Digital Marketing Degree Programs

The below article is very helpful on steps to take to get a job within the social media industry. Also, it proves how important Digital Marketing is to business these days and why it would be worth the time and effort to look into getting a Digital Marketing Degree through the University of Michigan-Dearborn.

Why All The Fuss About Social Media?

Obviously, the easiest way for graduates who want to become Social Media Managers to prove their abilities is through their own social networks. But beyond even that obvious example, employers are increasingly relying on social media as an integral part of the hiring process – both in finding potential new employees and evaluating their suitability for the job.

Employers are using sites like Marketing Pilgrim to find potential candidates, and they’re also using social channels like the Facebook Marketplace and the specialized recruiting tools on LinkedIn.

Once potential employees are identified, companies can use social media to learn more about the candidates, highly valuable information that was difficult to obtain pre-social media. In fact, Career Builder says that 80% of potential employers will do an online search using a candidate’s name to find information. And what they’re finding apparently isn’t always positive; 43% of employers say they have rejected a candidate based on something they found online.

Starting Tips for Using Social Media as a Student

Students sometimes think they don’t need to be ‘in’ social networks as professionals because they haven’t yet begun their career. In fact, it’s advisable even for those just starting their educational journey to start social profiles as a way to begin building their online reputation – and as a learning tool.

Here are my basic suggestions to students:

• Set up a LinkedIn account. Because LinkedIn is generally considered to be more professional than other social sites, it’s a good place to begin establishing connections with others in your industry, as shown in this overview of using LinkedIn as a student. (Bonus tip for students – use the Reading List by Amazon to share books you’re currently reading for your classes.)

• Most students have a Facebook account, and many have set the privacy settings to prevent anyone other than friends from seeing posts, which is good. However, since potential employers may be searching for profiles, a better strategy is to learn to control individual pieces of content. This way, you can share more personal information with those closest to you, but still have something for a recruiter to see.

• Twitter is a great place to build connections with (and learn from) industry leaders. It is also perhaps the easiest place to learn by example what people find important.

Obviously, having the profiles is just a start. You must actively participate to build up a base of content from which potential employers can begin to learn about you. However, there are a few important factors to consider first:

• Start with a strategy. How do you want to be perceived? Do you want to share some work-appropriate personal information (aka be ‘profersonal’ per Jason Seiden) or be only professional? Your online reputation is what others think of you. It will be built, at least in part, by what you’re sharing and promoting online.

• Follow the leaders. The best way to learn how leaders in your field share on social media is to connect with them and watch. See what they post, share and promote, and try to understand why.

• Be consistent. A strong personal brand establishes you as a credible professional. Creating a strong brand requires that you be fairly consistent across different platforms so that it’s easy for people to identify you.

• Don’t be a stalker – for long. It’s perfectly fine to take some time to establish the ground rules of different social networks, but at some point you must actually contribute to make it work for you.

My final word of advice to students is simply this: Learn to use social media effectively to further your ability to reach your goals.

Source: Frank, Reed “Social Media, Students Getting a Job” 5, December 2011

When it comes to the marketing practices of educational institutions (EDUs), digital marketing is playing an increasingly strategic role in reaching prospective students. Sixty-two percent of undergraduate and graduate institutions, on average, plan to turn to the power of online display advertising as a key marketing tool by 2013, according to a new survey of U.S. EDUs released today by AdReady and Stamats. Interestingly, in light of this increasing use of digital advertising, EDUs are curbing their reliance on traditional marketing tactics, with 61 percent of higher education institutions reporting a flattening or decrease in their traditional marketing budgets since 2009.
While the majority of EDUs surveyed said they had not increased their traditional marketing budgets in the past three years, 55 percent said the percentage of their overall marketing budgets allocated to digital marketing strategies had increased. Further, respondents said they expected the trend of leveraging digital marketing as an increasingly greater percentage of the overall marketing budget would continue into 2013, regardless of the institution’s annual budget size. In other words, even those institutions with smaller overall budgets are recognizing the power of online as an important medium to reach prospective students. Of the smallest institutions surveyed (those with annual marketing budgets under $50K), 55 percent are currently leveraging display advertising, focusing mainly on Facebook and Twitter. Of the remaining 45 percent that are reportedly not tapping display at this time, all are either considering it, or already have plans to integrate display strategies within the next year.
AdReady is offering a preview of the survey results to mark the start of the Stamats Integrated Marketing: Graduate School Marketing Conference, taking place July 6-8 at Boston’s Omni Parker House Hotel.
“Online display advertising is being proven as an effective and affordable strategy for educational institutions that want to stand out from the crowd and reach prospective students,” said Karl Siebrecht, CEO of AdReady. “It’s especially fascinating to see that, even as most marketing budgets have decreased or stayed flat, display advertising is becoming a more critical part of that overall spend — even greater than tactics such as search.”
Key Survey Findings:
Digital marketing is an increasingly larger portion of both graduate and undergraduate overall marketing budgets: Sixty-two percent of educational institutions, on average, plan to increase their spend on digital marketing as a percentage of the total marketing budget through 2013.
Social platforms are playing a major role in digital marketing campaigns: Seventy-one percent of respondents say they do some display advertising on social media platforms; in line with recent data highlighting Facebook’s growing prominence as a display ad publisher, 95 percent of respondents say they advertise on Facebook, followed by 78 percent on Twitter, 71 percent on YouTube and 71 percent on LinkedIn.
Display has slight edge over search concerning tactic of choice for EDUs: Thirty-nine percent of respondents say display advertising comprises a larger portion of their marketing budget than search; 37 percent of respondents say they do more search than display.
Increasing an institution’s program awareness is primary campaign objective: Increases in program awareness emerged as the top objective, with 72 percent of respondents saying they expected their digital marketing campaigns to deliver this result. This was followed by nearly 69 percent of respondents who cited driving applicant registrations, 61 percent who cited increasing the institution’s general awareness, and 25 percent who sought to meet specific action-oriented goals such as CPA/CPC/CTR/CPL.
Institutions are slowly adopting more complex display techniques to complement their media strategies: Rich media and video are being employed by 18 percent and 22 percent, respectively, of graduate institutions and 19 and 27 percent, respectively, by undergraduate institutions.
“We are interested in, and encouraged by, the notable shift of budget allocation to digital marketing initiatives suggested in this survey,” said Sabra Fiala, Director of Marketing, Stamats. “As educational institutions’ marketing channel options continue to expand, reliance on actual ROI made possible through digital will become a more important and critical measurement for monitoring marketing success.”
The survey was conducted June 1-30, 2011 via email to more than 10,000 academic marketers across an array of EDUs in the United States. The survey generated a greater than two percent response rate.

Corporations and individuals looking for new media training can now take the New Media Drivers License Course offered by Ingenex Digital Marketing in partnership with the department of Advertising, PR, & Retailing at Michigan State University.

Digital Marketing Education will prepare you and your team to improve your search engine optimization, build a digital public relations program, understand and use Google Adwords, and build presentations that will wow your clients and your boss! Course instructor Derek Mehraban will teach you how to use new media marketing to connect with customers and engage your audience through social media.

Is the New Media Drivers License Course a good fit for your company?

Would you like to monitor the online conversation and respond to customers?
Are measurable results for your internet marketing efforts important to you?
Would you like to create a social media marketing strategy that works?
Does your web site need to convert more prospects to customers?
Can Search Engine Optimization (SEO) get your web site to rank better on Google?
Does a digital public relations program sound like a great way to drive traffic to your business?
Does learning to maximize Google Tools for your business sound exciting?
If you answered YES to any of these questions the New Media Drivers License Course may be perfect for you and your corporation. Contact Us to discuss digital marketing training and new media education for you and your company.

DEARBORN / Aug. 31, 2011—The University of Michigan-Dearborn’s College of Business (COB) has launched a new undergraduate business degree in digital marketing that will be available beginning this fall. This exciting new program is one of only two digital marketing programs across the nation and provides students with the skills needed to succeed in this rapidly changing field.

Digital marketing utilizes technologies including the internet, social networks, mobile and video games providing even small companies global markets. Digital marketing allows for interactive two-way communication between a company and its customers allowing for customized products, prices or promotions.

“Digital marketing has become a primary way that companies service and engage their customer base,” says Kim Schatzel, dean, College of Business. “As the reliance on digital continues to grow, we are thrilled to launch this program which will produce the kind of employees that companies are looking to hire – creative talent that can synthesize solutions, identify opportunities, and laterally think in the digital space.”

This digital marketing major prepares students for all areas of the industry by providing a diverse course curriculum including new courses such as E-tailing and Retailing, Communications Strategy & New Media, Digital Consumer Search & Marketing and Digital Analytics and Content.

For more information on this exciting program visit http://cob.umd.umich.edu/693487/ or connect with the program on Facebook at UM-Dearborn: Digital Marketing.

The College also recently announced that it has named entrepreneur and best-selling author Josh Linkner as its entrepreneur-in-residence and adjunct professor of applied creativity. Linkner, CEO and managing partner of Detroit Venture Partners, a venture capital firm helping to rebuild urban areas through technology and entrepreneurship, will partner with College of Business and University faculty, staff and senior leadership to infuse programs and courses with his innovative principles. “We look forward to working with Josh who is a trailblazer in digital marketing and will be a key in the creative development of the students in this new major,” said Schatzel.

Founded in 1959 with a gift of just over 200 acres of land and $6.5 million from the Ford Motor Company, University of Michigan-Dearborn is a metropolitan university serving southeastern Michigan, committed to excellence rooted in strong academics, innovative research and programming and civic engagement. The University has nearly 8,900 students pursuing more than 90 bachelor’s, master’s, doctoral and professional degrees in liberal arts and sciences, engineering, business and education. A top-ranked university with a faculty devoted to teaching, and students committed to achievement, UM-Dearborn has been shaped by its history of partnering with local leaders and communities, and is committed to finding solutions for the challenges that face the region.

To get more information on how you can get enrolled at the University of Michigan-Dearborn to begin the process of getting a Digital Marketing Degree visithttp://cob.umd.umich.edu/digitalmarketing/

This article provides information on how charities are using social media to get the word out for help. Using social media such as Facebook and Twitter have gotten the attention of younger people to get involved.

http://posttrib.suntimes.com/news/9063128-418/nonprofits-relying-more-on-social-media-for-funds.html

Received wisdom is that transparency is the corollary of an organization’s social media engagement. But the, possibly unintended, lesson of a case study reported by Mashable is transparency and the appearance of transparency are not necessarily the same.

Todd Wasserman tells the tale of “How Toyota Used Social Media To “Digg” Itself Out of a PR Nightmare.” He recounts how the car company attempted to salvage its reputation for safety and quality after the January 2010 recall of 2.3m vehicles because of faulty brake pedals.

The company decided to use the social news site Digg:

Before Digg’s disastrous Version 4 hit in August 2010, the site had a lot more social media influence. Recall that in 2009, Digg’s traffic ranged from 37 million to 44 million unique visitors each month. Plus, the site had outsize influence on Google News searches. At the time, it seemed like the best place for Toyota to get its message across.

On February 8, Toyota served up Jim Lentz, president of Toyota’s North American sales operation, to the masses in the form of a Digg Dialogg. In many ways, the appearance was a stroke of genius. For one thing, Lentz didn’t actually appear on Digg, but on a dedicated video site. The questions, which were voted on by fans (the ones with the most votes rose to the top) also wound up being pretty softball. “They were mostly general questions, like ‘What kind of car does Mr. Lentz drive?’” says Florence Drakton, social media manager. (“That’s a great question,” a clearly relieved Lentz answers.)

According to Toyota the “Dialogg” video received 1.2m views and, perhaps more importantly in terms of engagement, 3,200 questions, a number generally only achieved by celebrities. “In addition to reaching a fairly big audience, the Dialogg gave Toyota the appearance [author’s italics] of achieving social media branding nirvana: Transparency,” writes Mr.Wasserman.

The results of Toyota’s first foray into social media appear broadly positive according to the YouGov BrandIndex figures quoted in the article. Its reputation has not quite reached the level it had before the recall, but it has performed better than BP after its PR disaster last year. Toyota has also overtaken Ford to be second to Honda in brand reputation amongst those in the market for a new car within the next six months.

Towards the end of the article there is an interesting comparison between social networks given by Kimberley Gardiner, Toyota’s U.S. national digital marketing and social media manager. She says that, according to Mashable, Facebook is “a great way to reach out to Toyota owners, but Twitter addresses those consumers who might be skeptical about the brand.”

credit: Clayton, Nick “Social Media and the Art of Spin” Wall Street Journal 2011, Spetember 2.

Tags add measurability to the physical world. Billboards, posters, in-store signage –marketing in the physical world has always been effective because it impacts consumers when they’re in the store, ready to buy. However, we have never been able to directly measure the effectiveness of marketing in the physical world . . . until now. With Tags, you can see which offers resonate/convert, and you can use these insights to improve your message and the deals you provide.

Microsoft Tags differ from QR codes. QR codes are black and white. Microsoft Tags can be customized with color (and even images). But, there are more important differences, as well. Tags are both a format and a cloud platform –that means content and information accessed by Tags can be changed and updated. Plus, Tags’s advanced analytics let you know how, when and where your Tags are being used. Tags allow you to identify the customer device so you can provide the most meaningful communication.  (You’ll know which Tags a particular device has scanned previously and which actions resulted. You’ll know if the device in your store represents  a new prospect or a loyal customer, e.g.)

Privacy is respected. As always, privacy must be a top priority. First, consumers have to declare their intent by physically scanning a Tag. Second, identifying the customer device isn’t the same as identifying the customer, and ccanning a Tag won’t reveal details about an individual; a customer would have to opt in to allow access to that additional information. In other words, the end user is still “anonymous,” to a degree, but marketers can see what the device ID is doing –and that’s plenty for targeting of messages and offers.

Tag analytics can be tied to warehousing, back-end. Offers can be based on inventory.

Tags can be added to your existing print campaigns today.Intelligent 1:1 marketing may sound like a “new” concept, but in fact, certain elements can be incorporated into strategies you already have in place. For example, by adding tags to an existing print campaign, you can combine print, mobile, social and local –and start measuring your effectiveness –now.

Please check out the webinar for many, many more details and results of use cases. Even though marketers have only begun to scratch the surface of intelligent 1:1 marketing, we’re already seeing dramatic results. Consumers appear to be enthusiastic about this approach. They want targeted messages delivered at the right time (when they’re in the store, ready to buy).

Dave summed it up nicely. “This (intelligent 1:1 marketing) brings the physical world into digital and gives you the measurability to provide integration of channels, measurability in reporting to dashboards so you can offer many more touchpoints and offers,” he said. “Basically, you’re connecting the digital and physical worlds to bring mobile, social and local channels to your consumer base.”

credit: Arthur, Lisa “How Tags Are Revolutionizing Digital Marketing” Forbes.com 2011, October 13.

This article provides tips on how to engage consumers into your product or service on a more personal level. This also includes a couple tips on how to use Social Media and Digital Marketing to reach consumers.

http://www.tmmpdx.com/modern-marketing-tips-how-and-when-to-leverage-consumer-engagement-opportunities/

Online advertising introduces a whole new way to market to consumers. Many advertisers use real-time information to send out their ads and to figure out which ads are best to deliver. Digital marketing helps advertisers find new and innovative ways to reach new and current customers. They need to create ads that are relevant and of great quality to get viewers to pay attention to what is being pushed.

For more information about online advertising check out the video below that I found. It really helps companies understand why digital marketing is very important to business today.

Digital Marketing Degree Programs teach students how to utilize the Internet and technology to market products and services. Digital Marketing focuses on search engine optimization and social media.