What Can I Do with an Online Internet Marketing Degree?

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Business has fundamentally changed since the onset of the information age, which most social scientists link to the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989. From its fledging state as an intellectual playground to its gradual acceptance for brochure-type digital pamphlets and flyers to the ongoing, robust, and interactive information state it is now; the internet has grown to become a primary source of information, diligence, and communication.

In addition, education is becoming more Internet-focused as well, with 69% of higher education professionals indicating that online education is a critical aspect of long term institution survival. Naturally, this has led to a number of online Internet marketing degree programs, and an analysis of the opportunities presented to the achievement is necessary.

First and foremost, it’s important to recognize that an online internet marketing degree will not cover exactly the same subject matter as a generic marketing degree, although a good program will use the fundamental principles of marketing in general and apply new media to the subject matter.

While typical marketing will use print and old media activity based on a focus on branding, advertisement, and sales; this degree will use the same focus, but study techniques and practices unique to the internet. Thus, search engine optimization (SEO), pay per click marketing (PPC), social media marketing, email and other digital communication marketing, and mobile internet marketing will receive heavy focus. Those general marketing degrees now offer some attention to these activities, the focus on a more directed degree is much greater.

Opportunities Are Out There

An online internet marketing degree offers opportunities above and beyond a traditional marketing degree. Clearly, the typical agency jobs are available in which a person becomes part of a team managing the outsourced marketing needs of corporations. These can be full service marketing firms that handle the majority of the tasks above, which allows for a blended set of marketing efforts online or highly specific firms focused only on pay per click, on-site or off-site SEO, social media marketing, and the like.

The degreed professional is attractive to any of those organizations and particularly valuable to a full service firm. Of course, as the need to focus more on internet avenues with branding and marketing developments, firms are also hiring in order to fill internal positions to coordinate with outside firms or to handle the marketing internally. Finally, a number of degrees are obtained by individuals intending to use the skills internally, either as part of an established position or as part of a new enterprise.

New Technology Rises

As the online industry continues to grow and new technology as well as new strategies for application of that technology grows, the corresponding increase in demand for qualified, degreed professionals increases. An online internet marketing degree is therefore gaining ground as one of the most valuable degrees of the information age. Whether a student intends to work directly within a company’s employee structure, with a marketing firm, with a specialized internet firm, or in a project of his or her own making, opportunity abounds.