{"id":11026,"date":"2017-10-19T08:58:50","date_gmt":"2017-10-19T08:58:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.getsmarter.com\/blog\/?p=11026"},"modified":"2018-09-05T12:25:25","modified_gmt":"2018-09-05T12:25:25","slug":"meet-shaun-thomas-student-success-story","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.getsmarter.com\/blog\/meet-shaun-thomas-student-success-story\/","title":{"rendered":"Meet Shaun Thomas | Student Success Story"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Meet Shaun Thomas, a Social Media Manager who took the University of Cape Town <a href=\"https:\/\/www.getsmarter.com\/courses\/za\/uct-social-media-short-course\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Social Media online short course<\/a> to boost his skill set and improve his organisation&#8217;s online presence.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>&#8220;After the course I wanted to implement what I\u2019d learnt, so I used about R200 behind an ad, and through the demographics and the targeting, it reached over 100 000 people. The boosting of ads impacts my organisation in a really positive way, because we are able to reach more people with what we\u2019re doing.&#8221;<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" class=\"show-for-medium\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/tsPl4ARiQVY\" width=\"970\" height=\"545\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><br \/>\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" class=\"show-for-small-only\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/tsPl4ARiQVY\" width=\"400\" height=\"225\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<h5 style=\"text-align: center;\">Want the confidence to lead digital change and direction within a business?<\/h5>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">Set yourself apart with the UCT Social Media Marketing online short course.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><a class=\"button large postcta\" href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/redirect?v=tsPl4ARiQVY&amp;redir_token=XkN2ZPHFFmhSpQkrqG4Bh8dmljt8MTUwODQzNTQzMkAxNTA4MzQ5MDMy&amp;event=video_description&amp;q=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.getsmarter.com%2Fcourses%2Fza%2Fuct-social-media-short-course\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">GET AHEAD<\/a><\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<blockquote><p><em>My name\u2019s Shaun Thomas, and I\u2019m the assistant communications officer for HPCA. We are the umbrella organisation for 146 member hospices in South Africa. We\u2019re working in the community, we\u2019re helping out hospices and patients.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>So for us an NGO, it\u2019s very important to be on a platform like Facebook because we are able then to reach out to all those people and to show them exactly what we do and the impact that we are making.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>I chose to take the UCT Social Media online course because of the credibility that UCT holds. Also because of the content that\u2019s in this course &#8211; it really covered everything that I wanted. I loved the flexibility of the online experience. The modules were very helpful and informative. The coaches were also really helpful and informative throughout the week.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>The most valuable thing I learnt on the Social Media course was the boosting of advertising, and really the backend of it and how to actually make sure that what you are advertising gets shown to the public that you want to see it. So after the <\/em>course<em> I wanted to implement what I\u2019d learnt, so I used about R200 behind an ad, and through the demographics and the targeting, it reached over 100 000 people.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>The boosting of ads impacts my organisation in a real positive <\/em>way,<em> because we are able to reach more people with what we\u2019re doing. And in terms of events, campaigns that we are running, we are able to then reach those people with very little money as well.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>It\u2019s important to constantly add to one\u2019s skill set, because things are ever-changing and in terms of marketing, 10 years ago something like social media was not relevant, and now it\u2019s extremely relevant. So, in my opinion, short courses like the GetSmarter one are what I want to continually do, and I want to continually learn as well.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Meet GetSmarter Past Student and Social Media Manager Shaun Thomas. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":74,"featured_media":18738,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[127,125],"article-format":[],"class_list":["post-11026","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-career-advice","tag-career-advice","tag-marketing"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v27.4 (Yoast SEO v27.4) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Meet Shaun Thomas | Student Success Story - Video<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Meet Shaun Thomas, a Social Media Manager and lifelong learner who completed the University of Cape Town Social Media online short course.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.getsmarter.com\/blog\/meet-shaun-thomas-student-success-story\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Meet Shaun Thomas | Student Success Story\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Meet Shaun Thomas, a Social Media Manager and lifelong learner who completed the University of Cape Town Social Media online short course.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.getsmarter.com\/blog\/meet-shaun-thomas-student-success-story\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"GetSmarter Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2017-10-19T08:58:50+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2018-09-05T12:25:25+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.getsmarter.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/Social_Media_Shaun_Thomas-1.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"500\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"500\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Shameel Mohanlal\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"GetSmarter Staff\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.getsmarter.com\\\/blog\\\/meet-shaun-thomas-student-success-story\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.getsmarter.com\\\/blog\\\/meet-shaun-thomas-student-success-story\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Shameel Mohanlal\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.getsmarter.com\\\/blog\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/527df7e5676f2bfa7c943e1653764bff\"},\"headline\":\"Meet Shaun Thomas | Student Success Story\",\"datePublished\":\"2017-10-19T08:58:50+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2018-09-05T12:25:25+00:00\",\"wordCount\":444,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.getsmarter.com\\\/blog\\\/meet-shaun-thomas-student-success-story\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.getsmarter.com\\\/blog\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2017\\\/10\\\/Social_Media_Shaun_Thomas-1.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Career advice\",\"Marketing\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Career Advice\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.getsmarter.com\\\/blog\\\/meet-shaun-thomas-student-success-story\\\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.getsmarter.com\\\/blog\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2017\\\/10\\\/Social_Media_Shaun_Thomas-1.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.getsmarter.com\\\/blog\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2017\\\/10\\\/Social_Media_Shaun_Thomas-1.jpg\",\"width\":500,\"height\":500},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.getsmarter.com\\\/blog\\\/meet-shaun-thomas-student-success-story\\\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.getsmarter.com\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Blog\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.getsmarter.com\\\/blog\"}]}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Meet Shaun Thomas | Student Success Story - 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