How do you tailor your social media training content and style to different audiences and sectors?

When it comes to tailoring my social media training content and style to different audiences and sectors, I like to think of myself as a chameleon of social media knowledge. I adapt faster than a trending hashtag! Whether it's delivering snappy Twitter tips to tech-savvy millennials or providing LinkedIn guidance to seasoned professionals who are still trying to figure out how to update their profile pictures, I've got it covered. My secret sauce? Combining valuable insights with a sprinkle of humor to keep everyone engaged and entertained. So rest assured, I'll make your social media training as enjoyable as scrolling through adorable animal memes.

There can be a big difference in the skills and confidence of those undertaking the training. Try to split your training sessions so that you have smaller groups of people with similar experience in the same slot, and make sure you do some hands on tasks. This helps groups build confidence more quickly as they help each other work things out and problem solve as they go.

This is very lofty and fancy sounding. If you need to do this simply and cheaply, you can do it in a discovery Zoom call, or even the first 10 minutes of a Zoom as people arrive. Get people talking by having them use the chat function, use questions like: - "On a scale of 1-10, how much do you know about Instagram?" - "What's your job title?" - What is an exact example of how you might use or be responsible for social media?

Help them understand that social media isn't magic. A lot of it is just them being themselves. Most terrible social media starts with thinking about what your company, brand, or org wants to share. We think if we just make our message flashy or "viral" it will be effective. Instead, think about what your audience wants to hear. It's a lot more than pain points. The best brand social media should be entertainment and connection.

I find it most helpful to think about the intrinsic motivations of my audience when developing training materials. How will participating benefit them in their career, not just the organization as a whole? Sales leaders may want to understand how social helps them find prospects and build lasting relationships, while customer success teams might gravitate more towards education.

Try to get a grasp of the time and resource participants and the business is willing to allocate to social media following the training. Trainees can sometimes panic if they think they're expected to start posting multiple times a day, when realistically even sharing something once a week could make a huge difference. Help instill confidence with real life examples of where this has worked for other organisations.

Instructors and consultants alike should show up with what platforms they *think* they should cover, HOWEVER, they can likely show up to a training to find out some power at be has demanded a channel that organization doesn't need to be on. Be ready to work with both. Make your recommendation and best practice known with clear data and resources for that team to make their case, but know that the person responsible for that decision may well not be in the room.

You have to use the right platforms to reach the right audiences. The message is secondary to the medium and context matter, so your strategy to reach your clients for training has to fit the demographics of the platform.

It is essential to know your target audience and know which platform(s) they use and where they hang out, and it is also crucial to choose the right platform for the business sector and what they want to achieve. LinkedIn is an obvious platform for a CEO or B2B company looking to build their thought leadership and generate podcast or speaking opportunities, whereas Instagram is the great place for say a recipe writer to share their recipes and gather pre-launch book sales for their new recipe book.

The biggest mistake, people make is to try ans start at all platforms in a single go. Understand your goal, your WHY, and then choose the platform that you think will generate the most ROI. If you're a Life coach, Instagram can be an interesting option. If you're a Founder, C-level executive, LinkedIn and Twitter can be a great place to find more valuable connections, and build thought leadership. The crux being, know where you're audience is and also where the most ROI lies for you. Don't start with 5 futile channels. Rather start with 1 strong pick.

It's important to give your trainees a sense of freedom to post and build their social media presence as individuals - remember, people buy people! Just make sure you understand any social media policies in place at the organisation you're working with before you start, and what the broader business wants to achieve by training its personnel, to make sure you tailor training accordingly.

I believe that just because the trainees work in a more formal sector doesn't mean that they need to be communicated with in a particularly formal way. It's important to understand the company culture and values and get a feel for their staff. As an Instagram trainer for businesses, I have found that it is important to be approachable and explain things in a simple and straightforward way to demystify social media and make it accessible for them to use as a powerful business tool that it can be.

Breakout groups and peer learning are fantastic ways to create collaborative learning, especially when you have mixed levels of proficiency and skills in the room. Getting people to unpack their own social media experiences and then start to analyse them from a marketing angle is also very useful.

And be sure to break into smaller groups. Shy folks will never be heard if you don't. Don't forget about accessibility, too. Many adults have vision impairment (aka glasses). Don't rely on a projector. Ensure people can access instructions for the activity on a device or piece of paper closer to their eyes.

I definitely agree that getting trainees to break out into pairs is a great way for them to learn and start practising their new social media skills. It helps them to share their knowledge and reduces the likelihood of them feeling intimidated by being in a larger group.

This is a great time to create a community! While the training is ongoing, peers can connect with and learn from others. Once the training is done, the community can serve as a place to collaborate, or learn more.

This is as easy as a google form and a newsletter. I think this is the most underrated aspect of instruction services. If you set up your system once, you won't have to think of it again, but it will pay dividends in branding and by extension, referrals.

Trainees also love a friendly challenge - can you task them with building a set number of connections or impressions over a defined period of time? A quarterly check in to show trainees what they're doing well can provide positive reinforcement and give an opportunity to provide further feedback, building their confidence and generating better results across the board.

Providing attendees with post prompts or a challenge following training can work well, and so too can weekly and monthly task checklists. It's so easy to come out of training and then forget to implement what you learnt, checklists and content prompts can be a big help.

Whether you teach, or learn - social media is fast evolving. Always be adjusting. Be open to new ideas, new trends, new platforms, new ways of doing things as algorithms change, platforms change and tools change! The only constant is… change!