This week, our class was asked to respond to PRSSA’s monthly blog prompt which is something they just recently started doing. The prompt reads as follows:
More and more colleges and universities are instilling social media and digital marketing classes. Have you taken one of these classes? What did you learn? If you haven’t taken one of these classes or if your college doesn’t offer them, what do you wish professors would teach about the digital world?
Since I transferred to Central Washington University, I have yet to take a class that specifically focuses on the use of social media. I’ve taken plenty of classes that relate the course material back to social media or have asked me to use social media as a means of sharing work I’ve done, however, none were geared towards teaching students how to actually use social media.
In today’s world, anyone can “Google” a name and anything related to that name will most likely pop up like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, and more. A lot of companies looking to hire new people will conduct a search of a potential interviewee’s name and see what kinds of images or posts pop up. If those images or posts are inappropriate or cast a negative light on themselves, nine out of ten times the company won’t even bother calling the potential employee. Companies don’t want to waste time on someone who is posting photos of themselves in a revealing Halloween costume, or out drinking at a party. When you work for a company you are representing them at all times whether it be on the clock or off the clock. People need to realize what you post on the internet stays on the internet even if you delete it from your profile, someone could have saved it and reposted it somewhere else without you event knowing.
The majority of college students today have multiple profiles through different social media sites meaning they already know how posting and sharing and each individual site works. However, I think social media classes that are being offered need to teach students how to create professional profiles and posts. As mentioned earlier, a lot of employers get information about someone through the internet meaning that students, especially those looking for jobs, need to think about what they post before they post things. They need to clean up things they might have said or posted in the past and realize that certain things could potentially jeopardize your future.
I think one good way to teach students these things would be for the professor to act as if the students work for a specific company and create a fake crisis and see how the students would respond if they were in the position in the real world within the specific company. I think students could really benefit from a scenario like that. Although I haven’t taken a class specifically geared towards the usage of social media, I think professors need to stress the importance of creating a professional profile and professional posts.
http://progressions.prssa.org/index.php/2014/05/14/may-2014-progressions-writing-prompt/
Taylor Vallee 