If you have ever done any teaching you know that very often you come away from the experience with a greater clarity. Teaching what you know ingrains it even deeper within you. You often learn things you had no idea you even knew you needed to learn.
I am just starting a semester social media class at the University of Findlay. It’s a senior seminar where I’m the Professional In Residence. It’s a new program the university is offering.
The first class was last night. I’m happy to say it started even better than I anticipated.
The premise of the class is that the students are building a complete social media presence for the Communications Department of the school. It’s a completely hands-on course.
Last night we had our kick-off meeting. We met with the client… the head of the department and the head of digital media.
The students ran the entire meeting.
And this is where I was taken to school.
You see, I love the revolutionary aspect of social media. It’s a total grass roots, from the bottom up, media. It’s greatness is that it gives people a voice who would have otherwise had no voice at all. I always root for the underdog. So social media is an especially favorite tool of mine.
If this had been a kick off meeting at SageRock there would have been no way in hell I would have let the college interns run the meeting. Could you imagine doing that? Could you imagine going into a brand new client and telling the client that a few 19 year olds would be running their complete campaign? Oh and by the way, don’t worry. They’ve never done this before, they have no experience and actually, they just started with our company an hour ago.
But because this is a class and not an official client, that’s exactly what I did.
I’m here to tell you, the experience was mind blowing.
These students asked such hard questions that the clients had to leave the room to go find the answers.
The ideas they had for the client were completely interesting and highly creative.
But they aren’t going to just start plowing away at a social media campaign. As the professionals they are, they will first be researching what other colleges are doing. Because, you know, you don’t need to reinvent the wheel.
They came up with all this themselves.
Have you ever used the phrase “breath taking?” I used it last night because they literally took my breath away.
I could not believe what I was seeing.
These young people were starting to put together one of the best marketing strategies I had ever witnessed.
These are people that have no voice. And no agency is going to give them a voice any time soon.
And here they are coming up with the smartest questions and soundest strategies I had ever seen put together for any campaign. I’ve seen a lot of strategies come across my desk.
I consider myself a trusting person. But I have limits. Today I’m questioning those limits.
These young people were stellar. They were the incarnation of everything that is good about social media. They were fresh, excited, serious and innovative. They reminded me of the power that comes from the bottom.
The people at the top have a careful fear that stilts creative thought.
These kids weren’t reckless. But they were definitely open. They have something to say and it’s worth hearing.
The people at the top just need to let them say it.
News By:
sagerock.com
I am just starting a semester social media class at the University of Findlay. It’s a senior seminar where I’m the Professional In Residence. It’s a new program the university is offering.
The first class was last night. I’m happy to say it started even better than I anticipated.
The premise of the class is that the students are building a complete social media presence for the Communications Department of the school. It’s a completely hands-on course.
Last night we had our kick-off meeting. We met with the client… the head of the department and the head of digital media.
The students ran the entire meeting.
And this is where I was taken to school.
You see, I love the revolutionary aspect of social media. It’s a total grass roots, from the bottom up, media. It’s greatness is that it gives people a voice who would have otherwise had no voice at all. I always root for the underdog. So social media is an especially favorite tool of mine.
If this had been a kick off meeting at SageRock there would have been no way in hell I would have let the college interns run the meeting. Could you imagine doing that? Could you imagine going into a brand new client and telling the client that a few 19 year olds would be running their complete campaign? Oh and by the way, don’t worry. They’ve never done this before, they have no experience and actually, they just started with our company an hour ago.
But because this is a class and not an official client, that’s exactly what I did.
I’m here to tell you, the experience was mind blowing.
These students asked such hard questions that the clients had to leave the room to go find the answers.
The ideas they had for the client were completely interesting and highly creative.
But they aren’t going to just start plowing away at a social media campaign. As the professionals they are, they will first be researching what other colleges are doing. Because, you know, you don’t need to reinvent the wheel.
They came up with all this themselves.
Have you ever used the phrase “breath taking?” I used it last night because they literally took my breath away.
I could not believe what I was seeing.
These young people were starting to put together one of the best marketing strategies I had ever witnessed.
These are people that have no voice. And no agency is going to give them a voice any time soon.
And here they are coming up with the smartest questions and soundest strategies I had ever seen put together for any campaign. I’ve seen a lot of strategies come across my desk.
I consider myself a trusting person. But I have limits. Today I’m questioning those limits.
These young people were stellar. They were the incarnation of everything that is good about social media. They were fresh, excited, serious and innovative. They reminded me of the power that comes from the bottom.
The people at the top have a careful fear that stilts creative thought.
These kids weren’t reckless. But they were definitely open. They have something to say and it’s worth hearing.
The people at the top just need to let them say it.
News By:
sagerock.com
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