You’ve probably noticed that this blog has become a little quiet as of late.

It’s not because I’ve felt any less engaging, but I’ve been busy putting together the nuts & bolts to a new project that I’m just about ready to unveil.  But, first….a little transparency on where I’m going.

Why?

• I’ve worked in government for nearly 2o years and recognize that there are some innate differences on how information and engagement is initiated, handled, managed and recorded between the public and private sectors.  Most recently, I’ve worked as a local Emergency Manager and had the tremendous blessing to implement and watch the development of social media use in this arena.

• I enjoy social media immensely.  I’m not a guru and I don’t know everything there is to know.  I ask a lot of questions, listen for good practices and am not afraid to learn something new every day.

• Most social media training is offered from the perspective of the individual user rather than the perspective of organizational implementation.  And the change management issues related to organizational adoption of social media use can be significant.

What Am I Going to Do About It?

• Develop & coordinate the delivery of web-based training that is fun, affordable, engaging and keeps pace with the changing social media landscape.
• Classes will be under an hour and will cover a number of different topics in the following 3 arenas.

Awareness:  These classes will answer the “why” you should adopt social media.  Course examples will include Case Studies of Use, Policy & Strategy Development, Jumping the Hurdles and other why-based classes.

The target audience for these courses include people who aren’t quite sure social media is for their agency or for those trying to get started. 

Operations:  These classes will be targeted at the modest user of social media and will be platform-specific.  Examples may include how to use Facebook Pages, Twitter, Tweetdeck, Picture & Video platforms and a variety of other key tools.

The target audience for these courses will be general users who want to learn more about how to apply these tools to a work-related context.

Technician-Level:  These courses will be available for social media users who want more education and experience in applying social media knowledge to particular types of activities.  Monitoring Social Media, Archiving Techniques, Conducting Exercises, Gaming & Public Education Campaigns, and other key classes.

The target audience for these courses are for avid users of social media who are trying to figure out how to apply social media to accomplish business-related missions in their organizations.

What Can You Do About It?

Shortly, a class schedule will be posted on this website and a page will be dedicated to all of the training opportunities. To stay informed about course availability and sign-ups, you can ensure that you receive the latest information in the following ways:

• You can subscribe to this blog by entering your email address into the column to the right of this blog post.
• You can follow class announcements on Twitter by following @Engaging_Others
• You can “like” the Engaging Others page on Facebook

Do You Have a Training Course that You’d Like to Deliver?

• If you have relevant training courses that you think would fall into one of the 3 categories mentioned above, I’d love to chat with you about partnership opportunities, please email me at cherylble@engagingothers.com for more information.

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