For the longest of time, the only social media that I was involved with is Facebook and that’s because I know most of the people there. When I started my online business and was told that I need to do more networking online, I was a bit overwhelmed.
Twitter, Pinterest, Google Plus – all these networks have their own unique entity and user behaviors – I don’t even know where to start. Last month, I discovered Podium and it has made social networking much easier to understand. So if you want to learn how to improve the social media presence for your business, read on.
What Is Podium?
Podium is an online education course that focuses on social media marketing. It is launched in September 2015 by Hootsuite, the well known social media management company, to help small businesses, website owners and bloggers build good customer relationships and boost revenues through social media interaction.
Let’s take a look at what is inside the program.
How to Improve Social Media Presence for Your Business
To get started, you need to create a user account with Podium. Following that, you’ll be invited to take a short quiz of 10 questions to evaluate your understanding about social media. Podium will then suggest the best course for you to start based on the results.
I took the quiz and much to my surprise, my basic knowledge is pretty good so I head straight to course number #2. Here’s the outline of all the 6 courses that are provided in the Social Media Education Program.
Each course is broken down into smaller topics and uses various media to deliver the information. For example, in the “Optimizing Your Social Media Profiles” course, there are a total of 10 videos, 4 quizzes and 1 downloadable document catered for your learning within the span of a half an hour. Others may also include multimedia presentation and community forum for discussion purposes.
Here’s a brief overview on the topics within the program.
- Course 1 – Introduction to Social Media Marketing (understanding the history and demographics of social networks)
- Course 2 – Optimizing Your Social Media Profiles (focusing on the essential elements of each social network profile)
- Course 3 – Social Media Strategy – from A to Z (learning to channel resources and energy towards achieving your business objectives)
- Course 4 – Growing Your Online Community (how to build trust and goodwill with your audience)
- Course 5 – Content Marketing Fundamentals (creating great content to engage with your followers)
- Course 6 – Social Advertising Fundamentals (use social media insights to make advertising decisions)
What Do I Like about This Program?
You know how confusing it could get sometimes when you read stuff online about social media? Well, what I like about Podium is that the topics are very reader-friendly, especially if you are new to this area of marketing.
Although it claims to provide you with the basics, I am surprised that the fundamentals are far more in-depth than I thought. I particularly like how they simplified information using short and engaging video presentations as well as providing short quizzes to help improve my understanding about the complexity of social media better.
For example, here’s one about setting your Twitter profile. Do you think you know the answer?
Overall, I actually learned a lot of new stuff and can’t wait to implement them on my affiliate business site.
How Much Does It Costs?
Podium’s social media education is available on-demand for free and there are no prerequisites to enroll in this course. All you need is a reliable internet connection (and a set of good speakers of course) and you are good to go.
When you are ready to learn something more advanced, you can always join one of the following paid courses which are also offered through Podium Hootsuite.
So, Is Podium Worthy of Your Time?
In case you are wondering just how big social media marketing is for business, here is the proof.
As you can see, it has been an upward trend since year 2007 and it doesn’t look like it’s going to slow down anytime soon. So if your online business has not ventured into social media already, your competitors most likely are because the more the audience, the more potential customers you will be getting.
However, if you are thinking of our-sourcing this skill to the professionals, be ready to pay between 4-7 K/month for the service. Yes, that’s the average fee PER month, if not more. Why do they cost so much? Well, the upward trend is probably your best answer.
Since Podium is offering a free education (at least for now), I personally think it’s worthy of your time to check it out. The course will not make you a social media expert overnight or get you 10,000 Twitter followers, but it will guide you towards the right direction rather than having to search all over the web for resources. Even if you are thinking of doing the certification courses, it’s still way cheaper than the cost of outsourcing.
I hope this article has given you some idea on how to improve social media presence using the Podium education platform. If you like to learn more techniques on growing your online business, check out my number #1 training site here.
Do you have any opinions or questions regarding this topic? Feel free to leave them in the comment area below and I’ll get back to you.
Hello Cathy,
Thanks for the great article on Podium, I am new to social media marketing. Have been looking for something exactly like Podium, I had never heard of it prior to your article. At least you understood Facebook, unlike myself who is lost on all social media. I will take the free course while it is still being offered and will try following more of your articles.
No worries Mike,
Social media can be a madness if you are totally new to it. I would recommend that you pick one, learn as much as you can and stick with it for sharing your articles throughout the development of your website. Even I don’t try to master all of them at once. As of now, I am more focus in creating good quality content because that’s going to be the backbone of my online business.
Podium looks like something I need to look into. I have the normal FaceBook, Google+ and Twitter. Although I need to expand my knowledge in other social media platforms. I was wondering – does it break down each platform on setting them up? I see it teaches you to optimize your social media profiles but does it show you step-by-step for each?
Good question William,
I’ve only taken the free course for now and the theories are pretty basics. Let me check out the paid courses syllabus and I’ll get back to you.
Hi Cathy,
I was looking into Hootsuite last year to manage my social posting but never got around to it, maybe this post is the little kick I need to get there and check out Podium.
There is some tricks to social media marketing and it is another task that can take up a good amount of time, but I think there is value in it.
I currently get around 7% of my traffic via social media and 86% through writing content, so it sounds like it’s time I investigate your recommendation.
Thanks as always for the great info.
Todd
Yeah, there’s a lot to social media that many online marketers still do not have a good grip of – me included. It becomes more challenging as each social media works differently, so it’s really time consuming if you are a one-man blog.
I am still far behind when it comes to using Facebook and Twitter for building my online presence, but I am gradually getting some traction with Google Plus and Pinterest.
Hi Cathy
Podium looks like a great product to learn all the aspects of social media. Currently I am not that involved with social media, but would like to learn more about it. The advanced course is just a little bit expensive for me at the moment, but I might go ahead with the first 3 packages.
Hi there Viljoen,
As a start-up or a new blogger, I think the free option works very well for now. When you are able to get more people to join your team, then doing the other training would be reasonable. Hope you’ll check out the program soon.
Hi Cathy,
This is definitely my short fall, I’m rubbish with utilising social media for my website. This is certainly a course I intend to take to gain a better insight in to social engagement – it’s great that it’s free! It’s just finding the time to fit it all in! When would you suggest is the best time to start with Facebook, Twitter, Google + etc as soon as you start the site?
Hi Sammi,
From my experience, once you place images on your content, you can start to post on any social networks. For me, Pinterest and Google Plus works great because they are build so effectively for visual sharing. However, before you get into that, you might want to share other people’s posts first to create your own followers so that your readership increases when you post your own articles later.
Thank you, thank you, thank you! I too have no clue regarding social medial and how to use it monitize my site and to read your page was like being in the right place at the right time.Your page is clean and easy to read with a great use of visuals. You cover the who, what, where, why and when quite nicely and I am gald for the opportunity to have read it.
Hi there Erin,
Social media can be very confusing and overwhelming so I totally understand where you are coming from. You just got to give yourself sometime to learn the bits and pieces. There are also some step-by-step for social marketing in the Wealthy Affiliate training area so I would recommend that you check those out too.
I am really interested in taking a look at this, as I have heard about it but then put it aside. Glad you brought it back to the forefront for me so to speak.
Have you taken this course and has it helped you with your social interaction? I am surprised by the free courses, but I am sure they are geared towards the more advanced ones, which is only good business.
I will check it out, thanks!
Hi Shawn,
The free course has given me a good grasp of building my social presence especially with my Pinterest followers. I am seeing more engagement and certainly more social sharing for my blog posts. I would recommend that you check it out too.
Wow, it seems very expensive. What are the benefits that allow for the thousands of dollars price range? Is this training absolutely worth the price? Have you purchased the premium versions or does the free version work just fine for your needs? I am interested, but I am scared to spend that kind of money.
Hi William,
As someone who’s new to niche blogging, the free version works fine for me for now. There’s really a lot to digest and to implement on your site with those 6 mini courses even for one social network type. The paid version is more suited for a bigger team or if you want to focus solely on social networks to build your online audience.
There’s no obligation to go for the paid version; it all depends on your marketing strategy.
I am fully aware of Hootsuite, but I had no idea they also provided these sorts of course. Well worth a look in my book. Tell me, are these courses all free to Hootsuite members or is the sign-up subscription based? If they are free, you have nothing to lose by checking them out. Most bloggers need help with social marketing!
Hi there Chris,
Only the ‘Social Media Education’, the one that I’ve explained, is free. The others are paid courses as shown above. The free course works through on-demand, which means you choose your own time to learn. They are not subscription based.
I hope you’ll find time to look into this program and improve on your social media marketing. All the best.