By: Vicki Muhs
On Tuesday, April 2013 the communications department held a social media-advertising symposium in the fourth floor programming room. Around 100 students and interested faculty attended the symposium where a panel of five local residents discussed how social media advertising has influenced their career in the communications field.
The speakers at the symposium were Kelsey Jones and Leeland Malinkski from 15-4 agency, Matt Mcdermott from IdFive, Neal Shaffer from Orange Element, and Dan Meche from Under Armour. Each presentation focused on the different aspects of social media advertising. Some praised the use of social media, while Matt McDermott claimed, “The gloss and glitter of social media is gone. Social media is overrated.” He later went on the parallel this by explaining how social media is undervalued.
Each presentation brought something new to the table. Some presentations focused on the social media advertising their company has used, while others focused on memorable campaigns in the social media realm. However, each presentation broke down each campaign and showed the strategies each used in order to be successful.
Members of the audience were given the opportunity to ask any questions that they had thought of during the presentations at the end of all of the discussions held by the panelists.
Loyola’s advertising club put the symposium together. The club planned the date and location of the symposium while also getting the panelists to come and speak. The club made sure that everything went according to plan with a little supervision and guidance from communications professor Greg Hoplamazian.
According to Greg, “A common theme existed within each presentation, which is that social media is best understood as a tool that must be used at the appropriate time, for the appropriate audience, and as part of a larger campaign that the long-term health of a brand in mind. I was very happy that the event was well attended by students and faculty alike, with nearly 100 audience members present. Additionally, Loyola’s Advertising Club had many students in attendance who were live tweeting during the event, which was fun for them and helped document the event.”
The Loyola Maryland Reporter 