Over 80 per cent of Australians currently use social media. In fact, at 1 hour and 46 minutes per day, it accounts for roughly one-third of the time we spend online, making it the second most popular media activity after watching TV!

A strong social media strategy is crucial in today’s highly competitive, multi-platform, content-driven landscape. Whether you are social media manager, content creator, marketing assistant or run your own business, a social media marketing online course will ensure your social media efforts are productive, proactive and support business goals.

Our  Social Media Strategy course will teach you how to determine social media requirements, establish objects and priorities, and create email marketing, content calendars and video-based content. You will also learn about tracking and analysis tactics, content development strategies, and how to support customer service on social channels.

Learning Outcomes

Outcomes achieved by undertaking a social media marketing online course include:OO

• Learning about strategic, financial, customer-centric, human resource and operational objectives
• Exploring branding and marketing and customer engagement strategies
• Gaining an understanding of target markets and converting leads
• Studying social media and behavioural targeting
• Examining social media trends, platforms and integration
• Understanding how to maximising business exposure
• Attaining knowledge of building brand awareness and online communities
• Gaining insights into social media policies and media engagement
• Learning about content guidelines and how to develop guidelines
• Exploring issues and crisis management
• Gaining an understanding of legal and ethical considerations
• Studying marketing strategy
• Examining content development
• Understanding customer engagement and customer service strategies
• Attaining knowledge o social media calendars and action plans
• Gaining insights into promotional strategies
• Learning about measuring success and key performance indicators (KPIs)
• Exploring how to track and analyse engagement
• Gaining an understanding of how to analyse social media reach
• Studying how to analyse captured data
• Examining monitoring and evaluation

And more!

Social Media Statistics – April 2022

As you’ll learn in a social media marketing online course, social media users in Australia are some of the most active in the world. Here are the top five social media platforms in terms of visitors or users for April 2022 according to Social Media News.

1. Facebook – 18,000,000 active, monthly Australian users
2. YouTube – 17,500,000 unique Australian visitors per month
3. WhatsApp – 12,000,000 active Australian users
4. Instagram – 10,000,000 active, monthly Australian users
5. LinkedIn – 6,500,000 active, monthly Australian users

Social Media Marketing Trends – 2022

Online landscapes are continually evolving, and keeping your finger on the digital pulse of trends is vital if you are keen to undertake a social media marketing online course. Social media management platform, Hootsuite, recently undertook a global trends survey where they surveyed over 18,000 people over 200 countries. Backed up by expert insights and global data, here are their top five trends for 2022.

#1 – Branding

Digital communities have never been more vibrant, richer and more impactful on our experience of daily life than they are now. And social media is one of the platforms where these communities are being created and catered to.

Facebook has over 18 million users in Australia, and many regularly engage within groups. Over 1,100,000 view TikTok, with many developing their own spaces to share and develop their interests — no matter how obscure! And Twitter has even started testing a feature called Communities, which it refers to as, “a dedicated place to connect, share, and get closer to the discussions [people] care about most.”

However, as social media shifts away from mega-influences towards smaller and more authentic communities, brands that partner wisely with content creators are connecting with new audiences. And although social media gives any business online the opportunity to gain a following, a truly engaged and active community needs a brand that has a focus on “relationship marketing” by retaining current audiences and attracting new ones!

#2 – Social Advertising

Despite marketing budgets tightening for many organisations, more than half of those surveyed by Hootsuite said they are planning to increase their paid social spend in 2022 (which is great news for those interested in a social media marketing online course!)

Marketers are looking to spend more on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube and LinkedIn (which is not surprising given they are in the top five in 2022). However, marketers are also going beyond these “tried and true” channels as they are finding other channels more effective at reaching business goals than they have in the past. These include platforms like Pinterest, TikTok and Snapchat.

Consumers are holding brands to a higher standard when it comes to creativity, but they are also rewarding brands that get it right. In order to gain return on investment, marketers will need to work harder to create content that mirrors and enriches the distinct experiences each social network offers.

#3  – Return on Investment (ROI)

For over a decade, marketers have struggled to quantitatively link social media to business outcomes. However, after being forced to rely on social media more during the pandemic as a core channel for engaging with customers, things have certainly changed. In Hootsuite’s survey, over 83 per cent of marketers reported having increased levels of confidence in quantifying the ROI of their social media efforts (up from 68 per cent in 2021).

But what’s driving this boost in confidence? Predominately improvements in marketing attribution tools, which grant insights into marketing tactics and touch points that are leading to engagement, conversions, sales and movement through the buyer’s journey. However, the growing willingness of marketers to step away from dated mindsets and models is a major factor as well.

Successful social media marketers in 2022 will enhance their employee advocacy programs to further gather consumer insights, and strive to deliver the impact social media channels have on the marketing they are doing elsewhere in their organisations.

#4  – Social Commerce

Before COVID-19, social commerce was a reasonably new opportunity being tested by the bigger, more innovative retail companies. However, as millions of people went into lockdown around the world, they began voraciously shopping online for purchases small, big, essential and frivolous, and social commerce is now a way of life

Social networks are now the second most important channel for online brand research after search engines. In fact, people aged 16 to 24 actually rank social networks higher than search engines like Google when it comes to brand research.

And while the bricks-and-mortar storefront lives on, in 2022, small businesses will extend the customer experience across social storefronts, while large businesses will test the limits of the online shopping experience.

#5 – Customer Care

Amid staffing shortages and global supply chain challenges, many businesses are continuing to see an influx of unhappy customers. Meanwhile, demand for customers service over social platforms has been surging. Customers are fed up with waiting on hold and find that service delivered via social platforms is convenient, effective and immediate. In a Nielsen survey commissioned by Facebook, 64 per cent of people said they now prefer to message rather than call a business.

Spurred on by lockdowns and shifts in business operations, this has seen social media marketers take on more responsibility, including in the customer service enquiry space. However, this added responsibility has added benefits. Not only will these additional skills enhance your CV, you’ll be in an ideal position to play the hero and steer your employer through the COVID-19 upheaval!

 

Gain the confidence to create a strong social media strategy for an organisation or your own business with a social media marketing online course such as our Social Media Strategy course.