Thursday, May 7, 2009

Breaking Boundaries

On Tuesday, some members of Temple University's PRSSA chapter and I attended Drexel University's PRSSA event, "Breaking Boundaries: The Revolution of Social Media."

I found out about this awesome event when I e-mailed Drexel's PRSSA president Frannie DeFranco. She kindly invited Temple's PRSSA to attend.

The event was a panel with PR pros and social media experts answering questions about social media and the future of these sites and how it will affect our field. The panelists were:

Valeria Maltoni
Steven L. Lubetkin
Scott McNulty
Kate Shields
Gloria Bell

The panel was moderated by Rick Alcantara.

When asked what social media is, one of the panelists answered, "social media is life." How very true...Everytime we are communicating online, we are using social media.

Panelist Gloria Bell answered that social media is all about, "communicating, connecting and conversation."

Rick Alcantara posed a question about how to respond to clients who claim they have no time for social media. The panelists all responded that you need to make time for social media, because whether you are involved in the conversation or not, it's happening, and isn't it better to be a part of the conversation than out of it?

Great questions were asked by several audience members which consisted of about half students, half professionals.

I posed the question, "is Twitter just a passing fad or is it here to stay?" The panelists responded that Twitter, the site may go away, but the idea of Twitter will never leave. The idea of constant conversation and communication is definitely here to stay.

After the Q and A portion ended, we headed out to the lobby for some networking. I met a few great people, and enjoyed getting to know some of Drexel's PRSSA members and executive board.

Thanks to Drexel's PRSSA for putting on a great event!

1 comment:

Unknown said...

Jessica,

Thank you and the other Temple PRSSA members for attending Breaking Boundaries. Your interest and insightful questions are a welcome indication of the future of social media and PR. If there is ever anything I can do to help any of you, please feel free to let me know.

Gloria Bell