WEEK 4: A Conversation with Guest Speaker Sara Dunaj by Sarah Schindler

By UCLA X469.21 Student Sarah Schindler

Cruising Smoothly Through Influence 

Sarah Schindler

For our week four guest speaker discussion we had the pleasure of hosting Sara Dunaj of Princess Cruises. The top social media manager covered a variety of topics, from leveraging influencers and empowering consumers to analytics and public relations.

I was very interested to hear about the importance of working with the right influencers who have a proclivity for the brand you are promoting. In today’s social media world, authenticity is very important. One of Sara’s tips for working with such influencers is to make sure the relationship is defined clearly. “When in doubt, put it in the contract,” she advised for brands to protect their reputation and optimize influencer outreach.

Sara Dunaj

Sara also discussed ways to use data to measure and prove the worth of influencer results. This discussion was greatly appreciated, as communications professionals are often tasked with getting their bosses on-board with the investment required to implement a social media campaign. Having the ability to measure various KPIs (key performance indicators) and reporting those results back to management can be very rewarding. It’s often the communication professional’s job to also educate top management about social media goals and opportunities. Sara explained that “Deciding WHAT to measure” is the most important part of analytics. Once that is determined, less time will be spent on superfluous research.

Above all, Sara stressed the importance of thinking strategically and seeking out influencers who actually like your brand and want to use your products.

Thank you, Sara, for a great discussion!