Communicating Through Social Media

Guest Blogger Beckah Porter ’16Beckah

There is no surprise that technology is advancing and playing huge roles in our daily lives, but when I was asked to talk to a fashion designer, Whitney Port, over Twitter, I could not help but be skeptical. I thought to myself, “How could this work?” This summer I am interning for a website called CollegeFashionista, which focuses around all things fashion and puts all the style-minded people at ease by helping showcase the latest fashion tips, ideas, and even what occasion they would be most appropriate for.  My internship is based solely online which requires communication through questionnaires, feedback from the “backend” of our website, and endless amounts of back and forth emailing. Therefore I was not shocked that our Fashion Talk, which is a discussion held each month with a style savvy guest that would last an hour, would be hosted online, but I couldn’t help but be curious.

Whitney Port, a television star of the hit shows, The Hills and also The City, successfully launched her own clothing label in 2009 called Whitney’s Eve. At the beginning of the Fashion Talk Style Gurus were expected to sign onto Twitter and begin to ask Whitney any questions that they may have.  Although the Style Gurus were able to follow the talk through the hash tag FashionTalk, the ability to see every person’s tweet became confusing (and also overwhelming), especially because it made it hard to follow what questions were actually being answered. Our mediator, website creator, Amy Levin, picked out Style Guru questions and prompted Whitney to answer those first.  Whitney was able to detail her 140-character messages by being concise but also included any important detail that was necessary and helpful to the talk. Whitney discussed many valuable lessons she has learned and offered a new perception of fashion built from her knowledge and experience in the industry. Talking with Whitney provided Style Gurus with many important concepts and ideas that we should think about and also incorporate on the CollegeFashionista website, but also when building our personal brand.

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Participating in my first twitter talk proved that social media has the ability to bring together people to discuss ideas, without having to physically do so. Communicating through social media will always remain different that any face-to-face interaction but remains a new important concept to master because many jobs now require the ability to maneuver.

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The more you can become acquainted with all social media sites, the better. Being familiar with the sites that your internship or job requires makes communicating through the medium a little less overwhelming and a little more manageable. I have also learned that if you are trying to navigate your way through something you haven’t done before (for example my twitter talk) it becomes not only helpful but vital to pay close attention to detail by reading all of the directions and others comments carefully. I have learned that you never know what insight others can provide which can make your job easier, just by reading.

My favorite advice from Whitney, “Someone once told me to not be afraid to step out of my comfort zone because success does not come from being average.”

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