By: Diane Stirling
(315) 443-8975
Awards recognizing two Syracuse University social media thought leaders—one a well-known social media professor and the other a renowned entrepreneur—for their online “likeability” were presented at a prominent social media conference Tuesday.
The first-annual “Likeable Awards” recognize individuals who “emanate likeability online and resonate over and above other social media users in their judged category,” according to the LikeableU conference organizers. The awards were presented in 17 categories at the LikeableU conference in New York, after the contest was conducted online for several weeks.
Receiving awards were Anthony Rotolo, Assistant Professor of Practice at the School of Information Studies (iSchool), who was named “Most Likeable Professor/Teacher”; and Dennis Crowley, Syracuse University alumnus (’98), who is founder and CEO of the location app Foursquare. Crowley was voted “Most Likeable CEO.”
For Professor Rotolo, the honor is a special one, “because the nominations and voting were done by social media users. As a professor who teaches social media, it is humbling to be named the most ‘likeable’ professor by the very people who enrich my work and teaching through their participation online,” he said.
Rotolo also presented at the industry conference. He spoke about how the use of social media as a teaching enhancement tool is central to his classes at the iSchool. The courses include “Social Media in the Enterprise,” “Star Trek and the Information Age,” and a new class slated for this fall, “Social Media and the 2012 Election.” Rotolo provided information regarding how the School’s data research center is analyzing live tweets generated by students who use social media in real time in their classes to illustrate heightened engagement with the course material.
Alyssa Henry, a 2012 iSchool master’s graduate, also was among several college students who were in the running in the “Most Likeable Student”category.
The Likeable Awards were designed to recognize individuals who fulfilled the key values of social media communication and who have leveraged social media to demonstrate charisma, responsiveness, transparency and authenticity, according to Likeable Media, the agency that sponsors the conference.
Additional categories of the “Most Likeable” awards were presented for chief marketing officer; entrepreneur; photographer; journalist; food blogger; mom blogger; video blogger; author; doctor; marketing thought leader; lawyer, fashion designer; chef and politician.
The annual social media conference is attended by hundreds of practitioners and industry thought leaders. They and other social media users were among the online voters.