Social media is a powerful tool for supporting your professional activities. It can help you build networks, enhance organisational processes and work practices and boost your personal career development.

If you’ve ever wanted to exploit the power of social media but didn’t know where to start, this course is for you. You’ll consider how social media can help you achieve your own professional goals, explore some of the most common social media platforms and discover how other organisations and individuals use social media in a professional context. You’ll develop your own personal social media brand, start to build an online professional network and discover diverse new sources of specialist information. Finally, you’ll consider how social media can be used for marketing, organising events or managing collaborative and remote-working projects.

Throughout, you’ll access targeted information delivered across a range of blogs and social networks.

Social Media for Professionals enables learners to:

  • Define your own professional goals in using social media
  • Identify the most personally relevant social media platforms and tools
  • Appreciate the importance of social media etiquette and appropriate privacy settings
  • Use social media to stay up-to-date
  • Develop your personal social media brand
  • Build an online professional network
  • Monitor effectiveness of your social media activity
  • Avoid information overload
  • Integrate social media as a tool within your wider organisational practices
Target audience

This course is aimed at professionals who want to integrate social media into any level of their work life.

Learning outcomes

Introducing social media and social networking

  • Web 2.0 and the semantic web
  • Social media as a concept
  • Social media platforms
  • Social networking
  • Privacy and openness

Social Media and you

  • Using social media for business
  • Defining your goals
  • Choosing your platforms
  • Presenting yourself
  • Setting up your network

Staying informed

  • Using social media to keep up-to-date
  • Following blogs
  • Joining group
  • Using social media clients
  • Avoiding information overload

Building relationships

  • Using social media to spark new relationships
  • Social media etiquette
  • Virtual vs. real world networking
  • Monitoring success
  • Building your personal brand

Extreme social media

  • Social media for marketing
  • Social media projects
  • Social media events
  • Physical tracking
  • Virtual worlds

Flexible learning

Learners take their own route through the topics covered in the course. They will learn at their own pace through a variety of activities designed to accommodate a range of learning styles.

Duration

3 hours

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