A University in Ireland Offer a Degree for Social Media Content Creation

Anyone can be an influencer now – luck of the algorithm be damned. 

 

A first-of-its-kind college major will now teach spotlight hopefuls the art of influencing and content creation in just three years. 

 

The catch? The uniquely Gen Z program is only available at South East Technological University in Carlow, Ireland. The college already offered “Digital Hustle”, a summer crash course taught by viral TikTokers and field experts, for the last two years, but they couldn’t adequately cover the many facets of the industry like an undergraduate degree could. 

 

“We knew there was a space and need for this, we just needed to develop the course into a bachelor’s degree and get it ratified”, Irene McCormick (right), a senior lecturer at the university, told the Washington Post.

 

The Bachelor of the Arts degree promises prospective students the chance to turn their screen time hobby into a career by becoming experts in social media theory and use while learning how to connect with target demographics online. 

 

The major will take 40 tech-savvy students in its cohort next year, although McCormick is expecting many more to be turned away after the popularity of the university’s summer course.

 

Schools such as USC, Cornell, Duke and Chapman have offered one-off courses in influencer strategy, business and communications, but SETU has become a pioneer as the first to dedicate an entire major to the job. 

 

“One thing that’s really great about teaching college classes is that I’m teaching digital natives – they live and breathe this stuff”, Tom Hafen, a brand management in the digital age professor at Columbia University, told The Post. Rather than explaining execution – like how to post on Instagram or piece together a TikTok – he can focus on the theories behind influencer advertising.

 

The influencer marketing industry is valued at more than $21 billion, and, coupled with the rise of influencer culture, more chronically online youngsters see the entrepreneurial job title as an attainable prospect. 

 

Decision intelligence company Morning Consult released their September 2023 brand report, which, after surveying over 2,200 US adults and Gen Zers aged 13 to 26 who are active on social media, concluded that “consumer behaviors and attitudes may be constantly evolving, but the allure of influencers – and the draw of becoming one! – remains notable". 

 

In fact, the survey found that 57% of Gen Zers said they would quit their day job to become an influencer if given the chance, which a brand expert translated to mean that more than half of the coming-of-age respondents “believe people can easily make a career in influencing”.

 

”But not everyone can be an immediate success like Alix Earle or the infamous “Tube Girl” – hence the SETU’s degree, which will supposedly help students strike gold in an internet-driven world. “You might get lucky, but you won’t understand why you’re going viral”, which can make virality difficult to replicate, Hafen explained. Instructors, then, must focus on the strategies behind content creation, rather than the specific platforms themselves. 

 

“Influencer marketing is the best thing that we have, in order to get people to think someone like me uses this product, the product is good for someone like me”, said Hafen, who noted that social media is a primary way of sharing information. 

 

And, in recent years, there has been increased demand from employers for content creation and social media savvy from Gen Z.  

 

Erin Lazarus, director of solution architects at SHL, a data and insights platform for talent acquisition and management advocates companies to use TikTok, for example, to advertise open roles and reach candidates like Gen Z and millennials. He believes that an influencer promoting open roles can help increase the impact of a company’s recruiting effort.

 

“Influencers have trust and credibility with their audiences, and they’ve become what I think of as the signal through the noise”, Lazarus said. “In the digital world, opportunities are nearly endless, and that level of choice creates so much noise around us”. 

 

He explained that influencers help employers increase the signal of their opportunities and cut through the noise to reach a more targeted audience, and TikTok is one of the mediums to reach audiences the fastest.

 

Lazarus did caution, however, that companies interested in using TikTok influencers to promote jobs, must first distinguish between the different types of influencers and which ones have the right following to reach ideal candidates.