I’ve taught a Social Media Strategies class four times at Drake University, the first one in spring 2014. And I’m offering it up three more times:
- Summer 2014 online
- Fall 2014 on campus
- January Term 2015 on campus
And that’s likely it. With curriculum changes on the horizon, I’m not sure we’ll be able to offer the class again. So now’s your chance to sign up, Drake students.
Not sure if this class is for you? Here are seven cool things that have happened in the class.
1. We found Chad Stephens. OK, so we didn’t really figure out who was behind the fake Twitter account and student senate write-in candidate. But we learned a lot about social media forensics in the process.
2. We went viral. Students Nick Rogers, Linley Sanders, Katie Ramsey, Mark Reiter and Sumit Sen in the 2014 J-term class created this viral video (with 1,500+ views) of Drake celebrities reading #drakeproblem Tweets.
3. We told a little t-shirt shop in the East Village about Instagram. Yep, in spring 2012 Raygun was Instagram-less. Sarah Coffey, Emily Lee, Christine Setsodi and Seejo Valacheril made the case for Raygun to join Instagram as part of their final class project. Raygun owner Mike Draper agreed, and now Instagram is one of their most successful platforms.
4. We earned a badge. Foursquare may not be as popular as it was in 2012, but 2012 happened to be the year they ran a contest to earn your city an official Foursquare badge. And guess which Drake University class made sure Des Moines was the winner?
5. We made a one-second video. The fall 2013 class wanted to show off what life was really like at Drake University. They did so by getting students from across campus to submit short videos – and edited them all together into this video called Drake Unfiltered.
6. We helped Porterhouse spread his message. The spring 2013 class jumped on another Drake student’s mission to get Drake’s late live mascot Porterhouse on The Ellen Show. And while Porterhouse never made it on Ellen before passing in December 2013, the Facebook page grew to 2,600+ likes and helped him grow his celebrity and raise awareness about puppy mills.
7. We adopted a new app – and its founder. Each semester, we test out at least one new social network to see if it has long-term potential. During the 2014 J-term, the students were testing out a location-based messaging app called Popcorn. The students contacted the app’s creator and had him Skype into class (twice!). For the final class project, groups presented ways that Popcorn could leverage other social networks to grow in popularity.
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What will you do in the class? Come learn how to build social media campaigns that help businesses make money, that help organizations spread their message and that help you get your dream job. You’ll get the skills necessary to work full-time in social media.
Questions? E-mail chris.snider@drake.edu.