Our team here at the Clemson SMLC is proud to share we’ve just finished our first-ever Social Media Week event! This event was the first conference in our new facility, which just opened last August, and we enjoyed the opportunity to host so many industry experts and Clemson students with a wide range of majors and interests.
Below, we’ll recap the panels we hosted and let you know how to find our incredible guest speakers on social media!
Customer and Fan Engagement – Kyle Coulter
Clemson Athletics’ own Kyle Coulter helped us kick off the inaugural Social Media Week by hosting our first panel, focusing on customer and fan engagement. If you’ve ever seen content from Clemson Football, it was probably Kyle’s brainchild!
Kyle spoke to students about his experiences working with the Clemson Football brand and how to reinvigorate a brand to resonate most with audiences. Not only are athletes and employees extensions of a brand, but everyone should be working together to reach the same “North Star” through a unifying, guiding vision.
You can follow Kyle on Twitter at @kylecoulter_ and Clemson Football at @ClemsonFB!
The Art of Storytelling – Wes Gay
Wes Gay is an expert in storytelling and the power of narratives, sharing the StoryBrand technique with his own agency, Wayfinder Agency. The StoryBrand technique provides a roadmap of marketing principles: just like the archetypical Hero’s Journey, consumers follow a certain path during their purchasing journeys. By paralleling this plot line, social media experts and marketers can more genuinely reach users and meet their needs.
Most importantly, “if you confuse, you’ll lose.” Make sure your story is clear and straightforward and makes sense to your followers, and be sure you’re acting as a guide to help those followers solve problems.
You can follow Wes on Twitter at @wesgay and the StoryBrand organization at @storybrand!
Measuring Social Media Success – Chas Williams
Clemson University’s executive director of social media, Chas Williams, was the first member of his team to join us here at the SMLC. Chas discussed ways to measure and understand social media success, which goes beyond simply evaluating metrics.
Whether it’s for an organizational brand or individual brand, make sure you start by understanding your “why” – what motivates you and what are you trying to achieve, day in and day out? If you’re working constantly to meet that “why” and stay in line with your values and image, you’re contributing to your brand success. Strategy is key!
You can follow Chas on Twitter at @cwilliams3 and Clemson University at @ClemsonUniv!
Sports and Social Media – Kaley Humphrey & Teri Johnson
We had a full house for our sports session, featuring Kaley Humphrey of the Greenville Triumph and Teri Johnson of the Greenville Swamp Rabbits. Students had an opportunity to engage in a more panel-like discussion and ask the two experts about their experiences as women working in sports, the rigors of the industry, and the best ways to break into such a competitive field.
Both reiterated the importance of knowing your audience and your market – as Teri said, it can be difficult to market minor-league hockey in a Southern city! – and reaching fans online with content they really want to engage with.
You can follow Kaley on Twitter at @humphrey_kaley and the Greenville Triumph at @GVLTriumph, and Teri at @terimichelle13 and the Greenville Swamp Rabbits at @SwampRabbits!
Influencer Relations – Raine Riley
Kaley was only the first of three students who earned their M.A. in Communication here at Clemson to re-join us this week: Raine Riley was another one! She returned to the SMLC to share her knowledge on influencer marketing. While maintaining strong relationships with a brand’s audience is important to a brand’s ongoing success, it’s also incredibly important to keep relationships with influencers tight.
Raine helps her public relations firm and its clients work with influencers within their industries, which in turn helps bring awareness and new fans to the clients’ brands. There’s no one-size-fits-all marketing strategy for every organization, but Raine thinks influencer marketing is here to stay, and brands that are getting in on the ground floor today may be better set up for success tomorrow.
You can follow Raine on Twitter at @RaineTRiley and her PR firm, Jeff Dezen PR, at @jeffdezenPR!
Building Social Networks – Nicole Day
Another member of Clemson’s social media team, Nicole Day, joined us to kick off our third and final day of Social Media Week. Nicole taught students about the importance of building networks via social media, and how those networks can pay off during your job hunt.
You may be surprised to know that LinkedIn is not the only approach you can take to social media networking! Depending on your industry, other social media platforms, like Twitter, may be more appropriate to build connections with others and share your professional accomplishments. It all depends on what you’re trying to achieve and who you’re hoping to connect with.
You can follow Nicole on Twitter at @nicolemcday, and Clemson University at @ClemsonUniv!
Personal Branding – Nigel Robertson
If you’ve ever watched WYFF News 4 in Greenville, you might be familiar with Nigel Robertson! Nigel has been with the network since 1999, and he visited us to share his insights on the changing media landscape and how one’s personal brand can fit into that.
By walking students through the timeline of mass media from the early days of a few newspaper conglomerates to our modern world of information overload, Nigel explained how it’s important to create a brand that will stand out from this saturated landscape and make you a unique commodity. He also discussed the democratization of news, and how we’re in a unique time when anyone can be a creator and share content in real time. Where will the media world go next?!
You can follow Nigel on Twitter at @thetopstoryWYFF and WYFF News 4 at @WYFFNews4!
Social Media Listening & Market Research – Agassy Rodriguez
We closed the week out with a great session from our third and final Clemson MAC alum, Agassy Rodriguez. Agassy graduated with his M.A. in Communication last spring and now works with Campus Sonar. Agassy explained the differences between social media monitoring and social listening to students, as well as the importance for all brands, not just universities, to keep an eye on conversations surrounding them on social media.
A majority of all the mentions of your brand are going to be earned – that is, people will just discuss your brand on their own rather than you, as a brand representative, pushing out owned media. Consumers are also more likely to trust this earned media as they trust their peers more than a company, so it’s important to not try to talk over the social discussion: work alongside it to meet your goals and guide your business strategy.
You can follow Agassy on Twitter at @Agassy_R and Campus Sonar at @campussonar!
Thank you to all our fantastic speakers for sharing your expertise with us, and thank you to our Tiger community for attending and making our first Social Media Week a great success!
Author: Kayleigh Jackson
