Why A Social Media Class Is Important

Dear Mr. Jeff Gibson,

My name is Kristina Straughter. I am an Organizational Communications major with a minor Healthcare Services. I originally took this course thinking all we were going to do is talk about Twitter and Facebook all day. I was wrong. This course has taught me not only how to manage my professional brand that I have on these social media platforms, but also how to engage and learn from professionals who already in the industry I want to get into when I graduate.

By connecting with different Healthcare bloggers and Healthcare managers through their social media platforms, I have been able to see how social media is making its way into the Healthcare field. Some of these professionals have shown me that knowing how to properly manage my social media accounts and network through them will give me an edge against other students looking to enter my field.

Not only have I been able to engage with these people, they have also connected me to different organizations in Nashville that are offering internships in my field. I wouldn’t have been able to learn of these things without first learning how to engage on these social media sites through this class.

I have been able to use the things I learned in this class in my other classes, as well.  In my Intro to Organizational Communication class, we had to come up with organizations of the future, and my organization was the only the only one who knew how to tackle the new trend of social media and that was because of the things that I learned in this class. This pushed my organization over the top of the others, and my professor was impressed that I was able to really explain how to properly use these platforms for the benefit of my company.

This isn’t a class that just talks about Twitter or Facebook. It is a class that has truly equipped me with a skill that many young people lack in my generation. You, yes you Mr. Gibson, would really be doing our generation and this campus a disservice if you would no longer offer this course. This isn’t a skill that companies overlook anymore. This is something they expect us to know and know well. How can we truly be prepared for this competitive job market if the very university that we got our degrees from doesn’t offer us everything thing that it possibly can to make us the best applicants possible? I challenge you to be that person to be one of the first and not the last to start offering courses for this skill.

Sincerely,

Kristina Straughter