Community College Journal - December 2011/January 2012

Community
College Journal
digital edition

This spring, the same team of students will execute that marketing plan, develop ads for Facebook, launch a blog, and handle promotion using the popular Google Ad Words application.

“We want our students to walk out of here with hands-on, real-world experience,” says Uttech of the college’s social media marketing program.

Local employers so far are impressed. “Already, we’ve seen a great response from the business community,” says Uttech.

A handful of MATC graduates have secured jobs in social media. One graduate who had previously worked in traditional marketing accepted a position as social media manager at his firm. He credited his MATC certification with helping him land the job.

In less than a year, the college has gone from offering one section of its social media campaigns course to five.

Administrators plan to offer social media courses in different formats, including online and blended (a mixture of online and in-person) instruction. “We’re looking at emerging trends, such as mobile marketing,” explains Uttech. “It’s a fascinating area we want to do more in.”

Going Viral

MATC isn’t the only community college to delve into social media career training.

In You Tube parlance, social media careers
are “going viral.”
A successful Social Media Manager
Certification course at Sandhills Com-
munity College (SCC) in North Carolina
prompted instructor David Blide to lobby
for more. Though SCC is a rural college,
Senior Director of Business and Indus-
try Services Alan Duncan says there are
plenty of local opportunities for social
media experts, even more so in nearby
Raleigh.

That’s the point. “We want the certifi-
cate to be something students can use to
find a job,” says Blide. SCC’s Social Media
Manager course focuses on social media
for small businesses.

The field is constantly evolving. And
Blide says few people know how to do the
work. “It’s such a dynamic industry. My
goal is to teach strategies more than actual
applications.”
Students at Cincinnati State Technical
and Community College in Ohio can en-
roll in an Institute for Social Media (ISM).

In 2010, the college’s Workforce Devel-
opment Center formed an advisory coun-
cil of social media professionals, including
experts from blue-chip employers such as
Procter & Gamble, to develop programs.
One of ISM’s offerings, Marketing
for Social Media Certification, requires
students to spend three eight-hour days
learning about
social media and
mobile marketing.
They then must
pass a final exam be-
fore obtaining their
certification.
Project Manager
Jim Kleemeier says
the program is built
for people who see
social media as an
important aspect of their career. “It’s not
a lunch-and-learn program; there is lots of
rigor,” he explains.

ISM also offers Business Development: Selling 2.0, a two-day course for sales professionals, entrepreneurs, and executives. A third class—a three-hour workshop on human resources and legal issues—will begin next year.

At Washtenaw Community College (WCC) in Michigan, social media-related classes focus on professional development and personal enrichment. “We offered a class on making a personal Facebook page, but we found that people wanted to learn how to use social media to promote their business,” says Nancy Howard, program manager of WCC’s LifeLong Learning division.