The Klout Challenge: Preparing your Students for Social Media Marketing

This paper discusses a newly developed class project to aid students in their social media knowledge and experience. "The Klout Challenge" uses a social media influence metric from Klout.com to assess students' level of engagement with others through social media sites. This project produces multiple benefits for students. Students receive the opportunity for hands-on application of social media engagement strategies the current marketing landscape is seeking. In addition, students increase their Klout scores to send a positive quantifiable signal to hiring managers. The five-step implementation plan enables educators to incorporate this project into any course featuring social media marketing topics, such as an Internet marketing or a digital advertising class.