UD PCS Social Media Marketing program aids local business Lessons help student’s career advancement By Adam S. Kamras
Christina MacMillan, encouraged her to enhance her education by enrolling in the Advanced Social Media Marketing for Business Recognizing the need for M. Davis & Sons to significantly ramp up Certificate program offered by the University of Delaware its social media presence about 10 years ago, the industrial Division of Professional and Continuing (UD PCS). In spring 2020, construction company’s CEO, Peggy Del Fabbro, tasked longtime Buonopane completed the 15-week online course, which teaches employee Elaine Buonopane with leading the effort. students with fundamental to midlevel social media marketing Buonopane, a marketing and operations coordinator at the time, skills to effectively and successfully leverage the power of social had been dabbling in social media and media to support organizational goals, knew she had a lot to learn. Embracing “I think I can attribute my promotion and said the quality and variety of the the challenge posed to her by Del Fabbro, material presented was a lot more to the University of Delaware. she began attending seminars and than she expected. The two classes I took were conferences in an attempt to gain all “I learned how to take a brand that is the knowledge she could about social awesome and really key.” looking for social media marketing and media marketing. —Elaine Buonopane build its presence from the ground up,” “I credit Peggy with really making a said Buonopane. “Because it was an marketing push toward social media,” advanced class, we dug in deep with lessons on strategies, said Buonopane. “She said we are missing the boat if we don’t get campaigns and how to really gain some traction.” out there and do it. With her behind me, I just kind of went for it.”
Taking a strategical approach
Serving multiple purposes
“I wasn’t really sure what to post and how to go about it, and I didn’t want us to look foolish,” said Buonopane. “There is also the time factor of working it into your schedule. It’s like having another mouth to feed. You have to take care of it.”
One of the first lessons Buonopane benefited from was how to conduct an audit on a company’s social media activities. By assessing what an organization has done on social media and what it is trying to accomplish, a strategy can be developed. While the obvious intent is to increase business for the company headquartered in Wilmington, Delaware, M. Davis also uses its platforms to attract future employees, interact with its current staff, bring awareness to its training programs for students and connect with members of the region.
Acknowledging the forward strides she was making on Del Fabbro’s request and her desire to keep progressing, Buonopane’s supervisor,
“For M. Davis, it is not just about construction,” said Buonopane. “It’s about what we do for Delaware and how we help and
Though she was comfortable with the act of posting on various social media platforms, such as Facebook and LinkedIn, Buonopane knew she needed to acquire a greater understanding of the strategic process of doing it for a business.
