Posted on Thursday, September 22, 2011
Dr. Keith Corso, Westminster College assistant professor of speech communication, and Bradley Weaver, Westminster broadcast communications lecturer, attended the Social Media Marketing Conference July 13 in Pittsburgh.
The conference drew more than 200 attendees, including college and university admissions staff, school district representatives, online learning operations, large corporations, wholesalers, and small businesses.
Corso attended sessions on keys to social media success, matching the right social media to the organization, measuring return on investment, and best practices for social marketers and communicators. Weaver attended seminars on writing for social media, tools and how to use them, mistakes made, and managing an online reputation.
Weaver found that social media marketing applies the same concepts of media and communication as are used in broadcast communications in terms of understanding the audience, focusing the message, and connecting to the organization's brand and mission.
"Knowing how to write for a platform is vital, as Facebook users and Twitter users are not the same people," Weaver said. "You must be able to write for both and offer added value to the particular audience."
Weaver was pleased to learn that an effective way to connect an organization to social media is through blogging, an element that Weaver has included in the broadcast communications capstone for several years.
"As a result of what I learned at the conference, I'll update our curriculum in broadcast and digital communications to connect even more with online communications and social media marketing," Weaver said. "I plan to update the assignments and projects for Facebook and Twitter to reach the outcomes that were discussed. We want to do more than re-purpose what we do on radio, television, and on our web pages."
Corso, a Westminster graduate who joined the faculty in 2004, earned a master's degree from the University of Akron and Ph.D. from Cappella University.
Weaver, who has been with Westminster since 2000, earned an undergraduate degree from Alderson-Broaddus (W.Va.) College and master's degree from the University of Kansas.
Contact Weaver at (724) 946-7238 or email for additional information.
