One of the things that we wanted to do for the new social media class at Tennessee (ADV 490: Special Topics – Social Media) is to bring in professionals and experts in social media in Advertising and PR. This morning, we had the pleasure of having Laura Bower (APR; Vice President of Public Relations and Social Media at The Tombras Group in Knoxville) come to our new Social Media class to discuss social media and blogging. Laura and I are good friends from first when we started the PhD program at UT and being active in the social media community in Knoxville.
Laura gave a great presentation on her insights and experiences with blogging professionally and personally, as well as a microblogging (Twitter). Laura also discussed her blog contribution to the Knoxville-based blog Knoxify, and what were some of her most popular posts from the site. It was wonderful to have a leading professional in social media discuss and share some of their best practices on how to blog and use social media strategically – very informative and fabulous! 🙂
The students in the class also had an opportunity to share with Laura their own personal blogs that they are maintaining for the social media class. Each student shared their blog and discussed what the focus was for their blog, what areas they are writing about (ex. social media and sports, social media and advertising, social media and entertainment, etc).
We also shared Laura our class Tumblr site – where everyone in the class comes together on one site and shares, comments, and discusses current issues relevant to social media and public relations. In addition, one of the students in the class (Aaron Sachs) created a new feature called “The ADV 490 Daily,” which is a one-stop shop for students in the class on what each other is sharing on Twitter.
In summary, what has been great to see through this social media class is the skills and experiences the students are getting familiar with class with their blogs is going to translate into their professional careers after they graduate from the University of Tennessee. It is a skill that communication and business professionals – both in advertising and public relations – need to have when they are working in the real world today.
Again, I would like to thank Laura for taking the time to speak to our class this morning on social media and blogging – it was extremely valuable and informative – thank you again! 🙂
Hope you all are having a great day!
Best Wishes,
Karen
0 Comments