Oct. 1, 2010 – The Center for Excellence in Service (CES) at the University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business hosted the Social Media Forum, which invited social media and marketing industry practitioners to discuss how marketers leverage social media. Hugh Courtney, vice dean of the Smith School, opened the day by acknowledging the attendees’ and panelists’ various backgrounds, saying, “The right people are gathered here today.”

All types and sizes of organizations are jumping to make sure they have a social media presence, but how should they be using these dynamic outlets? In this edition of Smith Business Close-Up with the University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business, Wendy Moe, associate professor of marketing, discusses how organizations can use interactions that happen with their brand on social networks.

All types and sizes of organizations are jumping to make sure they have a social media presence, but how should they be using these dynamic outlets? In this edition of Smith Business Close-Up with the University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business, Wendy Moe, associate professor of marketing, discusses how organizations can use interactions that happen with their brand on social networks.

Thursday, July 29, 2010, 7:30 p.m.; Sunday, Aug. 1, 2010, 7:30 a.m.; Monday, Aug. 2, 2010, 4:30 a.m. Rethinking Marketing     The world in changing. With a greater emphasis on all stakeholders around the global and the speed at which information flows digitally, companies are re-evaluating the way they do things. .

The U.S. Department of Agriculture recently replaced its food pyramid nutrition guidelines with a user-friendly plate icon to help Americans understand the proportions of foods they should be eating each day for a healthy diet. In this edition of Smith Business Close-Up with the University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business, Dr. Rebecca Ratner talks about how her research supports the new nutrition guidelines.

Nations around the globe are captivated with World Cup fever. For the first time, the tournament is in South Africa and having big impacts on the country. In this edition of Smith Business Close-Up, Smith marketing faculty member Hank Boyd discusses a recent MBA student trip he led to South Africa to learn about the marketing surrounding the World Cup.

Thursday, Jan. 14, 2010, 7:30 p.m.    Sunday, Jan. 17, 2010, 7:30 a.m.    Monday, Jan. 18, 2010, 4:30 a.m.  ForecastingConsumer Spending

In this edition of Smith Business Close-Up with the University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business, Roland Rust talks about his new research that can forecast consumer spending better than other econometric models currently used.

A team of undergraduates at the Robert H. Smith School of Business, University of Maryland, placed second and took home $2,000 in the General Motors “GM&U” Marketing Challenge. The challenge: create an integrated marketing communications plan for GM’s new College Discount Program. Out of the 49 campuses and two rounds of scoring, Maryland was one of three universities selected to travel to Detroit in December 2009 to present at the General Motors headquarters. Syracuse University came in first place, and Drexel came in third.

Making your list and checking it twice could help you avoid picking up the extra unplanned purchases this year and curb your spending while shopping. In this edition of Smith Business Close-Up with the University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business, Rosellina Ferraro talks about her new research that offers easy tips that can help consumers cut back on unplanned purchases.