Social Media Moving from Content to People

Jennifer Selke is a nationally known expert, speaker and consultant in the area of social media. She is a faculty member at the University of California Berkeley Graduate School of Education and is affiliated with the Berkeley Center for New Media. She received her Ph.D. in Educational Psychology from U.C. Berkeley.

Jennifer is a licensed educational psychologist in private practice. Her technology interests have taken her into the blogging and social media world where she runs a popular blog. She speaks at national conferences on the subject of social networks, writes articles on the subject, and conducts webinars for professionals on the topic.

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“We are in the age of content overload,” says nationally known social media expert Jennifer Selke. “For that reason the personal and local is going to be even more important. People will be looking to friends and local experts for resources,” she notes in explaining the huge growth in social media for business.

Selke teaches online courses for a new Social Media for Business Certificate program sponsored by Rec&Ed.  The online courses and certificate are relevant for people in any workplace organization, including companies, nonprofits, government and small business, says  Sally Searls, Rec&Ed Lifelong Learning Coordinator.

“With million of active users, businesses cannot afford to ignore Facebook,” notes Selke.  While using Facebook is covered in the classes, Selke finds it more important for people to learn the fundamentals of this new way to market online so they can be prepared to deal with this new way of engaging with customers online.

Selke’s approach to social media focuses on customers, engagement, and content.  “Business is about people engaging people around content. “Keep your customer in mind and the problem they are trying to solve as they come to your website or view your printed material. Just as different social sites have different goals, so will your web site and print material.  Integrating these various outlets, integrating video, blogs, and social sites into a comprehensive campaign is what this certificate series is geared to do.

Marketing has changed in the last 5 years dramatically and businesses need to change the way they get their messages out, too   In the first UGotClass one-month online course,  “Introduction to Social Media,” participants learn the foundation of social media, making goals, and how to measure and apply it.  It basics of Facebook is also covered in this class.

In the second course on “Marketing Using Social Media”  participants learn how to use social media methods to get a message out about their company.  They also learn how to use the tools such as Twitter, Blogging, and LinkedIn. 

In the final one-month online course, “Integrating Social Media in Your Organization”, participants are taught about creating their own social network, the basics of using video and mobile, assigning roles in their organization, and time allocation.  They learn to integrate widgets on their website and to pull all of the three courses together. 

Social Media for Businesses is offered throughout the year.  For additional information about this course or other online courses and certificates, click here.