The aim of this unit is to develop an in-depth understanding of the role of social media marketing in digital marketing. Specifically, as marketing has evolved from an era of telling and selling to effectively communicating, sharing and co-creating of information and knowledge, social media platforms can enhance the organization’s efforts to this direction.

Social media can be defined as the online means of communication, conveyance, collaboration, and cultivation among interconnected and interdependent networks of people, communities, and organizations enhanced by technological capabilities and mobility [8].

Consequently, this unit examines the main social media platforms and the value of each platform for different purposes and then explains how effective messages for social media platforms can be created. A key parameter in creating effective messages is the understanding of the perceptual process of the audience, i.e. how the stimuli received from the five senses may receive attention, is interpreted and may be retained.

The skills under objectives are: