Firstly the AGM and the business of the day for NAVCA, then off to various workshops – I’m off to listen to Jude Habib from Soundelivery talk about Podcasting ….
…. which turned out to be a lot more than just Podcasting in fact!
The session covered the whole range Social Media tools that are available for infrastructure organisations to promote to their members.
Jude’s slideshow is here.
As someone with some knowledge of Social Media I tried to put myself in the shoes of an infrastructure organisation grappling with how to reach out to their members, how to engage communities in their work and generally how to be more effective and efficient.
Various participants shared their thoughts on the subject – which ranged from bewilderment, fright and lack of understanding to an interest if the benefits could be presented to them simply.
We heard podcast recordings both from Jude of young people she had worked with and examples from within the room of organisations using video to be more effective at gathering meeting feedback and using Facebook for supporters to show their support. Interestingly a significant number of people said they used Facebook for personal reasons – but had not seen its potential in a work context.
A clear message from Jude was Content, Content, Content – and it’s easy to see how the written Content (paper and emails) we all currently use can be enhanced to get our messages across in a fully three dimensional way. Listening to the podcast of the children on the beach or the young mother walking around here housing estate it was easy to feel transported into that situation and more connected to the messages they were putting across.
If we also use the audio Content (through a podcast) and video Content (through video and picture sharing websites) we have the potential to say so much more and connect with so many more people. As these media are two way communication channels the power to collaborate and be responsive to what people want is enormous.
I have put together a quick FAQ of Social Media definitions that you can read on-line or can be downloaded for your own use. For more in depth case studies see the booklet put together by the Media Trust which you can also read on-line or download in PDF format (944Kb). Printed copies of the booklet can be obtained by contacting your Regional ICT Champion.
