A new year, another semester will begin!
2022 is going to be a busy year, and this semester will be no different than the others I’ve had over the years. However, it will be different in one respect.
This is also going to be the very first time I will be teaching *only* social media classes. For the past few years, I have taught during the semester three different courses (we are on a 3/2 load at UofL), and this will be the first time I am going to be taking on two social media class sections (as we are going to be launching our StratComm and Social Media Minor this year!) and a graduate level social media class.
With a new year, this means new updates of course to follow and showcase for the classes. Social media constantly changes, so this means there will ALWAYS be updates and things to add and edit. However, what I have tried to do this year is keep things a bit more focused, but also experiment around with a few new things.
Amazing class clients. I am a big advocate for having real world clients for my social media classes. Exams and quizzes do only so much to test a student’s learning – but how will this play out beyond the classroom? Students are not going to be showing their midterm score as part of their portfolio. My rule of thumb is to have anything that is created in class to have life beyond the classroom. Whether it is a portfolio piece, or an item that can be used in an interview to position a student ahead of the rest of the candidates.
I am working again with the great team at Louisville Bats (six+ years running!) for my undergraduate social media class, and I will be working with Sun Tan City for my graduate social media class. I am really excited to be working with two great clients.
SMSC 2e will be used for the first time. This year will be the first time I will be using my latest edition of my social media book. I was putting the finishing touches on the book last year during this time, so it will be fun to see what the students think of the book. I had a chance to try out the lectures for my three new chapters last term, and they went over really well.
New certifications. This is especially key for my graduate course as it ties into strategic social media and influencer marketing. I am going to have my students do at least two (2) of the Meltwater Academy certifications. The graduate class will actually be doing a new assignment that ties into more influencer marketing for our class client, so these certifications will give students the opportunity to learn about the entire process that goes into an influencer marketing plan. I am having my undergraduate class do HubSpot’s social media marketing certification as part of their class.
New subject/lectures. This is always going to be part of the biggest updates for the classes. Going into NIL, NFTs, Metaverse, cryptocurrency, and many other items that seem to have emerged into the industry over the past year (social media is a constant prep since so much changes!) Lots of exciting areas to cover and discuss for sure!
New(ish) assignments. I am doing two new things for both classes. For my graduate class, I am actually going to ask them to create from start to finish an influencer marketing plan for a small business in Louisville. They have a set budget they have to work with, but they have to create everything. Luckily, I am using two great books for class on IM (Winfluence by Jason Falls and The Influencer Code by Amanda Russell) for the students to use as a guide as they work on this project. The goal here is to give these students the opportunity to create a blueprint of an IM plan form start to finish. Why am I doing this? Because this is literally the one thing everyone (and I mean, everyone!) is asking these days when they contact me for interns and potential collaborations.
The other assignment I am doing is for TikTok, and this is for my undergraduate class. Since my graduate class is remote, we will not be meeting in person, but one of my social media classes will do so. I did this at the spur of the moment last year when I got 10 cases of M&Ms to share with my students (this was epic!) after the Super Bowl. I had the students create a group TikTok video featuring M&Ms at UofL. The assignment is more finished – and there will of course be different products featured. This allows the students to be creative and strategic in a short amount of time.
Guest speakers. I am excited to have some incredible professionals come and share their expertise with my students. It’s one thing to hear from me as their professor, but another to hear from those who are working in the field. Stay tuned for more updates!
These are just some of the updates for the spring term. There are still some moving pieces, but I think it will be a great term. However, after teaching social media now for about 10+ years, I have found there are some things that need to be changed and edited (ex. content, subject areas, etc) – but there are some key principles in human behavior that will always be there. That’s why I said there are some new(ish) updates – still keeping up with the trends and expectations for the field, but maintaining some of the items that have remained the same.
If you would like to follow the conversation around the courses, please follow the hashtags on Twitter for #Freberg22 (undergraduate course) and #FrebergSM (graduate course).
Hope you all are having a great 2022 so far!
Best Wishes,
