Every time I teach my social media class at UofL, there is always something new I experience and note for future classes as well as share with fellow colleagues. Whether it is about a particular assignment or experience, there always is something that happens to me that hasn’t happened to me before. If I could name one thing that has happened to me this year that is new, it’s the increased engagement and interaction I have had with brands. Not as a user of Twitter, but because I am a professor teaching social media.
This has been interesting – and exciting – for me as a professor. I have shared at conferences and written about the power of social media for professors, but I never really considered how professors could essentially “brand” their classes and themselves to interact and engage in conversations with others. I have had great support from brands like Hootsuite [amazing team and brand!], Sprout Social [great community managers and we go back and forth with gifs], and even Starbucks [that’s a huge highlight for me!]
However, I wanted to share the {amazing} experience I had this past week with Skype. I had this great exchange with Skype the other day – and I have been a fan of theirs for years. I have been using Skype for years – not only to correspond with friends and family, but for my classes, especially to bring in great guest speakers. I have used Skype as a tool for my class to bring forth leading experts in the fields of PR, Marketing, Data Analytics, and Social Media. It has been a great and wonderful tool to use 0ver the years.
However, it’s only been in the last several years I have interacted with the brand of Skype directly through social media, particularly Twitter. Whenever I had a guest coming in via Skype, I would use their Twitter handle @Skype in my update. I noticed immediately I would get an immediate response from them based on this update. Of course I thanked them as well on Twitter – again, extending the conversation.
I had this conversation when I was going to do a guest lecture using Skype for my friend Christine’s class, and the response and engagement from Skype was very impressive. Plus, I was extremely surprised they wanted to send me a gift – I was like? Me?!! That is pretty cool! I had a great DM conversation with the community managers at Skype and next thing I know, I arrived to campus on Friday to a great gift package from Skype. I was truly overwhelmed with the awesome swag I got from Skype.
What did this experience teach me? Well, here are a few things that this experience from Skype taught me as a professor and what I shared with not only my social media class at UofL, but with some of my colleagues.
- Definitely interact with brands: If you are using certain products in your classes [apps/technology/tools] make sure to share this on social media with your class hashtag. Many of these brands have great community managers and you can start a great conversation here with them!
- Brand your class on social media: If you haven’t done so already, make sure to brand your class with a personalized hashtag. Use this in your correspondence and let people know about the class. You are the best spokesperson for your class as a professor – and many times, these brands save and monitor these hashtags – which can bring more exposure for your class as well as the work your students are doing and sharing.
- Be generous with your praise: Give shout outs and let others in your community know what you have experienced – I shared this story on all of my social media platforms (FB, Twitter, and Instagram) as well as writing this blog post. Sharing your experience with others extends the conversation even further.
- Keep in mind we are dealing with humans behind the brand logo: If you keep in mind we are interacting with fellow professionals who are part of a company, that will make things easier. The conversations I have had with these brands have taken this approach, and I have been impressed with the level of professionalism and interaction with some of these brands. As I mentioned before, some brands that have been great interacting with me and my class this semester have been Hootsuite, Sprout Social, Spredfast, Skype, XGames, and even Starbucks. This has been awesome to experience and share with my students!
This is definitely an experience I will be talking about when I head to Austin in a week for the SxSW Edu conference. You can check out our panel session here in the schedule.
Again, I would like to take a moment to thank Skype and the community manager team for their generosity and kindness for the gifts [and for a great conversation on Twitter!] I truly appreciate it and I am looking forward to continue this professional relationship and continue to use Skype for my guest lectures.
Hope you all are having a great day!
Best Wishes,
