I am a senior at St Catherine University on the St. Paul, Minnesota campus. I am currently enrolled in a course titled: Promotional Communications and have found this course to be one of the most relevant courses, next to Advanced Management, that I have taken yet at St Kates.
For any student who is majoring or minoring in Marketing, Sales, Communications, Business or even IT, this course is an absolute as far as I’m concerned.
Social Media is the hot “buzz term” right now and will be for the next several years. Tools such as blogs, Twitter, Facebook, Hoot Suite, Tweetdeck are all pieces of that buzz. Promotional Communications focuses on the use of those tools in today’s environment and how to build a “following” using those tools.
As part of your coursework for this class you are required to write an IMC plan, in a safe, non-threatening environment (a much better way to go, then having your boss ask you to write one and not having a clue). This plan includes familiar sections like: Company Overview, Marketing Segmentation, SWOT and Marketing strategies and tactics, but it also includes sections like: Media strategy, a Creative Brief, an Interactive and Social Tools section which highlights what social tools you will be using and why, followed by a time-phased spreadsheet that culminates all this information together.
When we met for the first time the thought of writing an IMC plan was a daunting thought for me, but Sara (Sara Kerr), breaks up the process in several manageable steps so, at the end, you are impressed and surprised with what you have created.
Through some networking on Sara’s part she introduced Reid Sellgren from Conuiti to us, during one of our class meetings.
At Conuiti, Reid sits down with each client and comes up with a social media plan that will work for their business model. He shares his expertise on how to integrate the different tools, how to manage them (either by using his services or by using your own) and most importantly what content is relevant to gain “new followers” (content is KING in this new world of Social Media). His presentation proved to be valuable and enlightening!
Prior to taking this course, I was aware of the different types of social media but wasn’t exactly sure what target markets and purpose each of them served or appealed to. I now have a much better idea, thanks to this class.
As a student at St Kates and the person in charge of National Sales at w/, (wslash) I have found this course to be one that no one should be without!
Take this class, it’s worth it!
Kathleen's Blogging Post 
Yeah!
P.S. Under your sharing options, “email” might be a nice one to include, as well.