Social Media Workshop

 On Friday, my Principles of Social Media class got to go to a workshop and hear different speakers talk about their experiences with social media and how they incorporate it into their everyday work.  The workshop first started off with a Keynote from Caroline Schumacher, who was a communications major. She currently works at Give Kids the World in Orlando. During this keynote, Caroline talked about how it is important to be yourself and to not be someone different online and in person. She embraced the importance of being a leader and reminded us that there are hardships with becoming one, like always being vulnerable. I enjoyed what she had to say because she was very authentic and honest with us about her life and what it took for her to get to where she is now. 

After the keynote, I went to Amy Arnold, a social media manager, and Kelly Savage, a director of social media and engagement, for my first session. They talked about the differences between organic and social strategies and posts, and how to use them effectively. I enjoyed listening to this because we had talked about it in class before. The next session I went to was with Tim Stried, who is a director of media relations for OHSAA. This was my favorite session. He works for the athletics communications office, which is something that interests me a lot. I want to work in sports, so being able to hear what he had to say was exciting. During his session, he talked about the dos and don'ts of social media posts. He made sure we knew to not reply to comments and not make posts based on political or religious viewpoints, which makes sense. 

After this, we had a lunch break, and all ate Olive Garden in the Chapel. After the break, we had two more sessions left for the day. The third session I went to was with Shannon Caldwell, a senior strategist and population health marketer. Shannon works for Mobile Health Locator. In her session, she talked about marketing goals and the differences between paid, earned, shared, and owned tactics. The last session I went to was with Tyler Louth, a CEO in marketing.  During Tyler's session, he talked about the impact of AI and how it is the new internet. He also talked about ways to have better marketing experiences. 

Overall, I had a very good day. It was interesting to hear what everyone does in their jobs and how they got to where they are. It opened my eyes to many fields that I can go into with what I am studying, and that excites me! I am glad I got to experience my first social media workshop!