Jean-Marc Le Tissier

You might be interested in a workshop I’m co-hosting on the morning of Tuesday 17th November: Social Business: Making sense of Social Media. In this video, my co-host Nick O’Doherty from Bright Beehive talks about some of the risks and opportunities Social Media.

You’re probably familiar with LinkedIn, Twitter etc so probably have a view on so-called ‘Social Media’. There’s an overwhelming amount of stuff around. As an ‘average Joe’ just trying to run a business I find it quite hard to make sense of, and it doesn’t help that a lot of the noise comes from a technical background or from marketing consultants - rebranded as self-styled Social Media Experts.

And that’s a shame, because I feel that Social Media is more than just a bunch of cool technology and another channel to broadcast what I want to say.

At minimum, the various tools (and LinkedIn, for example, is only one, limited, part of the toolkit) are an aid to efficiency, better information flow and so on in day-to-day work - especially if you work across organisations, departments or geographic locations.

Unfortunately, there have been some PR disaster stories, such as air stewards using Facebook to criticise passengers, or Dell customers complaining about that company, although its been good to see the businesses affected spurred into taking Social Media seriously, responding honestly to criticism by engaging in conversations, and emerging with more respect from former critics.

More positively, for me work is and always has been social and my hope is that Social Media can give a massive boost to having more and better conversations - with clients, peers, and other folk who have interesting and useful ideas and experiences.

Luckily Nick, one of my former clients who has wide and deep business experience of how technology can help - and hinder - work has set up a business to “support organisations who want to engage more closely, transparently and authentically with clients, staff and business partners in pursuit of business benefits. ..  by helping them to create rewarding conversations through effective use of social business tools”.

Well, I couldn’t miss this one! So, we’re co-hosting a workshop on ‘Social Business: Making sense of Social Media’.

Aimed at business people who are starting to engage in this area, or have already started and need some help, the workshop will include a mix of factual presentation, discussion, pragmatic advice, case studies and theory bound together with a focus on ensuring that all participants walk away with tangible value from the morning.

The workshop will cover, amongst other things, the business benefits, opportunities, risks and some case studies of Social Media. It will help you address questions such as: Should you get involved with this stuff? and, if so how? and, Where do I begin?

To find out more and book please visit http://social-business.eventbrite.com/