University of the Aftermarket Offers New Online Social Media Course

The University of the Aftermarket has developed a new eight-week course – Social Media Management.

The new social media class is being offered in response to shifting online marketing practices and social media platforms, and will be available as a fully online course. It will be open to all aftermarket professionals, especially those in sales, marketing and communications.

The course will focus on a combination of case studies, analysis of current social media methods, and the development of a social media marketing plan in order to teach students how to enhance and optimize social media presence and activities. Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn will be the primary social media platforms covered in the course.

Participants will learn to:

Develop a social media plan;
Understand the ways in which business and brands use social media marketing to engage customers;
Provide a broad overview of social media and the social web;
Understand the integration of social media into the communications strategy and integrated marketing communications mix;
Understand the foundational vocabulary and terminology of social media marketing and social media analytics in order to effectively communicate tactics, strategies and decisions related to social media marketing;
Comprehend the changes to marketing processes that allows for engaging customers in dramatically different ways from the past;
Critically evaluate a wide variety of commonly used social media tools in order to assess their effectiveness as well as potential risks, limitations and shortcomings;
Analyze social media’s usefulness for businesses as a vehicle for facilitating customer communication and interactions;
Examine best practices for that can be immediately implemented on existing social sites;
Develop a professional LinkedIn profile to build a presence that will attract prospective customers and valued network relationships.

Leading the course will be Patricia Cox, the former head of automotive marketing solutions at LinkedIn and former managing director of General Motors’ social media agency. She has worked with automotive industry clients (B2B and B2C) in the OEM, retail and aftermarket sectors.

Participants who successfully complete the course will earn 3.0 Continuing Education Units that can be applied toward their AAP (Automotive Aftermarket Professional) or MAAP (Master Automotive Aftermarket Professional) designation.

The class begins Jan 29, 2018 and ends March 25 and registration is now open. Visit www.universityoftheaftermarket.com and click the Course Calendar tab. Select the “Social Media Management” class and follow the link to register. The course fee is $995, with special discounts offered to YANG and MiX members.

Cox will also be presenting two classes on social media at the upcoming AAPEX show on Nov 2. Check the show’s AAPEX.edu schedule for details.