Effective use of Social Media Outreach: Blogging and Training Session

The Special training on "Effective use Of Social Media Outreach; Blogging and Training Session  was organised at sustainable Development Policy Institute (SDPI) Islamabad on 26th July, 2016 for their interns from Summer Internship Program (SIP) . The session started with the opening remarks Mr. Asif Mehmoood, Associate Trainer at Centre For Capacity Building (CCB) in SDPI who described the purpose of the training and introduced the trainer, Mr. Yasir Dil  who works in Digital Campaign and Communication, SDPI. This aim of thisone hour training was  to urge the trainees to use social media in effective manner.

Objectives of the training:

1.  To familiarise the trainees with the key concept of content writing and sharing on Social Media.

2. To help the trainees to adapt better to the technological advancements in Social Media and its tools.

After formal introductions; the trainer mentioned the five pillars of Social Media i.e. 

1. People (which are most abundant on Facebook), 

2. Perception (which is usually followed by using hashtags on twitter) 

3. Passion (which can be shared by using Google +) 

4. Private agent (one can act as his/her own agent to sell themselves like linkedin)

 5.Photos (pinterest)

According to the trainer, people usually use social media to increase their followers and to learn about the on-going trends and to learn about others. The first thing which requires attention is the avatar of the user as it the first thing which people see when they visit a profile. Content is also very important as readership is developed only when interest are met.

Is Social Media Replacing the Traditional News Sources: 

Social Media has contributed a lot to the change of lifestyles a lot and has replaced the traditional sources of news. Now a day’s more than 50% people depend upon social media for the breaking news which is, by far, a larger figure than the use of any other channel of information.

Why Blogs are Necessary?

Blogs now a day are necessary as they are the cheapest source to dissipate knowledge to mass media; to get critical viewpoint of different people on a specific topic and to express oneself in a useful manner. Also they help the reader to keep the tract of the original story. Whether the writers choose personal blogs, corporate blogs or informational blogs; thing which must be kept in mind is that content should always be authentic, solid and trustworthy. Users can share their activates of interest with maximum visibility by using appealing names/ taglines, unique selling point, SEO tools, graphics, videos, hyperlinks which increase the credibility of the content. Also they act as tools to develop reader’s interest.

There are certain challenges which are encountered by the bloggers the top most of which is being consistent with the writing and sharing of knowledge. Also reader may like to show his opinion as well (which may or may not coincide with the writer) therefore, there is always need to either stay positive or silent.

In order to develop readership, the writer needs to be consistent and accurate. Whatever topic is selected by the writer; the quality of the content should be high enough to go viral. The content should be concise and should be in simple and correct language. It should be though provoking and appealing. The most important part element for a blog is the personal touch of the writer. There is always a need to familiarize the reader with the content. For this purpose writing 2-3 lines regarding the topic before sharing it on Facebook/Google+ or 100 characters on twitter r any other platform are enough.

Relevant Materials:

The trainees were provided with the information regarding the tools like Google alerts and Canva.

Activity:

 A simple activity was conducted in order to help the trainees to develop the concept of writing only using keywords. All the participants were asked to give one word which comes to their mind regarding terrorism. 16 words were selected and filled in the table provided. These words serve as basis on which any blog can easily be written.

Each word was added in a box 

Role of Facebook and twitter were specifically discussed as they are the most commonly used Social Media. In the end the trainees were advised to use Social Media with responsibility with the aim to provide maximum benefit to the reader.