I am tired of social-media gurus chasing the shiny new diamond to make the Next Big Thing go viral. The jargon, the buzz, the bloviating — it’s all designed to astound those of us who have to fit these tools into our everyday routine.

Our #DrurySMS mantra: Enough!

The reality is most of us — especially at smaller organizations — weave social media into the work we already have to do. We’ve toiled in our primary careers, as communication managers and nonprofit leaders, journalists and educators, marketers and salespeople, and we’ve had to figure out how to connect with audiences and build communities around our content, our brand, and our mission while doing all of other duties. Indeed, communicating today requires engaging online.

At this site and in our program, we hope to democratize social media. Here, we believe that what we have learned about human communication and interaction over the past several decades applies to building online networks as well. The tools may have changed, but the human desire for connection and community has not.

In 2009, we developed a graduate-level training program that blended communication theory with social-media practice. Four professors with backgrounds in information technology, journalism, public relations/marketing, and cultural studies co-developed the first iteration of our innovative curricular framework. From that foundation, we’ve adapted and transformed our intensive summer course on the Drury University campus in Springfield, Missouri, into a hands-on laboratory where you will create, explore, and connect with other professionals and graduate students seeking to deepen their understanding of social media.

If you’d like to contribute to this site, drop me a line. We’d love to hear your insights and ideas, and share them here.

And if you want to know more about our #DrurySMS training program, call me, email me, tweet at me. I’d love to chat and have you join us at #DrurySMS.

Jonathan Groves, Ph.D.
Director, Social Media Strategy Program
Associate Professor and Chair of Communication, Drury University

Twitter: @grovesprof
jgroves@drury.edu
417.873.7347