Deltina Hay is a force to be reckoned with in the world of Social Media. Her decades of experience, and her trailblazing work in social media marketing have lead her to become one of the most sought-after experts in the business. Her online training courses offer the kind of information that can transform small businesses into online powerhouses, giving anyone the knowledge they need to understand how to successfully market to consumers online .

Today, our Q&A focuses on Deltina’s background, and her views on how social media marketing will eventually become “business as usual”.

Before we ask more formal questions, tell us: How long since your last post, Pin or Tweet?

About an hour ago. I shared an article about video marketing.

Tell us a little about your professional background.

For nearly 30 years, I have been doing custom programming, database management, web development, search optimization, and social media marketing consulting for businesses of all sizes. Some of my past clients include Real Simple Magazine, American Greetings, Nestle Toll House, Kraft, and Hachette.

My graduate education includes computer science, applied mathematics, numerical analysis, and psychology. My undergraduate education includes accounting, business administration, and information systems.

I have also been in the publishing business for over 10 years and have written three books on social media, search optimization, and the mobile web. I presently serve as the Board Chair of the Independent Book Publishers Association.

When did you begin teaching social media courses?

I began by releasing free tutorials on YouTube as add-ons to my books. Then a couple of years ago, I was approached by a marketplace that offered to sell my videos as courses.

What prompted you to begin writing online training courses?

When I was approached by an e-learning marketplace, I decided to research best practices for online courses. Realizing how far e-learning software had come, I decided to produce my own full-length courses.

If you had to guess, which social media site do you think will outlive the others in terms of active users: Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn or Pinterest?

Well, each of those platforms caters to a different audience; but if I had to put money on only one of them, it would be Twitter. I think long-term it has the greatest potential for change; and it is the most diverse. My first pick not on the list, however, is YouTube – which actually just surpassed Facebook in active users.

Assuming a company has a small staff and can only schedule 4 hours every week for social media activities, which one would you suggest they use or should they use a combination?

That depends on the type of business, target audience, and overall goals. If resources are an issue, then I recommend focusing on only two platforms: One where you can engage your customers and another where you can focus on selling.

For example, a company focused on business-to-business lead generation through thought leadership should maintain an engaging company blog and a LinkedIn Profile (for the CEO) and LinkedIn Company Page for the business. While a retail store looking for foot traffic should engage on Facebook, Twitter, or Pinterest (depending on what they are selling), and maintain a Google Local Page.

In 3 years time, how much of an increase in employee time will be spent on business related social media activities?

Again, that depends on the type of business. But what will likely happen across the board is that social media will simply become business as usual, similar to how the Internet has become integrated into businesses during the past 15 years.

Do you plan to add more online training courses to your current library of courses?

Yes. I am almost ready to release a mobile marketing course, and two courses about crowd coursing and media sharing.

I also plan to release a series of more generalized courses on content marketing, online discoverability, and website optimization.

Want to Know More?

If you’re interested to know more about Deltina Hay and his social media courses, please be sure to visit and check out her webshop.