Why should marketing students study social media or digital marketing? In this article, you can read the experiences from four students that participated in my online courses at the Haaga-Helia University in Helsinki.
These courses cover all the latest strategies and tactics of Social Media and Digital Marketing, including how companies can implement effective marketing strategies on Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, Twitter, WhatsApp, etc. Additionally, I frequently add new strategies that I learn with my digital marketing clients.
It has been great to see a lot of young and talented marketing student who are quickly learning the strategies and implementing them in their work. In this article, four marketing students share what their experience was and why they think digital marketing and social media is important today.
SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING STUDENTS
Name: Sari Kilpiäinen
Where in Haaga-Helia you study: Heli
www.sarikilpiainen.com
1. Why did you choose to study Social Media and Digital Marketing, and how important do you think they are in today´s business life?
I chose those courses to find out if I really knew something about social media and digital marketing. Well, I did know quite a lot, but I also learned a lot from these courses. The world is digitalizing very fast and marketing has to follow up. Especially B2C marketing has changed a lot in few years. People spend so much time online that it’s just stupid not to know how to conduct marketing activities there. And it’s not just marketing, people Google everything before buying – if a company isn’t online, it doesn’t exist.
2. What were the most important concepts, tools or strategies you learned in this course?
I think the most important tools were those free ones, which help to analyze effectiveness of websites (like pingdom.com and ahrefs.com) or social media accounts (like likealyzer.com). I also found out that doing a social media strategy for a company is quite a lot of work, but it’s worth it. First analyzing all the channels, then making suggestions to do social media marketing better. I did my final assignment and social media plan for the company I used as an example and they were very pleased to see my effort.
3. Have you been able to apply the insights and knowledge of social media or digital marketing in your work?
I’m currently doing a project for Sixt Finland (car rental company). My tasks includes creating SEO content for their website and managing their social media accounts (Twitter and Facebook). We are doing a competition with Facebook for the summer, and I got a chance to teach how to use Facebook’s ad planner to improve the targeting of Facebook ads. I also work for Finnish Business Angels Network for this summer managing their social media channels.
I’m currently doing a project for Sixt Finland (car rental company). My tasks includes creating SEO content for their website and managing their social media accounts (Twitter & Facebook). We are doing a competition to Facebook for the summer and I got a chance to teach how to use Facebook’s ad planner to make targeted ads. I also work for Finnish Business Angels Network for this summer and managing their social media is also part of my duties
4. What would be your message of inspiration to others who want to study social media or digital marketing?
The digital world is here. We all need to ask, do we want to be part of the future or the past?
Name: Nikita Samylin
Where in Haaga-Helia you study: (MUBBA)
LinkedIn profile
1. Why did you choose to study Social Media and Digital Marketing, and how important do you think they are in today´s business life?
For a couple of years, I have been confident that social media is the driving tool of nowadays’ marketing. I think I wasn’t mistaken. The more I study social media and digital marketing, the better I realize that they are becoming the number one priority in modern business environment. In marketing studies, it is still normally mentioned that social media platforms belong to non-traditional marketing area (vs. TV or newspaper advertisement), but I’m certain that very soon, if not already, it will be hard to call the biggest social media platforms non-traditional ways of marketing communication. More and more businesses all over the world realize the inevitable need of social media and digital marketing. The important thing is to do it correctly. That is why I decided to focus on this field.
2. What were the most important concepts, tools or strategies you learned in this course?
I got more familiar with the biggest and most significant social media platforms from a professional angle. I learned how to develop social media strategy from identifying stage to measurement. An important learning was also the difference between social media platforms and the specific of each one for businesses because it helps to adapt platforms like Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Instagram, etc. for special needs of your business.
During the course of Social Media in Modern Business at Haaga-Helia, I also learned lots of social media insights and measurement tools because the analysis part is essential in this area, for instance, conducting preliminary marketing research and outcome evaluation. There are many efficient tools for these purposes like platforms’ insights and external sources, such as Social Bakers and Google Trends. I also got direction for further self-studying and research about new social media marketing trends, which has been very useful. The most important thing is to learn how to learn and where to find the information. This is the key to success in modern social media marketing.
3. Have you been able to apply the insights and knowledge of social media or digital marketing in business life?
Right after completing the course of Social Media in Modern Business marketing in March, I joined a startup company called EnvyMe OY. It is an IT-startup from Helsinki, and I’m currently doing my internship there. Our company launched a social media app, EnvyMe, which is available on the App Store. It is a brand-new gamified social network that provides users with global exposure by very simple means (i.e. one picture and one capture of text go globally and there are no followers needed). EnvyMe app also presents very entertaining competition all around the world. We believe that our app is unique and has huge potential to become the new social media phenomenon. However, the best way to get familiar with what we do is to download our app and join the network.
My role in the company is to deal with international localization of the product and marketing. For product localization, I will be doing translation and adaptation of the app for different countries and areas, which requires language skills and knowledge of regional characteristics. I am also a part of the marketing team focusing on our app promotion in other social media platforms.
This means that my current occupation could not be more connected with social media than it is right now. Working for a social media app and using other platforms for marketing purposes implies being online all the time, doing lots of research and learning new issues, concepts and trends about social media and digital marketing on a daily basis.
4. What would be your message of inspiration to others who want to study social media or digital marketing?
I would say that social media and digital marketing are growing so rapidly that they have become an integral part of modern business life. That is why students who study business should pay attention to this field. Especially, I would strongly recommend it to students who focus on marketing because today it is almost impossible to imagine marketing studies apart from social media and digital area. If you feel natural with social media and if you realize its role in modern world, you should definitely learn more and focus on them, as what you see as an average personal social media user is just the tip of the iceberg compared to what you learn by using social media for professional purposes. It presents huge potential, challenge and competition for business students at the same time, so be ready to face some pitfalls, but it is something totally worth learning nowadays.
Name: Mia Nummila
Where in Haaga-Helia you study: GloBBA
LinkedIn Profile
1. Why did you choose to study Social Media and Digital Marketing, and how important you think they are in today´s business life?
In my opinion, Social Media and Digital Marketing is a very important part of marketing communication in today’s business life. It offers a lot of possibilities to both big and small companies. If you do your Social Media and Digital Marketing well, you can get a huge competitive advantage compared to your competitors, and on the other hand, if you do not do it well, it can generate a disadvantage for your company.
Today’s younger generation is generally very active on Social Media, and they have a very good basic knowledge about how everything works there. This is often why the marketing professionals turn to younger workers when it comes to Social Media and Digital Marketing. For them, it is very easy to deepen their knowledge and become professionals in that field. Also, they are usually online every day, so they will also keep up with the changes.
So to wrap it up, I think companies are looking for young Social Media and Digital marketing experts. This is why the subject offers a good possibility for students, especially for marketing students, to enter the work life.
Personally, I do not only find the subject useful to learn but also very interesting. I think the basic marketing courses do not provide enough information about the subject. I think it is very important for business students to understand how Social Media and Digital Marketing works and how to use it as an advantage for a business and to engage with the customers. This is why I wanted to study the subject a little more.
2. What where the most important concepts, tools or strategies you learned in this course?
Even though many of the subjects on the courses were already quite familiar to me, I most certainly did learn a lot of new strategies, tactics and tools. In my case, I think that the most interesting subjects were maybe the creation of a strong Social Media/Digital Marketing strategy, analytics and use of different tools to measure the results on social media platforms, content marketing and inbound marketing, Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and pay per click advertising (from a company point of view). Also, WhatsApp marketing and different strategies that companies can implement with WhatsApp was new to me, so that is something I have not even personally pumped into yet.
3. Have you been able to apply the insights and knowledge of social media or digital marketing in your working life?
I think, after taking the courses Social Media in Modern Business and Digital Marketing in Modern Business, I have gained a lot of new and useful knowledge about Social Media and Digital Marketing. In my previous job, I was actually doing the Social Media marketing (in their case this was Facebook, Instagram and Pinterest) as a part of my job.
The company administration did not have the time or the knowledge to do it, so they gave the job for me. I did not only find it fun to work with but I also learned a lot. At my current job, however, Social Media or Digital Marketing does not really fit in to my job description. Although, I was actually already requested to provide some help on a project related to Social Media marketing. So it might be also that I can use my knowledge at this job as well.
4. What would be your message of inspiration to others who want to study social media or digital marketing?
Today, business students should take at least some courses about Social Media and Digital Marketing to get a proper knowledge of the subject. It is very important no matter what you end up doing because, even if you would not directly work with the marketing communication, you need to know how to act professionally in there and how you will be able to use it as an advantage.
I think overall it is a very interesting and fun subject to study. In work life, it is something where you are often free to share your own ideas and use your creativity. However, it also requires a lot of work, and you often have to be present almost 24/7. So, if you find the subject interesting and feel like you could be the next Social Media and Digital marketing professional, go for it!
Name: Aimo Taskinen
Where in Haaga-Helia you study: HELI
1. Why did you choose to study Social Media and Digital Marketing, and how important you think they are in today´s business life?
I found this course, Social Media in Modern Business, after the discussion with my current employer about social media marketing opportunities and one project that were related to digital marketing. It was just a coincidence for me that I found the course in the right time. I had experience from different social media platforms, but as a marketer, I started from the level zero.
I have learned a large number of useful strategies and tools, and I’m very thankful for that. I think in the future we need to better understand how technology works and affects business life. There are more than a hundred new ways for staying in touch with others online, and this number is growing. Businesses that do not know how to stay in touch with their customers are in trouble.
2. What where the most important concepts, tools or strategies you learned in this course?
I love digital marketing because it’s so visual. My favorite parts of the course were video and images (YouTube and Instagram marketing), as both of them are playing very important role. All the different platforms were exciting to know how to do successful marketing there. I think that everything in this course was extremely important and relevant, and these were the few “aha” experience I had:
1. Source of information is the way people are using the Internet nowadays
2. It will take time and money to conduct some effective marketing.
3. Update your knowledge all the time because many changes will happen in a short-term future.
3. Have you been able to apply the insights and knowledge if social media or digital marketing in your work?
Not yet in the dimension as I wanted to do it. I work as a projects coordinator, so there are lots of different projects running in the same. I did the course task social media plan for my employer where I included a bit of competitor analysis, and they enjoyed that information and considered it valuable. Maybe I will start social media tasks in autumn when my traineeship begins.
4. What would be your message of inspiration to others who want to study social media or digital marketing?
You do not need to have any special talent or information to get started studying social media and digital marketing. All you need is a passion for doing things online. Join the Social Media in Modern Business course by Lasse, start reading blogs and books related to this subject.
Start testing about how social media strategies are done with your current social media accounts or start a blog writing from some subject that interests you the most, and there you can implement what you learn directly and test different things.
If you find that passion, you will have a large number of opportunities for doing business in digital life. The better you and your company can spread the message online and the more visibility your company will reach there, the better your customers will find you and the more profit you will earn!
Thanks for all the students who participated in this interview. These are the online courses I currently provide at Haaga-Helia University in Helsinki:
– Social Media in Modern Business
– Digital Marketing in Modern Business
– Paid Social Media Advertising in Modern Business
All of the courses are 100% online and if you are a student interested in joining you can do it from Haaga-Helia´s Winha system. Most of the students in this interview have completed all three of these courses.
SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING STUDENTS
