Voice: Overall it comes down to motivation and why are you doing what you're doing.
A lot of people stumble into social without really knowing why. They just have heard that
it's a good idea.
Andrea Tavchar: Today we have HumberLaunch hosting a social media event
with two different panels of social media experts. I think that any students that wants
to be successful in their own business or as a communicator is going
to have to understand the social media toolbox.
Martin Waxman: What do we want to watch for? What should we be watching for in 2014?
I think for communicators, something that is really interesting me and it's been
around for a while but it's native advertising. It's not just about doing an ad or an
advertorial, it's about coming up with really amazing content that's competing
with other fantastic stories out there.
Tonia Hammer: I would have to say social TV is something that's gonna make
a bigger splash, especially in Canada.
Sault Colt: I think that one of the top trends that people are gonna see is the
that brands and companies are gonna go shorter. And what I mean by shorter is
you know Twitter is going to sort of take off again. It's going to be shorter messages, it's
going to be less about trying to tell whole stories and it's going to be about sort of
bite-sized chunks.
Martin Waxman: There are so many channels out there and I think the key challenge
is to figure out where you want to be given how much time you have and how much
value you're going to get out of the channels.
Tonia Hammer: Twitter is probably my favourite channel for just engaging in deep conversations
and the ability to express your opinion and build your tone of voice online.
Saul Colt: If you just want to go and have fun and see pictures of your friends on the weekend
obviously you'd go to Facebook. If you want to actually find a job, network and these sorts of things
Twitter or LinkedIn are probably going to be your best bets.
Martin Waxman: Hopefully what they'll come away with is a more strategic
approach to social and digital media.
Tonia Hammer: I hope I can just bring some branded experience from marketing
comms and PR within the social realm and maybe a little bit of risk management
guidelines too. Working for a brewer there's a lot of risk and regulation in my daily job.
Saul Colt: The thing that I sort of hope to impart on everybody is to really
how to communicate a brand, whether that brand be yourself or be someone else.
There's so many opportunities that live on social media channels.
Cheryl Mitchell: HumberLaunch is Humber's destination for entrepreneurial innovation and
we support students that have business ideas to get their business ideas up and running
and growing so how we do that is we provide them support. We have mentor-ship
programs where we can team them up with faculty mentors, alumni mentors,
business professional mentors to help support and encourage the growth of their companies.
We also have events such as this one. So some of our HumberLaunch's success stories
include Skyline Farms. So Skyline Farms grows produce in hydroponic towers, we have
Desiree who has armed, she has a jewelery store where she makes and sells jewelery,
we have Time for War Fitness and Jesse does personal training for people who are
interested in those extreme type fitness races.
Shannon Kelly: It's extremely important for any entrepreneur to be their best
brand ambassador because they are their brand. It's their baby and they really should be able
to take platforms like Twitter and Facebook and Instagram and be able to utilize them
because in all essence they are free platforms and who doesn't want to take something
that's free and utilize it to be able to grow their business and their voice on the internet.
Cher Jones: You have to really be authentic because you have to be the same person
walking in the door that they find you online so if they're checking you out online
first, you have to be that person because the minute you walk through the door if you
are not matching what they see and what they experience, all of a sudden they're saying
that's not the person I met. That's not the person I connected with so you
have to be authentic to who you are.
Tyrone Warner: I think it's important to be an authentic brand ambassador because
people see through phoniness, especially online. People are savvier then ever
and you can't give people a dishonest sell.
Alanna Glicksman: It's important that people come to trust you and respect you and the brand
that you work for so you need to be very cautious and meticulous in the content
that you're putting out, the way you're speaking, the tone of voice that you're using and
the way that you're interacting with consumers.
Sophie McNabb: That's how you're going to create the true engagement with your fans,
that's how you're going to get the true feedback from your fans that you want and that
is ultimately what will deliver your brand awareness, brand loyalty, trust with your customers.
Shannon Kelly: Definitely I hope what people take away is that it's not a cookie-cutter.
Social media doesn't make sense for everything, everyone in the
way we presented it today.
Alanna Glicksman: One, content is king. Two, you need to actually engage with the community.
You need to be invited into the conversation, you can't just weld your own way in there.
Tyrone Warner: The number one tip I hope people take away is the importance
of knowing why you're doing what you're doing.
Alanna Glicksman: I think that the audience really enjoyed today's talk, there was a lot of
information that went out. I'm not sure what everyone's exposure to social media
has been but I think it's still one of these big shiny objects that
people want to know a lot more about.
Cher Jones: I love Humber and it feels great to come back here and just seeing how
the campus has grown. For me the experience was always hands-on. I was in the Journalism program so
being able to see and actually produce stories and actually get feedback from amazing
teachers was something that meant a lot to me and has brought me to where I am today.