From public relations in social media to the potential marketing power of “mommy bloggers,” colleges and universities are offering graduate-level certificates focusing on the business side of Twitter, Facebook, and a host of other sites that draw Americans from every demographic.
Social media courses have sprung up on college campuses as social media web sites—once seen as a virtual playground for bored college students—have become central to marketing campaigns, branding items, and communication with customers, group members, and alumni, for example.
Drury University [1] in Springfield, Miss., announced this month that it would join a handful of schools nationwide offering social media certificates geared for graduate students and business professionals hoping to learn the latest in Facebook and Twitter-based marketing and how search engine optimization can bring more web users to a company’s web site.
Drury’s Social Media Certification Program [2] will run from June 5-20 with 11-hour sessions on six of those days and shorter workshops during the rest of the two-week class. The certification also will be offered via webinar. Deltina Hay, author of A Survival Guide to Social Media and Web 2.0 Optimization [3], will run the web-based courses, according to the university’s announcement.
“Social media classes are a whole heck of a lot more than understanding how Facebook functions,” said Curt Gilstrap, director of Drury University’s social media certification program. “A while back, some people might have thought it’s just a fresh technology and it will be gone tomorrow … but I think most people know that’s not the case now.”