Student Spotlight: Carson Case
Carson Case is always on the go. Averaging almost five hours of sleep a night, Case is the definition of a go-getter. He is focused, motivated and successful and does not waste a single minute, however, as the saying goes, “the road to success is always under construction.”
While in high school in Little Rock, Ark., Case was captain of his high school football team and a star basketball player. He was popular and had a bright athletic future ahead of him. Unfortunately, life threw him a curveball he wasn’t prepared to hit.
I value the college experience, and the tactics that we learn in the classroom. I do, however, value my experience of the real world more. I reflect on and analyze my experiences from my social media campaigns and apply them to real-world scenarios. I believe that experience is the best learning method.
Case was always pushing his body to the physical limit, not thinking his body would one day push back, for due to overuse he herniated a disk in his back. To make matters worse, a cyst the size of a golf ball formed on his spine as a result of his injury. After consulting multiple doctors, he finally found a doctor who was willing to operate. On Aug. 8, 2012, Case hit rock bottom and turned to God for help, guidance and strength. Up until then, sports had been his “god” but the injury shattered his dreams of playing college sports in an instant. He knew then he had to derive his strength from another source, a source greater than sports could ever be.
At the time, various social media platforms were being introduced and gaining popularity. Twitter was exploding and Instagram was on the rise. Case, like many high-school students, created a Twitter account. As his passion for this new life grew, he used his hardships as motivation and wanted to use social media as a platform to show those who have faced similar hardships that through pain can come peace. As Twitter began go grow in popularity, he posted about his daily activities and struggles and spoke live about his faith and passion.
As he entered his freshman year in college, Case had more than 14,000 followers on Twitter. He created an Instagram account and used his popularity on Twitter to spread his message on a different social platform. He learned more about social media’s various demographics and content that interested people, and used this to gain followers and promote a positive message.
We recently sat down with Case to talk about his journey, his plans for the future and how he manages to stay connected to his more than 100,000 followers.
What is your social media strategy?
I will admit, it is a slow process and it did not happen overnight. Overtime, I saw how I grew emotionally and spiritually. I developed how I spoke and focused on being more clear, concise and relatable to my audience. I realized the more authentic I was, the more people grasped my message and started following me. I started really paying attention to the ebb and flow of social media. I looked at what time my followers were on social media and noticed it was either late at night, between 9:30 and 10:30 p.m. or early in the morning. I realized my posts would get lost if I posted during the middle of the day, due to the vast majority of my followers being in school during that time.
In college, I began to see how these things play out. Posting in the middle of week, for example, does not get the same response as my posts on the weekends or on lazy Sundays. I began to pick up on these things and strategically began to base when I posted on what I learned. So looking at what time of the day and what day of the week to post is important, in addition to finding out what people find interesting.
Do you sometimes get “lost” in social media?
Reflecting back, I can see how I have grown and matured. I realize that it is not real life but a great marketing tool. You have to be careful about how much you get ingrained in it. I fell into the pit of being so ingrained in it that I started to lose and miss out on real life things, but my dedication caused my followers to skyrocket.
In your opinion, why do so many social media campaigns fail?
People wanted you to be relatable and want you to be authentic. I think the reason why some social media campaigns fail is because they put content out there that is not real, which consequently constrains their influence.
I noticed the importance of casting your passion and casting your influence and using it to reel people in. Being honest about your struggles or being positive will help you be authentic and relate to your audience. People think, “Hey, this guy is someone I can hang out with, someone real.” I began to strategically interpret what people were looking for and how I can give them what they need. I reflected on what I am getting from my time with Jesus and how that would relate to people who may not know Him or people who do. I changed my posts accordingly and saw my reach began to climb as a result.
Why did you choose to major in management and not marketing?
Leadership is in my blood. My dad owns his own company, so growing up he was a great influence and helped me to shape into a leader. I want to focus on leadership and entrepreneurship. I was captain of my high school football team, a leader in school and I was in the top of my class academically. I guess I like to take control of things and I learned this from my parents.
What are your career aspirations?
My heart’s desire is to lead a local church in a big city within the United States. That was my focus when I came to Coastal. I argued that instead of majoring in religious studies, why not get a degree in management where I can learn more leadership tactics. I did, however, learn some marketing tactics from my classes thus far and combined them with my own experience. I began to see things in social media that I can develop for my own career advancement. I wanted to learn to manage things in order to better relate to people when I pastor.
Which social media platform is your favorite?
I still use Twitter regularly, but you have to stay up to date because it is very up and down. I was more active on Twitter two years ago than I am today. Instagram is thriving and you want to jump onto what is growing, so I’ve been using that platform more lately.
How do you engage with followers?
Direct messaging is best, however, you can get a flood of responses and be unable to respond to people individually. I do go back and try to show people that I am a real person, and relate to them. People want to follow real people; they don't want to follow someone with a perfect life because that isn’t realistic.
Do you have any tips for your fellow students who would like to increase their social media following or to promote their message?
Look at what people are doing in their lives and market yourself and your message in a way that is relatable. Many people are active on social media, but the only way to use your influence is to connect yourself with those people’s lives. If you relate to them, they will relate to you and will want to follow you. The key is connecting to people and seeing what they like in their world.
Looking at your social media future, what do you see?
Social media is not slowing down; you have to see what the trends are and adopt. Instagram stories is now popular, and Twitter’s popularity is up and down. New platforms will becreated and succeed while will fall into obscurity. The way to market, relate and connect is through social media because that is how the current generation communicates. Social media is the heartbeat of this world moving forward because technology is will continue to advance.
Do you boost your posts?
Honestly, no. Personally, I think boosted posts take away the authenticity factor of posts because people know. I’ve asked myself if boosting posts would put me in contact with real people and the audience I want or if the boosts boxes me with empty accounts. I do not know how much connection you will have with these people. I think it can be different for businesses- depends on how personal you want to be.
So how would you wrap up crafting your social media brand in a nutshell?
Consistent people win. For example,if you want to get in great physical shape you have to work out consistently, not sporadically. If you want to have a lot of influence on people through social media, you have to consistently be involved. If you slow down, your social media presence slow down, the people will fall away but if you are consistent, they will see that.”