(703) BESIDE MARKETING IN FACEBOOK: A PROJECT FOR ENGAGING STUDENTS IN MARKETING SUBJECTS

摘要

Studies in the field of the Information and Communications Technology (ICT) show up that Internet’s users usually experience a high level of engagement while they are surfing or browsing [1, 2]. Then, users can deep into in this environment and get involved in activities in which they rarely would have taken part in any other situation or condition. In this regard, the emergence of new ICT tools such as Social Network Sites (SNS) has made easier for both firms and organizations the transfer of information and knowledge. Moreover, as college students are increasingly taking part in Social Network Sites (SNS), this media has become one of the most popular communication channels [3], especially between teachers and students in the higher education area. For this reason, a new project based on the use of Facebook to introduce, teach and set marketing closer to students has been developed by the Marketing Department from a Spanish university. The idea of the project was to share information about Marketing throughout the use of a brand page in the SNS Facebook. Then, in this paper we bring to light the importance of developing an educational experience by using Facebook as a teaching resource, explaining the methodology, the results and the main conclusions. First, the importance of building up a consciousness about marketing activities in the real and professional life is exposed. To do this, it arises the idea of providing new e-learning resources (apart from academic e-platforms) to improve the learning experience moving it to a new environment where the student could feel more comfortable, relaxed or open-minded. This idea could be implemented by using Facebook as a teaching resource. Second, the process of creating and designing the brand page is exposed. Then, the process of spreading out the existence of this brand page through marketing students is described. Once the brand page was ready to be active, teachers of the Marketing subjects in the degree of Business Administration posted or shared different links or information about Marketing topics at least once a month during an entire academic year; then, some statistical data could be obtained and analysed. Finally, some conclusions have been drawn and we can point out that there is a relevant increase of the number of students who has been working on dissertations or theses related to Marketing topics, instead of other topics in the degree (Economics, Accounting, Management, Law or Mathematics).