Strategies & best practices in implementing social media in public relations courses

1. Strategies & best practices in implementing social media in public relations courses Karen Freberg, Ph.D. Assistant Professor Department of Communication University of Louisville karen.freberg@louisville.edu Twitter: @kfreberg National Communication Association Annual Convention New Orleans, LA November 17 – 20th, 2011

2. Overview • Public relations continues to play an essential and changing role in society, requiring the regular reassessment of the education of future public relations practitioners. • The demands of the current economy and the ever-changing digital environment is challenging public relations practitioners and scholars to constantly evolve their research and practices in the discipline to meet the expectations of their stakeholders. • Having social media incorporated throughout the public relations courses will allow professors to feel more connected and up-to-date with their students.

3. Social Media in the Classroom Growing trend in implementing new technology into the classroom as well as engaging in conversation outside the classroom

4. Purpose of Paper • Understanding new technologies that focuses on how to communicate to various publics like social media does also creates a link to theoretical foundations and applied principles of PR. • This paper will explore the background of both social media and public relations while discussing the strategies and various activities that can be used in the classroom. • Overview of strategies and assignments to implement social media into courses for future PR professionals

5. Setting up Course Tumblr site • Spring 2011; Dr. Courtney Childers & Karen Freberg • Course: Social Media for Advertising and Public Relations • Social Media sites for Course: Tumblr & Twitter (@490Social Media) • Hyperlinked Student Blogs • Students contributed one post related to the week’s discussion for the week • Were to provide at least two comments to each weekly post by the other students • Wide range of assignments and activities during course

6. Course structure • Undergraduates and graduate students Sample of Topics covered: • Intro to Social media, ethics and legal implications, Privacy, social networking, microblogging, visual and video sharing, social gaming, crisis communications, virtual worlds, augmented reality, mobile technologies, and small business / politics in social media to name a few. • Assignments • Personal blog • Managing online reputation • Foursquare Assignment • Presentations • Campaign Proposal

7. Personal blogs “No matter what, the very first piece of social media real estate I’d start with is a blog.” Chris Brogan, New Marketing Labs • Student Personal Blog for Course • The students were all asked to maintain and personalize their own blogs during the course of the semester. • One of the more established forms of online media presently among advertising and public relations professionals are blogs. • During the class, students were asked to create their own personal blog to write insightful, well-researched, and thorough blog posts on topics related to social media in advertising and public relations.

9. Managing Online Reputation • One of the important elements in being a social media professional and practitioner is not only being aware of your corporate or business online presence, but also being aware of your own online presence as an individual and professional in advertising and public relations. • In other words, students in public relations have to be aware of their overall online personal and reputation rather about what ideal self they strive to be. • A reputation has many attributes, but for the most part it is a latent construct that encompasses the “character, conscience, or credibility” of the individual or entity in question (Jackson, 2004, p. 43). • Social media such as Facebook and Twitter have become tools for managing reputation online, with both positive and negative outcomes.

11. Other Assignments • Foursquare Assignment • Analyze local business or company using Foursquare from a critical perspective + addressing potential issues and challenges (privacy and ethical consideration) • Interview professional in charge of Foursquare account (PR and Marketing professional) • Graduate Student Presentations • Graduate students in course presented 30 min presentation on topic of the week • Video recorded presentation + made copies for students to bring to job interviews or show employers their potential in discussing and presenting on social media topics • Incorporated into personal blog + online portfolio • Crisis communication and social media scenario activity • Campaign Group Presentations & Proposals • Future assignments • Infographics (Resumes / Topics) • Guest blog posts • Mobile apps / augmented reality applications for PR • Data mining

12. Best Practices • Integrating research and practitioner perspectives with social media. • Provide students with real examples and professionals to come into class to talk about social media implementation. • PR / Advertising / Consultants • Face-to-face / Skype & Google+ • Being part of the online community – Social Media Club. • Online reputation management practice and exposure. • Being an expert in social media means living, breathing, and tweeting it every day. Take same approach with looking at technology trends like the local, national, and international news. • Stay on top of latest trends – evolve and change syllabi accordingly (ex. mobile technology and case studies related to this). • Don’t be afraid to test new assignments and ideas in course.

13. Best practices, cont. • Promote participation-collaboration environment in and outside of class. • Technology is indeed changing, but it is also changing how we teach public relations. Content is still king and defining the experiences among our key audiences, students, and ourselves in the profession. • Importance of exploring avenues and mediums that shape and influence perceptions and experiences for audiences within PR. • Viewing social media and networks as your personal switchboard and operating system – all medium channels are interconnected across networks and mobile devices • Participation in curating and co-creation of knowledge and experiences to share relevance • Provide students with resources they can use beyond the class. • Evaluate and measure opinions and attitudes in class throughout class • Keep in contact with students after class – job opportunities and internships based on course work and presentations

14. Conclusion • Overall – in order to be successful with social media in PR courses…. “There are no magic wands, no hidden tricks, and no secret handshakes that can bring you immediate success, but with time, energy, and determinationyou can get there.” Darren Rowse, Founder of Problogger

15. Any questions or comments?Thank you very much. Karen Freberg, Ph.D. Email: karen.freberg@louisville.edu Website: www.karenfreberg.com Blog: www.karenfreberg.com/blog Twitter: @kfreberg Social media resources www.karenfreberg.com/becomingsocial.htm