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WVU College of Business recognized for social media efforts

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MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — To say that social media has changed the way we conduct our lives — both professionally and personally — is a bit of an understatement.

The West Virginia University College of Business and Economics was recognized for its social media communications efforts this week when it was ranked in the Top 100 Most Social Media Friendly MBA School Rankings for 2013. After securing commitment and resources less than one year ago to undertake planned social media efforts, the college was ranked #61 in the country among its fellow business schools.

"This is fantastic news because it supports what we have believed for the past several months — that we are effectively communicating with the various audiences that are so important to our business school," said Dr. Jose "Zito" Sartarelli, Milan Puskar Dean. "The ranking comes less than one year after officially putting our resources in place to find innovative ways to communicate with students, alumni, donors, friends of the College, and faculty and staff. This is very encouraging."

The social media ranking represents the second significant ranking news for the business school in a matter of days. The college was ranked #29 by U.S. News & World Report earlier this week in the 2013 Best Online Graduate Business Programs for the business school's online Executive MBA program.

The rankings were released by OnlineMBAPage.com for the top 100 most social media friendly schools after the publication measured social media presence and activity levels on various social media platforms. OnlineMBAPage.com is a social education community that was formed in response to the growing demand for MBAs in the U.S., China and emerging markets.

"Our Office of Communications & Marketing has really embraced opportunities to establish and bolster these social media channels," Sartarelli said. "The audiences we communicate with are critical to everything we do at our business school. The fact that we have made such great strides in less than a year gives us confidence in the direction the College is going, and that there is great interest in that direction by the people who have ‘ownership' in this school."

WVU's Division of University Relations said social media efforts by the business school have been strong and steadfast.

"The commitment that the College of Business and Economics has made to social media is very apparent," said Tricia Petty, Associate Vice President for University Relations Operations. "I know the Division of University Relations works in conjunction often with B&E, and we're happy to see some of the fruits of that come to light."

For further information on the WVU College of Business and Economics, please visit be.wvu.edu.