A social media and Internet marketing authority has combined her expertise with an interest in following the presidential contenders. Champlain College Assistant Professor Elaine Young is critiquing the presidential candidates' use of online social media--from MySpace to Second Life and blogs to YouTube.

As she moves through the list of contenders alphabetically in her blog, Young explains who is really leveraging the latest social media-and who isn't. Her in-depth postings include lists of the major online presence for each of the candidates, allowing readers to easily link to video, photos and more.

A few examples: Young points out that Chris Dodd has a feature called "Dodd's Pod" on his MySpace account, where he lists music, books, and podcasts he listens to, and asks visitors to suggest others. She also reveals that candidates such as Hillary Clinton and Mike Gravel have a virtual presence in "Second Life" and she likes the approach that Rudy Giuliani's team takes on MySpace.

Young is the program director for Champlain's Marketing Management program and the e-Business Management program. While she teaches students about online marketing, she also utilizes social networking to stay in touch with students and uses Facebook as a course support system to create private course groups where she and students can interact outside of the classroom.

An Internet strategy management expert, Dr. Elaine Young specializes in online visibility, social media optimization and Web analytics. She holds a master's degree in Internet strategy management and a PhD in organizational management that is focused on teaching technology applications in the classroom.

Posted 10/26/07