Trish Skram

            Trish Skram who graduated from UW-Whitewater 5 years ago made a visit back to her old stomping grounds in the communications department. Skram is a Media Specialist and Public Relations Manager for Mercy Health System.  Her presentation today was called Blogging Your Brand.  She is the owner and brand visionary of PR Gal.  Skram is a professional blogger for the Janesville Gazette and Wisconsin Healthcare Public Relations and Marketing Society.  She does freelance work for the Wisconsin Healthcare Public Relations and Marketing Society.  Skram had a lot of good tips and incite on making your brand and blogging.

            Skram’s first three tips about social media and blogging strategies will be very helpful for my future in social media. 

1.  Grow your network of the people you know and want to know.

2.  Social media helps to improve the public relations and communications industry.

3.  When tweeting or blogging talk about what you know and love, be personable.

Some great statistics she included for us were:

-55% of corporations use social media to seek job applicants

-60-80% of bloggs are abandoned within one month

-58% says that they are better known in their industry because of their blog

-95 millions tweets are posted on Twitter a day

-77% of Internet users read blogs

-More than 133 million blogs were indexed by Technocratic since 2002

            Skram brings up the question, “Why blog?”  Blogging generates more content for the web and the brand you are trying to create.  It establishes expertise, helps grow networks, offers a place for people to engage, gain valuable knowledge, helps your keyword search ranking on the web, and blogging gives information to share via social networks.  Blogging boosts your brand!  Skram explained that blogging creates connections and builds relationships with customers, stakeholders and future costumers, optimizes your website for improved SEO or page rank, and establishes the brand.  Some people do have fears of blogging like Skram once did about looking stupid, missing information, time, and not knowing what to write about.  One can overcome these fears by understanding people do make mistakes, know your audience, and don’t be scared of making mistakes, which Skram explained.  Blogging and social media are all about building your brand.

            Skram’s 8 ways to build a brand:

1.  What do you want to get out of it?

2.  Know your competency (relate to readers).

3.  Listen and learn about your audience.

4.  Add your own personal touch.

5.  Encourage engagement.

6.  Research key words.

7.  Can people actually find you?

8.  Be consistent.  

“Social media is not a numbers game, it’s about engagement in the relationship you are building,” believes Skram.  The code of she uses is say what you want, don’t offend others, don’t personally attack anyone, be yourself, post often, use photo links, don’t use copyright materials, respond to comments, comment on others blogs, and promote your posts.  I think Skram had a good idea that you can use twitter to headline or showcase your blog so other people can connect through twitter if they don’t have a blog account.  Her best advice she feels when creating your brand is to share your passions and goals in life, knowledge, participate, and don’t be scared to make mistakes or put yourself out there to the public.  I agree with Skram and understand her viewpoints on social media and blogging.  Her presentation was very interesting to listen to, even though we have a lot of speakers who go over the same topics all of them after different tips and experiences to share with us.