This weekend, I am going to prepare to teach an evening community education class to be held on two Tuesday nights on social media basics. I need your insight, help and comments…please!
The class is open to anyone and is $5. If you are local, please join me at 7PM on Tuesday at the school.
It is the first community education of its kind in our rural community and I am hoping we have a few people attend.
I am immersed in social media but what I would like to hear from you is if you were to go to a class like this, what do you want to learn? How about your top three things you would want to learn?
I am quite passionate about social media but what I need is focus.
Focus. Focus. Focus.
You are helping me figure out what that focus is.
Please feel free to leave a comment. There are no wrong answers.
Twitter? Facebook? Blogging? Ning? You Tube?
Why even engage in social media?
How you connect with other people with the same interests as you?
What is it that you would want to learn by attending a social media class…on the prairie…for $5?
I think a class on how to keep your info safe would be good. The types of things not to post and why. I think before people get involved in social media, they think of all the horrible things that could happen, but it’s all pretty common sense once you lay it out for them (don’t share your address, phone number, don’t say when you’re going on vacation…)
Many folks in rural communities don’t think there’s anything special about them. In reality, “city folks” love hearing about country life via SM. It’s a way for them to be nostalgic and connect with a world they’ll probably never know otherwise. Don’t be afraid to share the meaningless stuff, sometimes that’s the most popular. I did a post on watching my baby brother play on the farm and it got tons of hits even though I thought it was boring.
What a great idea – let me know how it goes, maybe I would give it a try in northeast NE. Also ‘ditto’ on above and really hit on ‘what’s mundane to us is exciting to the general consumer’.
Good luck.
I think letting them know the benefits of social media – it’s not always what you can give (put out) it’s what you can gain from people – knowledge, tips, entertainment. That’s huge, in my opinion.
I’d find some good stats (infographics always go over well) about social media usage. I’d play some of the AgChat foundation videos, too.
Where are you guys located? I’d love to check out your class or send some of our customers and contacts your way!
Al Winmill
Titan Outlet Store
Debbie, Let me know if you decide to do something like that in Northeast NE, I’d help you out and I’m sure I could get at least one other helper.
Katie,
Coming from an “older” persons perspective 3 things I would like to find out if I knew very little about social media would be:
-Useful definition of types of social media–purposes of each
-How do I get started–where do I find the best, basic info on what I need to do to get “set-up”
-Also, being the librarian that I am, I would talk about the safety issues involved and the pros & cons of each type of social media you decide to present.
Be sure and let us know how the class goes. Great blog I have enjoyed both yours and your moms. Cia
I think some of the basics go a long way. Help people understand the various outlets we use and how they are used. My Facebook is so different than Twitter, for instance. Then tell them to pick one and get started. Show them how easy it is to share info with folks you know or don’t know and why it’s important. You will rock! If you need support, we would be glad to get some folks to send shout outs.
Maybe ask a simple question, what was your major aha moment with social media? Or what was the benefit you got from social media you never expected?
Thanks for sharing all the insight! I appreciate it. I’m compiling it in my prep and will keep you updated how the class does.
Katie
“scavenger hunt” either pre-rigged or random. Adult learning comes almost entirely from self-engagement, give them reasons or tasks that are interesting to teach them about twitter/facebook. E.g. use the #agnerd hashtag to learn a trick for tweeting, or try to find a hashtag that relates to an interest (that’s how I found #agchat), reply to a neat twitter post in a way that gets the tweep to respond back (ask an engaging question related to their post)