Tag: Voluntary Sector

Report: April's Central Birmingham Social Media Surgery


Jon Law (left) and James Robertson at Apri's Central Birmingham SMS

Last night was a really interesting surgery  at thestudio – not least because it saw the first introduction of the Social Media Surgery Plus website.

We were blessed, quite surprisingly, with a large number of people happy to help others, which was great to see. Nick Booth helped the Civic Centre Residents’ group with their efforts to use Scribd with their residents’ blog, which they set up a few surgeries ago.
Karen Caine was helped by Andy Mabbett and learned about using data sets in conjunction with her long-established site, BrumCityCentre.com, for Birmingham City Centre Neighbourhood Forum.
John Newson was helped with his blog by Danny Smith.

Another busy Social Media Surgery

Heidi Blanton very kindly came down to help as a surgeon for the first time and helped Nancy Langfeldt with the blog for the South Birmingham Food Cooperative, which she had set up at a previous surgery. Jon Law of the Balsall Heath Housing Co-operative was helped by James Robertson with his site.

As I indicated earlier a great number of other people came along. And we had more people ready to help than those needing help, including Mary Horesh of Birmingham Friends of the Earth.

April’s Central Birmingham Social Media Surgery

March's Social Media Surgery in the Studio

After a couple of brilliant and very busy Central Birmingham Social Media Surgeries in February and March we’re looking forward to our next surgery, which is now on April 14th at thestudio, 7 Cannon Street, B2 5EP.

It’s the same night as the Birmingham Bloggers’ meetup, but that seemed to work OK last month, so we’ve opted to try doing it the same.

Members of voluntary and community groups are free to drop in between 5.30pm and 7pm. Below I’ve included a form to fill in if you’d like to come, so we can keep track of numbers and what kind of help people need.

We had to move the surgery, which had been booked for April 7, because of the Easter holidays, so sorry if you can’t make it. The next two surgeries are both at thestudio, booked for May 6 and June 8.

The surgeries are organised by volunteer members of the Birmingham Bloggers group. Surgeons work as friendly advisors giving informal one-to-one help to show you how to make the best of social media. If you’ve never been to a surgery before then it might be a good idea to look here. And, if you’re interested in finding out a little bit more about what the surgeries are and their history have a look here.

How do I get to the new venue? 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. The studios are further up on the right (opposite Jigsaw), and the restaurant is on the second floor.

How the conversation makes Social Media Surgeries so effective

If you haven’t already then I’d recommend anyone who is interested in the idea of social media surgeries listening to this audioboo 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.