socialmediaSocial media has become ingrained in most everyone’s life. Grandparents stay in touch with their families who share photos and have conversations. Teens and tweens have accounts so they can share their photos with each other and make plans for the weekend. Business owners often find an integration of work and personal lives intertwined in their feeds.

There is no longer a question of whether social media is here to stay. For the business owner, the questions now are often how to use social media to market their business, what platform(s) would be best for their industry, what type of content to share, and where to find the content.

Knowing the format and purpose of each site is important so you know which ones are a good fit for your industry and will help you achieve your goals. Should you have a personal and business account, or just one account for each social networking site? Is it best and keep them totally separate, completely intertwined, or partially mixed?

You are most likely either already on social media sites or are planning to join in on the conversations soon. This brings another issue that is a big one – how much time will you need to spend to make it worth your while? After all, this is “Social Media for Business.” How do you know you’re spending your time wisely posting, tweeting, and sharing information?

This online, self-directed course introduces you to the most common business social media platforms and their cultures, how to market your business using social media, and how to integrate social media into your current marketing initiatives. Also included are tips on finding and creating content, along with time-saving tools to assist you in the process. This is not a how-to course on setting up your accounts. Since formats, pages, and settings change frequently, we leave that up to the individual companies to provide current information.

Topics included in this course are

  • Benefits and risks of using social media
  • Getting started with social media
  • Your social media strategy
  • Introduction to the platforms
  • Marketing your business with social media
  • Etiquette
  • Creating your accounts
  • Finding and creating content
  • Social media management services
  • Analyzing your results

This course was created for the National Inventory Certification Association‘s Continuing Education Program. Upon successful completion, you will earn three (3) CEUs that can be applied to certification or renewing your designation.