Ohio Professor Teaches Smart Social Media Practices

With the increasing prevalence of employers using social media to screen potential employees, the need for smarter use of social media has grown. Dr. Leslie Rasmussen, a professor at Ohio, teaches a course on Social Media Strategies and covers with students some of the dos and don’ts of online conduct. Dr. Rasmussen says that before posting comments, students should think about how their parents would react if they read them. Any pictures that show alcohol should be edited to remove that element, and bad or vulgar language should be purged from students’ pages.

Students are asked to picture their profiles as a commercial and to think about the best way they can market themselves. The professor asks students to describe their personal brand in six words. As for what content should be posted onto social media, she says if it is not engaging, informative, or entertaining, it probably does not need to be posted.

One senior student described his brand as “inspiring and empathetic”. His profile picture reflects this: it is a photo of his mother, his inspiration. Pages like this are an example of social media done right.

Courses like this teach awareness and self-monitoring skills that will become ever more valuable as the prevalence of social media and its impact on employment continue to grow.

Source: https://www.news5cleveland.com/news/state/professor-teaches-students-things-you-should-and-shouldnt-post-on-social-media

5 thoughts on “Ohio Professor Teaches Smart Social Media Practices

  1. I think that this is a great idea for colleges to start implementing, especially since hiring agents are looking at applicants’ social media profiles in addition to resumes and cover letters. The College of Comm has held a class similar to this, COMM 197. In this class, Dean Marie Hardin taught students the importance of building their individual online brands. I took this class in Fall 2017, and I was taught about the relevance of my online identity and what posts will damage my potential of getting hired by brands. We spent several weeks going over what to post, when to post, and what kind of posts should be avoided. We also had an entire unit on the proper use of LinkedIn as a way to develop a professional way to market ourselves.
    While this class was great for students studying communications, other students in different colleges could still benefit from a class like this one. I think that the realm of social media is still being learned by professionals – a quick trip to Twitter can tell you that – so I think that implementing an entire course dedicated to social media strategies is something that PSU should definitely work on to set students apart from the rest.
    https://www.collegian.psu.edu/news/campus/article_a8425db4-5dd6-11e6-b643-f7a3935cde40.html

  2. When reading about how students were told to describe their personal brand, it made me think about how in today’s generation a lot of people are doing this when becoming involved in influencer marketing. Having good and clean social media isn’t just helpful for finding jobs and looking professional for potential employers as you described in your post. It can actually help you market yourself and help you make money on the side. With the increasing use of technology as the years go by, influencer marketing has been extremely popular and companies have definitely put more of a focus on it. “Influencers must be trusted figures within a niche community and retain a loyal following,” and by maintaining a professional Instagram a person becomes more trustworthy and it is more likely their audience will want to listen to what they have to say about products (Mathew). Although we see this a lot on our newsfeeds and it can sometimes be annoying to be constantly hearing about products from people we follow, before this, advertisements from the company itself were one of the only ways we heard about products. Influencer marketing actually promotes authenticity and I find it very interesting when people market themselves this way as opposed to marketing themselves for potential employers.

    Mathew, Joel. “Understanding Influencer Marketing And Why It Is So Effective.” Forbes, Forbes Magazine, 30 July 2018, http://www.forbes.com/sites/theyec/2018/07/30/understanding-influencer-marketing-and-why-it-is-so-effective/#65126c8271a9.

  3. I think this course is very smart to be implemented in a curriculum and I think if Penn State were to adopt something like this it would be very popular. Social Media is such a powerful tool in todays world and is really a functional point in everything we do. Although social media can be so beneficial to everyone, it also has some very dark linings as well. Social media can ruin your life if you aren’t responsible with it and thats why its very important for people, especially young people, to know exactly how it works and what the safe practices are. This is even more prevalent when discussing the use of it in the job market. According to CareerBuilder, about 70% of companies are going through and checking candidates social media profiles before they hire. This is a large majority of companies so it is definitely a very important practice to know how to use. Kids do need to be more conscious with what they do on social media and I think a class like this would help very much with that.
    https://www.careerbuilder.com/advice/social-media-survey-2017

  4. I think this course is very smart to be implemented in a curriculum and I think if Penn State were to adopt something like this it would be very popular. Social Media is such a powerful tool in todays world and is really a functional point in everything we do. Although social media can be so beneficial to everyone, it also has some very dark linings as well. Social media can ruin your life if you aren’t responsible with it and thats why its very important for people, especially young people, to know exactly how it works and what the safe practices are. This is even more prevalent when discussing the use of it in the job market. According to CareerBuilder, about 70% of companies are going through and checking candidates social media profiles before they hire. This is a large majority of companies so it is definitely a very important practice to know how to use. Kids do need to be more conscious with what they do on social media and I think a class like this would help very much with that.

  5. This course is definitely something that wouldn’t have been around even a few years ago. However, social media is becoming more and more relevant in our society. Companies, charities, and colleges alike are all relying on social media as a source to advertise, spread their missions, and educate people. As someone planning to go into social media marketing as a career, and as a student who spent the past few months applying to internships, social media has become incredibly relevant to my own life. I recall teachers and other adults in my life telling me to be careful about what I put on the internet when I was young, but I believe this course goes to the level that it needs to be. How you behave on social media speaks a lot about you to people, especially employers. Social Intelligence Corporation background checks have the ability to look into the dark web and see things you post online everywhere. This could mean that even if you post something on a website you think is secure, your boss could find it. https://www.thebalancecareers.com/social-media-background-checks-2059605

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