Finn Squared

Going Back to Guest Lecture at the University of Missouri

I got it confirmed today:  I’m going back to guest lecture at the University of Missouri.

My lecture topic: PPC / Adwords. Included in the lecture will be:

So I’m told.

I’m so looking forward to the trip.

For those who don’t know, The University of Missouri / Reynolds Journalism Institute is a perennial top 3 journalism school according to most ranking reports. The fact that anyone’s willing to listen to me is amazing to begin with, but the fact I get to talk to a group of Convergence Media students and give them a hint of how much farther they have to go to survive in this non-existent economy is priceless.

Why AdWords? As part of the program, students in the Convergence Media get to a participate in a Google Online Marketing Challenge where they are given specific amount of Adwords Credit, pick a local company, and perform search engine marketing for them. The ones whom Google determines performs the best gets to big grand prize. 2 years ago it was a trip to the Google offices in Mountain View, CA. I’m not sure what the prize is this year but I’m excited to find out.

How I Scared Them to Listen Last Year

Last year during the second session half the class was zoning out until I told how the specific landing page had great qualities and then told them they should pick their website 5 minutes ago because not all websites were created equal. Once they realized they weren’t being handed everything, they got on the edge of their seats and started asking multiple questions.

I might lead with that this time.

Either Way, this is going to be so much fun!

photo credit:  wikimedia.org