Regardless if you are just beginning your social media journey or have been blazing trails of your own, by now, you should have had the opportunity to participate in a webinar, or workshop, focusing on social media. There are companies that present the basics to you, while others provide a more in depth explanation of specific ways social media can change the way you market to your customers. For newbie’s, the information presented may be helpful, but how do you ensure you don’t waste your time?
As a social media strategist, I have attended my fair share of webinars and workshops, and have found only a few of them helpful and interesting.
Half of them are about the social media basics, defining social media, or using the big five (blogging, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube) for your business. The other half may have a speaker that has been successful in using social media and want to share their success stories with everyone.
Here’s a few tips on choosing a webinar or workshop that will benefit you or your company:
Research the organizing company
You don’t buy a TV without shopping around. If you’re going to invest your time into attending a ‘How to Use Social Media’ workshop, look to see how the presenting company uses social media. It’s easy to find out how long a company has been using Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, and creating blog content. As Google continues to integrate social media into their search results, a company’s social media presence will be more noticeable.
Search for hashtags
Most organizer’s promote their event with a hashtag (#). The hashtag makes it easy for not only the organizing company to see what people may be saying about their event, but also makes it easy for people to see what others may have thought about the webinar/workshop.
Crowdsource
If you don’t ask questions, you’ll always be in the dark. Maybe some of your followers on Twitter or connections on Facebook attended a previous webinar/workshop given by the same company. Ask them what they though or if the information was useful. Usually, you’ll get an unbiased answer. If you really know your followers, you’ll value their information.
Review previous transcripts or presentations
Most webinars are archived for viewing at a later time. Quickly skim through the podcast or slideshow. Skimming through podcast make take a little more time than looking at slides but spending ten minutes of your time to avoid wasting 90 minutes is understandable.
Follow your instinct
If you’ve researched the company’s social media efforts, crowdsourced information, searched for hashtags, listened to the podcast or reviewed slides and you’re still unsure, rely on your gut feeling. Your time is valuable. Besides, you know your social media skill level better than anyone else.
In 1875, when Alexander Graham Bell introduced the telephone, people probably weren’t convinced that this new invention would even work. Now, telephones may have evolved into pocket-size devices that do more things than Inspector Gadget could shake his hat at, but the initial concept is the same, two-way communication.
Most people fill their tweets with links and their whereabouts throughout the day for tweeple across the world to see. Some tweets go unnoticed while others have headlines interesting enough to click the link that follows. There is one type of tweet that seems to always gets attention. No matter how long ago the tweet was sent and regardless if there is a message that follows, tweets containing a photo are irresistible.
In 1990, if you told CompuServe executives their 600 thousand subscribers would amount to less than 2% of daily messages sent on a social media network, they would have laughed in your face. CompuServe dominated online service in the 1980’s and continued to be a major player in the 1990’s. As technology continued to improve and companies merged and subsequently closed, CompuServe’s popularity eventually faded away.
Twitter processes 
