Sure, social media has reshaped the way people interact with each other, but it’s also shifted the way folks relate to those big institutions in our lives (we all have them) like corporations, universities, and even our government.
In some ways we’re just beginning to understand the impact these new technologies are having on various aspects of our lives, including how citizens interact with their own government and relate to a university trying to wrangling 24,000 students. But aren’t we just being social? That’s kind of what people do, right?
Join Nikhil Deshpande, Digital Strategy Director at the Georgia Technology Authority, for a look at the role social media plays in our civic lives, how active online communities can speak to the government, and how to foster the emergence of a collaborative culture in the state, country, and beyond. Through his role at GTA, Nikhil deals with the changing landscape on a daily basis, managing content and the social media presence for the State of Georgia web portal, Georgia.gov.
But launching a social or digital campaign of that size is no easy task. That’s a fact Guy Bailey knows all too well. In his session “365 Days of Social Media: Trials, Tribulations, and Successes of Wrangling a University’s Online Voice” Guy will walk through the ups, downs, and tough-learned lessons of year-one as Social Media Supervisor at Kennesaw State University, the third largest public university in the state. In that time, Guy has managed to unify the university’s voice, double it’s numbers on social media platforms, and expand the KSU footprint to include channels like YouTube and Google+.
That’s the macro level of things. Yet we’re a society and culture stubbornly made up of individuals. We each use technologies differently, and things like social media have a profoundly personal and individual impact – even if you might not realize it. Emory doctoral candidate Cory Inman does, however. Through his psychology work, Cory has come to understand just how personal and how profound some of our social shifts online could really be:
“Humans are social beings. Our need to be connected is related to how our brain evolved and is organized, how we process social information, and how we create our autobiographic selves with memories of our defining experiences. Social networking in everyday life and now online might be at the core of what it is to be human. Our social networks might have structurally shaped our brains across evolution.”
Sit in on Cory’s talk “Your Brain on Social Media, Weird Science” along with Guy and Nikhil’s presentations throughout the day at SoCon13 this Saturday, Feb. 9 at Kennesaw State University and track your own social (media) evolution from the personal to the exponential.
Session 1 (10:45am-11:45am)
Dialogue with the Government: A Collaborative Society
Session 2 (1:30pm-2:30pm)
365 Days of Social Media: Wrangling a University’s Online Voice
Session 3 (2:35pm-3:45pm)
This is just one example of a track of breakout sessions at SoCon13. Mix, match, and make the most of your day by picking your interests from more than two-dozen breakout sessions. Submit your questions for the interaction keynote panel, and be sure to register now! Only a handful of seats remain.