In the last two blog postings, I mentioned a couple of resources to expand your understanding of social media: AIDS.gov and The Health Communicator’s Social Media Toolkit. I’ve heard from a few of you that these resources are proving very helpful and that you’d like to have additional, practical guidance on how to proceed with social media. You’d also like some assurance that you can do so without mortgaging the farm. Today’s featured resource—Social Media University, Global (SMUG)—responds to those interests and is certain to have a particularly strong appeal to those for whom humor and self-paced learning are important.
SMUG is a tuition-free, virtual post-secondary learning institution focusing exclusively on social media. Like its brick-and-mortar counterparts, it has level-designated courses; a faculty; a student union (of the Facebook variety) ; a bookstore; an insignia (whose Latin motto translated means, “It’s not that hard.”); and a campus (well, sort of). SMUG is the brainchild and passion of its Chancellor, Lee Aase (pronounced: “A.C.”), who is also the Manager of Syndication and Social Media at The Mayo Clinic. Mr. Aase will be joining us as a presenter at Going Viral against HIV and STIs. I’m sure he’d be delighted to find some SMUGgles—as SMUG students are known—among the forum attendees.
One of the things I love about SMUG is that students can go as deeply and as broadly into the subject matter as they choose. The core curriculum, which has 15 courses, is complemented by in-depth, specialized tracks on blogging, Facebook, podcasting, Twitter, and Yammer. There’s something here for everyone.
If you want to see what well-honed social media smarts can do, check out The Mayo Clinic’s blogs and podcasts. You may also want to subscribe to MayoClinic.com’s RSS feeds.
Happy learning!
Mark Hammer
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