Around this time last year, I was a fairly timid yet ambitious rising college junior, finally venturing out to my first real networking event. It was a Mashable-hosted tweetup on Capitol Hill, and I wandered in feeling totally overwhelmed. I’d just begun to get into social media and finally feeling like a real adult, but I’d never been to a networking event outside of American University.

Oh my how times have changed.

Tonight is Mashable’s DC “Summermash” event. That means this is also the one-year anniversary of my becoming a networker. Networking has changed my life–I’ve realized opportunities I could’ve never before imagined, and I’ve made some of my best friends in the world through online social networks. In honor of the occasion, I figured I’d offer a few tips on how I’ve managed to get where I am and how you can be well on your way, too.

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I started thinking about this just this morning when one of my professional friends, who I greatly admire, respect, and trust, was explaining to me how I don’t necessarily need to emphasize my inexperience when talking about my skills. In other words, my bio doesn’t need start out with “Alex Priest is a senior at American University…” and all my “first time” experiences don’t necessarily need to be labeled as such.

I agree, for the most part, but it got me wondering… is “student” a dirty word in today’s world of professionalism and networking?

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This past Thursday I had the privilege of attending Gibraltar Associates first annual “Social Media Resolutions” event, held here in Washington, D.C. Although I could only stay for the first half of the event, what I witnessed was probably one of the best panels I’ve seen. Not only did I learn far more than I realized I would, but I gained some incredible insight into how our government is (surprisingly) acting very progressively to get a hold on social media.

Panelists were:

• Brent Colburn, Director of External Affairs for the U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA)
• Roxie Merritt, Director of New Media at the U.S. Department of Defense
• Richard Boly, Director of eDipomacy at the U.S. Department of State

It’s difficult to sum up over an hour of panel conversation. Throughout the course of the presentation, much of the discussion focused on challenges the government is facing to get into social media and take advantage of it in order to perform better in their respective functions as government agencies. So I’ll focus on that here, as well. Here’s, from what I heard, the three biggest challenges for government right now and how their working to overcome them.

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Yesterday was an amazing day. I’ll give you a little bit better recap of the trip later, but first I wanted to post this story about my experience at Good Morning America this morning.

Our first site visit–to ABC’s Times Square studio and a live broadcast of Good Morning America–ended up being a lot more than I had bargained for. After waking up at 4:30am, arriving at Times Square around 5:45am and meeting my classmates (finally) around 6:30am, I had already spent a considerable amount of time on Twitter. No surprise there.

One of my tweets early on in the morning was to @GMA, Good Morning America’s official Twitter account, just explaining that we would be visiting and were excited for the opportunity. Much to my surprise, around 6:30am, they tweeted back! Not only did they extend a warm welcome to @AmericanU, but to me specifically as well! Evidently, one of the @GMA twitterers is an AU alum!

But wait there’s more. Once being welcomed into the studio by our super-friendly and hilarious “audience coordinator”, we made ourselves at home, watched the first part of the show that was being broadcast from a different studio on the second floor of the building, and waited for the hosts to come down for the second half of the show. While waiting, one of the cameramen was evidently browsing Twitter because he found a picture that I had tweeted of the studio shortly after I arrived, and he was in it! He proceeded to inform our audience coordinator about it and she, naturally, called me out of the audience and up in front.

After that, I became the go-to guy for our coordinator. I introduced our group to the rest of the audience and crew that was in the studio we were waiting in. I was the subject of photos by all the members of the audience–not just the AU folks. And I even “got” to take each and every audience members’ picture by the Good Morning America logo on one of the television screens on the wall–my little service to the program. It was hysterical, and a blast.

In return, I received a Good Morning America umbrella (much appreciated, thanks Good Morning America!) and, of course, a memory that will last me a lifetime. And that’s not even to mention our fantastic alum working at Good Morning America who brought us in, showed us the studios and spoke to us about her work and opportunities with the program. I can’t wait to go back next year.

Networking. Theoretically, that’s why I’m in New York City today, tomorrow and Thursday. But I like to think of it as making new friends… who just so happen to be working in fields and for companies that I think are absolutely fascinating.

Each year (now in its 8th), the American University Career Center, School of Communications, and Kogod School of Business host a three-day networking and site visit trip in New York City. The program, specifically geared towards communications and marketing students, consists of one opening event, one evening networking reception, and six site visits to companies in the city, most with AU alumni.

It’s a fantastic event. And I’ve been lucky enough to attend every single year of my college career so far.

It’s also a fantastic learning experience. My freshman year, I was completely overwhelmed. To be honest, I was absolutely terrified. I was (I believe) the only freshman to attend the trip that year, and I’m glad I did, but boy was I chicken. At the orientation I thought I’d be ok. I was obviously the youngest one attending (and probably the only one not really looking for a job or internship–hell, at that point I didn’t even know what I wanted to major in) but I got along OK with the other attendees and I figured I’d be brave enough when the time came.

Not really. I talked a bit at the opening dinner event, but at the networking reception I pretty much stuck to myself in a corner, halfway-accidentally-wandered into a few drunken conversations, and ducked out early. Huge wasted opportunity, as I quickly found out last year.

Last year, I was quite a bit braver. I put myself out there. I still wasn’t looking for a job or internship, really, but I’d come to realize the value in knowing people and making new, professional friends and contacts in my chosen fields of interest. I passed out business cards, I took down names and e-mail addresses, I followed up–I did all the things you’re supposed to do with these sorts of things. And I loved it. I discovered that deep down I kind of have a passion for networking–perhaps that’s why I’ve taken so eagerly to Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and the like.

This year I’m really ready to step it up. I feel like I’ve truly evolved as a networker in the past two years. Also, I’m really excited about my site visits, as well, which include:

• The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum - at this famous museum we’ll get an hour to wander and explore the exhibits and then witness a presentation and discussion regarding all the internship and job opportunities at the Guggenheim.
• Mediavest - this marketing agency site visit will consist of “a panel of employees from across the agency and in-depth media-related Q&A”. Can’t wait!
• MS&L Worldwide - at this “leading communications firm” (soon to be my new employer for a semester internship–more on that next week) we’ll get a look at the MS&L workplace and information on job and internship opportunities.
• ABC - specifically, we’ll be attending a live broadcast of “Good Morning America” as well as getting a quick tour and information session in ABC’s New York studio. Look for us on TV, we’ll be up bright and early at 6:30 for the visit!
• GroupM - a “leading global media investment management operation”, we’ll see how the firm works and be able to discuss entry-level opportunities with them.
• The New York Times - here at one of the world’s largest media companies, we’ll hear a panel discussion and I’ll be able to indulge my not-so-secret interest in journalism (as evidenced here by my blog and my upcoming bimonthly column to appear in The Eagle, our university newspaper).

Getting here today was a bit of an interesting experience. I left my apartment at 7:00am sharp, expecting to arrive at Union Station around 7:45 (allowing for the usually-inevitable delays with the bus and metro). Much to my surprise, I arrived at around 7:30, way early for my 8:35 train. Especially since the train ended up delayed and we really didn’t depart until closer to 9:00am.

Everything was going smoothly until we hit Baltimore, and tragedy struck. A 14-year-old girl was struck and killed just 11 miles north of Baltimore’s Penn Station by a southbound train headed to D.C. from New York. You can see my updates from the train in this Twitter search.

We ended up sitting at Baltimore for almost three hours before our journey could continue. Naturally, that wasn’t the only delay we’d face for the day. We had an additional 20 minute delay in Trenton, NJ after the train just ahead of us broke down and all passengers were transferred to ours.

But in the end we (my bestie Jacquie and myself) arrived around 3:00pm. I checked into my hotel, Jacquie dropped off her luggage at her friend’s apartment building and we made it to the opening event for the NYC trip just in the nick of time. And it worked out, I used all the spare time to get over 100 pages into my newest book of choice, Bill Byron’s Made in America: An Informal History of the English Language of the United States (my review of that to come in a couple weeks, or whenever I finish).

The opening event tonight was a pleasant surprise. Although no AU alumni or networking contacts attended the event, we had an absolutely incredible opening speaker: Lindsey Pollak, “Gen Y Career and Workplace Expert”, also a spokeswoman and national campus representative for LinkedIn. She gave us five great tips for networking out of her book, Getting from College to Career: 90 Things to Do Before You Join the Real World, and even postponed her own dinner to answer more questions from us while we ate. I even had the chance to chat briefly with her after her talk about social media and we agreed to mutually follow each other on Twitter! Check out her blog and her Twitter account to read more from her–I know I’m following!

Anyway, keep an eye on my Twitter for updates on my site visits tomorrow. Hopefully I’ll have time to give yall a quick update, but I make no guarantees.