There is good money to be made with social media workshops, especially as demand is high and there are constantly new trends and updates. The problem is that there is often a lack of sustainability. New routines and working methods are usually required rather than new tools.
The good news is that routines can be changed. The bad news is that it’s hard work. In my opinion, it doesn’t matter whether it’s resolutions such as exercising more, quitting smoking, saving more money, eating healthier or doing better social media marketing. Because in all cases, you have to work on your routines. In theory, this always sounds easy. Go to the gym three times a week; chew gum instead of smoking a cigarette; only buy what you really need; eat more wholemeal bread and vegetables; spend an hour on your social media accounts every morning – what’s the problem? The problem is all of us.
Social media workshops: Conduct a preliminary talk!
Of course, the expectations of a social media workshop need to be clarified in advance. If the client mainly wants input on current trends, new functions and good tools, you should not start with workflows and routines. The question is, however, what the point of trends and tools is if they cannot be implemented by the respective social media manager or team. For this reason, it makes sense to clarify in the preliminary discussion why social media consulting is required in the first place and where the problems lie. After all, you would expect a social media manager to already know all the important trends and tools. In principle, all you need to do is regularly watch Felicia Simon’s YouTube videos.
A social media seminar also serves the purpose of self-reflection
In-house training courses for a company are comparatively easy to plan because, as described, you can talk about the event and the problems in advance. The situation is different for external social media workshops (e.g. for artists, the self-employed or a group of PR employees). One problem with such training seminars is often the different levels of knowledge. One person knows virtually everything, while another doesn’t even have Instagram installed on their smartphone. The greater the heterogeneity, the more the participants should work on their projects alone or in small groups. In my opinion, this can also make for a good social media workshop. Because in everyday life, it is often difficult to rethink your own working methods, revise your strategy, test new techniques, exchange ideas with other experts or think about new social media routines. So it doesn’t always have to be input, input, input; “task-oriented teaching” (as it would be called at school) can even be much more sustainable.
No time for good social media marketing?
Sure, in a perfect world, every company and every organization would have at least one social media manager who takes care of nothing but social media. But that is wishful thinking. Especially in smaller companies or self-employed people, social media has to run on the side somehow. And this logically means that social media often gets lost. Strictly speaking, there is no such thing as “no time”. The correct answer would be “low priority”, “inefficient workflows” or “lack of motivation”. If social media is in 27th place on the priority list, as a consultant you should first find out why it needs to be done at all. If necessary, you can then save yourself the rest of the workshop 😉 In the case of inefficient workflows, it makes sense for the participants to first rethink their own work processes and check which activities can be optimized so that more time is available for social media in the future. In the case of a lack of motivation, we are back to routines. According to the latest scientific findings, every Jeck is different, but a routine always requires a realistic plan (e.g. doing 30 minutes of social media every day), setting a trigger (e.g. always after the lunch break) and a reward (e.g. a chocolate bar).
Selective support with editorial plan, format development and optimization
Sometimes a social media workshop can also be useful to create an editorial plan, develop story, post and video formats, initiate secondary uses (e.g. for the newsletter) or to see what optimization options are available (e.g. with regard to image quality or community management). In my view, such one-off consultations always make sense when social media is handled by a single person who has no colleagues with whom they can share their expertise. It would certainly be more sustainable to build up a network of experts (it’s not that difficult via Linkedin), but a social media workshop doesn’t hurt either. At least not if I hold it 😉
