By: Sophia Hong, BPR student.
How do you use your social media? According to a recent survey by WeAreSocial, 97 per cent of the internet-using population are on social media. Digital space integrates our world; social media is where we connect with friends and family, read the daily news, play games, spot new styles, browse recent reviews, or even learn to cook.
So, how well are we using our social media? Time flies while we casually check out the obnoxious, eye-catching videos that go viral every minute. Getting lost in time with social media happens to everyone.
However, the power of social media lies within the ability to connect and share information with people around the world. How we find and use these vast amounts of data can be a game-changer.
Smart and professional social media does exist and can guide us throughout our career life. The following platforms — Medium, Clubhouse, and VSCO — will help PR students and practitioners stay on top of their game.
Medium.com (Launched 2012, 170 million users)
Medium is an open platform for digital publishing, which is one of the most effective social media for writers. Their purpose is to spread ideas and deepen understanding of the world. It works like a blog, but helps writers find the right audience and readers the right story.
Read and learn from a wide arrange of authors. From publications to professionals or independent writers across the globe, readings on this platform are limitless. Read what Obama has to say about democracy, what Godin has to say about marketing, or what Wall Street journalists have to say about writing. Medium is a blog, as well as a digital magazine for writers all over the world.
Write and post on Medium. Anyone can. All users are an editor by default. Medium is a great place to practice and publish your writing online. Write about any topic of interest and connect with the audience who hold similar thoughts and ideas. As a PR student, it’s hard not to get excited by the freedom to write freely on a white screen. Go for it!
Medium is great because other people can read and share it easily, said Raf Peligro, a fourth-year PR student at MSVU. If you post something up on Medium, there is a certain sense of authority and prestige that goes along with your story because professional writers write on Medium.
Clubhouse (Launched 2020, 6 million users)
Clubhouse is a synchronous audio-only platform between the audience and speakers. It sounds like a podcast, but listeners can also participate in the talk. In one room, Mark Zuckerburg and Elon Musk can be spotted discussing industry issues; in another, professional PR practitioners gather, sharing new tricks that they learn that week.
Listen to influencers or professionals in the public relations field. Clubhouse gives you the rare experience to hear from PR practitioners from different regions and backgrounds. Listening to one of the sessions where they share what they do and how they do it is inspiring. As a student, you don’t always have the opportunity to be in a conference full of working professionals in your field. Networking comes as a bonus. “One can’t deny the power of connections and networking,” said Victor Parker, the founder of communications & PR club, during a Clubhouse session. To see each other as collaborators and not competitors — that’s how the public relations community should be.
Speak and ask questions. Discussing topics that are interesting to you can add value for the listeners. Topics vary for each meeting, and most people in the community are supportive and friendly. Although you might not sense a physical presence, more than hundreds of people around the world could be tuning in. Clubhouse is the best place to test your public speaking skills.
VSCO (Launched 2012, 40 million users)
VSCO is a platform where users can capture photos, edit with their built-in filters and share them with the artistic community. Following their mission to help everybody fall in love with their own creativity, this platform will enhance your creative skills.
“My VSCO account is like a portfolio for me, where I can showcase different things that are keep-sake for me, or if I want to show it to a niche market,” said Emily Brown, a first-year, transfer PR student at MSVU. “I find it more professional. VSCO is not an account that you interact with people verbally, it’s done so more artistically or professionally.”
Discover the professional world of photographs. All the images shared in VSCO are taken and edited on a mobile. The best part of this platform is that users can see the pre-sets and filters that creators use for their work. This means that if you own a mobile phone, you can edit like professionals to create a mesmerizing image just at your fingertips. With VSCO, you can learn to be an artist.
Create an image using a range of expressive filters and tool kit features for finer adjustments. VSCO will elevate your photos into creative content. Users can post edited photos to share with the VSCO community, export them back into the camera roll or share them on other social media platforms. VSCO can be a great photo editing tool for any occasion.
Social media is an ocean full of user-created content. As PR students, we need to be smart and choose the right set of platforms to guide us through this enormous pool of information. Medium, Clubhouse, and VSCO are social media channels that can hone the skills you need as a PR student.
Go and venture for yourselves. Social media is not a popularity contest. Don’t feel burdened with the statistics, numbers, outcomes, and results. They are not important for now. Let’s experiment and learn along the way, as a student should. Being a student is our privilege, and we are entitled to make mistakes and learn from them. Fun just comes along with it.
