Guest presentation to Professor Thomasena Shaw's Bridgewater State University social media class. February 5, 2020

1. #SMtrends 2020
Karen Freberg, Ph.D. | Associate Professor | @kfreberg

2. About Me
 Associate Professor in Strategic Communications
at the University of Louisville
 Author of Social Media for Strategic
Communication: Creative strategies + research
based applications (SAGE)
 Education
 BS in PR from University of Florida
 MA in Strategic PR from USC
 PhD in Communication from University of
Tennessee
 Professional Experience
 Consulting and Professional Class clients
include Adobe, Cannes Lions, DHS, NCFPD,
General Motors, Hootsuite, HubSpot, and
Breeder’s Cup
 Coffee Drinker
 Social media enthusiast

3. Social media trends 2020

4. Trends to Note for
2020
 Video is powerful, but don’t ignore other
types of content
 Strategy is more important than ever
 Quality of influencer’s impact > Quantity of
influencer’s presence
 Experimentation is key
 Being first doesn’t always pay out
 Messaging + Communities
 Applying personal brand strategically

8. Reaches 95 million people for Super Bowl

9. New innovators in the field

10. Social Media
Engagement
 Started with a conversation
involving the investment brands
have on social media
engagement.
 Gave praise to four brands that
did this very well
 Cinnabon, Steak-Umm,
Applegate, and Aviation Gin
 This created the #FabFour
brands for me in 2020.

11. Social Media
Engagement
 Fast forward to end of January 2019
 Was about to get ready to prep for my class
on social listening and engagement, when I
came up w/ this idea.
 Bought all of their products
 Took pictures and shared on social
 Created a video articulating my rationale for
this from a social media perspective

13. Components of a Personal Brand
Personality Consistency Expertise

14. Tips for Graduation
+ Post-Graduation
 Create, manage, and execute a personal
branding strategy (website, blog, media kit)
 Network, network, and network!
 Invest in your education and training in
social media
 Review skills sets and go after areas + skills
not common in graduation cohort (do a
cohort audit)
 Have fun. Embrace your uniqueness and
personality. Pay it forward.

15. SKILLS TO
SHOWCASE
RESEARCH
WRITING AND VISUAL CONTENT
BRAND VOICE/EXPERIENCE
DATA ANALYTICS AND STRATEGIC APPLICATION
CUSTOMER SERVICE SPECIALIST
TEAM PLAYER AND MAKER
LIFE-LONG LEARNER

16. Q+A
karen.freberg@Louisville.edu | @kfreberg (Twitter & IG) | karenfreberg on LinkedIn