The required reading for my social media class is Putting the PR back in Public Relations. This book looks specifically at the social media revolution and how public relations practitioners should embrace the revolution. It talks of how the old model of public relations is overused and annoying at times. The book encourages readers to embrace social media and understand that it is taking the place of traditional public relations.
The second part of the class involves practical social media experience. The class is split into teams and assigned local businesses. These businesses have agreed to partner with the class in order to develop a social media plan and see it implemented. This allows for students to have a hands-on experience in social media. They are encouraged to promote across multiple social media platforms, however they are also encouraged to do only what the client wishes. Students will be graded based off of reasonable quantitative and qualitative goals set by the professor.
Due to the structure of the class, the professor also offered up the floor to topics that students would like to see covered in the course. Students asked for things such as Landing Pages, QR Codes, Location based Services, Google +, and YouTube. I have suggested Inbound Marketing, Video Optimization (with SEO), and will be teaching the part on Twitter. This is unique because it’s fulfilling what students know they need to know more about in order to succeed in social media.
sethfendley 