Social Media Workshop!

Wow! Last week, I had the opportunity to attend the Social Media Workshop here at ONU, put on by PRSSA. I was genuinely surprised at how much enjoyment I got from listening to these speakers. Their knowledge and experiences blew me away, and was such a valuable experience for me! I was nervous about having to live tweet during one of the speakers, but I surprisingly enjoyed that part as well. The workshop also provided a lot of inspiration on possible career paths, because that is something that I have had a really hard time trying to figure out. 

The day started out with a wonderful keynote speaker, Amy Hertsenberg. Amy's presentation was really compelling, especially as it was very relatable in this day and age. She spoke about the recent developments in AI, and how that technology is beginning to transform social media strategy. Hertsberg talked about how AI is powerful for two different reasons. One, to better understand consumers, and two, for hyper-personalization. She then went on to discuss the five elements of hyper-personalization which are data collection, AI powered analysis, customize content, iteration and improvement, and cross channel connectivity. As a wrap up, Amy gave some personal experiences as to how AI has helped in her life. AI can do the smallest tasks for us, saving some much time and space for the things that we don't dread. 

After the keynote speaker, I went to my first session of the day which dove into brand engagement on social media. Sally Stearns, who is a social media manager for a roofing company in Toledo, spent her presentation talking about the three C's of brand engagement: connecting, converting, and cultivating. I enjoyed how Sally connected each one of these topics to a real-life example from her work, and also other famous brands. When talking about connections, I learned that 91% of people fully believe in social media's power to connect. In the conversation about conversions, I learned that to encourage action you have to post consistent content, add call to actions, and encourage reviews. Lastly, when learning about cultivating I learned that this revolves around building loyalty with customers.

After this, I went to my favorite session of the day, which was led by Dayton Barnett. Dayton gave us a deep dive into his life as a video creator. Dayton had an unmatched energy and connected so well with the audience. This was the session that I chose to live tweet during, because basically everything he said was something that I wanted to write down. My favorite thing he said during this session was, "We work in social media, it's not that serious! Have fun and do what you want!" He showed us some examples of videos he has recorded in the past, promoting everything from crazy concerts, to an art show. He really hit home on the fact that you have to know the difference between a small event and a big event, BUT a small event does not equate to a bad event! Another favorite that I feel was really relatable was when he said that you don't have to know anything about the event you are attending, you just need to know how to take a video! All in all, this was most certainly my favorite part of the day and I definitely hope to see Dayton again. 

After lunch, I had two sessions left to attend. The one I went to next was presented by Mallory Grayson, where she shared insights from a recent campaign that she worked on. I liked how Mallory walked us through the entire process of her campaign from start to finish, it made me feel like I was almost a part of it in some way. What I found most interesting about her speech was when she talked about how they use both paid and unpaid influencers to promote their campaigns on social media.

The last session of the day was led by Brandon Daniels, who focused on mastering the algorithm behind optimizing content. By this point in the day I was beginning to get super restless and easily distracted, but Brandon still somehow managed to keep me engaged throughout his session. What I found the most interesting from this was the discussion of the difference between positive feedback and negative feedback used by social media. What was really interesting was when he began to talk about how TikTok's For You Page is created specifically for you. This is done with the negative feedback mechanism, which is where the platform focuses on the things you DON'T do, versus the things you do. For example, it looks at the things that you don't like based on how quickly you swipe past content. I thought that this was an interesting session to end with, especially since it tied into TikTok, which is something that all of us could easily relate to.

Overall, this was by far one of the most valuable experiences that I have had the opportunity to be a part of. This was also a great way to learn about possible career paths that I can explore. All in all, I can't wait to come back to the PRSSA Social Media Workshop next year!