Introduction to Social Media Marketing

Social Media has become a buzz word, and it is a vital part of business around the world. There are over 3.8 billion people on social media networks that constitute more than half of the people on earth. Such a boom in social media offers an opportunity for individuals, businesses, governments, social organisations and communities to share, connect and communicate without any geographical boundaries. Many organisations have already started leveraging the power of social media in business communication and marketing. This course has been designed to provide you with a full understanding of how to plan, manage and execute a successful social media strategy using various online platforms. Participants will gain fundamental knowledge of social media marketing as well a specific skill sets to create, manage, track and monitor social media marketing campaigns using social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and YouTube.

Week 1: 

Introduction to Social Media Marketing and Strategy

Learners will investigate social media marketing and plan effective strategies for social media by:

• Understanding the fundamentals of social media marketing;
• Exploring various social media platforms; and
• Developing a draft social media strategy.

Week 2: 

Marketing on Facebook: Designing and Managing Facebook Advertising Campaigns

Learners will explore the use of Facebook for marketing by:

• Identifying the strengths and features of Facebook that make it a powerful platform;
• Taking a step-by-step approach to build Facebook page for marketing; and
• Designing and evaluating an effective Facebook Campaign.

Week 3:

Advertising on Twitter: Designing, managing and monitoring Twitter campaigns

Learners will examine the use of Twitter for marketing by:

• Understanding the essentials of Twitter for advertisement;
• Systematically design advertisements that reach the target audience; and
• Creating a business profile and campaign on Twitter.

Week 4:

Advertise on LinkedIn: Setup, Managing and Monitoring Campaigns

Learners will evaluate LinkedIn as a social media for marketing by:

• Examining the significance of a professional network for brand awareness and marketing;
• Creating a LinkedIn page and optimising for the targeted followers.
• Designing LinkedIn marketing campaigns by selecting appropriate objectives and audience.

Week 5

YouTube Marketing: Designing and Managing YouTube Channel and advertising Campaigns

Learners will actively engage in learning the potential of YouTube for social media marketing by:

• Creating a YouTube channel for advertisement;
• Using Google Ads for improving the performance of campaigns; and
• Finalise a Social Media marketing strategy for specific contexts.

This course is designed for anyone interested in understanding and developing insights to use social media for marketing and communication. However, people engaged in start-ups, budding entrepreneurs, small-scale business owners, NGOs, Government organisations interested in using social media for the growth of their business or any social cause at local, national or global level, would benefit from this Massive Open Online Course.

After completion of this course participants are expected to be able to:

• Develop social media marketing strategy for achieving organisation goals. 
• Set up, design and monitor the Facebook Pages and Facebook advertising campaigns.
• Create, manage and monitor Twitter marketing campaigns.
• Design, monitor and analyse LinkedIn advertising campaigns.
• Design and manage YouTube video advertisements campaigns and YouTube channel.

Two levels of certification are available based on your level of participation and completion of the tasks/activities:

• Certificate of Participation: requires a minimum score of 60% on all quizzes and participation in at least 3 discussion forums.
• Certificate of Completion: requires a minimum score of 60% on all quizzes, participation in at least 3 discussion forums and successful completion of the assignment in Week 5 (the creation and sharing of a social media strategy)

Meet Your Instructor:

  Dr Tejinderpal Singh is Associate Professor at University Business School, Panjab University, Chandigarh,      India. Dr Singh is a successful MOOC instructor having developed and delivered the ‘Digital Marketing’ MOOC --    ranked amongst the top 15 online courses worldwide (amongst top 5 in India) by the Class Central on the SWAYAM   platform of the Ministry of Education, Government of India. He has over 15 years of teaching and research experience in marketing, e-learning and qualitative research. With a PhD from Punjabi University, Patiala (India), he also serves as Editor-in-Chief of International Journal of Marketing and Business Communications (IJMBC). He is a Certified Professional Trainer of Qualitative Data Analysis (ATLAS.ti) and published widely in various journals of national and international repute.