Who knew getting people to understand social media would be a monumental task? People are tuned into social media when it comes to personal things, like staying in touch with family and friends, and it just makes sense to share articles, news, photos, etc. When it comes to social media for work, it’s a whole other ball-game. Social media might seem like something that we do in our spare time, but the fact is it’s just the way society communicates now – and the key thing here is that it’s a two-way communication channel, just like when the phone was introduced. In the end, there may not be “social” media since we’re all communicators and marketers now or even the death of the social media manager (yikes, time to look for a new job!). It’s like how we don’t rely on telephone switchboards to connect people and direct calls since we all can do it now on our own phones. Social media will just be a tool that we use to connect, communicate, and engage with each other.
I’ve spent the last two years sensitizing people at work to take the media seriously and one way was to conduct internal trainings. I held the trainings twice in February (see videos below) to make sure that staff were able to attend. A total of ten people came to the trainings, which isn’t too bad considering that’s about a third of our team in Geneva.