Top Twitter Takeaways from UT’s Social Media Week

Image via: http://cci.utk.edu/socialmediaweek

Leading up to Social Slam 2012, the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, School of Advertising and Public Relations hosted Social Media Week. This two-day event featured presentations, panels and interactive sessions with social media experts from companies like Scripps Network Interactive, Cox Enterprises, McCormick & Company, Inc., and Dell(home of the splendid Social Media Command Center).

The digital world is growing and re-shaping public relations, marketing and advertising – not to mention communications in general. A new report cites 39 percent of Americans spend more time socializing online than they do offline.

An event that would typically cost hundreds for professionals to attend, UTK provided this learning experience geared toward students to teach best business social media practices.

Thanks to the beauty of Twitter and the hashtag (#), those not in attendance could still absorb great information. Search #UTSMW  on Twitter to view tweets related to the event. Many of the sessions are available online to view at Ustream, but if you don’t have 8+ hours to watch every session, don’t worry…DVL has compiled our top 15 Twitter takeaways below:

You can’t always expect your entire audience to be seeking you out.

Find out who’s talking and what they’re saying. Interact with content that they’ll care about. Use feedback to better serve them.

Believe it or not…not every business “has to be on Facebook.”

Have a plan and strategy in place.

Don’t focus on the number of “Likes,” but the quality of engagement.

Showing them you care – in real-time – can go a long way.

Discover a whole new world of engaging with customers and clients.

Facebook’s algorithm decides which posts you get to see in your news feed – and where they show up.

Facebook has strict rules about how you can conduct contests, giveaways and sweepstakes on its platform.

Remember, not everyone was born with a smart phone in hand…

From the “Social Media Use of UT Athletics and Policies for Student Athletes” session

Michigan’s “Big House” is the largest college football stadium.

Had to share this touching tribute to Pat Summitt, “Chances,” from the UT Athletic Department:

To view UTSMW sessions, visit http://www.ustream.tv/channel/utsmw and http://t.co/sZeLdMWO

And just for fun…

Katie Couric to NBC “Today” show producer, circa 1994: “Can you explain what Internet is?”