How do you Stay Ahead of the Game? Social Media Workshops Versus a Social Media Coach

Workshop vs Social media coach

How do you Stay Ahead of the Game? Social Media Workshops Versus a Social Media Coach

Workshop vs Social media coach

Wind back a few years to 2009, Green Umbrella was the name given to a new brand that was about to launch a social media workshop, or rather a series of them! At that time, interactive workshops or courses on how to use social media for business were few and far between.

Over the following two or three years, however, that changed. There were now social media trainers popping up all over the place offering very similar courses designed to take local business owners through setting up their Facebook pages and a few basics of how to run them once they were in the public domain.

Social media workshops are great if you are starting from scratch, and if you want to network locally too, I would definitely suggest these as a starting point. However, they really are just that – a starting point.

We found that after training a room full of people in a workshop environment, you had those who walked out of the room ready to rumble. They were enthused and had a number of ideas they could take forward into their business. There were then those who left with more questions than answers and those who were perhaps a little dazzled by the information they had consumed. The thing with workshops, most people walk into the room thinking they know how Facebook works already – and for some that is true. For others though, using Facebook for business requires going back to basics and starting again!

The thing with social media workshops is that they are designed to take a group through a set amount of content that needs to be delivered within a set amount of time. Although when the course is designed, it will be written knowing that there will be different levels of knowledge in the room. A workshop will only take your knowledge to a specified level.

That’s why I love that we offer social media coaching services too. As an alternative to a social media workshop, we can work with those individuals at either end of the spectrum at their own speed.

Let me explain

Business Owner A describes themselves as being a technophobe. There is a confidence barrier to get over and in a workshop situation, simply connecting to the Wifi might make them nervous or fill them with dread.

Business Owner B describes themselves as a novice. In truth, they’ve been on a lot of these courses in the past and have a reasonable base knowledge and are attending because they want to see what’s changed since the last time they did a similar course.

In order to cover exactly the same content with Business Owner A, we might be working through that content in three or four sessions. For Business Owner B, we’d cover the same ground in one session. For both business owners, however, the outcome would be the same. They will have both received the same content and be equally equipped and confident in implementing what they have learnt in their business. The difference is, we’ve covered it at their speed and in doing so made it relevant to their business.

The reality is that in the business world of today, whatever the size of your business, you need to be engaging in a digital marketing strategy that includes some sort of social media presence. Your budget may not extend to outsourcing your social media, so that means taking on the job yourself. Hit Google and search for social media workshops near me; get yourself on some workshops but then also consider booking a one-to-one session with a social media coach where you can get your questions answered and take what you’ve learnt, and implement it in your business with complete success.

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But it doesn’t stop there

You simply can’t kid yourself that doing a bit of training and attending a workshop or two is going to set you up forever more. The social media world changes all the time. Tweaks to algorithms here and there could mean the strategies you learnt and were sold to you as being top-notch and best practice may now be on the list of Do Nots!

To really stay ahead of the game, you need to have a way of constantly learning and keeping up to date. We feed information on what’s new through to our coaching club members on a weekly basis, but if that isn’t for you then create a list of resources and make sure you are following those people via your social media channels or have signed up for their news updates. Make the time to read their content. Make the time to stay ahead of the game, and if things pop up and you need help, the support is there for you. Find a workshop, book a one-to-one session with a social media coach, or even just jump on here and use our live chat to ask us! We’d love to help you stay ahead of the game with your social media presence!

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