If you can measure it, you can manage it: University of Sydney students embrace the power of digital insights

Sydney, 30 March 2020: Digivizer is giving more than 200 students taking the University of Sydney's Digital & Social Media Marketing course this semester free access to its digital analytics platform, along with Digivizer's standard support, and digital marketing sessions. 

It's an initiative in partnership with the course coordinator Dr Ray Welling, from the University of Sydney Business School. The students are using Digivizer to measure and analyse the performance of the marketing blog projects they are currently working on, which cover everything from concept, design and web development to organic social media promotion, paid social media, and search optimization. 

The course teaches students how to build marketing strategies, identify and qualify target audiences, select their social and search platforms, build a website and content plan, and optimize search. Students then promote their embryonic businesses - initially with organic content, then through paid. Digivizer has given them full access to its platform, which allows students to measure, track and analyse what works, make decisions quickly about changes to strategy, tactics and spend, and learn how to use real-time data to make better digital marketing decisions. They will be able to see how organic and paid media influences conversions through their newly-created sales funnels, and the comparative performance of content and budget in social media and search.

The blog projects, with a particular emphasis on the strategy and analytics, are assessed on how well students demonstrate skills that are in demand by industry, and how they can apply theory and software to solve real-world problems, as well as tackling contemporary challenges in business and the need for ethical behaviour in the face of those challenges.

According to Dr Welling, the course has changed in style and substance over the years it's been run. "This course was originally called Electronic Marketing. It used to be very pedagogical, with the lecturer up the front talking and the students taking notes. Today's version is very different; while we still have a (recorded) lecture, the emphasis in the tutorials is combining strategic thinking with hands-on experience using the tools our students will use in their careers, with a focus on applying strategic thinking and analytics to practical examples.

"We also focus on critical thinking capacity and how to apply what they’ve learned to resolve challenges that appear during the project, and in the final exam.”

The new course structure, with the inclusion of Digivizer's platform, gives the students applicable skills and direct experience of digital marketing that they can take into the workforce, adding their experience and expertise to their newly-minted CVs.

In the current COVID-19 pandemic, that this course is digital in nature also has obvious advantages - a point not lost on Dr Welling. 

"We're using Zoom to meet with students each week, where previously we would have done so in person, and we're recording tutorials that we now deliver online. Other aspects of the course, such as testing analytics and assessments, can obviously be easily done online. We're working hard to maintain the social support for each student, but happily, the nature of the course has suffered minimal disruption."

Emma Lo Russo, Digivizer’s CEO, adds, “It's great to see Sydney University arm its students with the latest in technology and digital marketing insights and to integrate this data-driven marketing into their course outcomes. In a global marketplace, and with the proliferation of smart devices and digital consumers, it's never been more important to understand what drives the greatest, and most-relevant, engagement. Every business wants to maximize the leads, sales and ROI from investment in content, influencers and paid media spend.  This project with the University of Sydney continues to build on our Education and Partner Strategy which we started in 2019 and which continues to be successful.”

ENDS

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Digivizer's Brian Gibson (left) and the University of Sydney's Ray Welling: Students on the University of Sydney's Digital & Social Media Marketing course are using Digivizer to measure the performance of their semester-long marketing programs. Picture: Digivizer.

About Digivizer

Digivizer, founded in 2010, is Australia’s leading digital marketing analytics technology company. Digivizer helps businesses get better results from their digital marketing, across owned, earned and paid media, in search and social, and in web performance, by giving them the information they need to make better decisions and improve their marketing ROI. 

Digivizer’s digital insights are available through a Software as a Service (SaaS) platform affordable to any business, and if required, digital marketing services. 

Digivizer is an ad, development and technology partner to the major social and search platforms: Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Google, and is a marketing and agency partner to Google and Facebook.  It is also a partner of start-up venture capital investors Investible and Remarkable, and of global online retail outlet platforms Shopify and BigCommerce.

Contacts

Digivizer is at:

Twitter: https://twitter.com/Digivizer

Facebook: https://facebook.com/Digivizer

LinkedIn:h ttps://au.linkedin.com/company/digivizer

Instagram: https://instagram.com/Digivizer/

YouTube: https://youtube.com/digivizer

Web: www.digivizer.com

For more information: 

Alan Smith, Head of Strategic Business Communications, Digivizer. 

Phone: +61 404 432 700. Email: alan.smith@digivizer.com. Twitter: @alansmithoz   

Katie Booth, Acting Media & PR Adviser (Business School), The University of Sydney.

Phone: +61 419 278 715. Email:  katie.booth@sydney.edu.au  

Ray Welling, Lecturer, The University of Sydney Business School.