1. The Rise of the Social Media Educator
Micro-Influencer:
Exploring future trends and practices in balancing research,
teaching, and personal branding
Karen Freberg, Ph.D. / Associate Professor in Strategic Communications
University of Louisville / Louisville, KY USA
@kfreberg / www.karenfreberg.com/blog

2. About Me
Karen Freberg, Ph.D.
š Associate Professor in Strategic Communications
š Teaches courses in Social Media, Advanced
Social Media Strategy, Crisis
Communications, and Public Relations
š Researcher in Social Media, Social Media
Pedagogy, and PR/Crisis
š Students have gotten social media jobs at
Adidas, Twitter, General Motors, Cision, Dallas
Mavericks, Team USA, and the Kentucky
Derby
š Thought Leader for Social Media
š Social Media Strategy and Influencer
Marketing Campaigns (ex. General Motors,
CDC, College Game Day, Adidas)
š Partnered + Collaborated on Social Media
Education initiatives and projects (ex.
Hootsuite, Adobe, HubSpot, Meltwater, etc)

3. Overview
š Social media research and practice has increased substantially
over the years as a key area of focus for public relations
practitioners and professors.
š Educators, battling expectations from industry and by their
institution, struggle to find their voice and place within society.
This presentation will outline the current state of research in social
media pedagogy, expectations from industry, and future social
media trends and best practices professors need to know heading
into 2018.

4. Current State of Social Media Research
Experiential Learning
Assignments
Crisis
Discipline
specific (ex.
Journalism,
Marketing,
PR)
Creative
Content +
Metrics
Infographics
Instagram /
Snapchat /
YouTube
Case studies
Specific
Classes
Certifications
Gaps between industry
and practice
Challenges in
teaching
social media
Social Media
Curriculum
Professors
teaching
Social Media

5. Five Future Trends Professors Need To
Know for 2018
š Social Connectors: Bridging classroom culture with industry expectations through virtual
networking.
š Experiential storytelling: Sharing + providing a virtual window into classes to not only say
you are teaching social media, but showing them.
š Embracing being a micro-influencer. How to gain partnerships and collaborations with
brands, agencies, and companies as an educator
š Personal branding 3.0: Building on personal brand on social media by creating a
community, but tailoring the experience with each person based on the relationship,
platform, and metrics.
š Becoming your own (media) brand. How to embrace the emerging (and being agile) in
your role and explore other areas to add on to your personal brand on social media.

6. Social
Connectors
šRemund & Freberg
(2013) coined this
term for PR educators
teaching social
media.
šBridging classroom
culture with industry
expectations through
virtual networking.
šProfessors have to be
engaged, active, and
aware of their role to
connect students with
knowledge,
professionals, and
communities.

8. Experiential
storytelling
š Sharing + providing a virtual window
into classes to not only say you are
teaching social media, but showing
them.
š Various ways and opportunities to do
this:
š Twitter chats
š Instagram (Branding, Stories, Live
Video, etc)
š Facebook Live Video + Creator
š Takeovers of social media accounts
š Class v-blog
š *Advanced VR in the classroom
setting

10. Embracing being a micro-influencer.
š How to gain partnerships and collaborations with brands, agencies, and companies
as an educator.
š Brands are investing in education, so why are we not part of the new equation for
education and training?
š Reach out to brands you feel match with your areas of expertise, interests, and
experiences.
š Follow them on social media.
š Connect with professionals.
š Share resources and show them why YOU are the educator they need to partner with.
š Discuss what content you are able to provide them that is unique and different from any
other educator.
š Brainstorm possible win-win situations. What can we do TOGETHER? Discuss deliverables +
action steps.

11. Mentionmapp

12. Personal Branding 3.0
š Building on personal brand on social media by creating a community, but
tailoring the experience with each person based on the relationship, platform,
and metrics.
š Embracing HIM (Human Interaction Marketing) as a way to build relationships.
š Taking networking to the next level.
š Use data to inform who are the vibrant members of your community. Who
engages with you the most? Who are your best advocates?
š Don’t go for the hard sell- reach out to people you genuinely want to
connect with.
š Don’t stalk or steal contacts – it’s in poor taste and can easily be seen by
the world.

13. Lin Humphrey, Ph.D.
(Florida International University)
• Consistent presence across all social
media platforms.
• Creates, curates, and engages on social
media.
• Digital Footprint balanced between
personal and professional.
• Publishes research + shares resources
with fellow colleagues.
• Interview with Lin Humphrey on The
Teacher's Lounge Podcast (HubSpot)

14. Becoming your
own
media (company)
brand
š How to embrace the emerging (and being
agile) in your role and explore other areas
to add on to your personal brand on social
media.
š Being just on Twitter or Facebook is not
enough, you have to think of your role as a
brand and media outlet as as professor.
š You want to have as many touchpoints as
possible for people to consume, learn, and
connect with you.
š Become the publisher / advertiser / and
media buyer all in one.
š Fundamentals to have:
š Website
š Blog
š FB / Twitter / IG / YouTube individual
presence
š Host + Manage a Community (ex FB group)
š Podcast

15. Keith Quesenberry Carolyn Mae Kim

16. Paid Media
•FB Ads
•Sponsored Posts
•Twitter Ads
•Paid Partnerships
•Speaking Engagements
•IG Sponsored Posts
Earned Media
•Reviews
•Features
•Interviews
•Endorsements
•Influencer
Acknowledgem
ents
•Blog Features
•News features
•Speaking
engagements
Shared Media
•Community Groups
•Student Testimonials
•Guest Speaker Updates
•Ambassador Programs
•Expert Lists
•Hashtag
Owned Media
•Blog
•Website
•Podcasts
•Newsletter
•Brand Kits
•Research and
Teaching
Materials
•Webinars
•Videos
•Assignments

17. Summary
š Social media education, both in research and as a profession, is rising each year.
š More attention is being paid towards building a bridge between practice and
education.
š We can be influencers – we just have to advocate for ourselves.
š Being engaged and active in the profession is critical. We can’t just “talk the
talk.”
š We also have to show impact. Social media is beyond tweeting – we have to
also be accountable for our deliverables on what we have been able to do for
our classes, industry, profession and community.
š We can all learn together. The more we share, the more we grow as a profession.

18. Additional Research in Social Media
Pedagogy
š Ewing, M., Kim, C.M., Kinsky, E., Moore, S., & Freberg, K. (accepted for publication) Teaching digital and social media analytics: Exploring best
practices and future implications for public relations pedagogy. Submitted to Journal of Public Relations Education.
š Freberg, K. (2017). Building digital bridges through evidence based practices in social media pedagogy. In S. Duhe’s New Media and Public
Relations (3rd Edition).
š Freberg, K., & Mae Kim, C. (2017). Social media educators: Exploring faculty competencies and practices in higher education. Journalism and Mass
Communication Educator, 1-13.
š Mae Kim, C., & Freberg, K. (2016). The state of social media curriculum: A proposed framework for social media pedagogy. Journal of Public
Relations Education, 2(2), 68-82.
š Bowman, N.D., & Freberg, K. (2016). Advancing the study of social media in the communication classroom. Communication Teacher, 30(4), 184.
š Merle, P., & Freberg, K. (2016, June). All about that tweet: Student perceptions of professors’ social media use in the classroom. Journal of Research in
Interactive Marketing, 10(2), 1-25.
š Kinsky, E., Freberg, K., Mae Kim, C., Kushin, M.J., & Ward, W. (2016, February). Social media education with Hootsuite University: A qualitative study.
Journal of Public Relations Education. 1-21.
š Remund, D., & Freberg, K. (2013, Summer). Scholar as social curator and social connector: The escalating need for public relations
professors who successfully link theory and practice in a fast-changing digital world. Teaching Public Relations, 1-5.

19. Resources
To Note
Professor Resources
•Karen Sutherland
•Carolyn Kim
•Keith Quesenberry
•William Ward
(@Dr4Ward)
•Jeremy Lipshultz
•Lin Humphrey
•Amber Hutchins
•Emily Kinsky
•Elaine Venter
•Matt Kushin
•Scott Cowley
•Amanda J Weed
•David Kampermann
•Eric Stoller (Inside
Higher Education)
•Marc E. Oppenheim
(MEOjobs)
Twitter Hashtags and
Chats
•#SMprofs + #PRprofs
•#TwitterSmarter
•#HootChat
•#AdobeChat
•#SocialROI
•#BufferChat
•#MeasurePR
•#PRStudChat
•#HESM
•#CASESM

20. Additional Resource Links
Podcasts
• Josie + The Podcast
• The Teacher’s Lounge
(Hubspot)
• Twitter Smarter
Podcast w/ Madalyn
Sklar
• Social Media
Examiner Podcast
• Stephen Waddington
& Sarah Hall +
#FuturePRoof
Certifications
• Hootsuite
• Hubspot
• Facebook Blueprint
• Meltwater
• Google Analytics
• Brandwatch for
Students
Communities
• HootAmbs (Hootsuite)
• Adobe Spark Insiders
• Social Media
MasterMinds
• Hubspot Education
Partners
• Facebook Education
• Smprofs Community
• #FuturePRoof
• MEOjobs Community

21. Q+A
karen.freberg@louisville.edu // @kfreberg