Training Local Businesses On Social Media

You may remember that I embarked on this programme at the start of the year, so I thought it was time to give you an update on how it's all going.

In short - very well!

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The original course we designed was titled "An introduction to social media marketing for businesses" and we tentatively booked a hotel room and put the course "out there" on our Camel Media Group website and via Twitter and Facebook. Our charge was ?25 a head for a morning session, which consisted of a couple of hours of me talking, followed by an informal hour of all of us chatting while I demonstrated some live Twitter and Facebook action over coffee.

That course sold out in no time and we had several people who couldn't make it, but who wanted to attend. We quickly realised that there is both a need and a desire to learn more on the subject, so we decided to go ahead and run the course every two months for the rest of the year.

That original course sold out on the second running, and there are already places booked for the remaining four courses this year.

As well as the course income, there has also been quite a lot of spin off business as well - consultancy, web design and even an on going project that involves half a day per week working in-house with a company.

A Second Course

We also realised that most people who attended the training were interested in learning more, particularly about SEO, and to get some more advanced tactics for using social media successfully. For that reason, we came up with an Intermediate course, and again we scheduled one every two months for the remainder of the year. We're delivering the first one tomorrow, and once again, we are sold out.

The hidden benefit of all this has been the networking that has occurred between all the attendees, and of course with us. Suddenly there are dozens of people on Facebook and Twitter who are using the services effectively to promote this island, and that's to all our benefit.

In summary it's been an unqualified success, and best of all it's got me doing stand up training every month again for the first time in ten years, and that's something I've always hugely enjoyed.

We now have the two course package that we can take anywhere in the world. If you feel companies where you are would benefit from this kind of training, talk to me, maybe we can work out a way to deliver it locally to you and get you a share of the income.

Are thinking of doing something similar? If so, tell me in comments and I'm happy to help or advise.