Guess Who’s Teaching Social Media at the University of Iowa?


August 23, 2012

Every now and then I toss a post up here that jumps the tracks from our usual conversation on the intersection of branding and social media. I wanted to do that today to tell you a bit about a new adventure I’m embarking upon. This week, I began a new adjunct role on the faculty of the University of Iowa’s Tippie College of Business teaching none other than social media marketing. 

Those who know me, know that I love to speak. In fact, as a student at Iowa years ago I was actually a theatre arts (and psychology) major so I’m excited to be at the front of the room. Make no mistake, this is a challenge too. Most talks I give are in the 45-minute range. This is two and a half hours. For 16 weeks.

However, in addition to planning this fall’s Social Brand Forum (more announcements there very soon, too) I’ve spent this summer in a sort of ‘content cocoon’ sequencing this course and building my own learning modules around social media marketing.

The topics we’ll cover will include an overview of social media and how to align social with your business goals and build your strategy using a favorite Rudyard Kipling poem as our organizing principle. We’ll talk about the two big Cs in social media — conversations and content — as well as what it means to build and be a part of a social media team. We’ll even tackle challenges in social media marketing such as how to handle a crisis, why it’s important to have policies internally, and measuring ROI.

I’m also planning deep dives into specific social networks such as Facebook, Twitter, Google+, Instagram, Pinterest, and more. Along the way we’ll also be joined by a few guests — some live and in-person from our community while others will Skype in from various exotic locales. Our texts for the course will be Likeable Social Media and The Now RevolutionI even have a couple projects planned to get the class out of the classroom and into the community.

Though it’s probably a long shot that you’ll audit the class, the best way to stay in touch with what I’m doing each week is to follow me on SlideShare where I’ll be posting most of my decks.

As a member of the advisory council for Tippie’s Marketing Institute and as a guest speaker at various courses on campus, I’ve always enjoyed getting social media content in front of its future practitioners one class at a time. The opportunity to build a semester-long exploration of one of the biggest game changers on the current media landscape promises to be both meaningful and a lot of fun.

As I start, what social media insights would you impart to marketing students today? What’s one thing they absolutely must know before tackling a career in social media marketing?

Photo via Flickr user Phil Roeder

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is a strategist, speaker, educator, and author of Brand Now: How to Stand Out in a Crowded, Distracted World and Get Scrappy: Smarter Digital Marketing for Businesses Big and Small. He is the Chief Brand Strategist at Brand Driven Digital, an educator at the University of Iowa, and host of the On Brand podcast. More about Nick.