INTRODUCTION
To the social media marketing professional certificate
Hi, and welcome to this program. My name is Anke, and I will be your guide and one of
your teachers through this exciting journey. Since you're here, I probably don't have to
convince you that social media is shaping how we live and do business today. Social
media has the power to change lives and businesses beyond recognition. It can launch
products into stratospheric success in brand new ways, and give immediate access to
millions of customers, literally delivering messages into their pockets. We learn of
good news, sports results, births, birthdays, our friends' trips, weddings, first school
days, latest dance moves and cookouts, all in the blink of an eye or the scroll of our
thumb. And social media is what frames our reactions. It's the construct we use to
connect to others and to tell our stories. Social media is a perfect medium for getting
your story out there and for connecting with people. That's true for your personal
story, but social media also offers a platform for businesses to connect to customers
and potential customers. Which has opened a whole new world for marketing. With
social media, marketers can become part of the conversation, and when done well,
social media marketing can help businesses launch products, generate sales, and
provide excellent customer service. Good social media marketing involves making
authentic connections and providing value through content and interaction. It's a bit of
a mix between art and science, and this program will provide you with all the skills and
tools you need to do it well. Whether you are looking to start a career in social media
marketing, whether you work for a Fortune 500 company, a tiny little mom and pop
shop, or are simply interested in marketing your own brand and story on social media,
then this is the course for you. You don't need any experience to get started. We'll
start from the very beginning. The only thing you need is an appetite for social media,
willingness to put stories out there, and a Facebook or Instagram account. This
program will look at all aspects of social media marketing, and we will cover all the
important social media platforms. We'll focus quite a bit on Facebook and Instagram.
These apps are central to the social media marketing world, and mastering those
applications will set you up for future success. More than that, MEDA has partnered
with us to create this course, and we're delighted to have them on board. We'll cover
the theory behind social media, and throughout this program, you'll also get cutting-
edge, hands-on experience through working on our carefully curated projects. We've
worked closely with the team at MEDA to get a better understanding of the crucial
steps that make social media marketers successful, and those are exactly the things
you'll get to practice in our projects. These specially curated projects are a golden
opportunity to put what you've learned into practice. And after you successfully
complete them, you can even use them to create a portfolio to showcase your talents
to future employers. Not only is this program wonderful fun, it will help you hone your
content creation and social media marketing abilities, and it prepares you for entry-
level roles as a social media marketer. Upon successful completion of the program,
you will earn both the Coursera Certification and the MEDA Digital Marketing Associate
Certification. These certifications are valued by hiring managers across industries. It
doesn't matter if you want to work for a sports team, or for a movie studio, for a
massive tech company, or for a local photographer, these certifications matter
because mastery of social media is essential for every business today, and employers
love to see documented proof of what employees are capable of before hiring them.
There are six courses in this program. The first course is an introduction to the social
media landscape, and will prepare you for your marketing journey. The second course
is all about content development for social media, and how businesses can build their
presence and their brand, and participate in a rich and meaningful way on social
media platforms. The third course looks at the basics of advertising on social media.
You learn how advertising on social media works, and how you can use it to amplify
your message and make it resonate deeply with your audience. In the fourth course,
you learn how to build campaigns in Ads Manager, MEDA's tool for advertising across
Facebook and Instagram. In the fifth course, we look at how to measure the success of
campaigns and further optimize them. And then finally, in the sixth course, you will
complete a capstone project, where you will build your portfolio, representing the work
you did throughout this course, and telling your unique social media marketing
campaign story. We'll offer the support you need to get you on your way, but your
success in this program depends on you. Take your time going through all the videos,
the practice quizzes, graded quizzes and projects. Participate in the discussions with
your fellow students, and keep in touch with us through discussion boards. And now,
we come to the most exciting part of any journey, the part where the real story begins.
Good luck with the course, I'm so excited to see how you'll do with the project. Let the
journey begin!
