This week, I assigned my Promotional Communications students about 25 URLs to read or watch. I did this because I couldn’t find a textbook in June that adequately presented interactive media let alone grasped its importance.

As a teacher, it’s a lot harder to teach from a series of articles than to follow a publisher’s lecture outline. I know I’m doing well, when my students burst into my lectures and relate our discussion to their projects. Of course, they are supposed to do that, but I can tell when it’s spontaneous and genuine. The canned lecture outlines rarely produce this kind of excitement in class.

Today, we’ll be discussing Mashable.com articles about social media marketing. I love this site. Just about any question I have or my students might have about implementing social media policies is answered there. Except one.

What’s missing is the elusive “How do I get people to find me, if I’m only on the web?” By that I mean, of course, without any other traditional media, how do you get listeners, buyers, readers, etc.? I think the answer is that as a business you must participate first in what others are publishing. I.E. I read someone’s Tweet, comment on it, and then they follow me. Regarding my blog, are people or organizations just searching by tag or category and find my entries that way?

You have to start somewhere, I suppose.

Update…Mashable.com answered my question.

November 3rd, Mashable.com Tweeted: “5 Ways to Promote Your Social Media Efforts Offline” – by @sarahfkessler,” which linked me to a great article about how to use the offline or real world

Okay, it’s nothing earth shattering: Just use the Real World — creatively — to bring attention to your virtual one.

5 Ways to Promote Your Social Media Efforts Offline: Nov 03, 2010 –

“The real world is often overlooked when small businesses try to raise awareness of their online efforts. But with a few clear exceptions, people still do most of their living offline. Physical space can be as good of a place as any to advertise your website, social media accounts and blogs.

There are a bevy of creative ways to get your online properties in people’s offline views, and we’ve got the photographic evidence to prove it. These seven strategies will help you kick-start your brainstorm for the perfect offline efforts for your online strategy.”