Dr Martin de Saulles, Head of the Division of Information Management at the University of Brighton, and an active user of social media in his teaching and research, recognises the importance of social media in everyday business practice and has written a guide based on interviews carried out with local companies.

As a result, he will be running a new short course, in conjunction with the School of Computing, Engineering and Mathematics, entitled 'What every Business Needs to Know about Web 2.0 and Social Media'.

The course will be run in 5 separate sessions which are self contained so people can choose whether to take all or just some of the sessions. They will run from 16 November through to 14 December, and the subject, time of the session and cost can be found at: http://www.brighton.ac.uk/ctc/courses/course_web2_socialmedia.html

Dr de Saulles said: "Social media and the new generation of web services are now being used by many companies to market themselves, sell products and services and communicate with customers and suppliers in ways that were not possible even 5 years ago."

"It is no longer an option for businesses to dismiss these technologies as a passing fad. Just as e-mail is now an essential communications tool for most businesses so social media services will be over the coming years. This course is designed for people with little or no experience of using social media and Web 2.0 services and will help them understand the potential they offer to their businesses".

Dr Martin de Saulles' guide to social media is free, and can be downloaded by clicking on the link after his name.