Cal State L.A. to launch social media
certificate program this fall
Los Angeles, CA – To meet the growing demand for professionals who are savvy in applying social media tools in their jobs, the College of Business and Economics at California State University, Los Angeles will launch a new Certificate in Social Media this fall.
Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Google+, YouTube, Pinterest, and Instagram are some of the social media platforms that are being embraced by companies, businesses and individuals worldwide. There is also an increasing number of job postings requiring social media skills.
“Social media is profoundly changing the ways in which businesses and non-profits engage their customers,” said Michael Germano, a tenured associate librarian and an adjunct faculty at CSULA who brings a wealth of experience to teaching the integration of new technologies in marketing and the use of social media by marketing professionals. “The certificate program at CSULA gives students, regardless of major, both practical and analytical skills that will allow them to work in a variety of positions related to the fast paced and emerging field of social media marketing.”
Designed for corporate leaders, educators, small business owners, human resource professionals, and marketing professionals, the 24-unit certificate program will address the many issues surrounding the phenomenon while providing a roadmap to help individuals and companies navigate social media to gain a competitive edge.
Taught by Germano, the first course, entitled “Introduction to Social Media Marketing” (MKT 380), will be open to all majors. It will meet every Tuesday, 6:10-10 p.m., from Sept. 26 to Dec. 14, in Salazar Hall C358A. Future courses will be taught by CSULA Marketing Professors Shirley Stretch-Stephenson and H. Rika Houston who were involved in the creation of the certificate program and played an integral role in the development of its curriculum.
Germano, who previously worked for a large Fortune 10 media company, was responsible for strategic and tactical decision making related to customer engagement via the use of emerging technologies, especially social media. Other projects he was responsible for include: online corporate communications and social media/online reputation management.
Overall, the certificate program features the best social media strategies and tactics to employ, how to create mobile marketing apps via mobile devices, measuring and tracking social media tactics, how to integrate social media into marketing plans, and developing a new business using social media.
Students will also gain digital and social media skills; technical aspects of social networks; knowledge of how to design and implement a social media strategy; key social media metrics; and the application of social media tools into marketing initiatives and other strategic business initiatives.
“The program will prepare students for careers that may not even currently exist by instilling in them a sense of the dynamism inherent to the integration of technology with marketing, something I experienced chronically during my career,” Germano added. “More specifically, it will impress upon students a sense of urgency when it comes to meaningful adoption and adaptation of new technologies in order to solve marketing problems while making them always aware of the ethical issues such adaptations may pose.”
For certificate information or class registration, call the Department of Marketing at Cal State L.A., (323) 343-2960.
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Working for California since 1947: The 175-acre hilltop campus of California State University, Los Angeles is at the heart of a major metropolitan city, just five miles from Los Angeles’ civic and cultural center. More than 20,000 students and 230,000 alumni—with a wide variety of interests, ages and backgrounds—reflect the city’s dynamic mix of populations. Six Colleges offer nationally recognized science, arts, business, criminal justice, engineering, nursing, education and humanities programs, among others, led by an award-winning faculty. Cal State L.A. is home to the critically-acclaimed Luckman Jazz Orchestra and to the Honors College for high-achieving students. Programs that provide exciting enrichment opportunities to students and community include an NEH-supported humanities center; a NASA-funded center for space research; and a forensic science program, housed in the Hertzberg-Davis Forensic Science Center. www.calstatela.edu