Week 2: A conversation with Guest Speakers Babette Pepaj and Jeremy Pepper by Sheryl Sinclair
By UCLA X469.21 Student Sheryl Sinclair
App Cheat Sheet for the Aspiring Social Media Guru
We had the pleasure of not one, but two social media gurus guest speak at #SocMedUCLA!
First, we had Babette Pepaj, who founded multiple Webby-honored BakeSpace.com in 2006 as the first food-themed social network, and then founded TECHmunch in 2010 as a series of conferences in cities across North America to help food bloggers gain the hands-on digital media, marketing and business skills they need to make their blogs more personally and financially rewarding.
Second, we had Jeremy Pepper, who is currently social media and communications manager at USC. If you’ve been keeping up with the latest big news stories, you know that Jeremy has some interesting tales to share. USC is at the center of the College Admissions scandal in which dozens of parents made illegal payments to get their children into “elite colleges” including USC. Since the story broke, Jeremy has been in crisis management mode. Unfortunately, he has been forced to turn off comments on all USC social media platforms, as the public has been quick to judge and make assumptions about students implicated in the scandal. It was very interesting to hear about the different strategies and tactics employed during such an active crisis. Jeremy also provided some very good tips on how to engage students with social media, and how/how not to approach on-campus influencers.
Babette and Jeremy told us about several great apps to help with social media posting, engagement and analytics:
- Screenflow and Storiesig.com to download Instagram stories
- Canva.com, Unfold, Later and Storrito to create, archive and post Instagram story imagery
- Cutstory to edit and enhance Instagram video
- Twitteraudit.com and igaudit.io to verify an influencer’s followers
These are just a few of the apps and everyday tips they shared with us.
Thanks Babette and Jeremy for all the information to improve our social media presence and effectiveness.
