These days, no business owner needs to be reminded of the importance of social media, yet what about those who can’t keep track of the industry? There’s a course for that.
There was a time in Ireland when advertising for a self-employed businessman meant little more than a yearly telephone directory advert and if you’re feeling a little ambitious, maybe even leaving a business calling card in the classifieds section beyond the tills at a supermarket.
Unsurprisingly, things have got a lot more challenging since with the advent of Google Analytics, Twitter, Facebook and numerous other avenues for businesses to reach their customers on a daily basis and both attract and retain their custom.
DJ Stevie Dee has seen it all in the past 20 years while rising through one of the most competitive markets in Irish business. Though he had tried to fully implement an online strategy for his services as a DJ for parties, nightclubs or weddings, he was aware that to really step things up and earn the edge over his rivals, he needed to head along for a course at the Digital Marketing Institute to help hone his online aptitude.
“In the nightclub industry at the moment, a lot of our coverage is done through social media,” Stevie told us. “It started on Bebo originally, then it moved to Facebook and now Twitter is the big thing at the moment.
“So I went and I did the DMI course to gain more knowledge of how I could improve on the social media front and improve my business through Google and the various techniques that they offer through digital marketing.”
If anything, Stevie saw that a full understanding of how to attract customers through social media could mean the difference for his means of attracting new business, as he had seen rivals’ online efforts fall at the first hurdle.
“People think they can stick up a website and that the business is all going to fly through the door but that’s not how it happens,” he says. “You have to work at it through Google and follow it up with social media.
“I did the part-time 13 weeks for a diploma in digital marketing. We did affiliate marketing, viral marketing, an introduction to social media, mobile marketing, online display advertising. That basically was the outline of the course. As I was going along I was doing little bits and pieces and slowly but surely implementing new things.”
Social media, as Stevie explained to us, had always been on his mind for the future of enterprise, yet previous courses from different providers hadn’t left him satisfied.
“I had done several social media courses but I found that the one from the Digital Marketing Institute (DMI) was the best one that I attended because it was simple, well explained and demonstrated to us through the facilities in the institute.
“Now I understand Google Analytics a lot better and I have a program running on my site and I now know how many people are visiting my site on a daily basis, how long they’re staying on my website and I also know how many pages they’re reading when they’re there. That’s something I never would have been able to do before.”
Follow-up service
Stevie told us that one of the most valuable aspects of his experience at the DMI has been the follow-up service he’s received, which has helped alleviate any issues he had and helped move his business on to the next level
“The other thing about it is that both DMI staff and lecturers are extremely helpful. Greg Fry was one of the lecturers, and I’ve been in touch with him since and been up to see him,” says the DJ. “And we’ve sat down and he’s gone through bits and pieces – free of charge – and he’s greatly improved my LinkedIn profile and shown me how to use Facebook effectively.
“I now do my social media on Hootsuite, which has Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Google+ under one dashboard. I can go in and spend one hour a day, do my updates and schedule them to go out at a certain time and that’s my social media done for the day. I would’ve never been able to do that had I not attended the course.”
As someone whose profession means that he’s used to dozens of requests each night of work, we’re sure that Stevie’s DJ rivals will have a few requests of their own in asking how he climbed the ladders of social media in just thirteen weeks.
DJ Stevie Dee can be found at his official web address here. If you’d like to learn more about using social media platforms for your business, get in touch with the Digital Marketing Institute.
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