Posts Tagged ‘Training Execs on Twitter’
Teaching Twitter
Posted on: November 10, 2011
- In: Development | Engagement | Training | Twitter
- 4 Comments
So, my Twitter training has taken a bit of a different form than anticipated, as the planned board meeting was rescheduled. However, the result of this has been that I have spent more time doing impromptu sessions to small groups and one-to-one coaching of my exec colleagues. It’s been an interesting experience and one that I’ve learnt a lot from so far already.
My main learnings are as follows –
- Having a co-sponsor for training sessions is brilliant: someone who is not from the same background as you, who ‘gets’ Twitter but uses it differently. This was enormously helpful when coaching two of the exec team who were particularly cynical about its value
- Think carefully about the language you use to convey the potential gain for those that you are coaching. They clearly won’t be interested in building an HR network, but they will take note of the fact that they can access opinion pieces and be ahead of the news
- Show them how to use it on whichever medium they are most likely to regularly use…for most of my coachees on their blackberry or Iphone
- Think about how to show individuals what is meaningful to them – hashtags that will be of interest for them to check out, how the business you work in or its competitors is already using Twitter, how it can build engagement between key groups
- Tweet questions to your followers so that you can demonstrate the interactive nature of Twitter
- Don’t over-hype or over-sell its value – it’s the quickest way to lose credibility
- Accept that it isn’t everyone’s chosen method of communicating, but that most people will find some gain from using it…or at least from understanding it better
- Expect unexpected questions – I was surprised that some of the questions centred more around how number of followers build up, rather than the mechanics of how Twitter works
- Remember that Twitter can be overwhelming, noisy and confusing at first for new users
- Follow up to find out if there is anything more they would like to know
- Even when individuals appear to be quite proficient at using Twitter, they are often keen to find out more and learn by asking questions
I’m going to be rolling out more training soon: to the rest of the exec team, to the global HR team and then to the rest of the business. The great thing is that I’m learning more each time I do it and am really enjoying it ;).
What have I forgotten? I’d love to hear about your experience of teaching Twitter to others too.
The HR Juggler 