Easy Google Analytics and Other Ideas That Work for Teaching Social Media in the Classroom

At the recent MMA (Marketing Management Association)  Conference +Todd Kelsey  and I described how to integrate Google Analytics into blogger to teach analytics without programming to undergraduates.  Our slideshare shows these simple steps and also emphasizes the importance of establishing Google Authorship and how to do by entering those sites to which you contribute in a Google+ profile and registering the associated gmail address.  I certainly wish someone had told me about Google Authorship when I was starting out in my professional career (in fact, I wish the option were available).  It is a great way to get established as an expert in a particular area and authorship will last an entire career.

Teaching Analytics through G+ and Blogger from Debra Zahay-Blatz

It was interesting to see the approaches others have taken to teaching social media, especially to this generation of students.

Dr. Paul Kotz from St. Mary's University in Minnesota shared his research in reaching out to Millennial students, those from ages 11-31, born in 1982-2002.  I noticed, as Paul did, that these students like structure and deadlines.  So instead of having a social media plan that is due all at once, I have a different deliverable every week that the students should be working on to effectively deliver the plan at the end of the stated time.

Dr. +Jenna Drenten from John Carroll University shared what she is doing with Pinterest in the classroom.  The students used a private board in Pinterest to share their ideas about a marketing competition in which they participated.  Since it was a national competition,  the groups did not want others to see their results.  I did not realize that Pinterest allowed at least up to three private boards, so that might be a good way to share classroom information in the future.  I have taught Pinterest in class and, like the presenter, found that the men in the class are more reluctant to use the tool.  They perceive the tool as more for women and don’t ‘get’ the interface as readily as the women in the class. 

Professors +Alisa Agozzino  and  Kathie Fleck, Ohio Northern University, talked about their social media marketing minor which includes the history of social media, personal branding, strategies and a campaign management class.  Their program, which was in conjunction with the communications school, so this curriculum looks like a good choice for them.  

In our program,at Aurora University, the social media class is where the students have an introduction to social media analytics.  They develop both a personal social media campaign for themselves and one for a corporation or NGO.  Our Digital Marketing students also Internet marketing where they will  run an AdWords campaign with the option of a corporate social media campaign.  Personal branding is covered in depth in our social media class and IMC, Social Media and Internet all cover strategic concepts and history of the medium.

By Debra Zahay-Blatz.
You can find Debra on Google+ and Twitter as well as LinkedIn.

Google Authorship Made Easy

Establishing Google Authorship Can Be Easy

This post summarizes how to create Google Authorship on your blog posts and other content.  There has been a lot of talk about Google Authorship and I have read some excellent posts about how to be credited in search results on Google.  I have shown an example above of how my blog shows up on Google when I am logged in to Gmail in the above screen shot.  I am shown with my picture, my name as shown on my G+ profile and the number of my G+ Circles.  This type of display is the goal. +Andy Crestodina  helped me establish this authorship in search   I followed the instructions that he presented at the January Chicago AMA Meet the Experts Night.  It took a few weeks but everything is showing up in search quite nicely now.  Even in my econsultancy.com blog authorship shows up after I followed these steps.

I think the key is to understand that there is a way to do this even if you are not blogging on a domain where you have an email on that same domain.  In my classes we use publicly available tools like WordPress or Blogger so we needed a way to link authorship without the verifiable email address.

Briefly, you need the following:
1) Put a nice head shot on your  G+ Profile
2) Use the same name on your profile as your byline, i.e.,  "By Debra Zahay-Blatz"
3) Copy and past HTML code into your blog that establishes the link.  Some code is on my slideshare presentation on this subject and on Andy's blog.

I also think it is important to set up your G+ profile properly with links to everything to which you contribute so these items can all show up in search as well.  Good luck establishing authorship and don't hesitate to contact me if you have any questions.  My slideshare presentation also shows how to link Google Analytics to your blog, which is extremely helpful in tracking activity and seeing information who you are reaching and how long they stay on the page.  

The slideshare also covers assessing your online presence, Filling out your Google+ Profile, Pursuisng Authorship and how to link your blog to Google Analytics.  The byline from the code is shown below.

By Debra Zahay-Blatz.
You can find Debra on Google+ and Twitter as well as LinkedIn.