Social media has a growing influence in nearly every thriving career and business nationwide. Now, those affiliated with Elizabethtown College, and even those from the community beyond, have 24-hour access to a blog with answers to all of their social media questions. The blog is titled “The Social Life at Etown.”
Donna Talarico, integrated marketing manager of the Office of Marketing and Communications, initiated the new blog as a way of teaching professors, colleagues and faculty how to benefit from the rapid growth of social media. “Last semester I did two presentations for the campus community called ‘I’m Brushing My Teeth Right Now and Other Social Media Myths.’ Also, I did a presentation on LinkedIn for Career Services,” Talarico said.
She admitted that while there was a lot of positive feedback and interest from those who attended her presentations, there were many who could not be present for her demonstration because of time conflicts. “I wanted to try again this semester to host open trainings or workshops related to social media, but after I talked with my director, Liz Braungard, I decided a blog would be a better and always available resource that would reach more people,” Talarico said. “Once I got the green light, I built it and wrote the initial posts.”
Inspiration for the blog also came from an increased social media presence affiliated with the College, as well Etown’s redeveloped website. “The more I can educate people [about] social media, the more sharing we’ll see and the closer we can become,” Talarico said.
Because there are certain negative connotations that have developed simultaneously with the concept of social media, Talarico hopes that her new blog will help enlighten cynics. She wants people to understand that it is not the distasteful phenomenon that it is commonly perceived as.
“There are still a lot of social skeptics out there, or those that use it for personal use, who have yet to realize its power for networking … and creating a mini-following within a specific area of interest,” she said. Talarico hopes that she can change the way people think about and use social media sites and can “create a culture of sharing on campus.”
She has already started sharing photos of this year’s first-year orientation via the College’s Facebook page, for which she was thanked by various college employees who were not able to attend their initiation into Etown.
Talarico confessed to utilizing blogs about social media for both professional development and personal enjoyment. “That’s one and the same for me,” she stated. However, she feels that, although there are other websites dedicated to solving the common challenges with using social media, she plans on producing a unique subject matter aimed toward Etown. “Where it does differ, is that it will mainly be tailored to the Etown community and how the use of social media can contribute to our common goals,” she said. “And since it’s about Etown, I guess you could say it’s automatically unique!”
She hopes that her blog will inspire those affiliated with the College to feel more comfortable using social media in addition to helping people operate them properly. “It is my hope that people take an interest in the blog, and if everyone who reads a post or two leaves the site with an idea and proceeds to use it, then I think we’ll start to see more sharing internally and externally,” she stated.
Since the blog is just starting out, Talarico does the bulk of the work, but also operates closely with Dan Yabut, digital design manager for the Office of Marketing and Communications, and Chris Meck, web/database programmer for Information and Technology Services. Talarico is in charge of writing and scheduling content, monitoring for comments and promoting the blog in general. However, she welcomes guest contributors and bloggers to offer input and feedback.