Like Minds U, a pioneering Social Media development programme based in Exeter (and iNet project), has been running since January 2012 and formal workshopping has now completed for its participants. Here project-lead Scott Gould of Like Minds gives us a run down of each session:
Sessions 1 and 2
The first two sessions were back to back, introducing the companies to the programme structure. We had two speakers doing both days who we have worked with extensively, Tiffany St James and Gemma Went. Both are highly regarded consultants in social media strategy, with Tiffany in particular being a consultant to the UK Government particularly on issues of digital engagement and digital security.
They laid out the programme structure and the foundational elements of building a social media product or service, and then went into the first session on Strategy. The second day covered Integration – how to get an organisation to implement social media – and also tactics.
Tiffany and Gemma were very sensitive to give plenty of time to individuals and also groups of individuals, where they broke people into teams to work through scenarios together. However they did over deliver in their session, going to measurement, ROI, engagement and other things that meant that future sessions had already been discussed. This ultimately didn’t harm the programme but it did make us think right from the beginning that perhaps we were going to over deliver on the project and a condescended approach would’ve been better.
At the end of the second day we received the goals and aims of those attending the course.
Session 3
We welcomed two speakers also very well known by us, Joanne Jacobs and Maz Nadjm. This day focussed first on Management, in which Maz has exceptional experience from being the social media manager at Sky. This session was very helpful in helping our companies learn how to manage the social media services and products that they will be providing.
The second half was Joanne Jacobs who focussed on engagement strategies, that is, how to find customers for clients and provide value to them. This is often not talked about on training events, and so learning how to build a following from nothing was vital information to place in the hands of the companies doing Like Minds U. Again our companies present were given a lot of time to ask questions, workshop the content, and work with each other.
Session 4
This session focussed continued engagement strategies from the prior session. Neville Hobson was one of the first people to run a podcast and his experience in building a community was vital. Our second speaker was Dan Bowyer, who works with brands like Vodafone on their measurement. So providing critical ROI calculations for the companies was much appreciated by those attending.
At this point we did wonder again whether we have over delivered in the first two sessions however the way that content was being explored far more deeply in these latter sessions seemed to give the companies on the course a taster and then the main course, so to speak.
Session 5
This was our penultimate session and our last day that was exclusively on social media (our last being on the process of communicating value.) As such, we had planned to make the day about productisation: turning knowledge into a package and being able to sell it.
We had Tiffany St James back again who has immense expertise on this subject and delivered very well. We were concerned before this session that the companies were only extending their existing products as opposed to innovating new ones. Tiffany’s session ensured that we gave them the practical knowledge to create new products and services from their learning. With Tiffany’s style, this included a lot of workshopping, time to discuss, etc.
What we were thrilled to discover by the end of this session was how much every company on the course had already developed their new products or services and this would now help them package it for sale.
Benjamin Ellis was the other tutor who spoke on trust and digital influence which is critical for those amongst the Like Minds U course who are agencies and need to carry out campaigns for their clients as part of their new service that ensures the generation of sales. Benjamin is regarding as an expert in this area, and discussed things right down to language so we were very pleased with this session.
Session 6
The final session was with Malcolm Sleath, a consultant and expert in value-conversations. Before the day, he provided the group with access to an online seminar where they were introduced to his method of selling called “12boxes”.
On the day, he then led the group through the 12boxes approach to value conversations which is essentially a way to determine what the client desires before you pitch to them, and then to use that knowledge and the correct sequence of questions to make your offering what the client needs, as well as communicating in a way that the client desires it.
This was the perfect end to Like Minds U: leaving every company with a clear way to now sell the products they were making.
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The iNet team are delighted to report that many businesses who participated in Like Minds U have already achieved some great outcomes in terms of looking to recruit specialist staff and in the creation of products and services. We will be catching up with partcipants at a later stage to see how they are implementing the learnings from the programme.
