Social Media Boot Camp

As a member of a professional business fraternity, I’ve attended many information sessions and professional development events.  From the audience, it’s easy to critique the speaker.  You judge his or her posture, intonation, volume, and above all, knowledge of the topic matter.  As one of the final projects of my Social Media in Public Relations course, I was to be on the other side of an information session.  My partner and I were going to present what we’ve learned about Twitter to representatives from student orgs, proving our expertise.

Despite months of learning from a social media pro and multiple internships focused around social media, I was nervous.  I’m confident in my knowledge of the material, but I couldn't help but imagine my audience as critical as myself.  In only 15 minutes, how were Alyssa and I going to ensure every member of our audience left with a piece of valuable information?

The day of the event, Alyssa and I did an impromptu dry run; we nailed it.  It became clear to me that I was more prepared than I initially thought, and that I had valuable tips to offer my peers.  That night, I dressed my business-professional best and was ready to go.

We presented three times to roughly 45 students.  The presentation went more smoothly with each round.  Dismissing my fears, our audience was engaged and had few, but great, questions at the end.  Each attendee completed a survey at the end of our presentation, and the numbers were impressive.

Alyssa and I predominately received 4 and 5’s out of 5.  Our highest ratings came from students who believed their organizations utilized their Twitter adequately.  The surveys showed that organizations competent with Twitter were still able to learn a lot from our presentation.  The most difficult people to leave an impression on are those who are already sure of themselves, but we were successful in our attempt.

Social Media Boot Camp, presented by COMM 497C, was a learning experience for presenters and audience members alike.  Students learned a lot about how their organizations can benefit from social media, while presenters reinforced their personal knowledge and skills.  Despite my initial weariness, this event was one of my favorite assignments all year.

Is Foodstagramming Hurting Kitchen Pros?

Food Porn: “a glamourized spectacular visual presentation of cooking or eating in advertisements, infomercials, cooking shows or other visual media, foods boasting a high fat and calorie content, exotic dishes that arouse a desire to eat or the glorification of food as a substitute for sex”.  Luckily, with the help of filters and smart phone cameras, even the sloppiest of baseball guilty pleasures can be portrayed as a gourmet dish.

Instagramming your food, or "foodstagramming", has become an art.  Once mastered, anyone can add "#foodporn" to their mac n' cheese and gain recognition among their followers as a great cook!  As Anna Brones wrote in an article for the Huffington Post, "We're so focused on the visual outcome we forget what's actually in the food."

Instagram gives college kids the ability to feign top chef cooking skills through pleasing aesthetics, but can it have a reverse effect on actual household-name cooks?

Martha Stewart has recently received a lot of criticism from followers because of her "disgusting" food tweets.  Should someone as talented as Martha really need to worry about filters and small depths of fields when photographing her meals?  Personally, despite a primarily grey color scale, I still recognize Martha's fabulous recipes.  I was happy to see her personally respond to the harsh criticism without letting it affect her.

Kudos to Martha for a-dressing the critics while still recognizing her talents.  Based on high engagement with her tweets, apparently her fans agree.  Bright, colorful pictures of food may be nice to scroll through, but 1000 words won't fill your stomach.  We should be wary of Brones' idea that we forget what's actually in the food and read the recipe rather than judge the angle.

Maybe if Martha utilized her Instagram account and started hashtagging "food porn" over twitpiccing, her followers wouldn't be as critical.  But is it necessary for Martha to prove her accomplished cook status through a social media fad?  What do you think?