Hurst Class Catalog: Social Media Marketing

Mairead Stewart, Contributing writer

As the people of the world continue to adapt to new waves of technology, education must change too. Mercyhurst now offers a course all about the concept of social media and how it is changing new generations.

The class is led by Kaitlyn Nelson, who was a marketing major here 15 years ago.

“My approach has been to overview how tech has evolved, how Social Media impacts the way that people communicate and how consumers interact with brands. We’ve really focused on looking at big picture messages and breaking them down into segments so that we can apply theory to this ever-evolving way of doing business,” said Nelson.

The class follows the textbook “Social Media Marketing,” but especially peculiar materials include actual social media apps and articles that are handpicked for the students.

Junior Carlos Cueva is just one lucky scholar who is currently enrolled in the course.“One important thing I’ve taken from the course so far is the concept of targeted segmentation. It is really interesting how accurate and efficient social media marketing can be through identifying targeted audiences,” said Cueva.

Looking at the current syllabus, Nelson provides 3 exams and 4 quizzes that are high scoring, so there is no room for error. Surprisingly, taking notes on laptops and tablets is discouraged. Students are encouraged to steer away from machinery with the old-fashioned pencil and paper.

“When I studied Marketing at Mercyhurst 15 years ago, there were 4 P’s – product, price, place, and promotion. Since the evolution of social media, there has been a 5th P identified: Participation. There are so many avenues that [this] could be studied from… content production and operations, analytics, social responsibility and ethics, and graphics. Social Media is its own language of sorts in Marketing, now, and the possibilities are endless of how to study it,” said Nelson.

Having Laker alumni teaching this course provides an insight into how things used to be on campus. This insight is necessary and refreshing when dealing with such relatively new ways in which the world works. As this new door of education is opening at the Hurst, one may ask who should look into adding this to their schedule over their time here?

Nelson fully recommends that marketing students take this course, considering the current marketing landscape. This is a perfect course for one to keep updating marketing techniques. With everything being promoted through social media nowadays, this is a must-take course.