MBA in social media

After reading an interesting post on Business Week about social media making an entrance into the academic world of MBAs at the more prestigious business schools I thought it was worth exploring thought that this is perhaps a breaking point for social media. Marketing has progressed into having a sub strand of internet marketing for many years now, and I am sure that in pure marketing programmes progressive universities have entertained social media channels for some time now, but the world of top class MBAs, are we really at that point not… yes we are!

Harvard, Columbia, London Business School, INSEAD and HEC Paris all have social media modules as part of their MBAs, I wouldn’t imagine for a moment that they are core modules, but still, this shows us that tomorrows business leaders will indeed be flying the share and collaborate flag high above their corporate towers. I wouldn’t imagine that it would be that long before other institutes start to follow suit and jump on the bandwagon, as MBA course directors seem to do so very well.

A pause for thought is, what does social media specifically add to a MBA course, should tomorrow’s leaders be social media practitioners, or should they simply have a grounding in marketing and its underlying principles. Perhaps the answer is the fact that many CEOs now twitter personally, and network well using LinkedIn and this should be taken seriously rather than “I had cornflakes for breakfast, LOL”. It certainly is a good day for social media and the world 2.0.

http://www.businessweek.com/bschools/content/jul2010/bs20100726_143420.htm