Finalizing Things.

As I have mentioned in earlier posts and discussion boards, I was very excited about diving into this class. Social media marketing is what I want to focus on when coming out of the digital marketing program and starting a career. I would thoroughly enjoy working on just Facebook and Instagram, mainly because these are my two personally favored social platforms. I think being able to focus on just one or two platforms as a social media marketer would be an excellent way to perfect the art of the platform and really put out the content that the audience wants to see.

In general, I think I will be able to use a little bit of everything that this class had to offer throughout the eight weeks. However, there was definitely a couple of things that I know will stick with me that I can use throughout my digital marketing career. First, S.M.A.R.T. goals. Significant, Measurable, Actionable, Realistic, Time-based. Each element of the S.M.A.R.T. framework works together to create a goal that is carefully planned, clear and trackable. Not only do each of these steps help tremendously when working through a social media strategy but they can also be relative to life goals as well. As this article mentions, it can be hard to know how to get a certain job or reach a certain milestone you want to attain without a planned goal. However, by using the S.M.A.R.T. formula, this can help establish a strong foundation for achieving success.

In addition, I benefited greatly from creating a social media marketing strategy. This gave me first hand experience with what I should be prepared for when starting my digital marketing career. Working with my partner regularly on each part of the social strategy and having to communicate with him consistently was a great experience and showed me what to expect in the future when I will have to work with a team of people on live posts and social media campaigns. Also, it was great practice in being able to break down each part of what we learned throughout this class, chapter by chapter, and utilizing what I studied to put a plan together for a real life local business. By doing this, I’m going to feel more confident when asked to do something similar to a social marketing strategy for whatever company I may work for in the future. I am also more confident having to work with others now having the foundation and knowledge I do about creating a social media marketing strategy.

Without strategy, content is just stuff, and the world has enough stuff.

@arjunbasu

Lastly, and I will admit this was probably my favorite piece of what this whole class had to offer, I really enjoyed the HootSuite academy. I think that whole program was on point throughout its entirety and was packed with information on all things social media marketing. From how to optimize your social media profiles to social advertising fundamentals, the course did not miss anything. I liked that the videos were short and informational and had quizzes at the end of each section to recall what had been reviewed. The idea and function behind the HootSuite program is really a great tool for a social media marketers job, and when used properly can make for favorable social media success. Using this program and having content scheduled can relate to having a social media strategy in place. This is because without a strategy there is no organization or plan for what content is to be posted next. So, for you as the social media marketer it is important to know how to implement and execute these plans and follow it through to the posts scheduled on HootSuite. I am also thankful that the HootSuite academy was offered to us students for free through this social media marketing class and is something I can mention proudly when updating my resume and in future job interviews.

Aside from the fact that I learned an immense amount of knowledge and covered numerous topics in this class, I feel like I have only scratched the surface of what information is out there about social media marketing and I still have so many questions I want answered. As I had mentioned earlier, I want a career specializing in social media marketing, so furthering my education in this specific area of marketing is something I will definitely be looking into further. I feel like I can gain a lot from this particular area of the social media marketing field and I know that this is something I will enjoy doing as a career.

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A couple of questions that I have for my fellow classmates are:

• What did you take from this class?
• What do you think you could have learned more about, just based on your own personal social media use?
• What was your favorite and least favorite part of this class?