0359 - Using Social Media in Business

Course Description

Course Details 
 
One of the biggest challenges for most business owners is to find a continuous supply of new customers. Over the past decade, some have differentiated themselves by leveraging the Internet and social media to do just that. Whether you consider yourself a social media novice or a seasoned veteran, this course will give you a solid foundation and thorough understanding of what social media is and how you can use it to grow your business.  As you progress through the course, you'll master a simple process for making social media work for you. You'll learn about the five most popular social media platforms—Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest, and Google+—and study secrets for using them and other social media platforms to promote your business. You'll also see how you can build a social media team and automate your social media activities so that you can leverage the power of social media without adding another full-time job to your plate. And finally, you'll gain techniques for measuring and tracking your social media success.  In today's fast-paced and globally connected environment, social media is a game changer for businesses and business owners who use this powerful medium in the right way. So whether you're looking for a new way to market your business or simply hoping to gain a better understanding about the excitement that surrounds social media, this course will empower you. Course Revised April 2016 
 
How It Works 
 
This course is fully online, you require internet access and an email account. The course duration is 6 weeks, followed by a 2-week period to complete the final exam (online, open book). Lessons are released on Wednesdays and Fridays of each week, for a total of 12.   You are not required to be online at any specific time. In addition to the specific lesson content, there is a discussion board with each lesson and often there is an optional assignment to apply the learning. Following each lesson,   there is a short multiple choice quiz. Your score on these quizzes does not count towards the final mark but completing these helps solidify your learning as well as prepare you for the final exam. The final exam is an open-book, multiple choice exam   and you need to achieve a minimum of 65% on the final exam to pass the course. There is only one opportunity to pass the exam. A certificate of completion from WatSPEED is available within four weeks of successful completion of each course and can be accessed in your student portal. Many of the Ed2Go courses are eligible towards the various online certificates offered by WatSPEED. 

Syllabus

Lesson 1 - Developing a Social Media Foundation. In this lesson, we're going to build the foundation you need to use 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 in 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. Today, 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 see how to choose from among the various platforms to 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 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 business 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 advanced strategies that you can use to gain awareness and exposure for your business.

Lesson 6 - Twitter. In this lesson, you'll learn how you can use Twitter to effectively market and grow your business. First, we'll provide an overview of what Twitter is, the basic pieces and terms that you need to know, and how it all works so that you can engage, interact, and grow a base of followers. After that, we're going to walk you through the steps that are required to create a Twitter account and to brand it for your business. Finally, we'll examine several advanced strategies that you can use to gain awareness and exposure 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 advanced strategies that you can use to gain awareness and exposure for your business.

Lesson 8 - Pinterest. In this lesson, you'll learn how you can use Pinterest to share information and connect with others who are interested in your products and services. First, we're going to explore what Pinterest is and how it compares to some of the other social media platforms that we've examined so far. Next, we'll show you how to create your Pinterest account and outline some basic ways that you can use it to grow your business. Finally, we'll identify and explore a handful of strategies that you can use to gain additional awareness and exposure for your business.

Lesson 9 - Google+. In this lesson, you'll learn how you can use Google+ 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 a page for your business. Finally, we'll examine several strategies that you can use to leverage Google+ to engage and interact and grow a base of followers for your business.

Lesson 10 - Social Media Automation. 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.