This past week I was able to spend time in the city that never sleeps. The Big Apple. The city where food, shopping, and coffee (so important!) are always around and available.
Yes, I am talking about New York City.
Why was I in NYC? I was presenting at the Social Media Strategies Summit. This conference is indeed unique because it is not only for industry professionals, but there is a higher education track to it as well. This is pretty cool since most academic conferences (except for a few in PR) really focus just on the research / theory side of things, so it is refreshing to know what professionals, brands, and practitioners are doing in social media.
There were a few takeaways I was able to get from my experience at SMSS:
It’s good to know you are on the right track. As educators, we have heard the same story over and over again about how we live in our offices, we are not in tuned with what’s happening in the industry, etc. Trust me, I have heard all of these things and have done a lot to try to combat them on a regular basis and show others that these stereotypes are not true.
With that being said, I think it’s important for educators to go to conferences like SMSS and see – are we going to learn something new and innovative to bring back to the classroom? Or, are we going to find out we are on the right track in keeping up with the trends.
The answers for me are yes to both points. I was able to learn about some new trends and tools while I was at SMSS, which is always exciting and makes the trip worthwhile. I also learned that not only was I on the right track on things, there were times where I was like Hermoine from Harry Potter like – I KNOW THIS!!! I can tell you what this means and what campaign this was from.
I sat in on the first keynote of the SMSS and this happened to me. All of the case studies that were presented not only were ones I was aware of, but I saw these campaigns being showcased at Cannes Lions this past summer, so I know where the speaker was getting their materials. This is why I have advocated for many of my educator colleagues to take students and go to Cannes Lions – you will always be ahead of the curve for the latest trends, campaigns, topics, etc.
By the way, we will be doing the Cannes Lions Educators Summit again this year, and I hope to see you all in 2020!
You never know who is watching your content on social. The higher education portion of the conference was dedicated and focused mostly for higher education directors of social media, communication directors, and others who are in charge over the social and digital channels of communication.
There were a few professors who were in attendance and presenting – but not many of us. I was part of a panel that focused on influencer marketing, so I discussed my experiences with teaching influencer marketing and trying to walk the walk and talk the talk as one in the educator space. After my talk, I did have a chance to chat w/ some attendees and some said they had been following me on social for years, and were part of the #SMprofs community. This was amazing! It was a highlight for me to be able to spend time chatting w/ these great professionals.
Meet ups are super important. While in NYC, I realized very quickly 1) you need to build extra time for meetings and 2) you need to make sure to schedule these meet ups ahead of time. Also, NYC traffic – it’s legendary! With that being said, I was super excited I had the chance to meet up w/ my friends and colleagues at Facebook (Nicole and Mark) while I was in the city.
I was excited to be able to make it to their offices in NYC, and we had a truly awesome meeting. As I have mentioned before, I am working with the Facebook Blueprint team as a SME and I am working with them for my PR class as a class client. We were able to bounce around some exciting ideas for 2020 and beyond.
Thank you Mark and Nicole for hosting me this week and I am excited to continue working with you and your team.
Networking and meeting pros in the industry. When you are teaching social media, you have to make sure to connect and network with professionals in the industry. This is a great way to help build the bridge between academia and industry, and the more we are able to do this, the more aligned we will be for our students, work, and the profession. I had a chance to sit in on a few industry talks while I was at the conference.
I got to hear from brands such as GrubHub, Shake Shack, Southwest Airlines, and more. I also got a chance to support a good friend of mine, Leo Morejon, as he gave a great talk as well at SMSS. Leo is not only part of the social media team at Applegate, but he also teaches social media as well for WVU. Leo is not only a talented and successful professional in our industry, but a dear friend who has been super supportive and helpful for my students, colleagues, and me.
It was so good to see you again, Leo! Congrats on a superb talk – this was my favorite one you’ve done!
I had a great time this past week in NYC for the SMSS event. I think it’s important for us to have opportunities to be able to come together and have more discussions on where social media is going, and what we can do together to address this points.
What are some things I think we may want to consider for the future of this event? I think the conference had a lot of great sessions and topics, but I would consider perhaps doing a few sessions where there were workshops dedicated to certain topics (ex. I think having one on how to build an influencer campaign would be tremendous!) or even have sessions dedicated in bridging industry and academia together. In addition, I think educators would also want to be a bigger part of the event. I did hear from a few administrators at the conference they were having a hard time finding interns who were skilled in social media – and they didn’t know where to look for help.
This is where I mentioned 1) join the #SMprofs community I manage on Facebook and 2) reach out to your professors at your university. Some of the professionals I talked to had no idea they had some stellar educators who were part of the #SMprofs community at their school. I think there are some major possibilities of co-creation and collaboration presentations and activities from here with all of us.
Major thanks to our great conference event organizer Breanna Jacobs for setting up this wonderful experience. It was a pleasure to meet you and keep up the amazing work! Special thanks goes out to Dean DeLisle for not only telling me about this great event, but recommend I should apply to speak. Thank you, Dean!
Thanks and have a great day!
Best Wishes,
