Newsstand

August 7, 2011
Do You Really Need to Take Social Media Classes? [DMA11]

Maybe you’re the type who thinks that social media classes don’t apply to you. After all, there isn’t much to marketing online other than creating a Facebook page, setting up a Twitter account, and maybe updating your blog every couple of months with information about the services your company provides – right? Wrong.

There are a lot of people who think that taking digital marketing classes is a waste of time. The reasons people arrive at that inaccurate conclusion vary depending on the life and career experience of the Doubting Thomas in question.

• Social media’s about to go the way of the dinosaur, so why put time and energy into something that nobody’s going to be pursuing in a couple of years’ time?

• My company’s marketing department can handle social media just as well as any other form of advertisement. After all, it’s pretty much the same thing.

• Marketing online doesn’t cost anything anyway, so why invest time and money into social media classes?

The trouble is, all of these assumptions are 100 percent false. First of all, social media marketing isn’t going anywhere – those who think otherwise will find out the hard way what happens to companies that don’t embrace change. Second of all, just because you have a skilled and well paid marketing department in place with decades of experience doesn’t mean that they automatically have a handle on social media marketing. This is a new beast entirely that requires a completely opposite approach to traditional marketing where audiences are spoon-fed content and have no say about how they’re marketed to. And finally, marketing online isn’t free. It can cost your company in time and manpower, especially if you’re not sure how to go about it in the most expeditious manner.

Perhaps this isn’t enough to convince you that social media classes are the right way to go. Maybe you value your online presence, but you’re thinking that your company’s social media profile has nothing to do with it. Just remember that having a website and dabbling in email marketing isn’t all there is to your company’s online visibility. Lately, Google has been paying close attention to social media and has started to incorporate social media bookmarks into its ranking algorithms. What does this mean for you? It means that the less socially involved you are, the less likely you are to rank high in Google’s search results.

Alas, Google’s not the only search engine in town. But it is the most influential, and it sets the standard by which all other search engines, including Bing and Yahoo, operate. With your online visibility at stake, it’s time to consider taking some digital marketing classes to learn how to market online right: by creating a killer social media strategy. So what’s your next step?

Online tutorials and books are great, but the trouble is they’re dated a week after they’re published. The best method of taking social media classes is to attend seminars and workshops, where industry leaders will be able to deliver the most relevant and up to date information available. If you’re looking for a great conference to attend, take a look at the roster of events taking place at the upcoming DMA2011 Conference & Exhibition in Boston. You can take your pick of a variety of symposiums, roundtables, labs, and keynote speeches from experts in the field of digital marketing. For all of the details, visit www.dma11.org.

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