I am often surprised by the examples and stories that my students bring into the classroom. That happened yesterday after I kicked off a new course in social media by discussing the much publicized ALS ice bucket challenge. I asked them a leading question, "Is this campaign as innovative and ground breaking as recent reports have suggested?"

After some silence and thinking, one student raised his hand and mumbled, "No, it's sort of like the Feed the Deed challenge."

Unable to hear him clearly I replied, "What was what? Can you explain?"

"It's kind of like the ice bucket challenge except you don't raise money. For Feed the Deed you make a video of you doing something kind and then you tag your friends challenging them to do something else kind."

Other students jumped in to help explain, with examples of what they did also. This campaign has been out for awhile now, which me feel quite out of the loop of with the latest viral social media content.

"Good point! Social media doesn't just have to be about one kind of marketing goal, such as raising money, it can be about other goals like raising awareness and other actions," I exclaimed.

I sure enjoyed and learned from these new business students. I hope they enjoyed and learned from me as well.