On Monday, January 26, 2015, Dr. Rachel Chung’s Special Topics: Digital Marketing in the Global Marketplace (BUS213) enjoyed a comprehensive guest lecture “Search Engine Optimization (SEO)” by Chris Vella, Paid Search Analyst from LunaMetrics, a leader in paid search advertising in the Pittsburgh region. Chatham business students and guests gathered in the Library to learn about ways to drive traffic to an organization’s website using Google AdWords and Google Analytics. Click Here to read the article written by Ivy Kuhrman, a senior Communications major, in the Chatham Communique newspaper about Mr. Vella’s special presentation.

Later that same week, on Wednesday, January 28, 2015, the class visited Google’s Pittsburgh Office and met with Timothy (Tim) James. James is currently a Partner Technology Manager and helps retailers with technology processes to get their products into Google Shopping.  Afte taking a tour of the building, and receiving a lecture on Google platforms relevant to the course, students learned about “Google Culture” during a Question and Answer session.  Marie Soukup, a senior International Business student, reflected on her blog, “Of all the things we learned about on our visit, I think the most interesting happened to be of how the employees can plan their work schedule around what they feel could help them be most productive.  It’s innovative and forward thinking as opposed to the typical office setting that most people experience in their jobs.” Samantha Elbaz, who was also a senior studying International Business said on her class blog, “My main takeaways from his talk were to make sure each ad group within a campaign successfully matches a specific product or service and to consistently use Google Analytics to track your ad groups’ success.”

The Digital Marketing in the Global Marketplace course introduced students to digital platforms that transform marketing in the global marketplace, including the Internet, search engines, online advertising platforms such as Google AdWords, and digital analytics platforms, such as Google Analytics. Through participation in the Google Online Marketing Challenge, student teams critically applied principles of advertising, marketing analytics and research methods. One student from this course is now currently interning at Lunametrics, a Google Analytics partner, for the Fall 2015 term, as a direct result of this course. To read other student blogs, please click here.