Why hasn't Plymouth State University done more to raise awareness and educate business students about the effects of social media and how it is changing the way the game is played?
As a marketing major at Plymouth State and a member of MAPS: the Marketing Association of Plymouth State, I am eager to know why there is not a single course being taught about social media!? The only effort Plymouth State has made with regard to educating students or faculty about social media (that I am aware of) was a small "Social Media 101" presentation. It was advertised on MyPlymouth as a "Social Media 101 for faculty" event. However, I attended this presentation last Wednesday March 17 and I believe there were two other students among maybe 2 dozen faculty.
Why weren't students in the new "College of Business Administration" made aware of this?? My professor found out because I told him, and that I would be leaving class early to attend the event!
Maybe, I am the minority on campus, but I would rather spend my time reading articles on Mashable.com or finish reading Socialnomics by Erik Qualman and The Social Media Marketing Book by Dan Zarrella. However, I am obligated to spend my time working on general education assignments which have NO relevance to my marketing major or future business career!
Therefore, as a business student and marketing major why shouldn't I get credit for learning about social media? Please explain this to me. Learning how to efficiently use Social Media sites, blogs, gmail, google buzz, twitter, etc. benefits business students directly. General education courses do not. Since I already know what my major is, I also do not understand why I am required to complete certain courses that do not pertain to my major so I can graduate?
For example, Digital Media Creation, a general education course I need to pass to graduate. Great course, it's very interesting, however, it is also extremely time consuming. I have no intention of becoming a computer programer nor does this course enhance my creativity level, which I was told it was going to do since it falls into the GenED category of "Creative Thought".
Their has been other courses too, however, if you want to inspire me to think creatively, let me create my own blog and express myself to the world. Allow me to learn how to use Google Wave a real time platform that allows team members spread across the country or globe to work together, edit, revise, brainstorm, debate and finalize all in real time on project they must present a conference in New Orleans next week...
There are so many valuable tools and platforms out there that few business students or professors at Plymouth know about. This has to change. If Plymouth State University doesn't embrace and educate students about social media and the tools they can use to sort through the vast amount of information it will be the institution that has failed to serve it's students.
This is a huge opportunity for Plymouth State University to set itself apart from UNH, Keene and the majority of schools in New England!
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**For anyone who made it this far, and is interested in continuing this discussion MAPS is** hosting a SOCIAL MEDIA PANEL DISCUSSION here at Plymouth State University this Thursday, April 1 6PM in Boyd 144!
Join Erica Murphy Director of Communications & Community Relations for the Common Man Family of Restaurants, Judi Window of 311 Consulting and Jeff McPherson of SilverTech who will educate you about how businesses are harnessing the power of social media! Hope to see you there!
I think PSU should definitely pursue putting some Social Media Classes in their curriculum. However being that Social Media is still so young, how many other universities have put those classes in their curriculum? There should be some feedback on how those classes have been if they have done it before a school like Plymouth decides to institute it.
ReplyDeleteGriff-
ReplyDeleteGreat point, even though social media is still young it is developing faster than any other technology out there--Facebook received 100million users in 9months. It took the internet 4 yrs to reach 50million users-incredible!
Thank you for reminding me too! I meant to post this this link. It is an example of five schools who are currently educating or giving students credit for engaging in social media!
http://blog.thekbuzz.com/2010/03/5-schools-paving-the-way-in-social-media-education.html
This point is well taken. In all my years in business and higher education I have never seen anything take off so fast and become so critically important as social network marketing has. I only became aware of it last September and I purchased my copy of Socialnomics (Kindle version) in mid-October. Erik Qualman is about the closest expert on this topic I personally know of, and truthfully there are no textbooks on the topic yet, although I did see that Amazon is carrying several "Dummies" books on social network marketing and related social media.
ReplyDeleteI took the first steps towards having a course in social network marketing two weeks ago when I assigned the task of designing and offering a course to three College of Business Administration (CoBA) faculty. My challenge to them was to have the course ready for a first offering by the start of Spring semester 2011. It will be under the heading BU3050 ST: Social Network Marketing.
My one regret is that by the time I realized the need for this course, it was too late to put it in the Fall 2010 schedule.
Sincerely,
Dr. Boggess
Trent E. Boggess, Ph.D.
Dean
College of Business Administration
Plymouth State University
Plymouth, NH 03264
trentb@plymouth.edu
Trent-
ReplyDeleteThank you for the update, I'm glad that a course is being put in place! Who are the professor working on this--I wouldn't mind adding my two cents.
Another "expert" on social media who's book I just finished is Dan Zarrella author of "the social media marketing book".
I don't believe there needs to be a textbook about SMM-I wouldn't buy it-that's why we have SM! If the course used books such as Qualmans and Zarrella's to educate students on the topic first and then sent students out into the SM world having them first create a social media strategy they plan to use as they launch their own blog and connect their thoughts and ideas on their blog to the world through Facebook, Twitter, Digg, SumbleUpon etc.
Sites such as Mashable could also be used as an "industry" guide to catch up on the latest SM happenings!
-Adam
Also, webinars are a great and FREE way to learn about social media. As a member of the AMA I get emails daily inviting me to join webinars about social media.
ReplyDeleteIf you become a fan of "theKbuzz: social media and word of mouth marketing" on facebook you will have access to exclusive content for "fans only" w/in this are at least a dozen FREE webinars on the topic of social media marketing!