Tuesday, July 6, 2010

Summer in San Diego - and Blogging!

Here we are for another summer quarter of Marketing via New Media at UCSD Extension. I am so excited to have this group of students. Each session brings new faces, new questions, and new case studies to review. So much has changed since I first started teaching this class.

My very first quarter teaching this class, 3 summers ago, I asked the class how many were on Twitter. No hands went up. How many on Facebook? About 50% of the hands went up. How many blogging? One. How many on MySpace. A handful.  How about last week, the first class of the new quarter?

How many students were on Twitter - about 60%
How many on Facebook? I think just about all hands went up (one or two may not have)
How many blogging? A handful
How many on MySpace? No one was willing to admit this!

Times certainly have changed - from a technology perspective. However, this class does not focus on just technology. We look at the strategy of building customer relationships via social media. That strategy does not change! This is one of the main reasons that I use Groundswell by Charlene Li and Josh Bernoff as my course textbook. It has a solid footing in the strategy of social media - not just the cool, new technologies.

I am also using Crush It! by Gary Vaynerchuk as a course textbook. Gary has a definite passion for customer relationships, and I want my students to experience that passion. Gary will be a guest lecturer via Skype our last week of class; get ready for some thunder!

3 comments:

Social Media Expert said...

Teaching social media is quite a challenging task as it is a ever changing field and needs a lot of dynamism. Wish to attend such a class some day.

Unknown said...

Yes, it is challenging; my slides constantly need to be updated on the tools-side. We talk about more than tools and technology; we discuss the strategy and how to connect with customers.

There will be an online version of this class offered starting in a few weeks if you want to take it!

social media melbourne said...

Social media is related to advertisement to real people, via twitter and facebook, we are announcing our product, service, article to those people who don't know about them or searching for some new and unique.