Social Media Marketing (SMM) is the use of social media by marketers to increase brand awareness, identify key audiences, generate leads and build meaningful relationships with customers. Social media allows businesses to gain a competitive advantage through the creation and distribution of valuable, relevant and consistent content to attract and retain clearly-defined audiences.

Unfortunately, today many companies are not preparing for the future of social. It’s not that businesses aren’t trying; many of them have Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn or Instagram accounts established. They are present and disseminating content on those platforms, but they do not have a proper social media marketing plan in place. It is not enough for students today who will enter the workforce to just be equipped with general theories and knowledge when it comes to social media marketing. Students will need to know how to utilize new and constantly updated social media marketing strategies for businesses.