Transform Yourself into a Digital Marketer this Summer

According to Adobe, 40% of marketers want to reinvent themselves for the Digital Age only 14% know how to do it.  If you think you have room to improve in digital marketing, at +Aurora University  we can help.  As we launch our Digital Marketing and Analytics Master's of Science degree, we are focusing on creating graduates who understand principles of digital marketing management and are aware of the basic tools to not only implement digital marketing but measure the results.   The first steps in the program are staring this summer.  I am teaching Digital Marketing Management, a three credit course on Tuesday and Thursday night from July 8 to August 7th from 6:00 pm to 9:45 pm in Aurora.

Four Foundations of Digital Marketing Form Focus of Summer Class

Learn the Four Foundations of Digital Marketing

The course will focus on the four main foundations of digital marketing.  These 'pillars' are Search, social, email and web design.  We will cover material from a new book I am writing on Digital Marketing Management for Business Experts Press and we will practice our skills with a student simulation from Stukent.  This simulation allows the students to create paid search campaigns for a company telling Tablet PCs and to create customize landing pages for the campaigns and associated email marketing programs.  My students in the day program are testing the simulation right now and it is working well.  

Learn How to Plan AND Implement Digital Marketing Programs

Students will also present a digital marketing program for a company of their choosing.  We will also cover current topics from the news, especially the Wall Street Journal Technology section.  After taking this course you will have a solid foundation for planning and implementing a Digital Marketing program.

I hope some of my readers who have been asking for years if I would teach a night course so they could take digital marketing from me will be interested.  To sign up for the course you must have an undergraduate degree.  Apply to be a student-at-large in the program at this link.  I hope to see you soon!

By Debra Zahay-Blatz.
You can find Debra on Google+ and Twitter as well as LinkedIn.

What You Wish You Knew About LinkedIn Marketing

Social Media Marketing Classes Learn How to Market Themselves

Last semester in my social media classes at +Aurora University  my students developed LinkedIn Profiles with the goal of helping them in their job search upon graduation or to improve their careers if they were already employed. LinkedIn is the leading business networking site and is rapidly becoming THE clearinghouse for job applications.  We employed best practices in LinkedIn Marketing to achieve extraordinary results for the students.  I taught two sections of the class, one that was primarily adult learners and the other that was primarily traditional undergraduates.  This photo shows +Eric James  presenting his personal social media marketing plan to our class.

Eric James Presenting his Personal Social Media Plan
December, 2013, MKTG 4610

Search is Strategy:  Know Yourself

In both cases the students based their LinkedIn profiles on the principles of Melonie Dodaro, acknowledged expert in LinkedIn marketing.  Ms. Dodaro suggests, what I also believe, that search and strategy are 'linked' together.  Therefore, in developing the LinkedIn strategy, the first step is to go online and see 'who am I' and what message you present to the world.  You really need to figure out who you are, what your strengths are and then put those keywords in your LinkedIn profile.  Ms Dodaro suggests that keywords describing yourself and what you do should be favored over job descriptions in the first section of your profile.  Then these keywords should be used throughout your profile so you come up in the searches of those looking for people with your competencies and so LinkedIn can make suggestions about jobs that would be a good fit.

Results Came Quickly

The results in this case were striking.  Not only did my day students report that they were seeing more possible jobs and internships served up to them that were a fit with their interests, but the night class, adult learners, were actually getting contacted by possible employers.  The first week after we improved our profiles, several students reported getting calls for jobs.  As we continued to improve our profiles as the class progressed, one student actually accepted a job interview for a position with a Fortune 500 company. Another student reported that a her manager's manager saw her profile on LinkedIn and said that the company needed to bring her in to talk about upward mobility!  I also got contacted for several possible consulting and teaching projects.

Just by understanding who you are and what you do and putting keywords to reflect those competencies in your profile can lead to extraordinary results on LinkedIn.  This is just the first step to creating a great LinkedIn profile.  As an educator, this approach also allows me to reinforce strategic concepts in class and help the students understand how to market themselves for career success.

By Debra Zahay-Blatz.
You can find Debra on Google+ and Twitter as well as LinkedIn.

The Top Way to Find a Job Today: Follow the Data

Big Data Provides Big Opportunity for Today's Grads

Mark Ailsworth from +MaxPoint Interactive spoke on Big Data and the trends in marketing analytics and what it means for today's graduates in terms of employment possibilities last Friday at the +Aurora University first-ever AMA Collegiate Event last Friday, October 18th.  Thanks to all who organized the event for a great day for our students and those of the  13 other regional Universities that attended.  Ailsworth's keynote started the day.

Mark Ailsworth of Max Point speaking on Big Data at Aurora University

What is Big Data?

Ailsworth said that technically Big Data is large, structured and unstructured data sets that can only be processed using unconventional methods of analysis and cloud computing.  However,  we have only figured out about 1 percent of what we can do with data in terms of improving marketing programs.  Companies like MaxPoint, who have technologies that combines various aspect of customer and industry data can help target customers interested in buying a particular product. Big data has created a number of jobs for today's students, from database design to marketing and sales.

For example, +Pillsbury, a General Mills company, uses, over 3,000 social media sites to interact with its customers to creates new ideas for product development.  Blending caramel and bacon flavors, for example, came from the analysis of social interactions.  Kimberly Clark's +Huggies brand uses customer data to interact with its customers in real time on the web site, delivering messages that are relevant to the particular consumer.  +Ford Motors is a company that also looks at what the user has done and what stage of the buying process they are in to serve up relevant content.  

The Spending Gap

The opportunity for future marketers lies in the fact that there is a gap between current ad spend and where consumers spend their time. For example, 12% of users' time is spent on mobile, which is only 4% of ad spend.  Creating interactions on the new media where consumers are spending their time is a tremendous opportunity for those entering the field of Marketing.  The Digital Marketing Minor at +Aurora University , which will launch next fall and our current Interactive Marketing concentration, provides courses that discuss building the customer database, analytics and other skills necessary to get entry level jobs in this area,

By Debra Zahay-Blatz.
You can find Debra on Google+ and Twitter as well as LinkedIn.

Link(edIn)ing Search and Social

Social Media Platforms Rank High in Search Engines

September 10th I am giving a talk at +Aurora University on how to create an effective LinkedIn Profile.  I am planning on talking about the importance of picking good search keywords so you can be found on LinkedIn.  If you want to work in social media marketing, put those keywords in your job descriptions, Profile Title and Summary sections. I gave this advice to a student last semester and within two days she started seeing relevant job recommendations targeted to her interests from LinkedIn.

Another aspect of a good LinkedIn profile is having a large number of connections.  Most experts suggest at least 500 connections as 'social proof' that you are influential in your field.  I have over 2500 connections, am listed in the top 1% of LinkedIn Profiles and my profile shows up in search results regularly.  As a result, my LinkedIn Profile comes up first when people search for me online.  If you are seeking to build a professional presence, you want this result also.

Search engines are putting more emphasis on social media platforms, which in itself is a reason to participate in social media. As you can see my guest blogging for econsultancy.com, my participation on Twitter and Slideshare, all come before my editorship of the Journal of Research in Interactive Marketing. The more active you can be on social media, the more you can control what others see about you online and how you are perceived.

Come hear more at the The Dunham School of Business (DSB) 2013-2014 Professional Development Series  The first session is Tuesday, September 10, 5-6pm in UBH. I will present, Get LinkedIn: The First Step in Personal Branding.  Hope to see you there.

By Debra Zahay-Blatz.
You can find Debra on Google+ and Twitter as well as LinkedIn.