Modules, Objectives & Outcomes

Module 1 – Social media marketing foundations

You’ll learn why social media marketing is essential for promoting an e‑commerce business, which platforms matter most, and how social media supports your sales funnel from awareness to loyalty.

You will:

• Understand what social media marketing is and the key benefits for online stores (reach, relationship building, and sales support).
• Explore the five core pillars: strategy, planning and publishing, listening and engagement, analytics and reporting, and paid social media.
• Distinguish between earned, owned, and paid social media and how each affects visibility and results.
• Walk through the social media marketing funnel and connect example tactics for each stage.

Activities:

• Map your store into the funnel and pick 1–2 primary social goals.
• Match your top customer segments to their main platforms and assign platform goals (awareness, leads, sales).
• Sort example tactics into the correct pillar and funnel stage to identify strengths and gaps.

Module 2 – Social media strategy, planning & publishing

You’ll focus on setting goals, choosing audiences and platforms, and building a realistic posting plan that you can keep up with.

You will:

• Define clear, measurable goals for your social media (awareness, engagement, leads, or sales).
• Identify your primary target audience and refine messaging to fit their needs and behaviours.
• Choose the right platforms for campaigns based on objectives and content style.
• Review key content types (educational, promotional, storytelling, user-generated) and how to balance earned, owned, and paid media.
• Determine posting frequency and timing and organize it with a simple calendar.
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Activities:

• Align one main goal, your audience, and your best platforms for the next 30 days.
• Build a one‑week social media calendar with post ideas, formats, platforms, and publish times.

Module 3 – Listening & engagement on social media

You’ll learn how to “listen” to your customers on social, respond effectively, and create content that keeps them coming back.

You will:

• Understand why social listening is critical for spotting customer needs and content ideas.
• Use simple listening strategies and tools to turn comments, DMs, and mentions into insights.
• Practice core engagement skills: responding to praise, questions, and complaints; growing followers; and using channels like YouTube or TikTok to build an audience.
• Develop a consistent brand voice and use storytelling and influencers to build authority.
• Design engaging, mobile-friendly, accessible posts and repurpose content across platforms with tools like Canva.

Activities:

• Review real or sample comments/mentions and capture at least three insights and one content idea per insight.
• Draft 2–3 responses to different comment types and create one simple, reusable post in your brand voice.

Module 4 – Social media analytics & reporting

You’ll learn how to read your social media numbers and turn them into clear decisions and simple reports.

You will:

• Understand what social media analytics are and why they matter for your store.
• Break down key metrics (reach, impressions, engagement, clicks, conversions) and link them to funnel stages.
• Explore native analytics tools and simple dashboards to refine content and targeting.
• Learn what makes a useful report and how to present results clearly to stakeholders or partners.
• Discover how basic social testing (e.g., A/B tests) feeds into ongoing improvement.

Activities:

• Analyze real or sample performance data to find top/low posts, extract three insights, and decide one strategic change.
• Build a one‑page report with goals, key metrics, highlights, and next steps, and present it briefly to the group.

Module 5 – Paid social media

You’ll focus on using paid social ads to support and scale what’s already working, without wasting budget.

You will:

• Understand paid social as the fifth core pillar and how it amplifies your organic presence.
• Describe the benefits of paid social (better reach, precise targeting, faster results) and choose platforms for your goals and audiences.
• Review major ad formats (image, video, carousel, story) and define what makes an effective ad and call to action.
• Learn the basics of budgeting, costs, and bidding for small e‑commerce campaigns.
• Cover remarketing fundamentals to re‑engage visitors and recover abandoned carts.
• Learn how to measure campaign impact and design simple tests (e.g., creative, audience, or CTA tests).

Activities:

• Draft a paid social campaign blueprint (objective, audience, platform, ad format, headline, CTA, and starter budget).
• Create a simple test plan: choose one element to test, define success metrics, and outline how you’ll compare and choose a winner.