By Amir Galban
Staff Writer
A new communications class offered this fall, Social Media Management, has students collaborating with other departments to help the departments better promote their work and achievements through social media.
The course was developed from the ground up by communications Assistant Professor Emma Bedor Hiland and is planned to play an integral role in the courses communications majors have to take.
Social media management was designed to create an immersive structure for students to work directly with various social media platforms, with the final project that would entail students working with an actual client to help them with their social media. Several departments responded to Bedor Hiland’s queries, but she decided that the class could only work with one client this semester. As it turned out, the partnership with the history and political science department worked out perfectly for both the course and the department.
Bedor Hiland said she wanted the course to do something beneficial for the college community. “How could I do that as a big final project for our course where there’s something really tangible and concrete with an outcome, we can show people our knowledge and apply what we’re learning theoretically,” Bedor Hiland said.
The final project consists of three social media accounts: Facebook, Tik Tok, and Instagram for the Department of History and Political Science. Within the three groups, there are weekly posts every Friday that started in October. The posts are informational to increase awareness of the department. Every session is a work in progress as this is a new project for students.
Group members have been learning a lot about how to properly create and manage social media posts during the project. “A positive thing I learned was how to edit a post on TikTok that also adds to my talents of video editing, using so many programs and tools to edit,” said Adam Zak, ‘24, of the TikTok group.
“I like the final project for the way it forces us to engage with each other and learn from other faculty and students. For the Facebook account, we get to highlight achievements, share educational content, and show the presence of alumni and where they are now,” said Peyton Vigor, ‘27.
Each weekly post has to be something unique. The goal is for there to be interaction between departments and students, as well as better understanding how messaging may change each week depending on different circumstances.
Bedor Hiland said she plans to continue to figure out ways to expand the scope of the course and to include other departments and groups who need help with their social media.
“If anybody has any interest in having our students work to create or improve their social media presence, please reach out to me because I’d love to have my students do that,” said Emma Bedor Hiland.
