College professors like to think that everything that they are teaching to you will be regurgitated in the real world, making you a successful millionaire. This, my friends, is what we call a pipe dream. Don’t get me wrong, there are many reasons why college is worth the time and money. You learn key problem solving abilities, networking and communication skills, and a degree certainly puts you ahead of the next guy in the application process. In the field of marketing in particular, entering the real world with these tools is vital. But some of the most important information you need to know comes from experience. One colossal mistake that marketing professors make is underplaying the importance of online marketing. The world has experienced a colossal shift from where we were 20 years ago. Billboard and print advertising is becoming less and less effective while online advertising and marketing is at an all time high. The marketing world seems to understand this idea, but why aren’t university professors? Some would blame it on the age of professors, saying that they teach what they learned. I disagree. From my experience, professors who have completely neglected online and social media marketing are, for lack of a better word, in denial. They use the same lecture outlines that they have used since 1996 and are too lazy to change them. The idea that university professors aren’t teaching about online marketing is like saying that the Air Force isn’t teaching pilots how to fly. It just doesn’t make sense!
In the last rant, I discussed briefly the use, or should I say the underuse of social media. Social media is more than a way for individuals to connect with each other, it has transformed into one of the greatest PR outlets there is. In the past, when a company wanted to launch a public relations campaign, they would contact a select few reporters to spread the word. This strategy was very effective for companies that wanted to control what the media reported about them. With the creation of bloggers and online reviews, it has become much harder to keep certain information secret. Marketing classes are struggling with this concept drastically. Instead of embracing the idea of blogs, online reviews, and social media posts, professors look at these as what is wrong with current marketing. They fail to notice that sharing these stories with the whole world instead of a select few is a gigantic opportunity.
When you think about the one major change to the way businesses market since the 1990s until now, it’s the Internet. As society has changed, companies have been forced to change too. Online marketing and social media are things to embrace and utilize and until marketing professors understand that, college marketing graduates will continue to know less and less about the field they are entering.
(This blog was written by one of our phenomenal Social Media Interns.)