As I am preparing to start my 12th year at the University of Louisville (amazing, I know!), I am reflecting on what was usually on my to-do list and plans for the upcoming year. I think there’s always something exciting about getting ready for the new academic year, preparing for the classes ahead, and thinking about what case studies, examples, and topics to cover. For those of us who are teaching social media, A LOT has changed since the spring!

This year is bit more of the same – teaching, researching, etc – but I’ve also made some choices I am excited about, but I also want to share with other professors.

Continue investing time in Teaching, projects, and speaking engagements. Some things won’t change dramatically! I am going to be teaching this fall (PR and social media classes), and working on projects (as always!). I do have a few speaking engagements this fall to take part of as well, so my regular duties will remain the same.

Investing more time and effort in industry conferences and events. Last year, I only really went to two academic conferences. In the past, I would attend almost 100 percent academic conferences to be part of a paper presentation, panel session, or do service. For the value I get from attending and participating in industry conferences, it’s truly priceless. It’s so important to make strong connections and be part of the industry, so you are able to bring back insights, best practices, and ideas to your classes and work.

Preparing for a big Year 2 for The Bird’s Nest. Bring on the coffee, because this is going to be one BUSY year! We are *still* not even a year old! Our anniversary is going to be in September, and we have some big, big plans for our second year as a student agency. We are now over 22 students in the agency, and our client list is growing more and more. We will have the opportunity to be part of some incredible campaigns and initiatives this year for the student agency. There’s nothing more rewarding than to see students excited about growing something truly special at the University of Louisville. We have grand plans, especially in making TBN a showpiece for the university.

Getting more involved with the industry. I am grateful Kelli Matthews shared this article from the Washington Post about professors getting experience in the industry to bring back to the classroom. I feel I am getting a great experience in this first hand with TBN, but I think it’s key to be tied to the profession and industry to be relevant, current, and proactive in your work. The lessons I’ve learned this past year from TBN – from operating like a start up to a full service agency – all while teaching, researching, and doing other projects – was more than I could have ever imagined.

Scaling way back on academic conferences. This may not be a surprise to anyone, but for the first time in over 10 years – I will not be attending or presenting at AEJMC. This was a choice on my part. From my discussions with colleagues in the field – it is very apparent my relationship with AEJMC is a “complicated” one, which is correct. It’s been complicated for several years.

I’ve raised my concerns about AEJMC quite a bit over the years (ex. price versus value, applicability, cliques and internal politics on paper reviewing, etc), but there are always new ones to add to the list. For example, I did not have on my bingo card this year I’d see first hand my idea that was shared with another professor within the #SMprofs community used for a webinar for PRD – with no acknowledgement, communication, or credit whatsoever. That was a first for me, since it was done so publicly. My immediate thought was – if they are doing this to a full professor, what else are they doing to junior faculty? With that being said, I am sitting out AEJMC for a while until these issues are resolved.

There is a reason for some of these changes and why I am approaching these items this upcoming year that may be helpful for professors (junior and others) to consider:

There is a reason for some of these changes and why I am approaching these items this upcoming year that may be helpful for professors (junior and others) to consider:

• External reviewers are looking for impact of work. More and more, we are seeing external reviewers care more about publications and work done in and out of the classroom rather than conference papers. I can tell you as someone who has been an external review for promotion and tenure cases – this is what I am seeing.
• Invest more in keynote speaking engagements and brand partnerships. Brands are looking to partner and work with academic ambassadors and more, and these experiences could lead to many more opportunities down the line.
• Build or develop something new. Building something new is a lot harder than coasting on another’s reputation (ex. program, school, department, etc). We tell our students ALL THE TIME to stand out, show what you have build from scratch. Have a community you want to create? Build it and invite others to be a part of it. Want to launch a newsletter? Go for it. Want to start a student agency? It can be done. Sure, building something new is a lot of work – but the rewards and pride you have (along with others who are part of the community) is priceless. It’s a powerful story you can create that shows application, impact, value, and expertise in the field.
• What worked before may not be important for tenure and promotion. I was told when I was going up for tenure – service at national organizations or conference papers were what external reviewers focused on. That’s false. What stood out to my external reviewers for both my tenure and promotion cases? My publications, my textbooks, the #SMprofs community, and my industry connections for my classes – all of these would be listed on what NOT to do by traditional professors back in the day. The industry (and our profession) is changing. What was okay before is not enough or even important any more. You got to invest your time, energy, and focus on the things you enjoy, find value in, and will help you.

These are just some of the things I’ve been thinking about over the summer, and I am excited with this new energy, focus, and drive for the upcoming year. There is a lot of work to be done, but it will be valuable and impactful, which is very important to me in my current stage of my career.

Let me know what you think! Hope you all are having a great day.

Best Wishes,

The post Focus for the new academic year first appeared on Karens PR + Social Media Blog.

The news that hit the interwebs this week of course aligns with all of these points. Threads, the Twitter clone app from Meta and Mark Zuckerberg hit the app store and immediately garnered millions of users. As the app became available, many jumped on board and started sharing their thoughts and perspectives. We also have new emerging “thought leaders” saying they are all in on Threads.

I was able to get on early to the platform and there are some things I do like, and others I hope could be addressed in future updates, such as:

Lots of features that are for the user to consider. Threads does allow you to control the conversation and filter out some of the noise we often see on social (of course, we have to have questions on if this is noise we do want to hear, or if it is spam – that’s something to note and evaluate in your account). Updates are 500 words and can share additional multimedia (photos, videos at 5 min, etc) to a post. There are some unique creator controls that are offered on the platform – which is a nice feature to have on social media.

It is nice to have the app connected to IG. I do like that feature so it’s technically a “new platform” but I would rather see this as it being a new channel. Similar to IG stories, it does allow you to cross promote and share your content on IG and other platforms.

Nice to bring your verification status to Threads from IG. I think that was very cool to see! Nice feature to explore, but will be interesting to see if this will be a late add on cost to the verification tool. You can also keep your username from IG (big plus) and even copy your bio right there as well.

The logo could have been different. Is this my favorite social media logo ever? No. Is it the worst I’ve ever seen. No. I am thinking it could have been developed a bit more to fit into the 2023 and beyond look. That’s just my two cents.

Will be interesting to see how the API and data analytics/analysis will develop. It’s still early on for this, but I know many will have questions about this from the research community. Will there be third party tools like what was available for Twitter for Threads?

Lots of questions related to applications of Threads for classes and beyond. I think there is some potential opportunities here, but also lots of questions. For example, can you have a Threads chat and community set up? What can be done to build a personal brand on Threads and is this another extension, or separate community for your personal brand? I am sure there will be lots of discussions about this for #SMprofs.

From being in this industry for a while now, it’s key to remember:

Threads is a tool – like other social media platforms. It’s one that may make it compared to other Twitter clones out there, but it may not. We all do not have a crystal ball telling us which platforms will or will not make it. Time will have to tell! However, we can expect ads, promotions, and more coming from Threads. A big question of course for researchers and professors is whether or not Meta will be open to researchers using their API for research purposes. This was a huge draw and feature that many professors liked about Twitter, so it will be interesting to see how this evolves.

However, Threads could integrate what has worked (and not worked) for other platforms. Threads could learn what has worked for IG, TikTok, LinkedIn, and Snapchat and others to see what they can do to bring forward a valuable, unique, and very engaging experience. Of course, with any platforms there are challenges and obstacles that have to be addressed (ex. spam accounts, bots, etc).

Will Threads have a creator community? This was one of the issues we have seen discussed over and over again related to IG, TikTok, Snapchat, and more. Will there be an extra incentive to encourage audiences to post and engage on Threads? How will this be set up? Lots of questions here related to this.

Brands and social media professionals are not the ones Meta has to encourage or win over – it’s Gen Z and Gen Alpha. If Threads is able to be integrated into the age cohort culture and community of the younger generation, they will have a strong chance to succeed. All you have to look at is the social media lifecycle of platforms and see how the younger generation moved from one platform to the next, and it became the next big thing. The question for Threads and the Meta team is this – how can they persuade and KEEP these audiences there? That’s the million (or even billion) dollar question.

The roadmap is somewhat clear. Threads is still figuring out the details, features, and what it can offer that makes this platform unique and different from others.

One thing is for certain – Elon Musk will respond to this. Make no mistake, Musk will respond to this and personally, I will be there with some popcorn to see what happens. We all have heard of the Zuck vs. Musk want to actually fight (again, did NOT have this on my bingo card and will have to add this note to my social media class in the fall). I do not think that Threads as of yet is a “Twitter Killer” as highlighted and showcased in the news. At the end of the day, there will be users who will be on Twitter, and others that will be on Threads. And then there are those of us who are on social media for our work and are passionate about the field – so we are everywhere!

One thing is for certain – working in social media is never, ever dull! We will have to wait and see how this all plays out.

Hope you all have a great day!

Best Wishes,

The post Threads App: Another day, another platform for social media professors first appeared on Karens PR + Social Media Blog.

We have seen some great activations and campaigns for movies, but I think we should see what Super Mario Bros and Barbie both have done. SMB opened up this weekend and has SOARED to record box office heights for their movie, and Barbie will open later this summer.

What do I like about the Super Mario Bros and the Barbie movies? Well, not only do they represent pretty much my childhood – they have also done some really cool activations that have helped them with their excitement for their respective movies. With pretty good results.

Social / digital first mentality

The strategy for both movie campaigns here was very clear in terms of their overall goals – to have a digital and social push first and foremost focus. Who shares the trailers? The movie accounts of course, but the stars are the ones pushing the content. What is being shared exactly? Trailers and information, but also teasers.

Utilizing talent in movie to grab attention

This is what SMB did with their star Jack Black, who plays Bowser. Black has gotten rave reviews for his portrayal of Bowser (fun fact – along with Luigi, Bowser is my go-to for Mario Kart!). However, what if you write, sing, and release a song that was featured for a short second in the movie to make it go viral? Genius move as this content will be shared, discussed, and watched by others who have seen the movie – and motivate others to check it out.

Personalize the experience with AI

The Barbie movie took a different approach when they released their new trailer for the movie by also promoting their Barbie AI generator. This tool allows you to create your own Barbie trailer photo like the main movie characters and personalize it. Brands jumped all over this – along with users – as it was being discussed across the board on and offline.

This is great because 1) it allows audiences and brands to interact with the brand, 2) create something that is personal to them yet tied to the movie campaign and 3) consumable content that continues the conversation related to the movie campaign.

And yes, I am a Barbie that is powered by coffee!

What can we learn from both of these campaigns?

• Create opportunities for fans and others to interact and personalize the content to fit their needs and expectations.
• Embrace new content that would attract attention in new ways like a song or additional media components.
• Tap into nostalgia content and opportunities for audiences, but present it in a new way.
• Allow audiences to share and be part of the experience.

Let me know what you all think about this. Thanks and have a great day!

Best Wishes,

The post Powered by Nostalgia x Personalization: Success of Super Mario Bros & Barbie Movies first appeared on Karens PR + Social Media Blog.

OOPs.

But that’s sometimes what happens in life! It’s been *that* busy for me for 2023. It’s been a good kind of busy – working on building up The Bird’s Nest, working with clients, mentoring students, meeting new contacts and establishing key relationships. That on top of teaching, researching, coordinating projects, and writing – and then there is my life outside of academia as well. It’s been already a rewarding and exciting year so far, and it’s just the beginning.

I am inspired to write this post based on an email I received recently that kept me pondering this question to see how to answer it the best way possible. This colleague was saying how they were inspired by the work I was doing with TBN while still being active as a professor – and wanted to do the same but they asked me this:

Can professors do it all? Can we be able to research, teach, consult and run our own student agency while having a life?

Simply, the answer is yes. However, I did say there were some things you have to do to keep things manageable and balanced to make it all work.

Here are some universal things I’ve felt have helped me tremendously.

• Blocking time on my calendar. The biggest thing I did was to make sure the time I had dedicated to teaching, research, and key aspects of my life outside of academia and my role were blocked off. This does set a boundary in place to protect your time. I realized this very quickly when I was getting requests to meet on my calendar that were during times I had reserved on my personal calendar. Made this change very quickly!
• Taking time for yourself. Having balance is so important – I cannot stress this enough! You got to make sure you make time for you, your family, and others. I have times where I literally have MWF listed (for Mando Wade Freberg) and OTF (Orangetheory) on my calendar b/c it’s that important to me to reserve this time.
• Setting short term and long term goals. You want to make sure to keep yourself accountable for what you want to accomplish in your time running your agency, along with your research and teaching obligations. For me – I wanted to have a certain number of clients we would be working on, and fundraising strategy in place for our agency. We are working on this short term goal – with bigger ideas for the future on the horizon. This keeps you focused and driven to achieve these goals down the line – which helps with what you are doing now to build on these efforts.
• Doing a little every day. I know this may not work for everyone, but yes – I do work on weekends especially on projects that have deadlines or need additional reviews. This does not mean I work 24/7 on the weekend, but I may for an hour or two. Getting ahead of tasks for the week, working on a revision, formulating a presentation for an upcoming conference, etc. All of these things add up and allow you to be prepared for the week.
• Investing in this formula: Document + Create + Advocate. I have always said you have to be your best advocate, and in building a brand – you have to just that. In building something from the beginning – you have to share your experiences, updates, stories, and document these for others to see. If you are not going to share your story and create these experiences – who will? That’s what I have been doing. You got to document what you have bee doing, create the stories and experiences in a format that works for your community and audience, and advocate for what you are doing and where you are going.
• Take inventory of your duties, projects, and obligations. This is where you have to decide which of these to keep and invest in, what projects give you joy, what are your current obligations that cannot be changed. You also have to see what you are doing that is taking up time, not giving you joy, and items you can stop doing. I did this as I was entering this role, and it really helped me frame this year of work for me.

While I consider my work to be the same and balanced, there were things I realized I didn’t necessary have to do anymore. This is not forever, but perhaps in the short term. There have been things I have done differently, and other things I’ve increased a lot of.

• Investing in industry focused events. With TBN, it’s essential to go to industry events to connect with others in the field. However, it’s not just in *one* field – it’s in every touch point and discipline we have. Advertising, digital currency, PR, social media, branding, communication – these are some areas I will be a part of this year alone.
• Understanding balance of things in celebrating and learning key lessons. There are going to be times where you will be like – WOW! This is amazing and we accomplished so much. The next day could be – well, that didn’t go well. I’ve learned more in these past eight months about being a director than I would have ever imagined – and that’s a good thing. Take the wins and enjoy them, and think about the lessons you have learned to note what to consider for the future.
• Being an open book.I have absolutely been truly amazed (and fascinated!!) about the lack of resources and discussion about how to really manage a student agency. Yes, there are services and resources – but they do not fully provide you with the details everyone wants to know and would help them out tremendously. I experienced this when I started teaching social media – but this has been more extreme. I assume that it is due to the fact that 1) student agencies are a prized recruiting features for departments, and 2) student agencies make money for the department, program, etc. Well – I am going to be open about everything I’ve done that has worked, not worked, and what I am learning about as well. In fact, that’s the whole focus I am doing for my ProfCon talk later this year.
• Taking a step back from conference service. I understand my colleagues who want to serve the profession and in roles with academic organizations, and I have done my part earlier in my career in these roles. It’s a lot of work, but I think these roles are very similar to unpaid internships for our students. We are asked to do a lot, but we do not get compensated.
• Being more selective academic conferences. I am being way, way more selective of conferences (especially the academic ones) now more than ever. I used to go to all of them every year, all the time. Now, I ask myself what value will I get if I attend this event? Am I going to present work, or to network? If I submit work – will it actually be reviewed fairly (this is due to my previous experiences at AEJMC where my work was rejected – later finding out reviewers knew it was me submitting the work). Is the cost really worth it? Ultimately, I do not need to go to these academic conferences every year.

In summary, the answer to this colleague’s point was yes – you are able to do it all, but you do have to take inventory on what you want to do, what you have to do, and what are some things you can put off to the side for later.

Always happy to discuss more on this. Thanks and have a great day.

Best Wishes,

The post Can professors have it all? first appeared on Karens PR + Social Media Blog.

While working on prepping for my classes (including teaching social media for the 12th year AND tenth officially at UofL), and working on the second term as Director of The Bird’s Nest. I realized I had not done a recap of some of the lessons and takeaways from the first six months of my new position.

Well, we got to remedy that! Reflections and takeaways are not only good for personal purposes, but I’ve been approached by friends and colleagues from other schools who want to do the exact same thing.

University Leadership support is SOOOO crucial. I am very grateful to UofL for their continued support of what we are doing for TBN. The support they have given to make sure this is part of our university commitment for engaged learning has been tremendous.

In order to get leadership buy in, there are certain aspects to consider:

• Outlining how the student agency aligns with university and community goals (for us, engaged learning is one of our grand challenges for the next few decades, so tying this in is key!)
• Identifying KPIs and metrics the student agency would be able to report and connect to university, college, and department goals.
• Understanding the potential outcomes and benefits for talent management and recruitment to the university with the student agency from the community and beyond.
• Create a list of partners on and off campus your student agency can coordinate with.
• Timeline for what you want to accomplish for Y1, Y2, etc.
• Cost (how much is needed and how much needs to be fundraised)

Built (expand) your curriculum to work with the student agency. This is very important for us as TBN is a full service agency. Identifying the key classes, experiences, and skills the students need to have in order to participate in the student agency is key to outline.

For example, we have a shell team dedicated to content creation, so if a student wanted to work there, they would need to have taken several of our courses (like my social media class), our video/film classes, writing, and more.

We also have some great partners who are working with us to support efforts for the student agency with their services. For example, we have of course Adobe products for the students to get access to for their work, but we also have Agorapulse to assist the students with listening and monitoring reports, social media management, and more.

Trust your students. This is a student run agency, and it needs to be run and operated by students. The work the students have done for the agency in the past six months has been tremendous. I was constantly sharing how proud I was of their work, and they were doing everything that needed to be done. Branding, content creation, recruitment, and more – all was run by the students.

I learned during this process while I am the Director of TBN, I am also a colleague and team member. We are all on the same team and want the best for TBN, so everything was on an equal level of collaboration. We would share ideas – some I proposed were good, and then there were some ideas I proposed the students felt was not on the right track – and that’s OKAY! That’s how things are like in the real world.

Like a lot of things, PhD programs do NOT cover how to manage and build an agency. This is not a surprise, but a potential opportunity. There are many things that are not covered in PhD programs, and this is one of them.

My experience working with agencies and having my own consulting business have helped me in directing TBN. However, I do think student agencies could be an added element for PhD programs to consider adding as part of their pedagogy requirement as they are part of the teaching and service component.

Learning the ropes of everything that goes behind the scenes. I have learned more about different departments, teams, and expectations at the university in my new role than I had in the time I’ve been at UofL!

For example, setting up different financial accounts and how many different types there are. Some are for endowments, others for salaries/fees for students, and general funds.

There’s a lot of learning that happens on the ground and throughout the process, so be prepared for that!

History does repeats itself. When I first started teaching social media, I researched all online to see which professors at the time where teaching classes and if they had any suggestions, recommendations and best practices in how to go about in doing this. I had some kind professors who shared with me what worked for them (and as a doctoral student, this was so helpful!), but I had many (MANY) professors tell me that they would not share b/c this was “their area” and they were “the social media professor.”

Well, funny how things work out. In the same situation, I had reached out to several faculty colleagues at other schools who were directing their own student agency. Some were very helpful and gave me some great tips (thank you!), but unfortunately – I got either the silent treatment, a response saying of course (and then be ghosted,) or the classic flat out no.

I have always been a believer we are all on the same team here – creating great learning experiences and opportunities for our students since they are the future of our field. I am also a believer in order to succeed, you have to have the following attributes:

• Persistence (I come by that naturally as most of my extended family is Swedish!)
• Explorer (being confident in going forward without any safety nets or assistance from colleagues who advise student agencies)
• Researcher (be willing to see what works, what doesn’t, and what lessons can be taken away from the experience while adapting and adjusting to the insights)
• Visionary (understand what has been done before, and do things differently)

What has been the result? So far, so good. We are doing things on our own with our advisors and team members and the community. We are persistent in creating something uniquely special. We are adaptable in adjusting our strategies in where we are going. We also know we are doing something uniquely different at UofL that is not present at other schools.

But here’s the difference – I will make sure we share with other schools and faculty members who want to start a student agency and help them do that. That’s what I’ve done when it comes to teaching social media, and this is what I will do here.

If you build a student agency, followers will come – but your first ones will be other student agency faculty advisors. We officially launched TBN in September 2022, and the response was amazing! We got some stories and tons of coverage about the official launch. The students created the branding and all of the social media channels. When looking at the initial reporting, the students shared with me the first followers of our accounts were other student agency faculty advisors or directors.

I was a bit surprised by this because while we did look at other student agencies for our SWOT and branding analysis ahead of our lunch, we did not follow any of them. Some professors and faculty advisors went so far to reach out to members of TBN’s Board of Advisors and ask them details about what we were doing for the student agency.

I was amused when I heard this, and all I can say is this:

I have and always will be an open book – so if anyone wants to chat about what we are doing with TBN, I am a DM, email, and text away.

Practice what you preach for student agency branding. If you are going to be representing your services in branding, social content, or even marketing – you got to walk the walk and talk the talk as well. What I found to be extremely beneficial for the students in the fall semester is not just working with initial clients, conducting workshops, etc – but it was getting hands on experience building a brand from the ground level up and be part of something special.

Having students create everything from the tagline to logo to assets and brand identity is so important. Not only is it great experience for them, but it also ties in the application aspect of what you learn in the classroom.

Prepare to be “labeled” by others: What I mean is – it’s interesting to see how many times our colleagues in our profession try to put us either a singular box, or label us in a way that constrains what we are doing in our role.

For example, I had several colleagues from other institutions tell me they were surprised I would take on a Director role of an agency because it was considered to be “below what a Full Professor should be doing.” Or stating the fact I should not be in this role because I am not a Professor of Practice, and this person would have more professional experience.

One thing I’ve learned in my years of academia is how many colleagues love to talk about all of these rules to follow, and none of them are written down. I am also someone who wants to show that there are always different pathways and journeys to go on – and this is mine.

Utilize your network and resources. When it came to building out TBN, I knew there were certain aspects that needed to be completed and implemented, so I reached out to my network.

This is where creating a Board of Advisors came into play, a community list of advisors and specialists to assist with students and clients, etc. I am SO grateful to all of these professionals who are committed to helping TBN grow and expand. I am very excited to work with all of them! Having a BoA is so important to have, but you want to make sure you note the time commitment and obligations are for each member and communicate this effectively.

Always remember the golden rule. This is something that is applicable in ALL aspects of life, and if you follow these principles, you will be good to go. It’s simple – things always take more time and money! We have some big ideas and proposals going into the year for fundraising, and you may have an idea of what things will take, but it’s best to always assume things will take longer and cost more (especially in this economy!)

This is just the beginning. Seeing things come to life after months of planning, coordinating, and strategizing is very rewarding. We have just gotten started, and we have many things in the works over the next few months and the rest of the year. We will be announcing more updates and partners soon, along with some other exciting ventures.

I will also be discussing a lot of these lessons and takeaways this year at ProfCon, which I am very honored and excited to be a part of for the third year in a row.

Hope you all are doing well and have a great day.

Best Wishes,

The post Six months in directing TBN: Lessons and Takeaways first appeared on Karens PR + Social Media Blog.