[youtube]bEPbtfdIkVY[/youtube]
This video was a quick one shot at the Social Media Surgery for voluntary groups in Birmingham this evening (should say 2009 – my bad). Despite the leading questions, I hope it gives you a sense of how people from community groups feel about the help they get from volunteer bloggers and social media folk. About 25 “recipients” (real people) plus the social media surgeons who were in no particular order:
Jon Bounds, Pete Ashton, Jon Hickman, Joanna Geary, Gavin Wray, Benjamin Brum, Simon Whitehouse (see here), Abby Corfan, Phil Oakley, Watfordgap, Danny Smith, Katie Spragg, Mark Steadman.
For a more general view please have a look here. Pete shot this and uploaded it there and then to demonstrate embedding. Bless him!
[...] As well as Pete, it was good to see Jon Bounds, Nick Booth, Gavin Wray, Benjamin Brum and Paul Webster some of whom I met for the first time. Nick has posted a list of people who were at the event and the observant will notice that I’m down as a surgeon. **gulps** My professional life of faking it continues. [...]
I agree with those on film! It was my husband and my second visit. First time Jon Bounds gave general social media knowledge to get us started (as we were clueless). This time Jon Hickman devoted over two hours to sorting out specific questions/problems over the blogs we have started since – and got help from Pete and Joanna for us too. Amazingly helpful. Actually feel we may be able to help out new beginners ourselves next time!
Thanks for popping up here Karen – I’ll hold you to that. Next time you an don the surgeons gloves!
[...] Video by Nick Booth [...]
A Twitter contact recently told me about an initiative they are organising in Berlin which aims to bring together those with web/blog/social media experience together with those who do not, particularly for social projects and niche subjects.
Maybe you would be interested in making contact?
There is an English summary of the project on the blog here http://www.bloggerpatenschaften.de/english-summary/
[...] Social Birmingham. Swedish Journalist Axel Anden travels to Birmingham to see if it’s true that we use social media for social good in a uniquely vibrant way. (He’ll report in Swedish in good time) Speak to a Geek – Manchester does social media surgeries for vol orgs. Love the name – good luck. Greenslade is cheerful about Fort Dunlop – Birmingham Post et al praised: “my visit to Fort Dunlop last Friday dispelled every one of those concerns (and prejudices). I found instead a vibrant newspaper office on a vast scale, operating with the kind of journalistic enterprise that was heartening to see and to experience.” [...]
[...] 2 How can councils support individuals in becoming digitally enabled and empowered? I think the answer is to start with your own staff. Councils employ a goodly proportion of those in work in any area and if they get it then that will reach many others. Give them access to organised yet informal help on how to use social media for their work. Reward those who share what they know and make sure they know they have permission to help the ‘citizen’ to also learn how to use the social web. Why doesn’t a housing repair team use social media to talk about what they do – why can’t they then share these skills with the people they meet in their work? Support would include identifying digital mentors in your teams and offering social media surgeries, some for insiders, some for outsiders and some for both. Don’t underestimate how much people enjoy using the social web and treat that as an opportunity. Oh, and open up internet access to council staff. [...]