The New Media School: Because College Didn't Teach You A Thing About The Digital Economy

By now, most businesses and self-employed individuals know that they can use social media services like Twitter and Facebook to help themselves grow their customer base and (hopefully) make some money. But for most people, actually using these services presents a challenge. Granted, there is no shortage of social media ‘gurus’ who have blogged their tips, but when it comes to finding ongoing instruction from genuine experts, the pickings have been slim.

Nick O’Neill , founder of the The Social Times, is looking to help. O’Neill is launching an educational program called the New Media School, which is setting out to help both companies and individuals most effectively take advantage of the businesses opportunities afforded by the web.

The school’s first course is the Social Media Marketing Program, which entitles participants to a number of text guides as well as a series of video lectures led by a solid roster of industry veterans. Each lecture will be streamed live via Livestream, and students in the program will be able to submit questions live via an integrated chat box. The course will begin in about a week and a half.

The school is charging $147 per month, and plans to offer new content on a rolling basis. For now, O’Neill is restricting the class size to 125. He explains that while the video lectures will be held via video stream (which presumably would have a much higher limit), he will be personally advising each participating company and indivdual through the course’s forums. There will also be virtual ‘office hours’ conducted through Livestream. O’Neill mentioned that he may consider offering alternative formats in the future (perhaps a video-only option without the one-on-one support), but the school is still in early stages so he’s eager to first see what people are interested in.

Here’s a full list of the program’s instructors:

Brad Feld – Co-Founder of Foundry Group and author of widely read venture capital blog
Chris Bucchere – Founder of Social Collective
Clara Shih – Author of “The Facebook Era”
Craig Stoltz – Author of “Web 2.Oh…Really?”, one of Time.com’s Top 25 Blogs
Dan Schawbel – Author of “Me 2.0: Build a Powerful Brand to Achieve Career Success”
David Berkowitz – Director of Emerging Media & Client Strategy for 360i, author of the blog Inside the Marketer’s Studio
Debbie Weil – Author of “The Corporate Blogging Book”
Don Steele – Vice President of Digital Marketing, MTV Networks
Frank Gruber – AOL Product Strategist & Evangelist
Harper Reed – CTO at skinnyCorp, Co-Founder of Threadless
Hiten Shah – Co-Founder of KISSmetrics
Jake Brewer – Engagement Director of Sunlight Foundation
Jesse Thomas – Founder of JESS3
Jared Goralnick – Founder of Set Consulting
Joe Suh – Founder and CEO of myChurch
John Bell – Managing Director of Ogilvy 360 Digital Influence and President of WOMMA (Word of Mouth Marketing Association)
Leslie Bradshaw – Director of Engagement, New Media Strategies
Mike Lazerow – CEO and Founder, Buddy Media
Mike Volpe – VP of Inbound Marketing, HubSpot
Neil Patel – Co-Founder of KISSmetrics
Shashi Bellamkonda – Head of Social Media Strategy, Network Solutions
Tamar Weinberg – Author of “The New Community Rules: Marketing on the Social Web”
Ted Leonsis – Owner, Washington Capitals, Chairman of Revolution Money, and Vice Chairman Emritus of AOL
Tim O’Shaughnessy – Co-Founder & CEO, LivingSocial
Victoria Ransom – Founder, Wildfire Interactive