General, Social Media Marketing, Social Media Strategy, Social Media Training
Social Media Marketing Training: How to Get the Most Out of It
Jul 25 2011
Companies are starting to understand that in order to stay competitive online they need to have more than just a website. So, how does one build a successful social media strategy that gets real results? Also, how do you keep your employees up to date and knowledgeable enough about social media to ensure that they represent your company properly?
Investing money into social media marketing training for your company is like investing money into your college degree. You want to look around, think about it from different perspectives, ask for recommendations and of course, understand the cost and value that you are getting from it. Once you have found the right place to get educated it’s time to think about how to make this training successful for your company and effective for your business overall.
Are your employees familiar with social media? Do they feel comfortable using Twitter and Facebook?
Spend some time talking to your team and understanding their level of knowledge regarding social media. This can be achieved by a natural conversation during one of your company meetings or by asking your employees to participate in a survey about social media.
What are you trying to gain from this training? Answers like “we want to learn more about social media” are not enough. Give consideration to the money you will be investing in the training and in social media and be specific regarding your goals. Does it sound like a real business goal? If not, try to define it better.
The key to success in this situation (like in many other business situations) is to have a crystal clear understanding of your goals and objectives.
Who in your company is the most Internet savvy and communicative? Who can explain your company’s products and services the best?
It’s very possible that many of your departments need to be involved into social media marketing training. Think about creating a diverse cross functional social media team including IT, marketing, customer service, sales and executives of your company.
We have all been there…sitting in a corporate training session thinking “that makes sense, this sounds like a good idea, why didn’t I think of that?” And then inevitably, we leave the training, go back to our busy schedules and forget all of the wonderful things we learned until we sign up for a similar training a year down the road.
When you select your training session, commit yourself to implementing ideas learned in the training right away. Make it clear to your trainer that you want actionable ideas and solutions that you can implement immediately.
Even if you implement only 2 things out 10, that’s huge! Social media has a way of growing on you once you get started. Be sure to get the seeds of implementation planted soon while the ideas are fresh. You will be surprised how they start to grow.
At the core of social media are evolution and fresh ideas. One training session is not enough to keep your company educated and up to date on the latest regarding social media. As you begin to implement your social media strategy, it’s important to have follow-up training where you can ask additional questions and discuss what is working for your business as well as what is not.
New devices come on the scene, new apps are created and new tools appear that can help your social media strategy flourish on a regular basis. Follow on training is a great way to allow experts in the field of social media to do the dirty work of staying on top of the changes for you.
Whether you are heavy into social media marketing now or just beginning, there are training sessions with experts that can help you grow your business; the key is to make sure that you put yourself in a training situation that ensures you will get the most out of it for your business.
Mariya Newman
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