Watch out MBA graduates, there is a new kid in town – the Masters of Social Media. You may have gone to graduate school for marketing, but these students are experts in social networking, possess an untouchable friend base on Facebook and can Tweet like no body’s business.
These are the future graduates of Birmingham City University’s new master’s program in social media.
The masters program is set to launch next year and includes a one year course in social media, teaching students how to use social networking sites as marketing and communication skills. This program may be of special interest to students with an undergraduate degree in journalism, communications, marketing or public relations.
It’s not surprising that this day would come where a degree would be offered in social networking. Using social media to grow business, improve branding and reach out to customers is starting to play a bigger role in marketing plans and many online advertisers are using the power of social networking to bring in more revenue.
I wonder, however, if paying $6,239 U.S. dollars to learn how to optimize Sites like Twitter and Facebook is really worth it. Social networking sites were created as spaces for people to connect and network, so they were designed to be user-friendly and simple to understand. Then when you do have a question on how to use something, there are forums and user guides posted on search engines and other networking sites that you can read or download for free.
While I sound like a bit of a killjoy here, I do think it is an interesting concept. I think the same benefits could be attained by offering this as a single course within another degree, such as journalism or marketing. I’d be interested to know where they will find the social media experts that are more knowledgeable than their students who have been using social networking for years.
