NJI Media Heads to AU's Social Learning Summit

Cindy Zhang

04.17.2013

NJI Media was spotted this past Saturday on American University’s campus with saltwater taffy, notebooks, and NJI pens in hand. Doing what? Attending the 2013 Social Learning Summit. NJI sponsored the event this past weekend, and I, along with and the rest of the crew, had a great time attending panels, networking, and conversing on the state of social media with students and professionals alike.

The Social Learning Summit, for those who don’t know, has been organized by the American University Social Media Club since 2011. Local bloggers, Twitter gurus, and other social media professionals (and beginners) congregate for a two-day event jam-packed with notable panelists and speakers involved in the social media industry. This year’s line up included Mark Coatney of Tumblr, Chris Geidner of Buzzfeed, Gadi Ben-Yehuda of IBM, Martin Ringlein of Twitter and even two of our very own, Morgan Gress and Phill Herndon. With a range of panels to choose from, decisions were difficult. Fortunately, conference organizers and attendees alike utilized Twitter as a method to keep everyone updated and in on the discussion, even if you weren’t physically present in the panel. I attended “The Online Times: Journalism 2.0” where the conversation revolved around how social media has affected journalism.

The state of social media changes rapidly from year to year and this year’s conference continued to highlight how much social media has impacted the way people communicate. The world of social media operates on seconds, not minutes or hours. However, a general consensus focused on how content is still king despite the speed of social media as a communication tool. No matter how frequent or how quickly information may be disseminated through social media, content will engage the audience. And that’s where social media reigns as a tool for not only reaching your audience but also creating dialogue and engaging and connecting with your audience on a level that interests them.

SLS13 provided a great forum for conversation, discussion, and learning. In between tweeting, handing out NJI notebooks, chowing down on CAVA, attending panels, and just having great conversation, I’d say the NJI Team had a busy and enjoyable Saturday at SLS13. One last lesson learned: you can never have enough hashtags.

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Photo by AUSMC

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