Andrew Davis, a former MySpace marketing manager, is the creator of social media courses taught in British schools.
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Davis’ media career began for a company called "Chat Moderator's" where he moderated communities for Liverpool football club, Pop Idol, Sony Playstation, and Friends Reunited. He left in early 2002 to join the BBC’s digital radio station 1Xtra, which he helped to launch, before going to work for MySpace.com in 2006. The social networking company had just set up a UK division and needed a small team of specialists who could plan and deliver strategic marketing initiatives to engage and retain users, increase traffic across the site and attract global brands. As one of the first employees to join, Davis was involved in multiple parts of the business.
During his employment, he engineered viral campaigns with celebrities for MySpace.com. The participants included artist such as Beyonce, Jay Z, P.Diddy, Pharrell Williams and Jennifer Lopez. He also negotiated contra and sponsorship deals with big brands such as Reebok, the BBC and the British government, before helping to make MySpace the first social network to achieve product placement within a video game; Konami’s best selling Pro Evolution Soccer 2008. He also earned the internal award for ‘Best Global MySpace TV Initiative’ after partnering with MTV to launch a presenter search on MySpace, which was subsequently commissioned into a full TV series.
The Guardian newspaper ranked him number 17 in its 2007 ‘Minority Report’ – a countdown of the Top 30 most important ethnic minority contributors to the British media industry. He was the only entrant aged under 30. He followed this up in 2008 by becoming the only person listed in both the Media Week Top ‘30 under 30’ rundown of the most talented individuals in the UK and Broadcast magazine’s ‘Hot Shots’ list of media insiders tipped for future success.
Davis has since established a consultancy business called "The Worst Kept Secret",[1] which is dedicated in part to social media. The aim of The Worst Kept Secret is to educate young minded thinking people about what they didn't learn in school.
Davis developed a social media courses for secondary schools entitled Social Media Fundamentals. This was the first time social media were taught in secondary courses in the United Kingdom. The aim of the course is to explain the rise and relevance of social media including networking sites and integrate core subjects such as English and Maths at the same time.
London’s Bishop Challoner Catholic College was the first school to book his services. Students are required to submit a reason for being on the course, and the application will work as part of their GCSE coursework requirement. Thirty will be chosen from applicants.[2] [3]
He has worked alongside Heads Of Faculty to devise a course tailored specifically for the needs of the school. As part of the course, Davis will invite former contacts from the music/media industry to share their experiences with the children.
Davis was diagnosed with repetitive strain injury in 2007, making it almost impossible for him to complete his day-to-day tasks. After a major operation on his hands and weekly physiotherapy sessions he is under strict doctor’s orders to avoid typing at all costs. Forced to completely change his lifestyle, Davis developed the social media course as something he can deliver verbally.