After the keynote, we split off into different lectures. I attended Bill Lublin‘s “Connecting with the Online Consumer.” I figured it would be a good idea to hear a professional opinion on utilizing social media, considering my work with Valley. Bill is the CEO of Social Media Marketing Institute. He gave lots of book recommendations to coincide with his own lecture. He encouraged us to engage with news outlets by listening. Listening is one of the most important things to be successful in social media. Listen to what others are saying and engage in conversation with them. Commenting on blogs and posting recommendations on Linkedin are actions that people will notice. People will respond to you if you show interest in them. He also explained three social concepts to us:

1. Social Objects – anything that you can form a conversation about
2. Social Contracts – terms of engagement in social media (interactions with Twitter followers vs. Facebook friends, etc.)
3. Social Capital – predisposition to do business with people

His strategy for social media: People, Objectives, Strategy, & Tools. Reach out to preexisting communities. The more places you reach out to people, the better your connection with them will be. And most importantly, the quality of your audience is more important than the quantity.

Finally, Bill touched on some different social media outlets to take advantage of. On Linkedin, he said to find groups, such as PRSA, and take advantage of them. Listen to the ongoing conversations, get a feel for the discussion, and use what you’ve learned to contribute to the conversation. By engaging in coversation with professionals, you may find someone who will recommend you for a position later. On Facebook, you need to make people care enough to “like” your page. For more intimate interaction, utilize “Groups.” Also, make sure to take advantage of new features such as polls. For Twitter, utilize third-party applications, such as HootSuite to manage different feeds and view analysis of your feeds. Lastly, he talked about the different location-based social media sites: Foursquare, Gowalla, Whrrl and Scvngr. He says that location-based social media is up and coming, so find ways to use it.