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Corporate Social Media Training, Social Media Training

Why You Can’t Ignore the Need for Social Media Training

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Krista Neher

Jul 02 2013

You Need a Social Media Training PlanI’ve been thinking a lot about why social media training is so valuable for individuals and organizations. I think back to my days in the corporate world at Procter & Gamble, and I remember participating in lots of soft skill training – like leadership, 7 Habits, etc, but not a lot of technical training.

Many organizations are struggling to keep their employees up-to-date on social media and digital technologies. They struggle to stay up to date and often feel overwhelmed. Why is social media and digital training so difficult?

The answer is that many organizations are not used to a continuous learning mindset – especially as it pertains to more hard skills. We train someone on accounting or excel and we are done. We don’t have to continue to train. We learn something, apply it and move on.

Social media and digital channels are changing this.

People Change Quicker Than They Used To

The reality is that people used to be slower to change and adopt new technologies. Television and radio took a really long time to catch on. Because consumers and people in general were slow to change, businesses could be slow to change.

Today people change and adopt new tools and technologies quickly. Google+ added 30 million users in the first month. Pinterest seemed to emerge from nowhere and is now the third largest social network. Tablets and smartphones have been adopted at amazingly quick rates.

We Need to Change and Adapt Quicker

If we want to be relevant to our customers and business partners, we must also change and adapt more quickly than ever before. This means that your organization must constantly be changing, adapting and improving.

You Need a Continuous Learning Plan

You need a continuous learning plan for yourself and your organization.  It isn’t enough to attend a single training program. Social media is complex, and still evolving. You must continue to learn and stay up to date.  To do this you need a continuous learning program.

The good news is that it doesn’t have to mean sitting in a classroom. While classroom training is often the most effective, it isn’t the only way to learn. Today there are many ways to learn. Consider creating a training program for yourself or your organization that involves:

  • Connecting with industry leaders to learn from what they are sharing and talking about
  • Webinars on specific topics (either custom for your organization or online)
  • Attending live events in your location
  • Attending traditional training programs
  • Joining Linkedin groups where people post useful information on the topic

We run a social media masters program to help our customers stay on-top of the latest in social media. This allows them to learn more about the topics that they are most interested in while at the same time staying up to date with the newest topics.

How do you stay up to date on social media marketing?

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