SummEr/FAll 2011 - Nazareth College

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NEWS|views n School of Management Social Media Wizards by Alan Gelb It is no exaggeration to say that this has been the year of social media, from the highly publicized feature film The Social Network to the pivotal role that Facebook and Twitter played in the recent revolution in Egypt. Since graduating from Nazareth College, Mike Deichmiller ’06 and Gavin Thomas ’06 have immersed themselves in this wide-open new arena, ushering their employer, Butler/Till, a media planning and buying agency, down social media avenues that are laden with opportunity. Deichmiller and Thomas, who joined Butler/ Till soon out of college, started out in the areas of print, radio, and digital—the more traditional sectors of the business. Nonetheless, they felt that something important was missing from the Butler/Till profile. “From the time we were freshmen at Nazareth, we made use of social media on a personal level and always saw its potential,” says Deichmiller. “We wanted Butler/Till to see that potential as well.” Deichmiller and Thomas presented the idea of a social media initiative to Sue Butler and Tracy Till, the firm’s co-CEOs. “They went for it and gave us the support and leeway to do the necessary research,” Thomas recalls. Deichmiller and Thomas are true believers in the power of social media. “From our standpoint, social media really expands the realm of what we do and ups the benefits of the traditional media channels we use. It opens up dialogues that never existed before,” says Deichmiller. Thomas points out, however, that social media shouldn’t live alone. “Just as we wouldn’t recommend using stand-alone print, we wouldn’t recommend using stand-alone social media,” Thomas says. Deichmiller and Thomas both received bachelor’s degrees in business administration at Nazareth, which they credit with teaching them the fundamentals for their job. “My Nazareth education allowed me to understand the business landscape in today’s ever-changing world,” says Deichmiller. Adds Thomas, “Attending a community oriented and socially connected college like Nazareth helped us Mike Deichmiller ’06 and Gavin Thomas ’06, social media wizards at the media agency Butler/Till. in translating the knowledge we gained from the Naz business coursework to the ad agency and the social media world.” The two particularly appreciate the dynamic nature of social media. They stay ahead of the curve by reading social media newsblogs, participating in countless webinars, and attending conferences across the country. In March, they made their yearly pilgrimage to South by Southwest (SXSW), the annual conference held in Austin, Texas, that brings together all that is new and exciting in original music, independent films, and emerging technologies. “We’re bringing new ideas to our clients and working with people throughout our agency,” says Deichmiller. “We’re teaching account executives how to Twitter and correcting the misconception that you can’t really measure social media. In fact, it’s very quantifiable.” Thomas cautions, however, that there’s not just one social media answer. “When clients say that they want a Facebook page, we ask them what their marketing objective is,” Thomas says. “Social media requires an investment, and we want to make sure it’s used well.” Currently, Deichmiller and Thomas connect around social media with more than half of Butler/Till’s clients, and that figure is growing. “Social media is not going away,” says Thomas. “It’s here to stay.” Follow Nazareth College on: Alan Gelb is a freelance writer in East Chatham, New York. 12 CONNECTIONS | Summer/Fall 2011 www.naz.edu
n college of arts and sciences The email signature of Dr. Monica Weis ’65, S.S.J., concludes with a quote from Socrates: “Education is not the filling of a vessel, but the kindling of a flame.” Weis is clearly a flame-kindler herself. As director of the Master of Arts in Liberal Studies (MALS) program in the College of Arts and Sciences, she is passionate about the transformative experience a liberal arts education can be. “Ideas colliding can be exciting and a little bit scary,” she says. “Some students find it challenging to push beyond their disciplinary lines and become comfortable in a world of different cultures. But when they reflect back, they realize how much they’ve changed.” Graduates of the program agree. “The MALS program has empowered me to have the courage to ask and respond to the questions: Who are you? Where does your heart lie? What do you stand for?” says Kathleen Hansen ’09G. Adds Grady S. Bailey III ’10G, “I do not feel so much as if I have completed a process, as I have opened many avenues for intellectual and personal growth.” Opening those avenues is what the MALS program excels at, believes Alec Sutherland, Ph.D. Sutherland, who retired from the Nazareth English department after 26 years and has since taught MALS courses, calls the program “a time to take a measure of ourselves against the world, a last opportunity to take a long view of the horizon.” The luxury of that leisurely viewpoint may be compelling in a strong economy, but what value do liberal studies offer to a struggling job market? Weis contends the interdisciplinary nature of the MALS program makes it both unique and uniquely valuable in its outcomes. “Students gain transferrable skills,” she says, explaining that in a world where “people change jobs multiple times during their lives, you cannot train them for a job Read Great Books, Think Big Thoughts Dr. Monica Weis ’65, S.S.J., director of the Master of Arts in Liberal Studies (MALS) program. and expect it to be there.” MALS educates students in what she calls “constant skills— creative problem solving, critical thinking, and clear writing, all of which are goals of the program.” The MALS program has three required courses and a rotating schedule of electives, culminating in a capstone project of the student’s creation. Each project, like the program itself, must be interdisciplinary, scholarly, and combine the student’s academic study, professional skills, and personal interests. As one might expect, capstone projects vary widely. Margaret Zanghi ’10G recently produced a thesis on women activists in the civil rights movement, pulling together both her feminist and human rights leanings. Other recent by Robyn Rime capstone projects have included “Air, Water and Sacred Earth: Constructing Interdisciplinary Narratives in Clay,” “Sixteen and Stoned: Alternative Drug Therapies for Addicted Teens,” and “Thought Consumption: How the Evolution of Writing has Strong-armed Us into the Social Media Milieu of Today.” The program has proved attractive to a variety of students: young high school teachers seeking professional certification and finding the humanities a better preparation; those with technical and professional degrees who recognize a gap in their knowledge; parents whose children are out of the home; and retirees with the leisure to “read great books and think big thoughts,” as Weis puts it. Zanghi, an adult learner, found the program a perfect match. “I needed something I could really dig into, something that would require attention and work and that was official,” she says. Taking courses one at a time, she completed her studies in four years, graduating from Nazareth in May 2010 together with her granddaughter, Rachel Trunfio ’10. The interdisciplinary nature of MALS appeals to the faculty, too, who also find themselves kindling flames. “We don’t ‘teach’ in the traditional sense of the word,” says Virginia Skinner-Linnenberg, Ph.D., professor of English. “We facilitate discussion among colleagues. Many of our students are teachers themselves, or they are older and have had life experiences to draw from, thus making our discussions robust and meaningful.” “The MALS program raises graduates to a higher pitch of literacy—they write better, speak better, and listen better,” concludes Sutherland. And surely those skills are valuable in any market. Find the MALS program on Facebook and at www.naz.edu/MALS. www.naz.edu CONNECTIONS | Summer/Fall 2011 13
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