Business professor ranked among tops on Twitter

If social media gives everyone a voice, then Professor Lyle Wetsch is emerging as a voice of authority on social media – recommended by two recent international rankings as a business professor to follow on Twitter.

The associate professor of marketing in the Faculty of Business Administration was named this week among the Top 50 Business School Professors on Twitter by MBAprograms.org. Memorial University is the only Canadian university represented in the rankings.

Prof. Wetsch, noted for his posts – or "tweets" – about the business potential of social media, is in good academic company, listed alongside professors from MBA heavy-hitters like Harvard, Yale, UC Berkeley, Stanford and Columbia, in the rankings published by the online business school news resource.

The acclaim comes just a few days after Social Media Marketing Magazine named Prof. Wetsch among its Top Marketing Professors on Twitter.

This international list also includes professors from many of the world’s top universities recognized for “providing useful content, consistently engaging with followers and for truly ‘getting it’ when it comes to the best ways to use Twitter and other forms of social media.”

Prof. Wetsch has been a fixture on this regularly-updated ranking since the spring of 2011, moving up to the 80th spot in the world this time around.

Twitter is a free social networking website where users share short messages, known as "tweets", with a circle of contacts. As a respected authority on Twitter and other social media such as Facebook, LinkedIn and Google+, Prof. Wetsch is called on to provide media comment, give business seminars and present at conferences worldwide.

“Social media, like Twitter, are vital communications tools and, increasingly, the most powerful marketing channels businesses have to connect with customers,” Prof. Wetsch explains. “But it is critical that organizations get social media right -- there needs to be a plan and they must be committed, responsive and willing to act.”

Congratulating Prof. Wetsch on the dual recognition, Faculty of Business Administration Dean Dr. Wilfred Zerbe said: “The pace of change in the social media realm is almost without precedent, yet Lyle is always current and knowledgeable about advances and trends. His expertise is a valuable complement to our faculty’s strengths in many other areas of business studies.”

Prof. Lyle Wetsch shares his social media insights on Twitter @lylewetsch.