Last Thursday evening I was invited to speak on a panel at an event held by Beta Alpha Psi, a business fraternity at UC Berkeley.

The event was part of the organization’s Spring Executive Series, as explained on their website:

Beta Alpha Psi presents Executive Series, Spring 2010: Generation Y – Social Media. The event will feature a panel of top executives from leading social media firms, such as Yahoo!, Google, Facebook, Zynga, Skype, Yelp and Meltwater Group. Panelists will share their professional experiences and provide their insights into recent developments in the fast-changing industry. Students will have the opportunity to network with the professionals, and resumes will be accepted.

When the event began, I was nervous. It was the first time I’ve been asked to speak on a panel, not to mention a panel that is part of an “executive series.” To my left was the Corporate Communications Manager from Facebook, as well as the Ad Display Manager from Google. To my right were the founder of Xoopit (which was recently aquired by Yahoo!), Yelp’s Marketing Director and Zynga’s Product Manager. Each panelist had about 10 minutes to give a presentation on our respective companies before Q&A from the audience.

Yelp presented first, followed by Facebook and Google. All the executives gave great presentations on their respective companies and presented insightful statistics on the growth of social media audiences and users over the last few years. Additionally, there were lots of numbers to support why advertising and marketing dollars were being spent via social media channels.

I didn’t prepare anything nearly as quantitative— specifically because when I was preparing for the event, I was thinking about my audience: 19-23 year-olds who want to launch careers at hot Internet companies with a social media focus. I didn’t think this particular audience would be truly engaged with information on demographics or market penetration. I think they wanted to hear about opportunities, where the market is going, and what their potential first jobs and long-term careers might look like.

When it was my turn to speak, I told the audience a little bit about Meltwater Group, but I mainly focused on my career path, why I made the decisions that I did and the outcomes of those decisions. I also gave the audience some insight into my daily work life and responsibilities as a Social Media Manager for Meltwater. To wrap up my presentation, I touched upon things that young people can do to expand their knowledge and to build their skill set in order to make themselves versant in today’s social media conversations, and thus marketable in the job market.

Although Meltwater is not a well-known brand, I was surprised to have a queue of bright-eyed people waiting to chat with me following the panel. Next thing I knew, nearly two hours had passed while I was speaking with audience members one on one about their career ambitions, and sharing some of my insights with them. When I looked up after the queue started to fade, I noticed the executives from all the other companies had left at some point.

I was probably not the best speaker at the event, and I was the least experienced in terms of traditional marketing experience. However, the feedback I got from audience members was that I was relatable, and they appreciated hearing my personal career development story. They learned from what I had done, and were clearly giving a lot of thought to what they want to do post graduation.

If there is one thing I’ve learned from being responsible for Meltwater Group’s Social Media program, it’s to really consider your audience (ask yourself: “what do they want to learn?”) and to try to add value to the conversation at hand. As long as you’re relevant, knowledgeable and insightful, it will be appreciated.

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