Today, I was a panelist in the UF PR Advisory Council's Future Trends Panel. It was entitled "Young Professionals Share Social Media Insights". I was selected with three other women out of the entire college to participate.
When I was selected in mid-February, I was paired up with a mentor from the UF Advisory Council. My mentor is Karen Jones, Senior Vice President, Corporate Marketing & Communications, for DHL Express Americas. Karen and I spoke about how new social media is shaping how companies address their publics. Blogging, Facebook, MySpace and Twitter are opening new avenues for companies to communicate and connect with their audience.
During the panel today, we discussed if traditional media (newspapers, radio, etc.) will disappear in the future. I do not think it will but I do think there is a huge shift towards the internet. In the next 10 to 15 years, I believe the majority of a company's advertising will be on the internet.
We also discussed which companies and organizations have done a good job of using social media to connect with their publics. My first example was the Obama campaign. He had a grassroots campaign, that saturated itself into social media networking sites. Facebook and MySpace were covered with different positions from Obama, throughout his campaign. His team connected with the different generations of citizens on their specific levels. Another great example is Nike. They are also using social networking sites to spread word about new products or events. I, myself, bought a pair of Nike running shoes from an advertisement I saw on Facebook, that said I could personalize my sneaker with personal color choices.
The last panel discussion was to explain why companies today need to dive into the world of social media. Some companies fear if they join these sites it opens up the possibility for people to speak negatively about their company. My thoughts are, if a company opens a blog, they create the opportunity to effectively communicate directly with their publics. If a consumer has a problem with a product and blogs about it on the company's Web site, then the company has the opportunity to immediately fix it. Companies have the ability to hear directly from the consumer and monitor their feedback.
After this discussion, the floor was open for questions. One of the Advisory Council members asked: "Don't you fear the invasion of space and privacy with these social media sites?" This was the gist of my answer. I believe my generations view of privacy is very distorted compared to the older generations view. We are used to seeing ads all over our sites and also sharing with the world what we are doing every second of every day. These social networking sites give us the opportunity to stay connected with everyone. My generation is consumed with fame, brands and drama and these sites allow us to feed into those obsessions. There are plenty of "celebrities" today that are only famous because of Facebook or MySpace. So to our generation, privacy isn't really something we are heavily concerned about. We do care about stalkers and people using our information, but if they want to see into our lives, we give them access with these sites.
Today was a lot of fun and I learned a lot. The most important thing I learned was the older generations are not always up-to-speed with all of the new sites and media. It is my generations task to help companies immerse themselves into these sites. At the same time, my generation is working for the older generation and must respect their concerns.
If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me!
---Victoria
P.S. Here are some Web sites that will help with the above info.
- The PR Advisory Council = http://www.jou.ufl.edu/academic/pr/advisory.asp
- Webcast of Panel = Coming Soon!
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