Newport Interactive Marketers

Interns aka digital natives meet pros at the Social Media Social

By Jaclyn Liva
University of Rhode Island

Social Media is being used in almost everyone’s lives constantly throughout the day. The URI Student-led Public Relations Society recently hosted the first-ever Social Media Social. Several students that belong to the University’s Harrington School of Communication were in attendance, along with many Newport Interactive Marketers members and small businesses looking for interns.

University of Rhode Island Social Media professor Suzanne McDonald, founder of NIM, kicked off the event with an informative speech on how the need for digital natives is increasing. It was a great because the students there are all familiar in social media, aka digital natives. Her presentation is available on SlideShare and focuses on “Crossing the Digital Divide” between digital natives (student-interns) and busy professionals.

The Social was an opportunity for students to socialize with business owners and other professionals who are seeking help with social media for their businesses. Suzanne also talked about how important a LinkedIn profile is to have.

Shawn Simmons, Director Public Relations at StyleWeek Providence, @StyleWeekPR was also a keynote speaker at the social. He discussed the importance of branding yourself and offered tips on how to discover your brand. Shawn advised everyone to keep in mind that what other people say about your brand is much more important than what you design your brand to be.

During the event, there was a live Twitter stream onstage. People were tweeting and retweeting questions for the social media experts panel. And #URI_PRS was trending. One student tweeted: “How important are recommendations from co-workers and bosses on LinkedIn?” The question was answered almost instantly by one of the panelists: crucially important.

It was nice to see even the keynote speakers tweet from the audience. It made the atmosphere of the Social feel much more open.

The Social Media Social panel featured

These pros deftly handled numerous questions and stressed the fact that everything that is put on the Internet will forever live in cyberspace.

The Social Media Social came to an end with a networking session. This gave everyone in attendance the opportunity to meet, mingle, and explore internship opportunities over free ice cream!

Newport Interactive Marketers shared best practices and techniques to using Google+ and Twitter as effective social media platforms.

Michelle Quillin, social media maven of New England Multimedia and Matt Medeiros of Slocum Design, shared their experience and expertise with the #NIM group.

What did the #NIM audience take away from this Newport Interactive Marketers session?

Google+ offers

Targeted messaging
Social circles and hangouts
Makes online life more “real” via sharing abilities

Tips for Google+

Categorize your circles
Use Google+ circles to target specific people and avoid over-posting
Follow back every follower and then reassign to relevant circles
Google hangouts a great connect face-to-face
Look for people who are following thought-leaders

Google+ takeaways

For now, it’s best for marketers
Will not kill off Facebook
Will Google+ outrank other social mentions in search engine results?

Google says no, NIM attendees say yes

Interact on Google+ and Twitter

Tune your voice to fit various social media platforms
Matt’s take on finding your social media voice

The NIM group had varied opinions on the relevance of both of these platforms for their individual campaigns. Try them out and see what works the best with your audiences. Then cater your voice to effectively reach out to your intended audiences.

Thanks to @PRNick, @wordtracker, @kristinzhivago, @rrenfreehawes, @ChristiesNWPT, @HeatherCinOC, and @NewprtBridgeRun for contributing to the dialogue.

Looking forward to more #NIM conversations!

Interns aka digital natives at the Social Media Social