Lessons from Teaching Social Media & Blogging

I just came across a blog post by David Meerman Scott, author of the New Rules of Marketing and PR, about how social media has enabled authors to connect with the students who are reading their books.

I must admit, this new phenomenon has been one of the most unexpected and most exciting aspects of teaching this class. What has been even more remarkable is the speed at which these connections have been established. I think that Jackie Huba contacted us roughly a week after first launching the class blog, and it wasn't long afterward that Paul Gillin started commenting on some of the student blogs. Since then we have had people from all walks of life drop by our blogs (and sometimes even our class):

• corporate bloggers
• CEOs
• student bloggers from other universities
• professors from other universities
  
• people/organizations we examined as case studies in class
• internship supervisors
• and even parents!

I guess when you teach a social media class, you should expect to take the discussion outside your classroom walls, but I never imagined getting this level of interest from people outside academe.