Written on March 12th, 2010 by Andrew Brightwell
Jamie and Jean work on the Civic Centre Residents' Association blog
At another brilliant Central Birmingham Social Media Surgery in thestudio we saw a host of exciting and interesting projects either getting off the ground or being developed still further. Read the rest of this entry »
Written on February 25th, 2010 by Andrew Brightwell
The surgeries are informal place to find out about social media
So what if you’ve never been to a social media surgery? You might have a few questions, right? We thought it might be good to answer a few.
So what is a social media surgery?
Social Media Surgeries are just a fun, informal way for people to meet and learn how to use social media for social good.
What is social media?
Social media is a loose term that is applied to a range of tools that use the world wide web to bring people together and communicate – including blogs and social networking sites, such as Twitter and Facebook.
How do social media surgeries work?
Our surgeries consist of patients (the people who come to learn stuff) and surgeons (the people who can answer their questions). We pair surgeons with patients, so that the patients can learn all about how to use social media.
Who should come to social media surgeries?
Our surgeries are for anyone involved in community and voluntary organisations who is looking for new, more effective ways to communicate about the work that they do. Patients don’t need to know about computers. It’s much more important that you are keen to learn and that you have something to say!
Who are social media surgeons?
The surgeons are all terribly nice people who’ve volunteered their time for free to help people. They come from a variety of backgrounds, but they all want other people to be able to make good use of the power that comes from effectively using social media.
What happens when you get to a social media surgery?
Imagine a big coffee morning, except it’s probably in the evening! We pair surgeons with patients after quickly finding out what people would like to learn. You get to sit with a surgeon who can help you with whatever question or issue you’ve got.
What can you expect to get out of a social media surgery?
Well, that’s entirely dependent on what you want to get. Lots of people who come want to set up blogs – simple websites where they can publicise what they are doing. Other people are interested in using Twitter, or other social networking services. Often people come back to learn more and more. Sometimes people who first arrived at surgeries as patients become surgeons themselves.
Is there anything I need to bring?
No. The surgeons have computers, so you don’t need to worry. Of course, if you have a laptop and can carry it easily then please bring it along.
Where can I find out more?
To find out how the surgeries started you can read this post. John Popham, who runs surgeries in Yorkshire, has done a good job of explaining things in this podcast. This site, Podnosh, gives details of new surgeries in Birmingham and elsewhere.
Where are the social media surgeries?
We run the Central Birmingham Social Media Surgeries, but there are surgeries elsewhere in the country, too. Acocks Green runs its own, there are surgeries in Yorkshire, and there are Web 2.0 surgeries in Nottingham and others starting elsewhere.
Written on February 24th, 2010 by Andrew Brightwell
Surgeons and patients at February's surgery at thestudio
We’ve just booked up three new dates for the Central Birmingham Social Media Surgeries – April 7, May 6 and June 8 – with the lovely people at thestudio, in Cannon Street, off New Street.
It’s great news, because we’ve been able to extend our original arrangement where we get the space in thestudio for free. It seems that the management at thestudio is quite happy with it, too – as long as we remember to buy a few drinks at the bar and clear off at 7pm, as we’re supposed to. We’ll issue reminders for these events closer to the dates, but if you’re looking for the next surgery it will be on March 9.
Have a look here for more details.
Written on February 23rd, 2010 by Andrew Brightwell
If you haven’t already then I’d recommend anyone who is interested in the idea of social media surgeries listening to this podcast by John Popham who talks about his experiences visiting three social media surgeries on consecutive nights in Yorkshire.
John does a wonderful job of explaining the simple way that a surgery works – in particular that it is really a conversation – where both people are engaged (the surgeon and the patient) in figuring out a solution to the patient’s enquiry.
As John explains, sometimes people are a little concerned about helping others, because they’re worried they don’t have enough skill to offer solutions.
But the surgeries are good way of breaking down this problem. Firstly, of course, there are others there who can help. And, secondly, the conversational nature of the surgery helps you to understand what might be useful and you can then work together to explore a solution. Even if you know only a little, your support can be invaluable to absolute beginners. You can reassure people that social media can be an enriching and empowering tool – and very much worth persevering with. And that, as it happens, is what social media surgeries are all about – as John says.
John plans to keep these podcasts going, so keep an eye out for them in the future. And, since I’m on the subject of podcasts, if you’re interested in finding out about my own experiences with social media surgeries have a listen to my own, rather smaller and much less accomplished, effort.
Written on February 15th, 2010 by Andrew Brightwell
A great turnout at February's Social Media Surgery in thestudio
Well, it seems sometimes you get what you wish for. February’s Central Birmingham social media surgery had a really good turnout. Nick decided to make me ‘organiser’ for the night and, perhaps, it would have been best if it had been a quiet night.
But, largely because everyone was so nice and actually knew a lot more about what was going on than I did, it ran very smoothly. A big thanks in particular has to go to the surgeons who did a really good job to juggle the large numbers of people, who often had very different interests.
We had folk in looking for help with everything from Twitter to Google Analytics on the evening – and from lots of different organisations.
Feryal Iqbal, of Friends of the Earth and Localise West Midlands, seemed very happy with the help that she received. Feryal will be working with both the organisations and wanted to learn how she could set up a blog, as she explains in this audio interview.
Feryal interview Social Media Surgery february
It was also great to see Neil Holland, from the Midlands Arts Centre, who wanted to find out a little bit about how to use social media.
Andy Mabbett helped the Friends of Brandwood End Cemetery set up their own WordPress site, which they are already using to publicise their petition to force Birmingham City Council to restore the listed chapels there.
Susi O’Neill, who is a Web 2.0 surgeon in Nottingham, also popped in – and helped Martin Miley, Rick Cokayne and Martin Field of the Birmingham Social Investment Trust. Martin (Miley) and Rick wanted to set up a site for the Civic Centre Residents Association. And, thanks to Susi, they now have their own Posterous site.
Chris Crean, of Friends of the Earth, was keen to see how social media could support the campaigning work he does within the organisation, as he explains here:-
Clearly I need to work on lighting for the next surgery. But I’m really hoping we get an equally good turnout again next month, when the surgery will be on March 9 – a Tuesday – from 5.30pm to 7pm. See you then!
Click below to listen to the podcast
Written on January 19th, 2010 by Nick Booth
It is with almost heart thumping glee that I get to write about the first use of a social media surgery in Africa (at least the first I now of).
I met Marlon Parker when he visited Birmingham last year. He taught us really interesting stuff about using mobile phones and went back intent to get a social media surgery started in South Africa.
He writes:
Today was no ordinary day for the RLabs team as they launched the first African Social Media Surgery. The idea was to take Social and New Media to the public in an open space providing them with basic skills on getting started on this exciting journey. The launch was hosted by Vangate Mall in Bridgetown (Setting up of equipment above), Cape Town and 47 people actively participated by spending at least 15 minutes each with our Social Media Surgeons. These included people signing up for email accounts (gmail), Facebook as well as Twitter accounts. There were people also interested in sharing sites such as Flickr and Youtube with also the occasional person asking about blogging. Below we see Clive, one of our Social Media Surgeons, helping a couple with an email account that could be used for their small business.
The surgeons included some people who had previously learned about using social media from Marlon. One of them, Craig, sums of the group of teachers as:
ex drug addicts and ex gangsters that have completed the course: Social Media for Social Change and various other training at Cape Peninsula University of Technology (CPUT).
Judging from this tweet surgeon and patient appreciated it (which is what we find here).
Birmingham’s Central Surgery carries on in a new venue tomorrow night. The folk at The Studio have kindly offered to host it. For more please look here.
Written on September 3rd, 2009 by Nick Booth
These are my links for September 1st through September 2nd:
Written on August 15th, 2009 by Nick Booth
These are my links for August 14th through August 15th:
Written on August 12th, 2009 by Nick Booth
I often get asked how you make a social media surgery. To the left is a list of ingredients, below is how you use them.
This is for a standard social media surgery and is ideal for community, voluntary and neighbourhood groups.
Last year I would have said this is enough to serve a city, but since then I’ve got a bit greedy and think that every neighbourhood should have a surgery much like this one. I’d recommend you read all the way to the end before starting to mix the ingredients.
Shopping List
A Diary: This should be full of dates and used to avoid clashes with other things
Lists of people – 3: Here in Birmingham we use three lists of people. One is a list of people who care about where they live and get things done (some people call them active citizens). This list can be any size, although bigger tends to be better. These are our patients. We have a much smaller list of people who themselves have bigs lists of people who care about where they live and get things done. We send the dates (see above) out to these people who circulate them to their lists. Finally you need a list of people who care about where they live and get things done and know about the internet. These are your surgeons.
As you get better at this recipe you will find that people who first appeared on the patients list will move across to the surgeons list. That’s exactly the result you’re looking for. In fact those people are the sweetest part of the whole confection. Also if you are making different social media surgeries for different neighbourhoods you will probably find yourself acquiring a whole range of different lists. That’s normal, but do keep them in separately labeled jars.
A room (with corridors): This is the standard size social media surgery so you just need a standard sized room. Most rooms come with corridors, please don’t discard these. We have found them very handy as marvellous overspill spaces.
Tables and Chairs: Some people like their tables and chairs in neat rows, I prefer them just how they come. So scatter these around.
Tea & Coffee: Let people help themselves.
Wi-Fi: Never skimp on this. A good social media surgery will be drenched in wi-fi. If you find yourself tempted to drizzle the ‘nets the whole thing will certainly turn out flat. Some types of wi-fi come with a key. If you have that sort make sure everyone can easily find it.
Organiser (1 or more): You must have at least one of these so dates get set, rooms get found, wi-fi checked, lists updated, e-mails sent out. It also always helps to keep a couple of spares in your store cupboard. Don’t use too many organisers though, that can spoil things.
Welcomer (1): People really don’t believe that a surgery can last between 90 minutes and 2 hours and nothing formal happens. So it’s good to have someone to welcome the patients through the door, take their details and explain to them what isn’t going to happen (you’re not going to get lectured at, speeches won’t be made, you won’t be made to do or learn anything your don’t want to). The welcomer also introduces the patient to their surgeon.
Social Capital: This is the most important ingredient. We started with Birmingham Bloggers Group social capital, which had been simmering for a good 20 months, thickened by all sorts of strange ingredients. Think of social capital as the stock pot of your social media kitchen, you need to keep it constantly bubbling away. By the way, it has to be home made and hand made. In an emergency you can borrow some social capital from your neighbour, but please take care to return it as soon as you can. Some people are tempted to use shop bought social capital. It never works.
Note: Some of you may be surprised to see that I have not included Expectations in this recipe. I use zero expectations when making a surgery. Anything more than that can sour things.
Happy surgeoning.
This is the Birmingham standard social media surgery. Other recipes may be available from Sheffield, Solihull, Brighton, Nottingham, SCIP in Brighton, in Dave’s head, A Solo Bassist, Pete Ashton, Manchester, Mosman, Australia.
Written on July 28th, 2009 by Paul Henderson
Since the beginning of the Birmingham Social Media Surgeries lots of people have taken their first steps in blogging and have done fantastically well (here is a list of the ones we know about)
But blogging can be tricky to begin with and after the surge of excitement of getting your first post up, sometimes it’s hard to know what to do next. The good news is that among the Birmingham Bloggers Group there are some kind folks who can help.
So if you’ve been to a surgery and started a blog (which means you’re a Birmingham based community oor voluntary group) and would like a volunteer ‘Fairy Blogmother’ to give some extra tips and keep an eye on your blog while you get going – all you have to do is:
Write a post on your blog saying you’d like some help and link back to this post
(To make a link, copy the address (URL) of this post and write some text that you want to make into the link. If you’re using WordPress, highlight the text and click on the link button) then paste in the address.
You can just ask for help or if you’ve got a question, write about it and someone will try and head over to you blog.
How does it work?
Just by linking to this post (as if by magic) a little trackback will be created and that will let the Fairy blogmothers (and fathers) know that you need some help. It won’t necessarily appear like magic, but hopefully some Fairy Blog Father or mother will then leave a comment on your blog post saying they’re willing to help. With that comment you will get their private e-mail address, which you can use to keep in touch with them.
What is a Fairy Blogmother?
From time to time we get people who would like to help at the social media surgeries saying they can’t make it. We hope that some might be willing to offer you advice etc by e-mail. They’ll be doing it out of the goodness of their hearts, so take care not to overburden them.
For more Social Media Help have a look at these guides and if you want help – link here!
For face-to-face help check out details of the next surgeries at Paradise Circus or BeVocal or the wonderful Digital Brum.
