When I was applying to college, I was always going to go in as a marketing major, with a minor in photography. That was until Columbia College Chicago had a pop up on their website talking about their social media and digital strategy major, a major that is only offered in a few colleges around the nation and has a massive job market. Now, I know what you’re thinking: So you are paying to go to school for four years just so you can do what everyone else already does? They all already post on social media and whatnot why would they ever need you?

The fact is that my major isn’t that simple, my job would be making a social media policy so when a crisis happens the company knows how to react, because what most people don’t realize is that a brand’s social media image plays a massive part in their overall brand image. By not replying to someone’s negative tweet your brand might cause your brand to indirectly rebrand themselves, the same goes for if the work thing is said to a negative post or even a positive post. My job would be to make a strategy to maximize how to post when to post and what to post on what social media platforms just so they can maximize their business and their brand reach. My job will never to be “Just post on Snapchat”; my job will give me the ability to help brands learn how to reach out to their ideal clients.

So no, I don’t just have three hours of classes where we are just on Instagram the whole time, my major teaches me not how to use Instagram but how to maximize what I am posting and how to better a brand’s social media outlook. In the long run, my skill set is the next generation for marketing, there are major companies that are in need of someone to handle their social media, just to make sure their brand does not accidentally rebrand themselves due to negative comments on the internet. Most people do not realize how easy it is for a company to go under just because of the view people have on their social media. People are no longer using ads on television to network they are using ads on Snapchat, and Instagram to gain a better and younger audience.