Modern Digital Communications Certificate Program

New digital channels are emerging almost daily, and the way we use classic ones seems to shift from video to image to audio and from shorter to longer form (and back again) almost as quickly. We’ll examine the changes in consumer digital behavior across both enduring and emerging platforms. We’ll also explore the ethics of modern social media through the lens of social listening, audience targeting and how we find/use information about our publics.

By the end of this module, participants will be able to:

• Recognize shifts in consumer use of core social platforms and how this should impact the role they play and how they engage.
• Audit potential digital channels for use among key audiences.
• Understand the basics of data privacy, consumer targeting and ethical social listening.

Sometimes the right talent is ready to be reassigned to social. We’ll dig into some of the ways you can spot someone with a knack for social copywriting, content strategy or consumer engagement. We’ll then turn our attention back to the plethora of channels we examined in Module 1. You’ll need the right Digital Character and Voice to represent your organization in both proactive and reactive digital settings. We’ll unpack brainstorming techniques that help build these brand characters and pressure test them across a variety of social/digital channels. 

By the end of this module, participants will be able to:

• Identify the right talent for digital roles or social writing projects.
• Brainstorm and build the Digital Voice of a brand or organization.
• Simulate real-world, consumer-facing interactions across digital channels.
  

Storytelling will always be at the heart of any good PR pro’s skillset. But there’s a specific art to telling stories across digital channels. We’ll look at some of the latest trends in social storytelling before breaking down how to build an ownable social content engine across the channels that matter most to your audience.

By the end of this module, participants will be able to:

• Develop a digital content approach that’s both ownable and sustainable.
• Identify key trends in digital content storytelling to drive reach in feed-driven environments.
• Understand the difference between broadcast-driven communications channels and truly social, two-way dialogue including the dynamics of customer service vs. consumer engagement.

One of the core tenets of public relations is managing relationships with the gatekeepers who inform and impact public opinion. No group does this with more digital relevance and scale than Influencers and Creators. In this module, we’ll look at how to cultivate meaningful relationships with both individuals and entities, sometimes as brand partners and other times as the target of a creative digital pitch.

By the end of this module, participants will be able to:

• Understand the value of micro-lead media outreach with both traditional media and Influencers.
• Identify and vet potential Creators for brand partnership.
• Create experiences (both digital and in real life) to earn quality digital engagements from the Influencer community.

The data on organic reach across most social platforms is both clear and bleak: There is little opportunity to drive scale without paid media. But there are ways to subvert the algorithms by creating content that is being most focused on at the channel level (aka what are they asking Creators to do). And while optimizing content in this way will help you to gain a competitive advantage in the feeds, we’ll also dig into some paid media basics to help drive scale of earned content and coverage in owned environments.

By the end of this module, participants will be able to:

• Sustain the reach of earned coverage with paid media.
• Develop content that’s on trend with algorithms to drive some level of organic traction.  
• Utilize language from social on Search (and vice versa) to connect storytelling efforts and drive ranking in Search.

There’s both a luxury and challenge in the fact that digital channels allow for so much measurement. There’s so much we can learn about our audience and our brand, but we can get lost in the sea of possibility, resulting in a measurement scheme with a lot of pretty graphs but no clear insights or implications. We’ll break down how to set the right KPIs for owned and earned digital communications with a focus on what to monitor vs. what to measure. 

By the end of this module, participants will be able to:

• Create a decisive list of KPIs that tie to both communications and business objectives.
• Identify key digital results that can inform longer-lead storytelling on other earned channels.
• Establish a process to monitor performance and measure impact.