Social media is huge, and it isn’t going away. Facebook now has over 500 million users, LinkedIn has over 100 million and social media penetration is over 50% across all age groups. Social media is here to stay.
With this realization, many organizations are looking for social media training to get their organization up to speed. Social media can impact every aspect of your organization, so it is important to consider getting your organization “digitally fit”.
If you are looking to get your company trained in social media, here are some tips to consider.
Assess your needs – What are you trying to achieve? Who needs to be involved? What are your goals and objectives? What are all of the different aspects of social media that should be included in the training?
Determine your starting point – Where are you now? What are the current levels of digital fluency in your organization? Where are the gaps? Consider conducting a company wide survey (your training provider should be able to help you with this) to assess your current level of social media knowledge.
How much time/money can you spend – Think about your budget upfront. Both your time budget and your $$ budget. How important is social media to your organization? What can understanding it be worth? What is the risk of ignoring it? Create a budget for how much time and money you can invest in your training program.
Do some homework – Prior to the training, do some pre-work (preferably with your training provider or a strategy company). Develop social media policies that should govern social media use in your organization. Consider creating your overall corporate strategy for social media prior to the training to provide context and direction to your organization.
Don’t forget social media policy – If you have more than a handful of employees, consider including a social media policy as a part of the training. Make sure that everyone is on the same page as to the legal and reputation risks to your organization. Remind your employees about how social media fits within the existing code of conduct.
Don’t end it with one training session – Build going training. I say this whenever I write about social media training plans because I believe that it is really important. Keep your organization inspired, motivated and up-to-date on the latest. A single training session usually isn’t enough to keep people inspired and excited….plus, social media changes quickly. Stay current.
