I had the chance to present at the New Jersey Social Media Summit (otherwise known as #NJSMS16) this week at William Paterson University.
How did I end up in NJ for two days? Well, it all began with a single email. I had been friends and colleagues with a professor at WP, Angie Yoo, for several years. We have corresponded over topics related to social media, teaching social media, and PR via social media and email. So, Angie sent me a note talking about an event they began last year and said this year, the topic would focus on social media and higher education. And… they wanted me to be the keynote speaker.
My reaction? I was like – ABSOLUTELY! I was thrilled and honored to be part of the session and I immediately wanted to get as much details about the event as possible.
How do you prepare for a keynote?
I have done a few keynotes before, but this was my very first focused on social media and higher education. I have done many presentations, webinars, and other talks on the subject, but never a keynote. I was honored and really excited to create a presentation on this topic to start the conference off.
The first thing I wanted to do was to focus on what area(s) to cover in my talk. There are a lot of different areas and perspectives you look at for this topic, and I wanted to make sure I covered all of the bases. I decided to focus on the overarching opportunities, challenges, and best practices related to social media and higher education for students, professionals, and professors to take away. That’s why I focused my talk about taking the complete perspective – 360 degrees – of social media education, or otherwise known in my presentation as #SMEDU 360.
Promoting the event
I felt it was very important to chat with my students about where I was going to be this past Friday (I teach at UofL MWFs). My students had questions about what I will be covering in my keynote and I shared with them I will be covering how I teach social media, best practices, etc.
Along with other platforms on social media (ex. FB, Instagram, and Twitter), I also wanted to make sure I was sharing content via Snapchat. As each day goes on, I feel more engaged on Snapchat. If you would have asked me a few months ago (or even last year), I may have not have had this same feeling. However, this was a great platform to share my thoughts and what I was looking forward to for the upcoming summit.
My experience at William Patterson
I have been to NJ before, but this was the first time I came to WP. From the time I arrived to the campus, I was impressed and really happy to have the chance to be at the event. The fellow professors and students I met at the event were very professional and you could tell very driven to help out promote the event. We had some time to chat and network before my presentation and then there was a lunch and poster session afterwords.
Another thing I loved about the event was the branding and social media integration! From having a Tagboard display for social media content for the event to emoji signs (LOVED these!!) and even designing a designated Snapchat filter. Definitely well done, WP!
I truly had a blast doing my keynote presentation. This was probably one of my favorite presentations I have done since being a professor and going to conferences. My phone literally was blowing up with social media notifications of attendees live tweeting the session and taking pictures and snaps of me. Really honored by the kind words they said about my presentation!
I was blown away with the student poster sessions – they combined theory and practice together on a range of topics related to social media. It was wonderful to see these posters as well as meeting the energetic students from the WP program.
Reflections of #NJSMS16
I mentioned this to Angie and Matt (the two wonderful professors who organized the event) I wished more programs and universities had events like this.
What Angie and Matt have sparked with this event is what more higher education institutions need to do to cultivate a dynamic, energetic, and community based event focusing on discussing, learning, and growing our knowledge base for strategic and applied practices in social media.
I truly had a marvelous time and really felt very welcome. Everything was well organized and taken care of! I was very impressed with the students from WP – very professional, engaged, and motivated to work hard to achieve their goals. They really reminded me of my students at UofL, and I think the PR and communications world is in good hands with rising professionals like these students.
Special thanks to Angie and Matt for letting me be part of the second annual NJ Social Media Summit. It was an honor to be part of your event. Thank you to the great students at WP and all of the wonderful new friends I met during my time in NJ. Looking forward to the next event!
Hope you all are having a great day.
Best Wishes,
