New course, modern learning for businesses

New course, modern learning offers business promotion and national qualification

Central Otago businesses can learn how to benefit from social media while using their own business situation as a case study and collect credits towards a valuable qualification as they go.

The new four-week Social Media for Business course offered by the Otago Polytechnic runs from 15 September to 7 October in Queenstown and Wanaka and adds 15 credits towards the 60 credit Certificate in Sustainable Practice (Level 5) – a new Otago Polytechnic qualification. The course is run from 3pm to 6pm on Wednesday afternoons in Wanaka and Thursdays in Queenstown.

Designed to teach businesses of all sizes how social media can be used as a powerful strategic marketing and communication tool within their organisations, the course is to be presented by lecturer Tom Walter who says every business should consider enrolling for the course.

“Social media is a powerful, cost-effective and sustainable tool when used correctly and has become an integral part of the business marketing and customer service mix. It opens up a whole new world of 24/7 communication channels for businesses and provides a platform for imparting timely information to target audiences. When done well, this can add tremendous value to a company’s reputation, the way it is perceived and ultimately to the bottom line.”

Course participants can use their own business or organisation as a case study, developing a social media plan and learning the skills to implement it.

“This offers a fantastic potential return for the $450 course fee. And for an extra $250, participants can develop an action plan that will implement social media into their organisations,” says Mr Walter.

Numbers are limited to 10 participants and the course takes place over eight, two hour sessions.

The Social Media for Business course is particularly recommended for those businesses that have completed action plans as part of the Sustainable Wanaka or Queenstown Sustainable Business programmes. The course has been developed through the Centre for Sustainable Practice, a business unit of the Otago Polytechnic and counts towards the new Certificate in Sustainable Practice Level 5). The Certificate consists of four 15 credit papers, two compulsory and two optional papers.

Centre for Sustainable Practice manager Steve Henry says the course has been designed to be of particular value to businesses and the action plan element offers fantastic value for businesses who put employees through the course.

“Competency in social media has become essential to sustainable business practice. It offers ways to communicate in the most cost effective ways possible and offers the ability to connect and conference online - avoiding carbon heavy and time consuming travel and saving telecommunications costs.”

ENDS

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