k-critique

2NE1’s Sandara Park (Dara) recently made a trip to Yonsei University. Is it for the annual university music festival? No. Surprisingly, she was chosen to be a guest lecturer at Yonsei University’s consumer behavior (marketing) class. (Oh the perks of being a marketing student in Korea…) Being a popular member in Korea’s rising girl group, I can imagine the lecture hall was more packed with both male/female students than usual.

To be honest when I first heard it, I was really surprised. Usually people who are chosen to guest speak at lectures are successful business figures. However, Dara has recently been appointed as 2NE1’s official Public Relations/Communications Director, so she is definitely a legit candidate. Even so, I was curious about the content of her lecture. Thanks to RoyalAceSubs@YGLadies, an English subbed video was released and I had the honor of listening to Professor Dara’s lecture.

With a humble beginning, Dara started off by saying she was “in no position to be lecturing” but nevertheless, it was enjoyable and I learned something as well. Dara is known to frequently communicate with her fans via me2day (kind of like a Korean version of Twitter) and she lectured on the topic of social networking.

Dara’s lecture can be concluded with the 3 points she made; that is, successful social networking must have the following 3 factors:

1. Realistic

2. Interesting

3. Natural

And based on what I got from the lecture, I think a 4th point can be added,

4. Trust

Communication via social media must be realistic because almost everyone nowadays is exposed to false hopes, expectations and promises through many commercials/advertisements. By being realistic, it can slowly build up a sense of trust between you and your followers over time.

Content of social networking posts must be interesting. Applying similar context by using your own personal experiences, knowledge, etc. can enhance the post by making it more creative, personal and easy to relate to.

Natural. Users of social media, followers, friends, you name it, are not dumb. Especially when we are living in such a technology-enhanced era, they are exposed to a lot of different types of social media and have lots of experience with it. If you are not natural, coming off with a phony image, they will see right through it easily. By then, it will be hard to restore your integrity. 

Trust is something that needs to build up over time. As your followers or audience slowly sees what you post, likes your content, sees that it is authenticated/real information, you will build a reputation. Trust does not come overnight.

Source: Dara’s Yonsei University Lecture (Eng Sub), Dara’s me2day

As a marketing major myself, I found Dara’s lecture to be surprisingly informative. Although she has never attended college/university, still being able to learn/use public relations, social media effectively, and even preparing her own lecture/slides, she deserves a round of applause. Her content was actually not that far from what I heard from professional lecturers at my own university, which is impressive! The content may be a bit different to me because her lecture is more on social networking specifically. But I loved how she “practiced what she preached”, showcasing her own naturalness during the lecture, used her own examples, also applied the lecture content to a wider, more applicable context.