S23 Digital Marketing and Social Media
Digital and social channels are where many business owners first look for support, and where many businesses find their customers. This Standard is about using those channels well: building a credible professional presence, planning and creating content that engages the right audiences, working in an agile way that tests, learns and adapts, and using analytics to turn activity into measurable value. It applies to professionals marketing their own practice or their service, and to those helping clients market their businesses.
Who it's for
Business support professionals who build their own professional presence online, promote business support services, or help businesses market themselves through digital and social channels.
What you need to show
- S23.1
Identify the priority audiences for your practice, your service or the client's business, and where and how they use digital and social channels
- S23.2
Build and maintain a credible professional presence online that is consistent with your role, your organisation's policies and these Standards
- S23.3
Set clear objectives for digital and social activity that link to business or service outcomes
- S23.4
Plan content across channels, balancing what the audience values with what you or the client want to achieve
- S23.5
Create clear, accessible content in formats suited to each channel, including text, images and video
- S23.6
Work in short cycles, testing approaches, learning from the results and adapting content and channels quickly
- S23.7
Engage with audiences in ways that build trust, including responding to comments and messages and handling criticism constructively
- S23.8
Use analytics to measure reach, engagement and conversion, and to show the value of activity against its objectives
- S23.9
Plan and manage digital and social activity efficiently, using scheduling, templates and AI tools where appropriate, and checking AI-generated content for accuracy before it is published
- S23.10
Protect client confidentiality, and obtain consent before featuring clients, their businesses or their results
- S23.11
Help the client develop a proportionate digital marketing plan suited to their size, resources and skills
- S23.12
Help the client assess digital marketing products, platforms and suppliers impartially
- S23.13
Make sure your own and your clients' marketing follows the rules on advertising, endorsements, online reviews, electronic marketing and data protection
What you need to know and understand
- S23.K1
The main digital and social channels used by businesses and business support, and the audiences and purposes each suits
- S23.K2
How to build a professional reputation online, and the risks to it
- S23.K3
Content strategy and planning, including content calendars and reusing content across channels
- S23.K4
Writing and designing for digital channels, including accessible content
- S23.K5
Agile marketing approaches, including testing, measuring and iterating
- S23.K6
Engaging and managing online communities, including handling negative feedback
- S23.K7
Digital marketing analytics, the main measures and their limitations, and how to link them to business outcomes
- S23.K8
Search, online advertising and email marketing, at a level sufficient to advise on them
- S23.K9
Tools for planning, scheduling, creating and measuring content, including the responsible use of AI
- S23.K10
The rules that apply to digital marketing, including advertising standards, endorsements and influencer marketing, online reviews, consent for electronic marketing and data protection, and where authoritative guidance is available
- S23.K11
Social media policies, and the boundary between personal and professional use
Evolved from
New Standard. Builds on Business Support 9 (marketing and sales knowledge) and Business and Enterprise Support (2013) unit 1 (developing awareness amongst potential clients). C1 covers explaining your offer to potential clients, and C6 sets the marketing knowledge expected of every practitioner; S23 covers digital marketing and social media in depth.