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 seeĀ Neil Holland, from theĀ 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!
Brilliant night. Thank you so much. I wrote my first Wiki page; wrote my first blog and learnt heaps more about social networking. The Friends of Brandwood End Cemetery are deeply appreciative. See you soon!
The Social Media Surgery looked like a complete success. The use of Facebook, YouTube, Flickr, Twitter, Tumblr and blogging are so essential for online campaigning, community empowerment and strengthening associations’ networks.
It would be great to see the Friends of Brandwood End Cemetery on Facebook and Twitter, in fact it would be great to see all the attendees connected with one another via social networks as a result of this surgery, I wish you all the best!
Thanks louise.