How can you avoid the training dump and run?

During that face-to-face training it all seems so easy. The presenter makes sense, the presentation makes sense, this is something you can do. But then, you go home and the real world converges. It's not as easy, where's that presenter now?

As a trainer and a trainee, I can relate. But it's not feasible for the trainer to visit me on site, is it? or isn't it? Why can't I get in the minute support? In this day of 24/7 internet access I think it is possible. But it does take planning, forethought and support.

Discussion Groups

One way to keep the conversation going, is to create an online discussion group.There are a variety of social media platforms that can be used for this purpose:

Facebook

Using the Groups option, you can create an open or closed discussion group. You can make it hidden, so only folks sent a link can find the group, or make posting only open to invitees but the posts viewable by anyone. Or you can leave the group completely open, anyone can see the group and post to it. 

LinkedIn 

If you are looking for a more professional space, LInkedIn is another useful site to use. Like Facebook, LinkedIn allows users to create discussion groups that can be either open or closed.  

Before You Start

It is important to identify your potential audience, develop a disclaimer and some guidelines. It is important to remind users not to refer to specific people--and to remember that if they are from a small community even a general description might be too specific.

Need a Handy Guide to Social Media Sites?

social media sites

Social media includes web-based and mobile- based technologies, which allow users to create their own content and share the content of others.  Andreas Kaplan and Michael Haenlein define social media as "a group of Internet-based applications that build on the ideological and technological foundations of Web 2.0, and that allow the creation and exchange of user-generated content." Following is a sampling of social media sites, explanations of the site and when it was launched and suggested users or pages to follow, please note that these lists are not exhaustive.  There are dozens of great social media sites out there, this is just to give you a flavor of what is out there—please explore and be social and share!

Facebook

Facebook is a social networking service and website launched February 2004.  http://www.facebook.com

Facebook page insights explained here: http://ads.ak.facebook.com/ads/FacebookAds/Page_Insights_en_US.pdf

Pages to Like: EIFA, Early Intervention Parent Leadership Project, National Dissemination Center for Children with Disabilities (NICHCY), Division for Early Childhood, Center for Early Literacy Learning (CELL), Disability Scoop, Family Voices, Inc, (national and your state’s chapter), Disability.gov, Special Olympics, AMCHP, TACSEI, The Arc of the United States, AAPPD,  Friendship Circle of Michigan, Community Catalyst, PlayAbility Toys, Reach Out and Read, Zero To Three Policy Network, The National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC), Special Education Advisor, Helen Keller National Center for Deaf-Blind Youths and Adults, Helen Keller National Center for Deaf-Blind Youths and Adults,

Google+

Google+ (pronounced and sometimes written as Google Plus, sometimes abbreviated as G+) is a multilingual social networking and identity service owned and operated by Google Inc.  Google+ was launched June 28, 2001.  http://www.plus.google.com/

Groups to Follow: Special Education Advisor, NICHCY,

Linked in

LinkedIn is a professional social networking website.  Founded in December 2002 and launched in May 2003, it is mainly used for professional networking.  http://www.linked.com/   

Groups to Join: Council for Exceptional Children (CEC), Early Intervention Professionals, Association for Childhood Education International, ZERO TO THREE Policy Network, Parents of Special Kids, Parents Helping Parents, President’s Committee for People with Intellectual Disabilities, Early Intervention Therapists,

Pinterest

Pinterest is a pinboard-style social photo sharing website that allows users to create and manage theme-based image collections.  Launched in March 2010 it is currently one of the fastest growing social sites. http://www.pinterest.com/. Pinterest requires an invitation at the time of this writing, you can request an invite from someone you know who is already using Pinterest.

Pinners to follow: Pedia Staff on Pinterest, SPDBN, 5m4SN (5 Minutes for Special Needs), Special Needs Homeschooling, Caseywaid, Apraxia KIDS, Rick Smith (aka Noah’s Dad), NICHCY,

Tumblr

Tumblr is a micro-blogging platform and social networking website, owned and operated by Tumblr, Inc.  The service allows users to post multimedia and other content to a short-form blog, named a “tumblelog”. Users edit their content from the “dashboard” interface, where the option to post content and review posts of followed blogs appear.  Tumblr was launched on April 27, 2007.  http://tumblr.com

Twitter

Twitter is an online social networking service and micro-blogging  service that allows its users to send and read text-based posts of up to 140 characters, known as “tweets”.  Users can group posts together by topic or type by use of hashtags – words or phrases prefixed with a "#" sign. The "@" sign followed by a username is used for mentioning or replying to other users.  To repost a message from another Twitter user, and share it with one's own followers, the retweet function is symbolized by "RT" in the message. Twitter was created in March 2006 and launched that July.  http://twitter.com

Tweeple to follow: EIFAorg, Family Voices of IN, DissemCOP (Dissemination COP), SpecialEdAdvice, aecfkidscount (Kids Count at Annie E. Casey Foundation), NDSC (National DS Congress), DSAInfo (Down Syndrome Association), ASHA, earlyautism, NCWD/Youth, Inclusive_class,  edcocp, EducationNext, DissemCoP, NICHCY, IntervenersDB, OfficeofEdTech, StephenLukeEd

Updating Content on Facebook

Facebook timeline status updates are limited to 420 characters.  In addition to personal timelines, users can create Personal pages or Fanpages for their organizations or buisnesses.

Facebook content can be updated on an hourly, daily or weekly basis.  It is important to remember when you are using Facebook as your page, rather than your personal timeline that you are posting, not as an individual, but rather as an organization.

How to Use a Facebook Page:

1.    You can switch between yourself and the page by clicking on the arrow next to Home at the top of the page, and saying you want to use Facebook as a page. Alternatively, you can use Facebook as yourself, and post to your page as yourself.  When you post this way your profile picture will be next to anything you post to your Facebook page.  when you are posting as the page—remember that you are posting as an organization, and please do not use I, me, my, as you are representing the organization as a whole, and folks will not know who is “speaking”.  If you want to post in the first person, then simply post using the link above to access the page without switching to using Facebook as a page.  (When you are using Facebook as the page and you want to return to your own persona, just follow the same directions and click on use as YOURNAME).

2.    Approximately 48 hours after posting, the analytics for your page will show for admins.  See picture below to see how the analytics show up on the admin view of the page—you need to use Facebook as a page to see the analytics.

Using Facebook without being Friends

As Facebook become more popular beyond its original core audience (college kids) it became apparent that there needed to be other ways to allow people to connect. The creation of the Facebook Page has enabled folks to share information without necessarily being "Friends" on Facebook.

Do I have to have a Facebook Timeline Page?

Yes, however, you do not need to friend your Facebook fans. Which means that you can post as your page, without worrying that your Page's Fans will also see your posts on your own timeline. Thus that silly joke between you and your neighbor about whose team will make it into the Final Four won't appear on your Page. As of this writing, Page Administrators have a choice about letting followers know who is administrating the page. There are of course, pros and cons to this practice. On the pro side, followers won't worry about individual administrators, trusting that the posts on the page represent the viewpoints of the page as a whole. On the con side, we've seen teens set up pages and use the ability to be anonymous to bully. With concerted effort those types of pages can be removed.

Trusted Administrators

Facebook has expanded the ability of users to have more than one person operate a Facebook page. This can be a great way to increase family leadership.  

First Things First

Before handing over the reins to your Facebook Page, it is a good idea to have a written communication plan.  This plan can be quite simple, but should outline the objectives that your organization hopes to achieve by using Facebook. It might be as simple as increasing traffic to your website, or encouraging visitors to take action on a particular activity, or it may be that you are interested in informing others about issues. A good place to start is the SocialFish white paper on social media policies. This white paper really helps users to think about the various levels of awareness and responsibility that different members might have for the organization's social media activities.

Whatever your objective, starting with a plan can guide you as you determine your page's "voice".  It is also important to be explicit with other administrator's about your expectations. Your page probably isn't the place to discuss who you are rooting for in the Super Bowl--unless your page is focused on sports fans--but, using the Super Bowl as a topic you might be able to generate interest in your page.  For instance, if your page is focused on young children with disabilities, asking how families include their child in big family events like a Super Bowl party might be a great way to generate discussion. Or you might want to talk about recent letter  from the US Department of Education regarding the importance of insuring that children with disabilities have access to school sports.

Using a communication plan can help you to schedule your posts and stay consistent with your level of activity.

Now what?

Now that you have your objectives clarified and have a communication plan in place it is time to encourage others to assist with managing the page. It will get messy. This is an opportunity to practice, post and evaluate. Remember, if all of your posts are "safe" or tame, you will not generate much buzz. On the other hand, buzzworthy posts often generate strong opinions.  It will be up to leadership to determine how much controversy is to much. Setting aside time to review posts and discuss how people are deciding what to post and when is a good way to insure that everyone is staying true to the organization's message. Generally, it is a good idea to begin by setting a timetable to review activity, rather than waiting for a misstep to schedule a discussion.

Is there another way to generate activity?

If you aren't ready to turn over the reins, or believe that you might need to spend more time supporting other content creators, there are other ways to increase your reach. One way to increase activity, without sharing administration of your page, is to ask others to share and re-share your content.  You can even create multiple sample posts, that connect with the posts shared on your page and encourage family leaders to share your page to their own timeline.  This can have a two-fold advantage, as it can increase your reach, and it can help model how to  craft an effective post.

Word to the wise

I am a self-professed social media diva. I enjoy the ability to share information, to support others and to connect via social media. However, I also make ample use of my privacy settings. On my personal blog, I don't use my children's real names, and instead use fictional nicknames. I also assist others to increase their social media presence. On a recent webinar I was talking about some of the potential pitfalls of social media use and realized that I didn't have any pictorial examples.  So last night I went searching for some examples quickly found a half-dozen Facebook bloopers. 

As you can see I removed any personal information and blurred the photos to protect the innocent. The top one is just hilarious. The poster provides their name, the name of the main guest, the date, time and location and shares the post with EVERYONE--that little globe means anyone can see what has been posted to Facebook  And then there is the description!  This is a no, no for obvious reasons. There are a number of ways to avoid this problem. The original poster could have created a closed group, or a group private message or they could have created an event that required folks to private message the organizer for the location details. 

This one was found on a state department of health page. For some unknown reason State Department of Health pages are rife with these kinds of posts, or worse.  I've seen people post their phone numbers and Social Security #'s looking for a lost Medicaid card--a quick trip to their profile provides their address and birth date and a criminal has all they need to steal their identity! What surprised me was that this state page, and a few others I have found, respond to the posters using the newsfeed. It would be wise for this page, and others experiencing this type of problem, to periodically post a reminder to readers that they should use email or the private message function to share personal questions or concerns.  Additionally, the administrator should remove any posts that provide personal information.

This one is courtesy of a friend. The post was shared only with this friends friends, but that could still be a lot of people. As you can see my friend let everyone know that they were in transit and would be abroad over a holiday weekend. Again, here's where that private message function would be a better bet. Of course, this was how I found out that my friend would be away for the weekend, but I wondered how many other people learned the same thing?  

Have any Facebook No no's to share?

Can Web 2.0 Support Families?

There are a number of factors to consider when deciding whether or not to use social media to interact with potential website visitors.  In order to make that decision it is important to look at the current social media landscape, your company’s focus and your website.

What is Web 2.0?Web 2.0 means that users are no longer limited by what they can find and download (Web 1.0).  Now users can upload and create their own internet content without needing extensive expertise in programming code.  Users can also refashion what they have found elsewhere and link it to their own work and that of others[i].    It is important to recognize that information posted to the web will be repurposed and repackaged by users.  It is also important to stay connected to a site’s users, to identify user’s informational needs and how they are repackaging information found your site.  One way of doing this is to use other social media sites to both drive users to your site and to interact with them.  

Social Media Can Support Families Enrolled in Early Intervention

Welcome!
If you have heard of social media, but haven't had the time to figure out how to use it to reach families of young children with disabilities, this is the blog for you! If you have a Facebook fanpage but you haven't figured out how to make the most of it, this is the place for you! The internet is exploding with new ways to find, share and inform families of young children with disabilities.  Many families of children with disabilities are comfortable with these platforms, but they continue to report that they are not finding the facts or support that they need from official channels. These new platforms can help you to build your brand, support your existing website and keep families and professionals informed.


We'll discuss how web 2.0 is a game-changer, what it means for families and providers, and more importantly, how to use different social media platforms to reach families and share information. We will discuss why it is important to create a social media plan, how Facebook, YouTube, LinkedIn and other social media platforms work and how to use them effectively. We'll also talk about how to inform and engage families and professionals without violating their privacy rights or spending 24/7 at your computer.