Mark Wilson

Assignment Reflection
The assignments we completed throughout the Marketing in a Digital World course allowed us to analyze and learn how many aspects there are to maintaining a strong digital campaign. We began with an Online Audit that had us reviewing a company’s digital presence (primarily through social networks). Through this assignment we were able to get a firsthand look at what a successful (or unsuccessful) online campaign resembled.
From there, we looked deeper into the digital world by analyzing how social media has impacted the various industries online. This gave us experience in reviewing both strong and weak digital campaigns and the tactics required to maintain a strong online presence.
Last, we were given the task of creating a marketing plan for Eat, Drink & Be Local, (EDBL) an online local food blogging site. This task had us take the knowledge we gained from the online audit and social media exercise and apply it to the real world by creating potential marketing initiatives for EDBL.

Marketing in a Digital World is a course designed to help educate students on the various tools in the marketplace and to consider the impact they have on everyday business. The assignments helped us review the importance of a digital presence from the standpoint of both a company and an industry. We were able to apply the knowledge from the course into these areas to further our understanding, rather than simply recite textbook terms. After taking a look at the industry from these points of view, we applied our knowledge into developing a digital marketing plan for Eat, Drink & Be Local. This helped apply everything we had been learning, so that we have some experience moving forward into the workforce.

What would I change about the assignments?
Blogging Topics – With our classroom blogging, I would allow more flexibility in blogging topics and tell people to find something they are truly passionate about to begin weekly blogging. This allows them to choose whether they want to blog about Marketing, MMA, Health, Cooking, and more. By letting people blog about what they have an interest in makes it easier to encourage them to blog and therefore they are more likely to continue.
Most students find blogging for school a ‘task’, but if they are allowed to pick the topic, so long as it fits overall guidelines, they may WANT to do it each week. This encourages long-term maintenance, not simply a short term blog that dies out once they are finished classes.

Key Learning
The biggest takeaway from Marketing in a Digital World was the time and work that is required to set up and run a successful digital campaign and how many companies are succumbing to improper use.
Many businesses dive headfirst into social media without putting together a plan of how to manage it long-term and how they want to communicate with their customers. The problem they encounter is often a lack of resources to manage the various outlets. While the media tools ARE free, the overall management takes a significant time investment. It happens frequently that companies get in way over their heads and do not maintain their social media accounts regularly. They would be much better off starting fewer pages and running them properly than misusing all tools equally.

Be sure to review the other marketing related posts on my blog to help boost your social media presence and improve the effectiveness of your campaign.