Current Funding Opportunities: October 2018
Thanks to funding from the Ontario Centres of Excellence (OCE), Niagara College is addressing social media usage challenges for social marketing by small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). The Vouchers for e-Business (VEB) program with the Research & Innovation division is almost full for the 2018-19 program, with two more spots open at the moment. The program includes a social media audit and analysis, along with training for improvements, and a follow-up audit.
Social media is an integral piece of any organizations marketing plan, yet social media remains misunderstood by many smaller businesses. Niagara College is working with 10 smaller companies from a variety of sectors that are ready to invest in improving their social marketing, and provide the expertise of faculty and students to support them in this endeavor. The Niagara College team, including students and faculty from the School of Business, is collaborating with these industry partners to conduct a social media audit using tools kindly donated by Brandwatch and Meltwater. Once the strengths and weaknesses of the company’s current effort have been identified, the team leads the company in an in-person training session to ensure they understand the purpose of investment in social media and some of the tactics required. The company then has the task of implementing these tactics for four weeks before the College team repeats the audit to measure the impact of the training.
Current partners include:
- Bean and Barrel Coffee Roasters
- Farmlife Foods
- Lindsay’s Gourmet Compound Butter – Finalist in GNCC’s NBAA 2017
- Mental Health Solutions
- Tailwind
- Thorpe Concepts – FirstOntario CU, 1Award winner
- Tootzie’s Tune Up – FirstOntario CU, 1Award winner
- Niagara Custom Tours
- Vykan Corp
For more information on eligibility to access the program, as well as the way the funding works with cash and in-kind contributions from the industry partner, contact Elizabeth Best, Business Development Coordinator, at 905-641-2252, ext. 4287, or by email at [email protected].
For all our funding opportunities, visit the Current Opportunities page on the website.
