. First, we'll examine the different types of social media content you should consider producing. Next, you'll gain an understanding of how to write content that's optimized for distribution on social media platforms and to do so without it becoming a full-time job. Finally, we'll examine various ways that you can create, store, manage, search, and retrieve the social media content that you produce.

Lesson 5 - Facebook. Facebook is one of the most popular social networking sites. In this lesson, you'll learn how you can use Facebook to effectively market and grow your business. First, you'll get an overview of how Facebook works, and you'll take a tour of a Facebook page. Next, we'll walk through how to create a Facebook account and set up a page for your business, and we'll explore the features you can use to engage, interact and grow a base of followers. Finally, we'll examine several business growth strategies that you can use to gain awareness and exposure for your business.

Lesson 6 - Instagram. In this lesson, you'll learn how you can use Instagram to effectively market and grow your business. First, we'll walk through an overview of the social media platform, highlight how it differs from others we've explored, and take a tour of its features. After that, you'll see how to create a personal account and to set up one for your business. Finally, we'll examine several strategies that you can use to leverage Instagram to engage and interact and grow a base of followers for your business.

Lesson 7 - LinkedIn. In this lesson, you'll learn how you can use LinkedIn to make connections, expand your personal network, and use the power of the platform to market and grow your business. First, we're going to introduce you to LinkedIn and outline the things that make this platform different from the other ones that we've investigated. We'll then outline the steps to create your own account and show you how to optimize your LinkedIn profile page. Finally, we'll explore a handful of business growth strategies that you can use to gain awareness and exposure for your business.

Lesson 8 - Google Business Profile. In this lesson, you'll discover how to effectively use Google Business Profile to enhance your business's online presence. We'll start by understanding what Google Business Profile is and its advantages over other social media platforms. You'll learn step-by-step how to set up your profile and the essentials of managing it. Lastly, we will dive into several strategic approaches for leveraging your profile to increase visibility and attract more customers to your business.

Lesson 9 - Other Social Media Platforms to Know. In this lesson, we'll explore a variety of social media platforms that extend beyond the typical ones like Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn, focusing on how they can be utilized for your business. First, we'll introduce what each platform—such as X (formerly Twitter), Pinterest, Reddit, Snapchat, Telegram, TikTok, WhatsApp, and YouTube—offers and how it stands out from the others we've discussed previously. You'll learn how to determine which platforms are most applicable for your specific business situation. Next, we'll outline initial strategies to engage effectively with your audience on these platforms. Finally, we will provide specific tactics for each platform to help increase your visibility and connect with more users interested in your products and services.

Lesson 10 - Social Media Automation & AI. In this lesson, you'll learn about social media automation. First, we're going to investigate what it means to automate your social media activities and outline the various ways you can do so. Next, we'll peek at the pros and cons and identify the most common pitfalls of using automation. And finally, we'll introduce the most popular free and paid automation tools that you can put to immediate use.

Lesson 11 - Social Media and Your Team. In this lesson, you'll learn to minimize the time you spend on social media activities through delegation. First, we'll investigate the types of tasks you can delegate and examine some common pitfalls to avoid. Next, we'll explore the process for assigning tasks to team members and, if needed, hiring a part-time or full-time social media manager. Finally, you'll gain some strategies for centralizing your social media information and get a preview of some software solutions for integrating your social media team's efforts.

Lesson 12 - Measuring Your Social Media Performance. How do you know if what you're doing is working? In this lesson, you'll learn about tracking, monitoring, measuring, and improving your social media activities. First, we're going to investigate the most common types of metrics you'll find in social media. Next, we'll outline the basic metrics and a simple approach that you can use to track how well social media is working for you. And finally, you'll browse some popular third-party tools that can take your analysis to another level.