Abstract
The advertising industry has changed dramatically in the last few years with increasing percentages of marketing expenditures transferring from traditional channels to emerging digital and social channels. Educators need to recognize the changing needs of the marketplace and provide appropriate education to students to prepare them for this exciting new advertising environment. Recent changes to Google search results now incorporate social elements from Google + and other Google properties, introducing the concept of ‘Social Search’. Providing students with assignments that provide for realistic evaluation as well as real world value has been a challenge for educators. Fortunately, the growth of directed pay-per-click advertising through search engines as well as other social channels such as Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and YouTube has created an opportunity for marketing educators to incorporate direct marketing and advertising skills and assignments to provide an interactive and engaging educational environment. This article describes a personal branding assignment used in undergraduate and MBA classes that focuses on the use of social media.
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