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Teaching Social Media in Business Schools: What Needs to Be Covered?

Earlier this month, I attended the International Entrepreneurship Faculty Development Program at University of Colorado Denver. Rahim Fazal (@rahimthedream), a three-time company co-founder, spoke to us on how Facebook is transforming entrepreneurship. In Rahim’s words, social media has made significant impact on 5Cs --- conversations, collaboration, connectedness, content, and customization.

I agree with Rahim that social media has changed and is still changing the way people are doing business. It becomes obvious that social media must be included in business education. There are forward-thinking business schools offering courses on social media. To my knowledge, however, many of these classes are taught as a marketing course. That may make sense because social media can be very effective in relationship marketing, but I argue that social media is more than just sales or marketing. Human resources, for example, is another area that uses social media to a large extent. Accordingly, as much as I believe that companies must include every functional and operational department into consideration when developing their corporate social media strategy, I suggest that business schools also need to cover social media content in every related subject. Or, they should offer a social media course through a multidisciplinary lens. I myself teach social media as a personal and business communication tool in my social media class, in which B2C and marketing communication is discussed along with the C2C, B2B, C2B, B2G, G2B, G2C, and C2G communication.    

What important social media competences do you expect from college graduates? In which class(es) should business schools cover the social media content? If you believe that social media should be a standalone course, what should be taught in that class?  

Relevant discussions:

References:
The picture was downloaded from Customerrock.Wordpress.com

Comments

  1. Completely agree. Great perspective on the importance of including social media education across disciplines. Thanks for posting and for the discussion at UC Denver.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. My great pleasure. I truly enjoyed your presentation.

      Delete
  2. Hey Professor Kwok,
    I do a agree that social media is such a major part of every profession for many reason. One of the main reasons is that social media has the ability to make connections with people and by doing this they are able to start networking. Due to the fact that they are able to network with many different people, this will cause efficiency in the work place. But also, there may be a downside to this in the fact that social media sites are very distracting and may cause people to get away from their daily work tasks. Overall, i think social media is having a huge impact on everyones profession.
    Drew Ernst
    HPM 314

    ReplyDelete
  3. As social media is at its high I do agree how important it is in many aspects in the business world today. As Rahim mentioned, it has made a large impact on the 5 C's (conversations, collaboration, connectedness, content, and customization). Social media is great for making connections along with being a great marketing tool. We must keep in mind that what happens on the internet, stays on the internet and nothing is really private. Business schools should be educating those on social media not just for marketing and advertising but also for themselves. An employee can ruin a companies reputation based on how they put themselves out (or others) on the internet. This relates to HR when it comes down to interviews and employee selection, those who are not professional in the cyber world should not be representing a company.
    E. Ricco
    HPM 314

    ReplyDelete
  4. Social media is so important in this day and age that i think it would be a bad idea for classes on it not to be offered. I am minoring in marketing, and although we do talk about social media we never really go in to all the aspects that social media can be used- which is how i believe it should be.
    I think that because social media is so important and is such a large thing, it should have its own course. How to properly use it personally and professionally. There are so many different sites, for so many different purposes. Business students should take a social media to learn how to incorporate it into the business world. I agree with you that you that when a company makes a social media site they should take in mind all the departments in the company.
    Social Media is the new EVERYTHING not just marketing and advertising but also recruiting, hiring, networking and everyday business transactions

    -Tara Wyant HPM 314

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I would like to invite you to consider taking HPM 200 Social Media in Service Operations in the spring of 2013. I believe you will like that class.

      Delete

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