Getting Social Media Education Right

It’s harder than I thought it would be. Isn’t everything? We’re offering classes in social media and attendance online has been low. It’s mostly due to how we’re marketing. That, and the fact that we’re charging for a class that many may think they can learn elsewhere for free. Not so. I’ve taken a lot of the online free stuff. Simply put, you usually get what you pay for…not that I haven’t pulled an idea or two from a free webinar. Our classroom experience in teaching Social Media Fast Start for business was different.

We had a full and engaged classroom. Attendance was all over the map with representatives from small business, government, non-profit, corporate and “my mom sent me.” I was excited and having fun, and I think the class was too. So, i didn’t get to about 1/3 of my slides. I found myself torn between getting everyone’s questions answered and covering the material as promised.

This seems to be an ongoing challenge – I’ve now spoken to a variety of groups and the conversation goes in so many directions. There are many questions about how to do social media and market online. So, once again, based on customer and student feedback, we’re making some changes.

Our launch begins with a new 11Am – 415PM classroom workshop that includes the initial professional photography and a video clip needed to get online appropriately.  We’ll have enough time to cover basic tools, online properties and the know-how to get started marketing online.   We’re also offering free webinars in addition to more specialized online classes like Facebook Privacy and Security and Twitter Ethics and behavior.

We welcome feedback on what you think your biggest challenge is so that we can address it in class.