so this is mass communication?

During this weekend’s social media conference, UGA Connect, there was a good discussion in the last session about how to incorporate social media into the PR curriculum. This was probably the most interactive session of dialogue, so I wish more folks didn’t have to run to the airport & miss it. (You can always catch the audio of it if you have time).

Constantin Basturea doesen’t think you need a class in social media. Well, I’m teaching one right now, but I agree with the sentiment. Not because there isn’t enough to cover (trust me, there is …) but because I think social media should be naturally put into every class.

So educators, here you go. Here are some ideas for making your traditional PR classes a little more social:

• Use a Google Doc or wiki for group assignments in any class - we all have assignments where we make students work in groups. Rather than have them fight about which version of the Microsoft Word doc is the most recent version of their work, encourage them to use a wiki or Google doc where they can all collaborate on the document & not get things all messed up. Expert resource: Kaye Sweetser (me!)

• SMPR for PR Writing - have students write a social media press release. They can use free tools like PRXBuilder to format the content & you can grade them on their selection of quotes & integration of multimedia. Expert resources: SHIFT Communication, Todd Defren, Brian Solis, Google group on SMPR
  

• Engage (pitch to) bloggers for PR Writing, Campaigns - have students research a blogger to engage (you/they pick the client). Students should find an influential blogger who blogs about the industry related to the client or someone who might be otherwise interested. Have the students write YOU (obviously not the blogger since it is an assignment!) an e-mail to start a conversation with the blogger — this isn’t the old world pitch, but it is the closest thing we have to it in social media PR. Be careful not to try to push content on the blogger & do show that blogger that the company spokesperson is familiar with the blog & content. There are lots of do’s and don’ts for this so read up on them before you introduce the assignment. Consider integrating ethical codes of social media engagement into the learning as well. Expert resources: Kevin Dugan, Josh Hallett
  

• Twitter for Intro, Campaigns, PR Writing - have students all Twitter together (for Intro it could be for fun, for Campaigns it could be during the event the team planned, for Writing it could be for a class client) for 48 hours. I did this in my social media class & my students twittered in the normal personal fashion for 2 days - at least once every 12-hour period. They had to “follow” (in the official Twitter fashion) the rest of the classmates. By the end of the assignment they were tweeting from mobile devices & replying to each other’s tweets. Expert resources: Todd Defren, Paull Young
  

• Analyze social media conversation for Research Methods, Campaigns: have your class identify a number of social media content producers (bloggers, podcasts, Flickr’ed tags of your product/company) & do old fashioned media analysis. What are people saying? On the organization’s blog, what is the post-to-comment ratio? Expert resources: Constantin Basturea, KD Paine
  

• Podcast for PR Writing, Campaigns - have students record a podcast episode that the client might post on the org site. Some of us make them write radio spots or broadcast copy anyway, so this assignment isn’t too far flung. Lots of tips: be conversational, provide information focusing on the industry & not just your org (heck, why not even just leave your company out of the whole conversation & not mention your company at all?!), give a human voice to the org (interview staff & have a fun convo). The best lesson to learn from this is that podcasting is cheap & easy — but only if you give a little thought about what you can provide your potential publics. Expert resources: Shel Holtz, Neville Hobson
  

• Write an company blog post for PR Writing, Intro, Campaigns - have students compose a short, human-face-giving blog post that a company might have on the official blog. Don’t focus on the company unless you’re soliciting feedback. There are a lot of tips out there for doing it RIGHT, so read up on it before you go into class. Expert resources: Shel Israel, Robert Scoble
  

• Social bookmarking analysis in PR Writing, Campaigns, Research Methods - show off social bookmarking tools like del.icio.us. Why use this rather than normal bookmarks? Because you can share them with friends (no more having to send links!) or have access to them anywhere - not just the computer you physically bookmarked the page on. For higher level classes you could analyze the “play” or bounce of a press release or news story. Expert resource: Constantin Basturea
  

• Social media spotlight of the day/week in any class - at the beginning of any class (Intro would even be the best) showcase one particular social media tool to the class. In my social media class we started Skype’ing in experts to answer a few questions for about 10 minutes, but you don’t need to do anything fancy. If you’re nervous about coming up with or explaining the tech - then make it an assignment where a different student has to research & present the tool to the class.

There are tons more things you can do with social media in the traditional PR curriculum by playing with YouTube, Flickr & getting more in-depth with podcasting … but these are easy little steps that really are simple extensions of assignments you probably already give. I tried to keep the technology needs (use of video or audio recording equipment) minimal for the most part. Also, don’t miss Christine Goodman’s post about learning social media in small steps.

Constantin promised to create some wiki space where educators could share lesson plans, assignments & even get the Society for New Communications Research fellows involved by posting “instructional videos” profs could show in their classes.

Now for my soapbox: The excuse that “we don’t have enough time” to learn about social media technology or to keep up with it isn’t good enough. Here is a reason:

It. Is. Our. Job.

Your turn. Any other ideas? Please share in the comment section.

UPDATE: I should have mentioned that for some of these assignments I actually have assignment handouts (write org blog post, engage blogger, write SMPR) that I am more than willing to share with anyone. [7:18 p.m.]

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