A review of our recent IAB Ireland Social Media Workshop held in Dublin.
At IAB Ireland we have been busy re-launching our web site, improving our digital communications and refreshing our Social Media activities. To support these efforts, last week I spent a day on a training workshop on Social Media planning and implementation run by IAB Trainer Steve Thompson, a UK based Digital Media Consultant and Trainer. Arriving early in the morning, my first reaction to the day ahead was the fantastic venue – a wonderful skyline view room at the Irish Times building on Tara Street.
The room was bright and airy and provided the right environment to faciltate the groups interacton with each other as well as participation in the workshop tasks Following Steve’s introductions, we broke into teams and began brainstorming on the what key considerations consumer make during the purchasing process. This set the tone for the rest of the day, with the atmosphere in the room encouraging questions, discussion and many a debate! The workshop numbers were limited to 20 participants, which again kept things informal , interactive and produced practical learnings and insights that the participants could bring back to their businesses and implement.
Steve’s thinking was refreshing and stimulated comment from the participants, with observations like:
“why are we always looking for like’s and follow’s from our customers? Surely we should follow and like our customers, listening to them on Social Media!”
He delivered his Social Media planning and strategy approach with many humorous analogies (including the cartoon below), mixed with various case study examples. These examples included reference to his teenage daughter’s online behaviour, which were amusing whilst thought-provoking. One quote he used, that rang true with me in particular was “Advertising starts things off – Social Media keeps the fire burning”. My favourite case-study example used was definitely the graph which tracked David Beckham’s underpants coverage on Social Media – a highly engaging topic!
The overall structure of the day worked with Steve covering his Social Media Planning content using a 8 Point Plan format, which you could take and apply to the various types of Social Media. I think many people feel overwhelmed with the amount of new platforms, the jargon and the perceived skills needed to even make a start. So having a plan to step through is very valuable!
The day’s agenda was then mixed with guest speakers from the Social Media platforms , Facebook, You Tube and Twitter. Getting local based speakers from these Social Media brands was an advantage, their content was pertinent to the Irish market and they used case-studies, statistics and quotes to illustrate their presentations. The general feedback at the end of the session was very positive. One satisfied workshop participant, summed it up well; “I have a Social Media strategy and can now customise it to each relevant platform”.
The Facebook workshop presentation, included the quote “Mobile is not a technology, it is a consumer behaviour” – which I took away with me to contemplate, as I hurriedly checked my phone for the umpteenth time in a hour! Our next IAB Ireland event is focusing on Mobile – with Mobile Connect 2014 on the 30th of October at the Guinness Storehouse – read more here.
You can use #iabtraining or visit @iabireland on Twitter to read more about the workshop.
Author: Rowena Hennigan is the Communications Executive at IAB Ireland, email: rowena@iabireland.ie