Social Media for Strategic Communication Ch. 1-3

Greetings from my bedroom. I finally made it home after what felt like forever. 

After last week’s readings and finishing up “The Art of Social Media” book this week, I had high hopes going into another book. This book is “Social Media for Strategic Communication” by Karen Freberg.

 

I wanted to emphasize the “Skills Needed to Showcase Personal Brand Effectively” (123). I think this part of the chapter is important because it is one thing to have your own personal brand, but it is another to be able to put it out there and be successful. It really made me think about myself and how I am showcasing my skills. 

 

The first part of this is research. Yes, it sounds boring like you are just googling things but that is not the case. Research can be found or conducted with surveys or experiments and not just on your computer in a search engine. Being able to showcase your research shows that you have data analysis skills, that you can do all of these things to prove or gather more information on a certain topic. 

 

Next is writing and visual content creation. Writing is a must in social media and public relations. Not just writing articles or papers but knowing how to come up with captions or show that you understand your audience and can connect them to the reading. Propper grammar is an obvious one but this also comes with the need to be able to adapt and knowing that anything can change at any moment. 

 

Third is data analytics and strategic application. This includes not only data entries but insights on social media. Knowing how many people a post is reaching and what needs to be done to make sure it is getting onto as many screens as possible. Businesses use Search Engine Optimization (SEO) to find what people are looking for so they know what will do better than other things. SEO is very important in strategic application because without it, business would just be winging it with what they think is popular at the moment. With this they actually know what people want to see. 

 

Customer service specialist is next on the list. I have experience in this category and let me tell you that it is not for everyone. There is always going to be rude customers and you have to know how to deal with them. But how does this relate to social media? Well, there are people who you can go to when you have a problem. And you can guarantee there are extremely rude people out there because if their social media isn’t working, they might go crazy. Literally. You just have to keep your composure and do your best. 

 

Last is being a lifelong learner. As Harry Styles says, “Every day is a school day” meaning you learn something new pretty much every day. You can never stop and say I’ve learned enough I am good now. There will always be more room to grow. Social media is a growing platform and is ALWAYS changing. And I mean always. So, you have to get yourself out there and change along with it. 

Information from: “Social Media for Strategic Communication” by Karen Freberg