We had a great guest speaker today in our Social Media class, Mike Koehler of NewsOK/The Oklahoman. It’s always exciting to have guest speakers in class who provide different insights on things that are important to us as public relations/journalism/broadcasting etc. students. His presentation gave me a lot to think about regarding how I personally handle social media. He suggested that when engaging in social media you create your own online identity, and find your niche to focus on. I feel like I’ve done that to some extent, but could definitely improve upon it. I also feel like I should become a little more engaged in social media than I am, but I suppose I’ve come quite a long way in just a short time.
Honestly what I’m learning from every person I’ve heard speak in the last year or so is that social media is the way the world is heading. Mr. Koehler works for a newspaper who has now taken so much of their product online and is really doing some incredible things with it. And nearly every business you can think of is doing the same. Luckily those of us who are younger have grown up with the Internet and worked with computers from the time we were in grade school, so it’s easier for us to adapt to it all. People my parents age have a more difficult time. My dad knows the basics because he worked in a bank until he retired, but he can barely do anything online without asking for my help. I’m sure so many of the older people who are heading companies are hesitant to join the online world, but in reality they really don’t have a choice.
So, as I’ve said a million times before, I couldn’t be more happy that I decided to enroll in this course. I went from not even really knowing what Twitter was less than three months ago, to being “addicted” to it as my boyfriend says, and writing my own blog! I’m really excited to see what else I learn over the remainder of the semester.
Celeste
sounds like a really awesome class; i wish we had something like this at my university!
Glad you are enjoying the class and great post. Stay focused, you will rule the sm world.
Don’t forget to cross post it on http://www.sociallyorange.org, I think other jb students would appreciate your insight.
I agree with your blog about our guest speaker. He did have a lot of insight about tools we need to know about. I’m like you in that I am doing my best to stay connected to social media networks. I hope to just stay in the loop as best I can!