social media – Bobby Alan Brown

Wow, where do I start!?

First let me say that I only like to give credit when it’s due. My thoughts on Professor Freberg are truthful and from the heart. When I initially transferred to the University of Louisville, Dr. Freberg taught me my first semester. Strategic Communications was probably the smallest class I had every been a part of and I don’t believe enrollment even reached 10 people. However, enrollment was most likely this low due to it being an 8:00 AM class. College kids avoid these class times like the plague! Dr. Freberg told our class it might be cancelled due to low enrollment. When I look back at the situation I am so glad that Strategic Communications did not cancel. That cancellation would have changed my college learning experience substantially!

Dr. Freberg has always aligned her assignments with networking possibilities and real world application. In Strat Comm we had to do an interview assignment where we reached out to potential employers in an attempt to shadow their profession. I was able to make lifelong connections through that assignment. Unfortunately the division of the company I shadowed had their internship offer to me vetoed by the HR department. However, I still am in contact with those professionals and the team has even invited me to lunch with them. Dr. Freberg had us do another assignment in Strat Comm that involved creating a Integrated Marketing Plan for our company of choice. This assignment doubled as a great resume example piece to showcase to potential employers.

I was so impressed by Dr. Freberg my first semester that I immediately sought her out again. Sadly, I was not able to align one of Dr. Freberg’s classes with my schedule the next semester. However, I pounced on the opportunity to get in Dr. Freberg’s Social Media class. I was denied an internship for credit in the past by my university because I had not studied social media. Not only was I interested in the subject of social media, but one of my favorite professors taught the class as well! Prior to Dr. Freberg’s SM class I was extremely ignorant about social media utilization and social media management. Previously I was not on Twitter, I did not have running blog, I was foreign to Snapchat, I thought Pinterest was just for women and I was intimidated by LinkedIn. Dr. Freberg taught me how to utilize Twitter like a professional. I learned that Twitter is the platform to establish yourself as a thought leader and influencer. Dr. Freberg showed us why we needed to blog and how blogs can help us establish unique personal voices in our career fields of interest. I learned how to pitch a Snapchat plan to a company. Numerous companies still do not take advantage of Snapchat yet and I now feel confident in my ability to convince a company why they need it. However, I still am learning something new everyday. I received the opportunity to work in a team setting on pitching a social media campaign to the Louisville Convention & Visitors Bureau. This is the most detailed and elaborate group assignment I have done in my college career, but I welcome this challenging opportunity (We present April 29th!). The campaign assignment has taught me how to apply social media, research, analytics, and strategies/tactics to a real-life organization. I was able to evaluate my online reputation and develop a unified image across all of my social media networks. I obtained a Hootsuite University certification that I can add to my resume! I feel like this certification will help me stand out in career fields involved with social media. I learned how to create an infographic along the way as well. I look forward to taking desktop publishing next semester in order to improve my digital design capabilities even further.

All of those previously listed elements of #Freberg15 were awesome, but I enjoyed joining a flowing professional community the most. Dr. Freberg has connected us with considerable amounts of professionals that are experts and thought leaders in their career fields. I have never been blessed with so many valuable networking connections in my entire lifetime as I have in #Freberg15 ! When I move on to the next step in my life journey after college, I hope to always remain in contact with Dr. Freberg. I still encourage everyone to follow Dr. Freberg on Twitter. Make sure that you check out Dr. Freberg’s website and blog as well. I feel that we all can learn something from Dr. Freberg.

Farewell #Freberg15, I hope we can all stay in touch and continue to pay it forward like Dr. Freberg!

So Long &

This week in Dr. Freberg’s social media class we have been discussing social media research and data analytics. I hate math probably more than anyone (I switched out of a business major to get away from math), but I happen to love social media data analytics. For the first time ever, I can see how the numbers actually matter. Look at the cool info Pew Research compiled from the numbers.

A lot of math involves solving some weird algebraic theorem that has no effect on the overall scheme of life. On the other hand, social media metrics help us find new trends, increase revenue and build brand awareness. Social media campaigns are lovely, but your employer could care less how creative you are if you can’t translate your campaign into measurable growth.

Here are some important measurements to keep in mind!

Audience Growth Rate: It’s important to know whether you are better off today than you were yesterday. This measurement involves comparing your current audience to your audience in the past. So if you had 500 followers last month and this month you have 600 followers, that means you have a 20% audience growth rate. This number can be used as a stepping stone for future audience growth goals.

Average Engagement Rate: This is where you breakdown the engagement with your audience. How often is an individual posting compared to the rest of your audience? It’s vital to understand what causes these differences as well. Always listen to what your audience has to say.

Response Rates: How fast do you get back to people? Before taking this class I never even considered how essential time is in social media. Time is of the essence and brands are waiting like hawks to swoop in and steal your shine. It’s important to treat your audience like you would a friend. Be timely, polite and resourceful.

Inbound links: Links work like a spider web on the internet. This measurement lets you know who is helping you expand your spider web. Inbound links shows the number of sites linking back to yours. You should show a lot of gratitude to the people sharing your links!

What about formula’s?

There are tons of formulas at our disposal, but here are some must know ones.

Share of voice = Brand mentions / total mentions from all competitors. Share of voice lets you know how you stack up against the competition. Every great fighter knows that you must study your opponents to become a true master!

Audience Engagement = Comments + Shares + Trackbacks / Total Views. This measurement helps you understand how your content is resonating with your audience. Be aware of what content drives the most engagement!

Conversation Reach = Total People Participating / Total Audience Exposure. Conversation reach is not about size, it’s about participation and involvement.

Active Advocates = # of Active Users within past 30 days / Total Advocates. Is it smart for a gym to expand its reach, but not monitor its active users? Absolutely not! In the case of a gym, active users provide feedback on equipment needs. People hop on and off brands like they do gym memberships in January. Always know what your active audience has to say because usually they are your most loyal clientele.

There are numerous measurement tools available on he web, but you must negotiate your way through all the fluff tools. Here is a resourceful article by Sprout Social on some of the best measurement tools to check out.

If you take away anything from this post, remember the 3 wise men of social media measurement tools. Everyone should know the basics! Reach = size of audience, Engagement = total number of likes, shares, comments, etc… and Impressions = how many people saw your post.

I know I did not list every tool or formula available for social media data analytics, but my Professor Karen Freberg shared the metric holy grail with us today. I hope I sparked an intrigue in you to find out more! If you love fun data, I urge you to follow @chriskerns on Twitter. Read Chris Kerns book Trendology and go get a leg up on competition! It’s amazing to witness the amount of brands/companys that lack a social media presence on a particular platform. If you can master data analytics, you can easily create your own career. Go out there and use the numbers to your advantage!