1. The document discusses what PR educators should teach students about social media. It provides context on the changing PR environment and need for a blend of old and new skills. 2. A case study is presented of a community manager who uses various social media management platforms and analytics tools in their role. 3. The document proposes breaking attendees into groups to discuss their knowledge of social media roles and skills, and barriers to developing these further, before reconvening for discussion and considering next steps personally and institutionally.

1. What should PR educators be teaching
students about social media?
Simon Collister

2. Session overview
• Scene setting and context (10mins)
• Group tasks (20mins)
• Feedback and discussion (20mins)
• Wrap-up and next steps? (10mins)

3. Caveat emptor
1. Not advocating training instead of strategic
planning or leadership education
2. Not making distinction (yet) between BA and
MA levels

4. PR industry context
“New PR environment calls for a blend of
the old and the new, cautious and careful
experience combined with creative and
enthusiastic adoption of new platforms […]
Participants identify a process of constantly
learning new things, playing with new
platforms and openly engaging with social
media”
(Williams et al, 2012)

5. PR leadership context
“Within minutes of
PRWeek's interview
starting, Grant is
lambasting the PR
industry for 'missing
the boat' on digital,
allowing advertising
and media agencies to
steal a march.”
(Luker 2012)

6. Practical context
• New roles already established and emerging: e.g.
community manager, digital engagement
manager, analyst, digital storyteller, etc
• New skills and processes needed, e.g.
understanding social media influence, measuring
social media metrics, curating content, directly
engaging stakeholders
• New technologies maturing, e.g. social media
monitoring software, social media management
platforms, social analytics tools, etc

7. Case study: Community Manager
• Ruth, 24, works for a FTSE 100 business managing
Facebook, YouTube & Twitter communities; also identifies and
engages online influencer networks, e.g. bloggers, YouTube
Directors, etc
• Strategic knowledge of community building, engagement
planning and engagement; tactical knowledge of Facebook
Page management techniques, developed organisational
social media policy and engagement guidelines (inc. reporting
metrics/formats)
• Practical experience using content management platforms
(Hootsuite); content curation tools (Pecolate) analytics tools
(SocialBakers); monitoring/research software (Sysomos)

9. Group discussion
Working in groups I want us to:
1. Discuss our awareness and knowledge
of social media in practice and consider
our desire (or otherwise) to develop
these attributes (10mins)
2. Then identify personal, institutional or
ethical barriers to development (10mins)

10. Focus on…
• People and roles, e.g. community manager,
engagement manager, analyst, etc
• Skills and processes, e.g. creating multi-media content,
planning strategic actions/editorial, reporting social
performance to management, directly engaging
customers/stakeholders
• Technologies, e.g. social media monitoring software,
content management platforms, etc
10
Mins

11. Barriers?
• Are there any personal barriers to developing
your awareness, knowledge or desire to learn
more or apply knowledge in the classroom?
• Are there institutional technology barriers?
• What about any perceived ethical implications?
10
Mins

12. Discussion and feedback
• What levels of awareness, knowledge and
desire exist?
• What barriers to development were identified?
• Any ideas for addressing those barriers
(personal or institutional)?

13. Next steps?
Personal
• Survey graduate and work placement students about current roles, skills
and technologies
• Start reading blogs covering social media, e.g.
AllFacebook, SocialMediaToday, etc
• Sign-up for free trials of technologies and experiment
• integrate emerging skills and tools into existing schemes of work – or create
new ones
Institutional
• Establish a working group to collaborate on staying abreast of industry
developments
• Audit UK industry to identify and assess demand for new/emerging
roles, skills, technologies, etc
• Establish online resource (blog or wiki?) to publish and share knowledge
(textbooks of limited use) – or co-opt existing resource, e.g. PRBooks wiki
• Develop CPD pathway for developing and maintaining knowledge and skills
of social media practice

14. References
• Williams, S., Challenor, J. and Collister, S. (2012)
Recruiting for PR 2.0. Paper presented at EUPREA
Congress 2012, Istanbul, Turkey, September 20th-22nd
2012
• Luker, S. (2012) „Robin Grant: Man on a Digital Mission‟
PR Week. [Online] Accessed on 29th August 2013.
Available:
http://www.prweek.com/uk/features/1133323/robin-grant-
man-digital-mission/