Social Media Marketing Challenge
February 1 - March 1, 2024
The Stukent + DECA Social Media Marketing Challenge is an opportunity for your students to compete against other marketing students across the country. Using the Social Media Simternship™, students will be tasked with managing a fictitious bag company’s $5,000 weekly social media ad budget. Students will play through 4 rounds of our Social Media Simternship and learn about audience targeting, content scheduling, and promotion to drive product sales.
Students cannot register themselves. Only one account is allowed per participant. Students who create a second account will be automatically disqualified from the competition.
CHALLENGE TIMELINE
CHALLENGE DATES: February 5 - March 8
Rounds Enabled:
February 6 @ 12:00 AM MST
Competition Ends:
March 6 @ 11:59 PM MST
PRIZES
Winners will receive the following scholarships to travel to DECA International Career Development Conference(ICDC) in Orlando, FL and be recognized onstage.
1st Place: $1,500 Travel Scholarship
2nd Place: $1,000 Travel Scholarship
3rd Place: $500 Travel Scholarship
Challenge Summary
The Stukent + DECA Social Media Marketing Challenge is your chance to compete against other marketing students across the country. You’ll compete using the Social Media Simternship™, where you’ll be tasked with managing a fictitious bag company’s $5,000 weekly social media ad budget. Ad dollars will be put toward marketing on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, and Pinterest.
Students will play through 4 rounds of our Social Media Simternship™. This simternship teaches audience targeting, content scheduling, and promotion to drive product sales.
Students cannot register themselves. Only one account is allowed per participant. Students who create a second account will be automatically disqualified from the competition. See more information below.
IMPORTANT!
To learn more about the challenge, including:
- How to register
- Grounds for disqualification
- The judging/ vetting process
- And other important information
Please review the competition guidelines.
Frequently Asked Questions
Of course! This limited (free) version of the simulation only has 4 rounds enabled and is a great way to either prep your students or help them review what they’ve learned.
No, competing in the competition is completely free, your students just need to be part of the DECA program!
No purchase is required to compete in this challenge.
No, we will only be posting the results of the top participants. If you would like to get your students results have your student(s) take a screenshot of their results page in the simternship.
Click here to learn more about the simternship and request exclusive instructor access to the courseware for free today.
You can also schedule a demo to walk through the simternship with a Course Consultant.
What Social Media Marketing Principles Will Your Students Learn?
Write Targeted Social Media Ads
You’ll learn and test different promotional strategies to create compelling social media ads across various social media network platforms. You’ll also gain experience in writing ad copy that increases engagement and conversions.
Perform Demographic Targeting
You’ll analyze which types of content on which platforms resonate better amongst different demographics.
Learn Social Media Content Promotion Strategies
You’ll learn the difference between earned, owned, and paid social media marketing promotion strategies. You’ll also analyze various forms of media and different targeting strategies to achieve the greatest reach.
Identify and Measure Key Performance Indicators
Knowing which indicators to measure and improve can make or break your social media marketing efforts. The Social Media Simternship will help you learn both what key performance indicators (KPIs) are and how to improve them.
Manage an Ad Budget
You’ll learn how to manage a social media marketing budget, including placing competitive bids to drive clicks, shares, likes, comments, etc.
Practice Content Scheduling
You’ll learn the art of content scheduling and analyze data points so you can schedule posts to go live at optimal times.
Student Experiences
“Before the Stukent challenge, I have had little to no experience with marketing. I think this was really about trial and error and recognizing how to better market to your target audience. Paying attention to the results for each round allowed me to better my posts and effectively distribute my budget. This allowed me to build on organization and problem-solving skills.”
“After doing the first rounds, I absolutely fell in love with social media marketing and this program. … After my teacher found out about the competition, I knew immediately that I wanted to participate. My three main takeaways from the challenge are learning what posts to spend money on, finding the target audience for the products, and how to construct posts that will gain attraction. What led to my success is already having the knowledge of social media and I have always paid attention to the metrics in my own social media.”
“In this competition I have increased my knowledge on social media marketing as well as learning the importance of it as well. One of the specific things I am going to take away from this competition is that posting at certain times of the day is a key factor in succeeding in social media marketing.”