The paper describes the implementation of a social media based assignment (blogging in a LinkedIn discussion group) within an international marketing course for an international group of students and presents the students’ perceptions of the assignment. The results indicate that the students had very positive attitudes towards blogging within the online discussion group and perceived it as a more interesting and more effective activity than traditional written assignments. LinkedIn blogging perceptibly contributed to the students’ acquisition of knowledge in the subject area, development of multicultural awareness and writing skills, improvement of critical thinking, reasoning, analysis and interpretation. In most cases this type of activity had an impact on the development of the students’ creativity and personal expression. Some patterns (as an increased motivation to work harder while learning, feeling of comfort/discomfort in the online learning environment) are only identified for a subgroup of Chinese students.

Key words: Social media, LinkedIn, Blogs, International Marketing, Experiential learning