By Hywel Fuller
Social media expert Owen Williams gave the sports journalism students a lecture in how to go viral on social media.
Williams, who has more than 26,000 followers on Twitter, is the founder and director of a creative social media agency, Siml, and the former social media lead at the BBC.
As part of the promotion and marketing module the sports journalism students are looking the grow their own social media presence as well as those for the course.
During the talk Williams, went through many of the do’s and don’ts when it comes to growing a social media presence and the content on such sites.
One of the first things that Williams said to the students was: “Don’t do anything stupid.”
“Talk about things people are talking about when they are talking about it rather than being the only one that is blowing in the wrong direction with the crowd, you want your voice to be elevated,” Williams said.
Williams added: “The simple truth is this if content is king, distribution is the kingdom. Without having the content and distribution, and without the effective publishing you are not going to reach the audience.”
The module, which is attended by both first and second year students on the sports journalism BA, will help hugely with the Join our Journey campaign to promote the course.
The talk from Williams was was also very informative for the students that are looking to promote themselves through social media.
One of the main ways to go viral according to Williams is through “Information, Identity, Emotion”.
“Emotion is core, you’ve got to surprise people and you’ve got to shock people, and arouse an emotion in people, such as anger, excitement, pride, fear.”
Williams ended the session by telling the students to ensure they have content that no one else has and have access to things no one else has.