Advanced social media for businesses

Learn how to plan a social strategy that engages with a bigger audience – and gets better results

The social media arena is now a competitive marketplace. It's not enough just to pitch up – to succeed you have to learn how to shout above the noise, or whisper in the right ears. This illuminating course will teach you the finer points of marketing, enabling you to plan, budget and measure the success of a social media strategy that's right for your company and your customers.

Using examples from social media campaigns that got results, tutor Ed Goodman reveals the tricks, tools and techniques the experts use to build communities and promote brands. You'll discover how to use different platforms to research your audience – and your competition – in order to build a more nuanced understanding of your market. You'll also learn how to use Google Analytics to measure the impact of your work, as well as how to target advertising to engage new online communities. You'll leave the course with a new perspective on how to create, share and analyse content, and a new toolkit of skills to make that happen – no matter how big, small or niche your business.

This course is for you if...

• You already maintain a social media presence for your business and want to establish a more efficient and productive strategy
• You're considering hiring a social media consultant or coordinator and want a better understanding of the responsibilities and potential of the role
• You have a limited marketing budget and want to maximise the impact of your online presence

Course description

This engaging one-day course demonstrates the most effective ways to address your social media strategy, content and advertising. Focus will be on the two top UK social media platforms, Twitter and Facebook, as well as best practice for using Google Analytics. Topics covered include:

• Developing a realistic strategy
• Target audiences: behaviours, listening and responding
• How to specifically target your audience
• Measuring your success
• An introduction to Google Analytics – and what can it do for your business
• What are ‘goals’? And how do you set one up in Google Analytics?
• How to measure website visits from your social media channels
• Using Google URL builder for ads and campaigns
• Knowing your competitors
• Brand and reputation management
• Developing creative marketing content
• Going viral – and piggybacking on existing viral trends
• Facebook ads – including multi-product advertising, conversion pixels and ad relevancy scores
• An overview of the latest Twitter features – including how to engage your audience with group direct messages (DMs)
• The basics of location and postcard targeting
• Using paid advertising to reach a wider audience
• Your social media policy: the importance of the finer details

PLEASE NOTE: This is an advanced-level course, and attendees will be expected to have a good grasp of how to establish and manage profiles across the major social platforms, including Twitter and Facebook. For a more basic introductory course, please see our Beginner's guide to social media for businesses.

Tutor profile

Ed Goodman has a real passion for mentoring and training start-ups and small businesses to help achieve their business goals; over 10,000 have benefited from Ed’s knowledge to date. He also has experience with larger organisations such as Barclays, Sage, Intuit and Google. Along with first-hand experience of using social media, he enjoys sharing his insights and knowledge within social media training courses.

Full course and returns information on the Masterclasses website