Last week I received a confirmation on something I feared all along; the next generation of PR practitioners, currently in their last year PR or Communications studies, are probably not ready to apply social media tools in the context of business communications.
Why do I think this ?
For several reasons:
- Although most students use some of the tools on a regular basis (Facebook, MySpace, blogs...) it is more often in a "play" context than a "work context".
- Several teachers told me that they simply do not have the time to cover online communications or online PR in their courses.
- Others said they can not incorporate "social media" in their curriculum simply because it is not on the official program.
- Several Professors told me that they have no experience with these new tools themselves, so how could they teach the topic ?
- At some universities and PR schools, incorporating social media in the day to day teaching environment is an IT nightmare.
Now, this is not based on any scientific research, but it is the general feeling I have from talking to both students and teacher from European as well as American universities.
We would think that the "generation born on the web" would grasp the power of social media in the context of business communications much faster that most of us "traditional PROs" but this is simply not the case.
As long as social media like wikis and blogs are not used on a regular basis in the context of studying PR or business communications it will be impossible for us business communicators to hire new people with experience. It is not simply a matter of hiring a young PR graduate to "get the skills" needed...
Applying social media in the context of online business communications is different and both academics and the PR industry need to work together to ensure that we can hire the people we'll need in the future.
What do you think ? Let me know. Your input is more than welcome.