Gotcha!!

I spent last Thursday & Friday at the ANHLC conference. Day one, presented a basic introduction to Twitter and Day two presented information on the Vic Govt Volunteer Portal.

The twitter presentation turned out to be a time to inspire others to take their first steps into using social media. It's not much different to what we are doing in this project.........getting people to take their first steps.

Unlike those who are involved with this project, many have already made the decison. My audience weren't all convinced that social media was for them.

My first question was, "What brought you to this workshop?".

A couple said they wanted to know the basics so the basics was what they got. Such as...what is twitter, what's a hashtag, what's a retweet and and what's a tweet and who's a twit and who on earth were tweeps? They also benefited from the conversations that followed.

One person was told to attend the session by her organisation and by the end of it, she was excited and couldn't wait to give it a go.

There is always one who is difficult and needed to be convinced in a variety of ways. She hadn't decided to attend any particular session on the day and simply followed the crowd.

We talked about twitter being an instant way of getting news. The statement I made to her was..."Who said we can't be part of that news?". I suggested she use key words that people  may search for and she became silent and thoughtful. I think I had her - lol.

We also talked about the need to have our ducks in a row, so to speak, before engaging in social media. Was their website effective and up to date for people to find out more about their organisation? Which, ultimately, that's where we want them to go. Did their twitter description lead them to the website and explain enough about their particular organisation? I personally think that social media needs to be part of a holistic approach to marketing. Everything needs to compliment and support the other to be effective.

I gave them plenty of simple handouts and utilised Coonara's website, twitter and facebook accounts.
We tweeted, used hashtags and watched tweets show up on the screen as we chatted.

Another big concern was time. How long did all this take? I encouraged them to link their facebook & twitter accounts so it was a single job, rather than two and that neither of them took any longer than sending out an email to their network. When you relate it back to something they are already managing, it made sense. I think this is also a factor in this current project ....time.

Of the 8 attendees, 8 planned to give it a go in some way. Some asked for help along the way and I mentioned this project as a way to link into their local e-mentors for some initial support. Hope that was ok.