2-Day Hands-On Social Media Training Sessions Scheduled in Sydney, Singapore, London, Paris, Toronto, New York, Chicago and San Francisco
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Eric Schwartzman (@ericschwartzman) has a message for those he refers as the "digitally illiterate."
"Digitally illiterate clients and digitally illiterate bosses have unrealistic expectations of what social media can do and cannot do," he says. "Bringing organizations up to speed on how to use social media is really where it's at today."
Schwartzman, a world-renowned social media trainer and author of the book "Social Marketing to the Business Customer," delivers hands-on sessions in major cities around the world. He is teaming with Social Media Today to present the ultimate in face-to-face social media training in eight cities beginning Sept. 1-2 in Sydney, Australia.
He sees no contradiction in live training to better utilize online communications.
"Often people find that to really gain any meaningful practical applied skills, they need to immerse themselves in something for an extended period of time," he says. "The amount of time you can focus online learning is limited - the truth is that if you really want an immersive educational experience to bring you up to speed rapidly, you need to spend more time at it."
He finds that in most training sessions consultants talk extensively about the successes they've had using social media for others. You get a picture of what works but you what's lacking is insight into what doesn't work and how to use social media practically.
"You learn just enough to be dangerous, He says. "Then you go back to your office and don't really know how to use it."
After training in Sydney, Schwartzman moves on to Singapore, London, Paris, Toronto, New York, Chicago and San Francisco. Each is an intensive, two-day program delivering digital fluency and social media savvy through practical experience.
"If I were a VP of communications at a company and I had a digitally illiterate C-suite, I would try to get them to go to something like this," says Schwartzman. "This is where they need to be, to see how it works ... this is a program designed to give people throughout the organization the visibility they need to use social media effectively."
The program is for professionals in marketing, sales, public relations, communication and media.
Because the training is conducted in high-tech facilities and limited to 30 people, the sessions are entirely interactive. Questions are addressed when they arise amid constant back-and-forth with the instructor.
Schwartzman says what he teaches is constantly updated based on what's occurring in the social media world. For example, Google+ undoubtedly will find its way onto the agenda.
"The war against digital illiteracy," he insists, "will not be won through digital media conferences but through hands-on training."