Letters to a Marketing Student. Part Three: Your Professors Are Everywhere

This is part three in a series of posts called ‘Letters to a Marketing Student’. (Part 1, Part 2)

During the last two years of my marketing degree two significant movements were underway online that would go on to represent the biggest shift in marketing thinking since the birth of television:  The eruption of the blogosphere and the advent of social media.  While my classmates and I were familiar with the concepts, we for the most part, missed out on the whole thing.

Two charts:

Blog Growth (courtesy of Technorati)

There I am in 2004 - completely oblivious (click to enlarge)

Social Media Keyword Growth

Your professors aren’t the smartest marketing minds around.  They’re smart people, interested in marketing, who choose to be professors. An army of brilliant marketers are online, broadcasting their experience and wisdom every day – for free.  All you have to do is make a decision to listen.

This school year set aside fifteen minutes each day for listening.  Add a few marketing blogs to your favorites or setup an RSS reader (start with the great blogs on the right sidebar of this page), open an account on Twitter and follow marketers, listen to their insights and read a few of the links they send out.

While I was in university, my professors spoke very little (if at all) about the social media groundswell building right underneath our feet.  What are you missing out on? The only way you’ll see what’s coming next is by listening.

Don’t wait.  Start today.

Tagged as: marketing student