Here we are going to present a post by one of the participants of our recently concluded Social Media Bootcamp in New Delhi. Post has been published as it is.
In India, with very less alternatives available to get trained in social media, a few social media agencies have taken up that responsibility. Digital Vidya has been one of the front runners in this field, they conduct Bootcamps on social media across the country and claim to have trained more than 1000 executives in the past one year. I had an opportunity to attend their Social Media Bootcamp at Delhi held on 15th & 16th April, 2011. In this post I’ll share my personal experience of those two days at the bootcamp. Typically, as such workshops come at substantial price (i.e. Rs. 15,000) every individual would expect to have satisfactory experience. I personally had a great experience for those two days and my satisfaction was derived out of five key areas – content, speaker, venue, participants & rewards.
#Content
The content covered in those two days was in-depth and far exceeded my expectations. The best part of the content was the wide coverage; considering the fact that participants ranged from a few novice social media users to some who had fair amount of experience in them. The content coverage was fairly comprehensive and due importance was given to each element that would be necessary for businesses to know and understand if they had plans to jump in the social media bandwagon.
The basic introduction to all three major social media platforms – Facebook, Twitter & LinkedIn was provided in the beginning. Even the smallest feature on these websites was highlighted and their importance conveyed. An in-depth discussion occurred on how one should approach and use these social media platforms in a professional manner that would benefit the brands. The steps of creating brand’s presence on these platforms and key points one should keep in mind while creating them were discussed at length. Finally, some social media tools like Tweetdeck, Hootsuite which facilitate and simplify the daily activities of managing multiple social media platforms were too highlighted and participants were made to use them during the bootcamp so that they had the first hand feel of it.
The most important learning from the workshop was the Social Media Strategy Framework that was discussed during the bootcamp. The way it was presented with examples, short ‘on the spot’ exercises, it helped participants to register it.
The basic notion that, just by creating presence on social media would result in wonders for brands was demystified. I am sure everyone in the workshop understood that the mantra of success on social media was establishing engagement with customers and other stakeholders of the brand. The path to gain substantial engagement would be full of hurdles, however if brands succeed in sensing the right “connect” that would help them touch customer’s heart, it would be a smooth journey.
Any new domain with just theory would rarely help participants relate them in real life. Hence the bootcamp made conscious efforts to include case studies that highlighted various Indian and international brands that made wonders through social media. Some of the international brands that were discussed were Dell, Apple, Kogi Korean BBQ Taco Truck etc. The Indian brands that were covered were Gun Powder, Faasos, Curry Up Now, My Sunshine Candles, ICICI etc. The diversified set of case studies helped participants in relating the concepts.
Also, content delivered during the workshop included Social Search Optimization, measuring RoI from social media participation, Facebook ads, LinkedIn ads etc.
#Speaker
Pradeep Chopra, the cofounder of MyDigitalVidya was a phenomenal speaker. He was energetic, friendly and helped participants in understanding even the basic aspects. We were also privileged to have Pramit J Nathan for a session on using Twitter for brands. He is one of the ‘non-celebrity’ India Twitter users having more than 165,000 followers on Twitter! He shared his secrets of gaining such huge number of followers and the mantra of engagement through Twitter.
#Location
The venue Hotel Parkland was an ideal venue for such workshops with excellent wifi connectivity. The venue was easily accessible through Delhi Metro and they provided really good food for those two days.
#Rewards
Apart from the immense knowledge about using social media for businesses, participants had couple of tangible rewards. All participants were provided with certificates for having gone through the intensive workshop. While participants were leaving the venue, we had a surprise awaiting for us. Participants experienced the level of engagement brands need with their customers when they received goodies from Ching’s Secret. They are one of the most successful Indian brands on social media.
Overall those days were simply amazing and I am sure participants would have benefitted a lot from the workshop.
By:
Anandan Pillai
PhD student (MDI, Gurgaon)
Co-author of “Social Media Simplified”
