Social media training

Back in November when we began the social media training the list of 1079 staff that needed to be scheduled in seemed more than slightly intimidating. Two months on and 36 people in the task appears no easier. With so many staff with busy schedules, and in some cases a reluctance to attend, filling up the sessions is proving difficult. And whilst running 108 sessions is a mammoth undertaking we're currently averaging a 50% capacity effectively doubling our time investment.

The sessions themselves are proving interesting. Its great to meet people from around the organisation and share my excitement at the way we're moving forward. With all the best intentions of providing a consistent base line of knowledge each session changes depending on who is there. With three tech savvy users we would run through the basics quickly to confirm understanding and then discuss the protocols and guidelines for use. For those less acquainted with the basics discussion around potential misuse is slightly more complicated.

If someone doesn't understand how Twitter works its nearly impossible to explain how quickly things can get out of hand generating the stories they've heard in the press. Having people understand the basics is essential. On the plus side the press coverage has piqued people's interest in the platforms and raises good points for discussion.

Discussions are generally based around the way we want people to be using social media at work and when and how 'big brother' will be watching. From the beginning it proved impossible to set out guidelines and setting out rules for what is and isn't acceptable has been put aside in favour of these face to face conversations. After hearing people's suggestions about the potential for mishaps this approach would appear to be the right one. I don't think I could have come up with all the suggested 'faux pas' other staff have. Although I would hasten to say these have been hypothetical and (touch wood) we've had no problems so far.

I'm sure when people grow in confidence there will be more mishaps and as more staff join and become active the monitoring will become a much larger task but for now its just great to be getting people started.