Social Media

5 Steps to Brand & Align Your Professional Digital Footprint

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Many organizations are exploring the uses of social media to connect with their customers in new and more personal ways. These opportunities also extend to individuals seeking thought leader, entrepreneur or simply tech-savvy status. This is especially important for those who work in the digital communications field, but also for leadership looking to take a more proactive role in brand interaction. A great example in the higher education community is University of Cincinnati’s President Santa J. Ono.

While his background is in medicine, Ono is regarded as a social media trailblazer for making himself completely accessible to UC stakeholders. He actively tweets, posts and engages with students, parents, faculty, staff, alumni and fans. His success on social media demonstrates the power of digital platforms to foster strong and lasting connections with your community.

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2015 Adobe MAX Recap – Part 2

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Adobe MAX stage

Allow me to set the scene with the Adobe MAX stage that was always adorned with art from many creatives.

In my last post recapping the 2015 Adobe Max Conference, I provided personal reflection prompts to encourage exploring your creativity goals and hang ups. While I found these sessions and the resulting guidance to be extremely valuable, the Adobe MAX Conference wasn’t all creative soul searching. Let’s shift to brass tacks with some concrete professional recommendations around storytelling.

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Tips for Incorporating Multimedia Content

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panelists

Chicago’s PRSA Young Professionals Network hosts panel on multimedia content.

Last week, I attended a panel presentation put on by Chicago’s PRSA (Public Relations Society of America) Young Professionals Network. The panel’s title, “Storytelling through Multimedia Content,” immediately caught my attention. Whether you’re agency or in-house, all public relations and communications professionals share the expectation to deliver fresh and relevant multimedia content to engage consumers in new ways. To get diverse perspective on the matter, PRSA consulted four Chicago professionals: Sarah Gitersonke, executive producer at AKA Media Inc.; Prash Sabharwal, digital manager at Golin; Lisa Trafficanta, vice president at Res Publica Group; and Geoffrey Frankel, senior vice president at Edelman.

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Digital Storytelling for Social Change

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roberto-morales-digital-story

Roberto Morales’ digital story “Dónde estas…” shows the deep impact of a miscarriage on young parents.

Continuing my exploration of digital storytelling, the medium’s cost-effective production and strong potential for engaging audiences makes it an ideal tool for non-profit groups. Digital storytelling for social change focuses on raising the voices of subordinate groups who are directly affected by social issues but seldom heard in public deliberation. The two to four-minute video format – composed of primarily voice over and still images – serves as a feasible platform for subordinate groups to speak beyond their immediate communities and to contribute to broader public debates by challenging commonsense understandings.

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Blog Wrangling

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I initially created the Tuesdays with Media blog for my New Media Studies Proseminar class. Bringing the assignment full circle, the professor asked that I explore the evolution of the blog and its future by crafting editorial guidelines.  I won’t bore you with the details that span from revision process to hyperlink policy, but I will take this opportunity to encourage other bloggers to perform this exercise.

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Proactive Approach to Social Media

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I recently started reading Bonnie Nardi and Vicki O’Day’s Information Ecologies, which promotes active analysis to ensure the right technology is used in the right way to drive values and results. As noted in the headline of this blog, I am trying to apply this thinking to my every day use of technology at work, home and everywhere in between.

Rather than simply adopting to keep pace or just because, mindful consumers must first consider the purpose and potential repercussions.My last couple posts have discussed brand success on social sites like Facebook, Instagram and Pinterest. Leading with tips for user engagement on a scattered selection of social sites now feels like I started the story in the middle.

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#TBT Cultivating Connection

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Baby Brother Picture

#TBTT: Throwback Tech Tuesday

Reading The Culture of Connectivity by Jose Van Dijck, I came across an interesting quote regarding how Facebook’s Timeline format:

“Cues members to post pictures from the pre-Facebook days of their youth – a baby picture, family snapshots, school classes, old friends, college years, wedding pictures, honeymoon – and thus experience content in terms of their life’s story…Timeline caused enhanced feelings of intimacy, memory and connectedness” (55).

My Facebook identity begins the day I created my profile. I upload pictures and videos in real-time, but did not readily add media reflecting my pre-Facebook life. That is until the creation of the platform-agnostic trend Throwback Thursday.

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