Solopreneurs are people who own and operate all aspects of their business alone. Solopreneurs are both the owner and the workforce of their business, assuming responsibility for organizing and managing the risks of their enterprise. Social media marketing is consistently a muddy terrain for solopreneurs who aren’t sure where to start or are overwhelmed by the time commitment they believe is required to be successful. A handful are social media illiterate and apprehensive about using the platform for business. This minicourse addresses these attitudes and barriers.
Solopreneurs, having to wear all hats in their business operations, don’t generally have time to manage social media marketing. They create content and posts because they understand the power and influence of social media, but often don’t have a strategy behind their effort or an understanding of how to interpret engagement data to make better decisions that increase returns on investment—not just ad dollars but time invested in creating content.
This course will address four knowledge gaps between solopreneurs and social media marketing:
| Where Learners Are | Knowledge Gap | Evidence of Understanding |
|---|---|---|
| Learners haven’t identified a target market, or their market is too broad | Developing target market personas based on research of their needs and challenges | Learners will use language and imagery that connects to their target audience |
| Learners think of content as one-size-fits-all where uniform post language, image, and delivery methods are equally effective across all platforms | Each social media platform has a unique set of environmental contexts, user attitudes, behaviors, and expectations that affect decision-making | A content strategy that leverages these differences for authentic engagement |
| Learners post/promote content irregularly and inconsistently | Strategic social media marketing requires identifying content pillars that make sense for each business | Learners will use content pillars for consistent post content and identify tools to aid content scheduling |
| Learners look to “likes, followers, and reposts/shares” as barometers of content engagement success | Spend time with each platform’s data tools to redefine engagement success and a measure of growth | Learners will create their own data dashboards that they can use to inform content strategy |
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This minicourse is an informational course because it teaches solopreneurs a process for developing a strategic marketing plan for social media to reach business growth goals. While the course is informational, learners will be assessed based on their knowledge transfer to the unique needs of their business, reflecting their understanding of the information presented during instruction.
The modality for this course will be synchronous online. Solopreneurs struggle to commit time to social media marketing. These learners are more apt to perform when the demand for their attention is live and consistent. They’ll have an easier time focusing when they’ve committed a block of time to learning and benefit from social interactions with other solopreneurs.
By the end of this course, learners in the Social Media for Solopreneurs Course will be able to:
Module-Level Objectives (MLOs)
By the end of this module, solopreneurs will:
Map a Recent Purchase Decision
Knowledge Check Reflection Assessment
Define Your Target Audience
Target Audience Avatar Project Assessment
Map the Customer Journey to Your Product/Service Purchase
Real-World Simulated Customer Journey Map Assessment
Formative Assessents
Summative Assessments
Authentic Assessments
500 Social Media Marketing Tips: Essential Advice, Hints and Strategy for Business
The Art of Small Business Social Media: A Blueprint for Marketing Success
Social Media Strategy: A Practical Guide to Social Media Marketing and Customer Engagement
SproutSocial
All things related to social media marketing, strategy, engagement, and analytics
Buffer: Social Media for Solopreneurs
Social media management tool with articles related to social media marketing for business
Branding + Social Media Visuals
Krystal Ferguson
Marketing Communications
Fallon Smith
This course will be structured using the Understanding by Design (UbD) framework underscored with collaborative and adaptive elements of the Successive Approximation Model (SAM 1). Its content focuses on understanding, promoting higher-order thinking, meaningful comprehension, and transferable knowledge to business strategy. The SAM model promotes close collaboration among the instructional design team, including the instructional designer, stakeholders, and subject matter experts at the start of the design process, which would serve well stage one of UbD that answers the questions of what knowledge and skills learners should master and what big ideas learners should retain. Another component of SAM that serves the UbD framework of this course is its flexibility and adaptability to revisions informed by stakeholder and learner feedback or changes related to the social media technologies referenced in course content.
This course is designed for adult learners, solopreneurs, and the theory driving content development is Andragogy. Solopreneurs are motivated to learn and apply this new skill to grow their business. The subject matter lends itself to immediate application for real-world feedback. The second theory driving learning activity design is Constructivism. Solopreneurs must connect what they already know to what they will learn to reflect understanding. The final theory fueling assessment is Connectivism. Solopreneurs will learn from each other using virtual learning tools, and from their online/social networks. As they launch their social media marketing campaigns, they will look to the social media response and engagement to assess their success. The course goal is to grow the solopreneur’s business by increasing their Personal Learning Network (PLN), and all three theories will be used during instructional design and development.