A few nights ago I was fortunate enough to attend the Women Presidents’ Organization’s Social Media Event at CSUF Mihaylo College. The event featured a panel of WPO members who are experts in the ever-changing realm of social media. Just to be able to mix and mingle with these incredible women was an honor, but the information they imparted about social media was eye-opening, even to a social media enthusiast like me.
Hilary, Ed Hart (Director at CSUF Mihaylo College's Family Business Council), and me!
The panel included Cindy Allen, President of ETA Advertising; Hilary Kaye, President of HKA; Debra Nye, Partner at Foley & Lardner LLP; and Cindy Pond, owner of Taylor & Pond Corporate Communications.
Here are just a few nuggets of wisdom gleaned from their presentations:
- Cindy Allen discussed the value of creativity in social media campaigns. She used this example from Jet Blue, which was only released via social media and resulted in a marked increase in sales. Voila! Social media at its finest—and fun with creativity.
- Hilary Kaye (I was so proud!) presented on the value of blogging to communicate with your target audience. Using the excuses she hears (over and over and over again), she mollified people’s fears about writing (blogs are conversational, so just write!) and about time constraints. Blogs are the perfect opportunity for people to get to know you, your company and your staff, so share the blogging responsibility and let your staff help build the relationship with readers.
- Debra Nye touched on the risks involved with social media and gave some great advice on how to avoid legal snafus, including creating a social media policy to protect against rogue employees and monitoring the social media channels.
- Cindy Pond gave an overview of social media and highlighted the importance of getting involved. She said even if you aren’t ready for it, set up the channels and brand it. (Social media is here to stay!) She also mentioned that Hootsuite has a multitude of analytics tools and can even generate Facebook Insights and Google Analytics in the same place. Efficient!
As a woman, social media lover and PR person, this seminar was informative and so fun. So thanks to WPO and Mihaylo’s Center for Entrepreneurship for putting it on!
