Social media is an aspect of most of our daily lives, but it’s evolving into more than just an outlet for posting fleeting thoughts and selfies.
Social media management is an emerging job market and a tool many companies take advantage of to promote themselves and share information.
Two Ferris public relations students have recently taken over the social media positions for Ferris’ chapter of the Public Relations Student Society of America and are excited to learn how social media can enhance an organization’s image and outreach.
“I’m stoked, I think it’s going to be really fun,” said Alexa Torres, a sophomore from Fairbanks, Alaska. “I’ve always loved social media, I feel like I’m on it all the time and I just think it’s really cool you can connect with so many people and that the world is at your fingertips.”
Sophomore Katie Thornsberry of Lapeer is the other PRSSA social media manager and is just as excited to turn her love of social media into work.
“I really wanted this position because I like keeping up with social media and learning what’s new out there,” Thornsberry said. “It really gets everyone involved and there are so many different people out there that you can reach out to.”
Both students will be controlling Ferris PRSSA’s Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Pinterest accounts to update their followers on PRSSA’s involvement and other important events on campus for the 2015-2016 school year.
“We live tweet, post things from meetings or events we attend, anything from conferences or agency tours,” said Thornsberry. “We just promote everything going on to get more people to come out and be involved with us. Especially for huge things here like the Big Event or Relay for Life—just tweeting about it and putting it out there gets a lot of people to come.”
Torres is especially excited to get involved with social media promotion as she could see herself involved with social media as a public relations job someday.
“I guess, ideally, I would love to do social media stuff,” Torres said. “I think like Taco Bell’s social media and things like that are really fun. It’s just a cool new thing that people are trying out and I would love to do it and see where the job takes me.”
Torres and Thornsberry have some requirements for their positions, like keeping the sites updated, posting photos from meetings and events, and tweeting about speakers, but they’re also looking forward to implementing their own ideas into the personas of the accounts.
“We’re working to make social media more fun and less business-like” said Torres. “We’re looking to add a little somethin’ somethin’ and make it more relatable. We’re going to make it a good time.”