Co-Founding FIU SMA

Wow - I can say that it's been a ride. Looking back and seeing how much SMA grew in the past two years makes me dizzy, but in a good way.

SMA, or the Social Media Association at FIU, is the second organization that I’ve started in my college career, and a project that showed me the value of connections and collaboration.

Let me start by sharing that as many other things, SMA was once a dream. I remember vividly the day I jump out of bed in that Marco Island Hotel and I said “FIU can do a better job at social media. I wonder if I can grab a bunch of students and help organizations within FIU to better their presence.” I had experience in building clubs from co-founding the International Student Club at Broward College, so the structure part was very easy. I wrote it down in Google Keep, and off I went with my idea. Ten days later, I was at a conference at FIU and I mentioned to someone “I want to create a social media club at FIU.” They grabbed my hand and introduced me to Dr. Nancy Richmond. She just came back from a Cali Road Trip, and she was looking for a partner in crime to open a social media club at FIU.

After a couple of meetings that helped us define the name, brand, etc, we started recruiting, and suddenly growing. My objectives were very clear: connect students with the outside community. But something interesting happened: students were hungry for learning more about social media. Moreover, every time I mentioned I was the President of SMA, someone asked me for an intern. That was our main pivot. My consulting dreams had to be putted aside, and I had to prioritize my audience.

We brought speakers, we talked about growth, strategy, content and platforms. We shared news, laser tag events and many dinners. I made very good friends, and I learned a lot about connections.

Connections, or our network is what is going to make us or break us. We put together about six events a year, plus all our workshops, and those connections are the ones that either a) facilitated the talks or b) introduced me to someone who could do it.

Some of the events were the conference Social Tech Live, two editions of #LeadersGetSocial, Social Media & Politics, Women in Tech & Snapchat, etc.

Now that I am graduating and a new leadership board came on board, I can say that we’ve done a very nice job. Seeing how they are passionate for a mission I once wrote in a notepad is something out of this world.