I would like to say that I am fairly new to this “blogging” world. I’m pretty sure that the popular, Tumblr, does not count as “blogging” and to be honest, I hardly ever used Tumblr in the first place.
What exactly defines blogging? I don’t really know, but that is why I’m currently taking the Social Media for Public Relations course at St. Edward’s University. I am a Communications major and at the moment I don’t have a specific track that I have chosen to dedicate my studies to. By track I mean an area of specialization and in my case I have four options to choose from: Interpersonal and Organizational Communication, Public Relations and Advertising Communication, Media Arts and Broadcast Journalism Communication, or Rhetorical and Cultural Studies Communication.
I decided to embark on this journey of immersing myself in social media because I have been a Social Media Intern for the Foundation for Education of Young Women for about five months now. I basically help maintain a connection between alumnae from several sister-schools around the state of Texas through social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn.
In this particular blog post, I would like to focus on how social media maintains connections with friends, family, classmates, colleagues, etc. Why? Because my team members and I are currently working with our client, the Foundation for the Education of Young Women. They specifically asked us to help them in the areas of Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn. They would like to know how to effectively use these social media platforms to their advantage and how to maximize a response from the alumnae that visit their social media outlets. As I mentioned before, they have an alumnae network that they maintain and their main purpose is to keep the alumnae interacting with each other through these various forms of social media.
When I initially started working with this organization, it took me some time to step back and realize that they were using social media to their advantage, not just as a simple account that they registered for and expected to use because everyone else has an account. These various forms of social media have become crucial when it comes to maintaining relationships with others. In this case, their alumnae-their oldest class being the graduating class of 2009 has been able to create a connection with other classes, the youngest being the class of 2014. In our client’s case, they maintain a relationship through posting images of what is currently going on in their lives, scholarship links, job/internship opportunities, and simple statuses of how they are doing.
It is rather interesting at how different organizations take on an approach to these various forms of social media. I honestly admire when social media is used in a positive light rather than a negative. I’m very excited to be working with this organization and hope to provide sufficient support and aid in order for them to reach the goals they wish to achieve.
Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn…here goes to an extensive beginning of research and figuring out how you work!
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