The Social Media Workshop Experience

 This past week, I attended the PRSSA Social Media Workshop. It was a full day of speakers with different specialties in social media in their careers. Some individuals make reels for customer engagement. Some individuals ran the social media account for their local library. One individual reached out to influencers to market their company's product. It was a very interesting workshop, and I'd like to share the things that I've learned.

The Importance of Social Media

The way that social media is used today is different from what I was told as a kid. When I first joined, I was told that it was made to connect friends and family. It's a tool to share your experiences with those whom you cannot talk to regularly. But today, it's used for business, politics, marketing and so much more. The people from the workshop focused on the business and marketing side of social media. They are not using it to share their life with friends or family, but it's to communicate as the voice of the business.

Attention Economy

In today's world, attention is the most valuable resource. Companies don't fight for money, as they've already maximized profit. Now, all they need are people to think about them. Advertisements, endorsements and propaganda are all tools that groups use to draw in your attention. Because where your attention goes, your money and support follow. The people who work in social media understand this and tailor their practice to draw and maintain the most attention. They talk about attention-grabbing hooks in their videos, editing videos to our generation's decreasing attention span, not changing your personality, but making your natural content as overstimulating as possible to match the rest of the videos that you're competing with.

The End Goal

The job of the people from the workshop is to get eyes on the business that they work for, and get them to see it in a good light. They use different tactics and methods to get there, and sacrifice certain things to get there. Interestingly, capitalism has turned a fun way to socialize into a tool for business growth. It makes me wonder if the practice is ethical when the profitability is linked to one's ability to deceive the public into trust.

Ultimately, the workshop was a fun experience and I'm glad that I got to experience a diverse learning environment like that. I encourage other people to utilize their resources and go to workshops and events that are out of their comfort zone.