Are You Planning to ATTEND the ESC Region 11 "Socially ConnectED Conference”???

Tarleton’s Texas Social Media Research Institute is co-sponsoring the ESC Region 11 "Socially ConnectED Conference” on Friday, May 31st from 9:00am - 4:00pm and ESC Region 11 in Fort Worth. Each Tarleton student, faculty, and staff is welcome to register.

About the Conference: 
ESC Region 11 is providing a day of learning and networking for everyone who utilizes social media in a personal or professional capacity. Conference strands include marketing/branding, school public relations, networking, leadership, digital citizenship, social media in the learning environment, and social media research as well as sessions designed to help novices get acquainted with social media platforms and applications. Participants are encouraged to bring digital devices to engage in leading and learning conversations during the conference.

Register for the Conference Here - https://ontrac.esc11.net/Session.asp?wksp_num=013741&sess_num=023978

For More information: https://wakelet.com/wake/a0051444-6b4c-4768-9c04-682ac6298bb4

The Texas Social Media Research Institute (TSMRI) is a group of faculty, staff, and students at Tarleton State University with a mission of conducting social media research; sharing social media best practices; and providing social media education for students, non-profit organizations, state agencies, school districts, and higher education institutions.

Contact us:
Texas Social Media Research Institute
Follow Us on Twitter - @TSMRI
Call Us - 254-307-8211
Join Us for Our #TXSocialMedia Weekly Twitter Chats on Thursday Nights at 8pm CDT
texassocialmediaresearch@gmail.com

#SoFabUOTR - Take Aways, Tours, and Thank Yous (A Blogger's Must Attend Event)

This summer, the Texas Social Media Research Institute (@TSMRI) team attended the Dallas (Grapevine) So Fab U on the Road at the Gaylord Texan (Sponsored By: Collective Bias and Social Fabric)! It was definitely FABULOUS and the TSMRI team learned a wealth of information about social media including blogging, vlogging, and photography tips!

The beginning sessions included ice breakers and even a dance session! Most of the attendees were seasoned bloggers and they helped us feel at home!

One of the activities was "thumbs up" and "thumbs down" session for attendees to let the presenter know about their social media experience(s).

Here are some great tips from Blogger Randi Dukes from Dukes and Duchesses.

1) When to post on Facebook - Best (Thursday and Friday). Worst (Monday and Wednesday). Facebook spikes by 10% on Friday. Post when your fans are online.

2) Bring back old blog content (from last year) and repackage it in a new post!

3) Hashtags on Facebook should only be limited to one to two per post. Hashtags on Facebook enable people to see LESS post. Place the [#ad] in brackets. For every three posts, only one post should be yours. Share the content from other people.

4) If you want to have influence as a blogger, you need to know your analytics. You have to have a presence on all social media platforms.

5) Create a call to action, choose the action, you can measure how many people engaged with the post.

#SoFabUOTR featured great signage and everything was "postable"! :) 

Affiliate Marketing is such growing movement for monetizing blog content.

Then, we had an opportunity to utilize the content we learned at the session. Lights, camera, action!

To incorporate the concepts introduced during the sessions, we toured the Gaylord Texan Resort and tasted, experienced, and posted delectable pictures of food on our social media profiles.

The chefs were available for questions, recipes, and even free seasoning samples to take home. We will see if we can actually replicate the recipes!

More food! The street tacos were amazing and we were given social media photography tips to capture the true essence of the dishes.

Now, we are TRUE foodies! We cannot wait to come back to the Gaylord Texan Resort to try more of the dishes!

This team was amazing!

Then, we were on the move again! This time, we had a structured assignment and contest. We had to capture the nature of the Gaylord Texan resort while also highlighting the Crystal Light product! The prize was a signed guitar! How Texas-centric! :)

The reception was great as well! Thank you to Social Fabric and Collective Bias for enabling us to attend this amazing event!

Now, we are following the yellow brick road towards true blogging success! You can experience this success too! We look forward to meeting you next year!