One-Direction-Article-v1.0-May-2015[377]

One Direction(1D) made me do it!

Hopefully you were able to get past the title and are still reading this? I’m guessing you are wondering what this is all about? Am I going to stand up and confess “My name is Karla and I am a Directioner”? Good grief, no! Am I going to explain how 1D got me into designing courses using social media? Oh yes!

1D are probably the biggest band in the world at the moment with a following of 24.2m on Twitter. Harry (yes we are on a first name basis), has 24.3m alone; with tweets such as ‘looking forward to our show in Dubai. See you soon. H’, pulling in 165k retweets and 269k favourites. As artists they are very current and relevant and one of the ways their fans can keep connected to them is by following them on Twitter.

Harry has 23.4m

followers

What does this tell us and how is it relevant to designing learning programmes?

1D use social media to keep abreast with what their fans want, album distributions, what is happening around the world, arguing amongst themselves etc. In the same way we designers are able to use social media to be inspired and to engage with what is happening in the real world to make our work relevant. So several years ago, it got me thinking - how do we transfer this huge social media phenomenon to designing training? How do we really make the most of this technological revolution? Whether I like it or not, I’m getting older and the audiences I design for are getting

(in the majority of cases) younger. Training methodologies using any of the blended approaches need to grab the learner and make them interested in it. We have all sat through courses where we think, ‘how does this relate to me in my career, how do I use it?’ I personally never want a delegate to say that for any of my courses, so where I can and am able, I like to include social media in one way or another. If 1D can do it, so can I...

© 2015 GP Strategies Limited. All rights reserved. GP Strategies and GP Strategies with logo design are trademarks of GP Strategies Corporation. All other trademarks are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective owners.

“By using actual comments from Facebook posts, and news commentary, I was able to make the

material come to life in a raw way.”

by Karla Howard, GP Strategies Limited

Firstly, in my previous life I used to design emergency management courses for the tri-blue light services. I monitored social media and news sites for current events/incidents and based scenarios for the course around the events. Obviously, changing names and places but keeping the essence of the event and bringing out the learning from unhappy-with-the-service-customers. By using actual comments from Facebook posts, and news commentary, I was able to make the material come to life in a raw way. It wasn’t real, or made up and nor was it unrealistic. Twitterfall is excellent for monitoring events in this way also. Secondly, if your audience is frequently using social media, those platforms need to be utilised within your design. The lure of social media is immense. Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and others are daily destinations for millions of global consumers who spend an average of 37 minutes per day on them. Include Twitter feeds in your scenarios, using the ways I’ve described in my firstpoint. The scenario can progress through the feeds, also teaching your target audience (where appropriate) what they should be looking for and how they should be dealing with negative as well as positive social media comments. Make a mock Facebook page or similar to show a particular group, club or activity page

and the comments within it. It all helps to make the scenario current and relevant to its reader as well as being an interactive way to engage.

Lastly, if you are struggling for information about a topic area you are designing for, start a discussion on a LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter or Yammer group. Stick strictly to your company’s social media policies and ask a question. I did, in relation to social media and emergency management and got global replies which I facilitated online, with amazing results. So much so I devised the social media response for before, during and after a major incident, incorporating what you should do and how you should do it.

So, as One Direction explode in every direction as a four piece, using social media as an avenue to reach out to millions everywhere, my question to you is, how do you keep your work current and relevant?

“Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and others

are daily destinations for millions of global consumers

who spend an average of 37 minutes per

day on them.”

© 2015 GP Strategies Limited. All rights reserved. GP Strategies and GP Strategies with logo design are trademarks of GP Strategies Corporation. All other trademarks are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective owners.

About the AuthorKarla joined GP Strategies Ltd as an Instructional Designer in October 2014 and is currently working on a global financial services contract. Prior to this, Karla was a police officer for 18 years and carried out a variety of roles within the police including murder squad detective, drug squad detective and surveillance. She finished her time in the police training department where she became a qualified trainer and assessor. This role took her to Karachi, Jordan and Sierra Leone teaching international police forces. In 2009, she resigned from the police and began work at the College of Policing as a training designer. Here she designed and developed the emergency management training for all ranks of the tri-blue light services.