LAMONI – Keeping current with job demands, Graceland University will introduce a new, innovative and interdisciplinary major of contemporary relevance in the fall of 2015.
The demand and market for this major is growing, and there are currently no other regional universities offering a professional major tied intimately to the liberal arts and sciences mission and foundation.
The social media marketing major at Graceland will include a unique combination of communications courses, business and marketing courses, and visual design courses aimed to ready students for jobs in the current real world.
The major will serve as a progressive recruiting tool for admissions, drawing on the strengths of both the Graceland University Sandage School of Business and the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences.
In addition to the liberal arts general education requirements, Graceland students in the social media marketing major must complete a concentration of 42 semester hours in the communications, business, marketing and visual design areas. A double major with business administration will be a common recommendation for students hoping to go in the direction of a social media marketing career.
Graceland has offered a social media marketing class, taught by Jeff McElroy, for the past three years. The course has challenged students with service-learning opportunities within businesses in the Lamoni community, as well as the chance to compete in “ The Voice of the Young Consumer Challenge” at The Principal Financial Group in Des Moines.
“I am excited to be able to offer this new major. The business world is asking for it and we’ll be the only school in the Midwest currently offering this major,” McElroy said. “Social media marketing has exploded in the business world and most businesses know they need to be involved in it but they are counting on our students to know how to do it. The new major will include real world partnerships with businesses of all sizes so or students will be ready to go to work when they graduate.”