What did you Major in? Social Media?

Carrie Schmelkin : Gossip from the Hallways
Carrie Schmelkin
Web Editor, TMC

What did you Major in? Social Media?

West Virginia University is taking academia world by storm as the school recently announced that it is offering students the chance to receive a certificate in “Social Media for Business,” a certificate which one could argue is quickly becoming more valuable than a BA.

To obtain the “Social Media for Business” certificate, which is available after completing online courses, students must complete a variety of courses including “Introduction to Social Media,” in which participants learn about the foundation of social media, making goals and how to measure and apply them; “Marketing Using Social Media,” in which students learn how to use social media methods to get a message out about their company; and “Integrating Social Media in Your Organization,” in which participants are taught how to create their own social network, the basics of using video and mobile, assigning roles in their organization and time allocation.

While West Virginia University is certainly not the only school to offer such social media certifications, the college is certainly paving the way for other colleges who have yet not made a splash in this space.

Although colleges are taking the right step in offering social media certificates, they ought to take it a step further and make it possible to major in social media as an undergrad. (I have yet to find a college that lets its students major in social media but please correct me if I am wrong).

While at first it may seem strange to think about majoring in social media in college, it is exactly where the world is heading. From Facebook to Twitter to LinkedIn, cyberspace is rife with social media sites. And these sites are no longer just homes for senseless personal tweets and insignificant Facebook status updates.

Conversely, social media has rapidly become a new hotspot for enterprises and SMBs alike. CEOs are clamoring to find ways to use social media as their prominent marketing tool and, moreover, they are looking for talented employees who know how to bring social media to the enterprise. Imagine how much social media majors could help out with this. 

In today’s world, the employee who can complete all of his/her tasks, help team members accomplish their tasks and figure out the best way for the company to crack into social media has a leg up on the others. So let’s call upon our colleges to help prepare our students for what their future job will demand of them. Let’s witness the graduation of finance, psychology and journalism majors alongside social media majors.

 

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