Fried Logic

S.M.A.R.T. Conference at UNC Chapel Hill

As a PR intern at HM&P and aspiring PR professional, I know the importance of staying up on recent trends in the industry, as well as attending events related to the field. This past Saturday I attended the Social Media and Related Technologies Conference at UNC Chapel Hill.  This was the first S.M.A.R.T. Conference put together by UNC’s PRSSA, Issues Organization and Marketing Club and was sponsored by the Triangle Interactive Marketing Association.

The keynote speaker, Jeffrey L. Cohen (@jeffreylcohen), Social Media Marketing Manager from Howard, Merrell & Partners, opened the event and shared insight on the social media craze with fun tidbits – Did you know YouTube was first created for use as a dating site? Click to view Jeff’s presentation.

Topics discussed included Twitter, YouTube, Facebook, LinkedIn, blogs and location-based marketing services. With an interest in the location-based marketing services, I attended a session about Yelp. Yelp is a service that collects reviews from the public for area businesses. A representative spoke about the site and introduced me to the “augmented reality” feature available as an application for the iPhone. The application connects to iPhone GPS and works as a compass. As the phone is held in the air in different directions, local businesses appear on the screen providing instant reviews and information.

The conference concluded with a panel of five people currently working in the industry. They each gave their opinion on the future of social media and offered advice about its use. They urged us to remember that all forms of social media are intended for separate audiences.

And with that we were left with this final thought:

• LinkedIn is the office.
• Twitter is the water cooler.
• Facebook is the bar.