Author: Hannah Waldram

December Central Birmingham Social Media Social

Our brains are fried, we’ve done a bunch of great social media stuff… it’s time to kick back and have a chat with friends we have met through the Birmingham Social Media Surgeries this year.

Our December Social Media Surgery is going to focus mainly on the ‘social‘ part of ‘social media’. It’s a great chance to come a meet other people who have been to surgeries in Birmingham, discuss your ideas and work, and hopefully go away feeling supported and inspired for the new year.

The Social Media Social will take place on Tuesday 15th December from 5pm – 7.30pm at the studio on 7 Cannon Street, Birmingham, B2 5EP (link to map).

Talkbar Bar Area
Photo: Edward Moss

The lovely people at thestudio are letting us take over their bar area free of charge – all the more reason to buy another drink or two. They are located right in the centre of Birmingham and couldn’t be easier to get too (see directions below).

Feel free to drop-in anytime during the evening. There’ll be no agenda and it is up to you whether you come to share and show ideas, or just socialise. It is a space for voluntary groups, organisations to chat and get to know each other. Whether you’ve been to a surgery before or are interested in finding out more about what we do – all are welcome. We’d also love it if the surgeons (our voluntary social media experts) who have helped over the year come along too.

If you want to let us know you’re coming, – sign-up using the form on the BeVocal site here. Or just turn up on the night.

How do I get there? From New Street Station walk down the ramp out of the Pallasades, turn left onto New Street (past H&M) and Cannon Street is the first road on the right. Thestudios are further up on the right (opposite Jigsaw), and the restaurant is on the second floor.

Find out what normally happens at a Social Media Surgery here.

Four problems facing student unions and how to solve them

It is the first day of the Association for Managers in Student Unions and a number of leading heads from universities across the UK came to together to discuss problems facing student unions.

The group divided up into four teams to tackle the following major issues student unions face, and how best to solve them using social media:

  • Membership
  • Democracy
  • Brand
  • Reach

The blue team looked at the problem of reaching students:

Click here to watch the video.

The red team – Brand:

The Yellow team – Membership:

See the video here

The green team – Democracy:

How to solve a problem like a student union

How can student unions use social media to help what they do?

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This is the question those who run student unions up and down the country have gathered at Fazeley Studios, Birmingham to discuss.

General managers, marketing officers, heads of communications, events coordinators and web developers have gathered to put their heads together with a couple of social media experts in the form of Nick Booth from Podnosh and Jon Bounds.

The two-day conference began with delegates voicing the points and problems which they want to discuss and talk about solving some of these issues using social media.

Some suggestions posted at the beginning of the session
Some suggestions posted at the beginning of the session

Some of the problems were:

  • Getting students to tell us what they want their student union to look like
  • Drawing out students’ stories
  • Knowing which social media to use for certain situations
  • How to do more with less resources
  • Getting the message across about what we do
  • How can we keep our finger on the pulse
  • How can we increase our membership using social media?
  • How can we continue to engage using social media with students bored with Facebook?