Progressions

So You Want to Learn More About Digital Media? Join PRSSA

[quote]Digital media: To some this phrase means sending a Tweet to your friends, to some it means posting memes on Facebook; however, for the students of Boston University’s PRSSA Chapter, digital media means more – it is a true skill set that many of us want to learn how to use but didn’t know how.[/quote]

One of the reasons why PRSSA is one of the most important student organizations that a public relations student can join is it serves as a network for students to learn from each other. Too often what is taught in the classroom setting doesn’t include everything a student should know upon entering the work force. At BU, digital media is taught in one 400 level class at BU – but often that isn’t enough. This is why during the 2011-2012 school year, BU PRSSA developed a digital media group to teach students practical knowledge about the online world.

Last year, 15 eager BU PRSSA students gathered every week to discuss how to use platforms such as Mailchimp and WordPress and talk about articles they had read on mashable.com. It was clear that digital media is something that excites many public relations students but is not talked about enough. This phrase “digital media” meant more to them than simply tweeting at their friends; these students wanted to learn how to use Google Analytics to measure how successful a post was that they wrote for the BUPRSSA blog. They wanted to learn how to measure engagement on Twitter, and see how to optimize their 140-character Tweet in order to obtain maximum engagement with their followers.

Entering the 2012-2013 school year, I look forward to seeing where the bright students of Boston University’s PRSSA Chapter can bring our blog. Will we be able to increase page views by 1000% like last year? I look to BUPRSSA as a prime example of how public relations students need to teach each other what they can’t learn in a classroom setting. As the digital realm expands, academics may not always be able to follow; therefore it may be up to students to teach one another how to utilize the online world to their benefit.