Social Media Workshop Highlights

 

This past Friday, I had the opportunity to attend the Ohio Northern University Social Media Workshop, hosted by the PRSSA club. It was so much fun. The day began with a Keynote speaker in the Chapel who spoke about their experience in media and how to develop your own personal brand. Then, two breakout sessions before a networking lunch, where I could meet with two professionals who worked in library social media, followed by two more breakout sessions and a final closing.

Here are a few things that I learned during the workshop.

First, I heard from our keynote speaker, Caroline Schumacher, the CEO of Give Kids the World, a nonprofit with the goal of providing children with an experience they will never forget. She talked about the importance of work-life integration and how you represent yourself online, you should also do in person. She also spoke about leadership, personal brand and showing your values in public. A few notable things were to be intentional and to show up, meaning to live out your values in a meaningful way.

In the first breakout session, I heard from two speakers, Amy Arnold and Kelly Savage, who work to promote the Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center. They discussed organic and paid media, highlighting the importance and effectiveness of each. Organic media is known to generate community and foster authenticity, while paid media is noted to have a larger reach and ability to gather better insights from your target market. They also mentioned how to build your social media strategy with keyword search, AI summary and testing. Hearing more about both organic and paid media was incredibly useful, especially when applying it to our sim and the importance of using both when working in social media advertising.

Next, I attended a session with Tim Stried, who runs the OHSAA social media. He spoke on the importance of finding your main content and ensuring your media is consistent and neutral. He also explained the elements of an effective caption through descriptions that are short and include keywords. He also touched on timelines and balancing the kind and amount of content to post on different platforms.

Lastly, I heard from Sami McNeal, who spoke about influencer marketing and User Generated Content, and Tyler Lout, who talked about the future of Artificial Intelligence and how to utilize it in media.

The workshop was incredibly insightful, and I learned new things in each session that I can apply to my future career. I think it is very helpful to hear from experts in the field that you are studying so that you can understand more about what it is like and strengthen the skills you need to work in that field.