Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
Editor's note: This story has been altered from its original version to accurately state the cultural origin of the speaker.
PNT correspondent
Former Eastern New Mexico University (ENMU) student and business owner Kristelle Siarza of Albuquerque used her culture as a minority as means to better connect with university students on Thursday.
Siarza spoke to students about social media as part of an event put on by ENMU Multicultural Affairs.
Doreen Chavez, a Hispanic affairs employee, said they brought Siarza, who spoke about social media, because they thought the topic would be interesting for students.
“Our speakers tie their presentations into Hispanic Heritage Month in a variety of ways,” Chavez said. “Some talk about their roots, which led them to where they are today, and others about discovering their culture as they got older and wanted to get closer to it.”
Siarza, who is of Filipino descent, attended ENMU from 2005 to 2007 during which time she was a member of Zeta Tau Alpha (ZTA), a weather forecaster for News3 and student vice president, and she lobbied to begin the program on campus now called Safe Ride.
“Something that has stayed with me over time is not just my sisterhood with ZTA but the connections I made at Eastern,” Siarza said.
Siarza began her company, Siarza Social Digital, in November 2014. The company is a consulting agency with five purposes: Marketing consulting, web, social media, email and online advertising.
Siarza said there were three keys to drawing people in over the Internet: Storytelling, engaging and reporting.
She said the first step is to tell people captivating stories and draw them into the company.
“The root of your communications should be storytelling,” Siarza said. “Storytelling is what makes things viral; it's what makes people interested in what you have to say.”
Siarza said keeping people involved in the social media aspect is the next step. She said the love button on Instagram, the like button on Facebook and the ability to be snapped back on Snapchat are the keys to using social media.
Unlike television and other media, the ability to know people are listening and enjoying what is posted is right at the fingertips of the viewer, she said.
“Social media is important because it has an engagement vertical,” she said. “But the reporting is the icing on the cake.”
Siarza said it is important to be paying attention to how people are active on the sites. What are they looking at? Where are they stopping? How are they behaving? These are the questions you need to be paying attention to, she said.
“It's just like football, you don't know where you stand in the game, unless you know what the score is,” Siarza said.
