It is 2013. The Internet is a global force, and an information pool that is turned to by nearly every demographic for nearly every initial piece of research.
This means that if you are going to do anything that involves interacting with the public -- start a business, lead a non-profit, represent your community -- you'd better have a presence on the Internet. The same is true if you want to change the path of your career: Forbes Magazine last year recommended that companies search for job applicants on Facebook in order to determine if they are a good fit for the job. Some career thinkers even suggest that you must have a LinkedIn profile.
The reality is that social media -- or digitally mediated communication, or electronic communication, or whatever you would like to call it -- is optional only to the degree that having a mailing address or a telephone is optional. Yes, you can get along without it, but it's a lot harder to get what you want done.
This is why Joanne McCall and I teach our social media class each year. Our goal isn't to get our students to be social media addicts. Instead, we offer a practical, guided exploration of social media and the web, so that students can figure out how to make use of it in positive, meaningful ways. It's a hands-on class with a safe environment where experimentation is encouraged.
If you would like to learn along with us, this Spring we will again be offering our class CCM376E, now retitled as "Communication in the Digital Age: Integrating Social Media Effectively."
Because, as we put on one of our class fliers, "fear and loathing in social media is not a requirement."
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