Guest Speaker Reaction: Christy Perry, Newhouse Web Content Manager

I really enjoyed Christy’s guest lecture on Tuesday. While I am pretty well versed in social media, I use it more for personal and social reasons, therefore often overlooking the professional aspects of it. I never realized just how many benefits and risks there are for brands who take part in social media and do or do not engage their audience.

Platforms like Twitter are so useful for relationship building in the digital world, and I know from personal experience that one’s perception of a company can be affected (positively or negatively) based on their social media response. I am a major Wegmans lover, so when I received actual responses in the past after tweeting about their products or about my shopping experience, it simply cemented my trust in their brand and strengthened my loyalty.

One point Christie made that I feel is crucial is to avoid duplicating exact information across various platforms. I follow the Twitter, Facebook and Instagram accounts of my friends and favorite brands (from sports teams to TV shows to clothing stores), so seeing the same picture with an identical message three times gets a bit annoying after awhile. I like the idea of sharing the same gist of the message, but in a different way – perhaps by using a video link in one post and a photo or short message in another.

Christy’s 10 rules for social media use reminded me to be careful about my own social media presence and any work I do for companies in the future online. The one that truly stuck out to me involves relevance. Seeing the top social media “fails” of the year reinforced the importance of being sensitive to current events and issues, and not just saying something without thinking twice. This applies to personal accounts – it is just another reminder not to tell my followers what I’m doing, where and why at every moment – and also to corporate social media usage, as companies make sure to limit irrelevant or poorly timed messages in times of national tragedy. While it is important to be transparent content-wise and consistent time-wise, one must always consider quality over quantity and think twice before hitting the “share” button!