Saturday, October 3, 2009

Social Media Marketing Training Needed Now!


Image by Say It Social

As the global recession wears on—cash-strapped companies continue to slash marketing, advertising, and public relations budgets and positions—with one highly notable exception—businesses spending on social media marketing has skyrocketed and continues to escalate at an unprecedented rate. The movement to social media has quite simply become a stampede, with social networks such as Facebook recently topping 300 million users, LinkedIn surpassing 40 million users, and Twitter, with 23.6 million users, grew by 900% over the last year!

According to the 2009 Digital Readiness Report, “…most organizations are considering hiring social media specialists.” However, despite the urgent, massive and growing need by business for social media marketing specialists, the number of people being educated in social media marketing falls far short of demand. Unfortunately, universities and community colleges have been slow to create social media marketing courses to meet this seemingly recession-proof career, leaving a vast educational vacuum and incredible opportunity for a forward thinking institutions to fill this gaping hole.

7 comments:

  1. What an interesting and informative post! I totally agree that we need more classes in social media marketing, thank you for raising this issue!

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  2. Your blog is full of useful information and you made an excellent point about more education is needed in the area of social media marketing. I think all college/university presidents need to read this blog! Way to go!

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  3. I think training for social media sites is a great idea. Promoting a company isn't as easy as one may think. Such sites like facebook has many tools that not everyone is aware of, and learning what a site that over 101 million are a member of could give you quite the exposure.

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  4. I have great news! I will be teaching a social media course online this summer and in the fall. If you are interested, let me know and I will provide details.

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  5. I think that your blog was very interesting and educational,I never new that the demand for social media skills had gotten to be so large.To me it seem to an almost must for schools to take a closer look at this need.

    In one article I read that social networing,blogging and micro- blogging were the 3 most important skills looked for in new hires.Also that it seems to be recession proof is a big plus.Great blog

    Samuel Phelps

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  6. I really do not think that you would need social media or social networking degrees. I think having one class in the core for a business degree or marketing degree would be fine. However, I do think that having an understanding of how social networking/media works is going to be essential for future generations.

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  7. Agreed. A Social Media Marketing Certificate should be sufficient, if well designed and taught.

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