During class on Tuesday a panel of social media experts visited our classroom. The three women on the panel were Amanda Brandt, Megan Longo, and Ashley Anderson. Brandt serves as the social media and content strategist for Creighton University, Longo serves as the marketing director for Flagship Restaurant Group, and Anderson serves as the marketing strategist for Flywheel. Each expert had interesting tips and advice that will help me and my peers as students and as young professional eager to enter the corporate world. Amanda Brandt, who serves as the social media and content strategist for Creighton University, was closest in age to myself and my peers so her insight was particularly interesting. Brandt pointed out the importance of trying to communicate with prospective and potential students in the admissions process. Megan chimed in and said that it would be interesting to see what that would look like. When viewing content they would potentially be thinking if they could see themselves attending Creighton so Brandt would have to get creative in showing them why Creighton is for them without being too intrusive. Brandt made an interesting point about Instagram and how she views it as a professional. She said that when she is scrolling through her Instagram feed that she doesn’t click on pictures and think about how pretty they are. She looks at pictures and discerns why that certain picture was chosen, why the caption was chosen, and why this content was showing. I found this interesting, because as a journalism student, I am slowly starting to question content I view out in the world. Megan Longo, who serves as the marketing director for Flagship Restaurant Group, definitely inspired me and motivated me as a journalism student. She made interesting points about protecting your reputation as a brand while also being able to tell a story through the content you post on your brands social media sites. Longo also made points about having excellent writing and editing skills as well as writing in the correct voice. She said you have to speak to the point, create a voice, stick to it, and churn out content. It almost seems like a no brainier to stay up on your writing skills, but people make mistakes everyday, even in the corporate world. Longo also spoke on crisis management, or as she likes to call it, reputation management. When she comes across bad experiences from customers on social media she does everything to make it right as she doesn’t want to lose a customer. She does this without being intrusive which I think is extremely important. This is so huge to improve and solidify brand loyalty. I know I feel reassured when I read stories about companies making it right with dissatisfied customers. Ashley Anderson, who serves as the marketing strategist for Flywheel, had specific tips for me and my peers and gave great advice for the rest of our time at Creighton. Ashley talked about interacting with brands to promote brand loyalty. She said that once when she was at Blue Sushi she tweeted to the restaurant. Blue Sushi told her to order a certain dish, and when she replied that she had already ordered, they replied back and gave her a gift card for her next visit to try the dish they had originally suggested. While this was more of a point for Longo, I found it extremely interesting and effective (as described above). Towards the end of the class period, the conversation took a turn as Anderson and Longo started using us students as their guinea pigs. They asked questions about retargeting ads and asked us specific questions about us as student consumers. This shift in the conversation was very interesting and made the conversation more organic. I thought the professionals took a great opportunity to get feedback even if that wasn't the intended purpose of the panel. Overall the panel was extremely interesting and educational. We learned about crisis management, brand loyalty, and retargeting among many other topics. The biggest takeaway that I got that I can act on immediately though was to find a brand crush and figure out what speaks to me and why. This can help me in the future if I ever step into a social media position. As of right now I don't have a brand crush, but I certainly know that Flagship Restaurant Group and Flywheel have a new follower on social media.
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PaigeCreighton University Archives
December 2017
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