Know-How Exchange : Social Media

Thanks guys for your comments.
So, the target market are people who are looking for work and lacking the skills in information technology or are not very computer literate. It may come as a surprise, but the recent data shows that much bigger proportion of population than what we think is lacking basic or intermediate level of IT skills. Especially young people who are often social media savy, but they lack other IT skills. So, the point of this campaign is to promote the benefits of IT education to those people who are out of work, to young people, but also to employers - promote to them the benefits of investing into their employees' IT education as the response to the changing market dynamics and the rise of digitalisation of business and social exchange. The programs for this are all in place - the point of the campaign is to communicate the opportunities to people. So, some creative and innovative ways of promoting these is what I would need to come up with. Its easy to set up a twitter account or Facebook page, but that alone will not attract peoples' attention or engagement.

I agree that there's a large disconnect between the social interfaces and the core of IT and computers.

Now: what kind of IT skills are we talking about here? Many people don't know the difference between a browser and a search engine - however when they come to use them, they seem to get along happily enough. Just knowing the inner workings of the processor running Server 2012 software won't help you program the thing. What do you want to achieve with it?

There are many levels of IT knowledge - from the interface, be it social media, your browser or an office suite. Then there comes the layer beneath that, the support services and so on. Where are you headed on this? As importantly is which countries you are tackling? Germany is not Denmark and Denmark is not Poland. Knowing how each ticks means you can engage with them - which is the first part of getting them into your funnel. In each case the engagement is the same, the manner of that engagement will be different.

Which is where social media can have a big impact on your sales. Not because of what you're selling, it gives you a very clear vision of how you should sell it. Believe me, if you run a campaign optimized for the Dutch mentality, its effect will be crushed in Germany or even Belgium. Using this dynamic between what you're offering and what your prospects need can be bridged effectively using the feedback you get from your social media activities.

Each country - each region - will have its differences. Just as the coffee in Vienna is fantastic and the coffee in Berlin is rubbish. It's what the locals like though. Yet the citizens all speak German.

The real problem with creativity is that you can do practically anything. Creativity is only any use when it's focussed, targeted on something. In this case, social media. That means finding out not what people are thinking about your product - but the way they think about it. What do they feel about IT - if they feel anything at all? More to the point is that someone in Leipzig will be feeling different things to someone in Madrid. You may be lucky and find some commonalities.


In any case, knowing what they are is the seed from which the strategies grow.

Thanks.
Well, as I said, the target audience is defined and the programs are in place, so it is just a matter of getting the message across. We can discuss long and wide about all these issues, but what I was actually hoping for is to get some advice on practical things that can be done to get the message across taking into account the audience (young and unemployed and small business owners). One thing to point out is that we aren't trying to sell anything - its is a long term initiative sponsored by governments and NGOs - it is not about making a profit from it, but increasing the awareness of IT, importance of IT education and skills and promoting the benefits of being computer literate.

You have a "target audience" - fair enough. You have defined it and the programs are in place. All you need to do is get the message across.

Which is where my last answer began. Because "getting the message across" isn't as easy as telling someone to do something in a factory. Getting your message across means engaging. You will need different manners for this in Luxembourg, Spain and Italy. How will these different cultures respond to the programs you have in place for them? Are your programs flexible enough to deal with these differing needs?

I'm not trying to twist this to my advantage here. I happen to live in Europe and advertise in several countries - I am fully aware of the dangers.

Well, that was my question - some ideas and suggestions on how to engage people? Create a Facebook page? An interactive web site where people can test their skills and decide what to do about them? Twitter? Advertising through papers, school boards, etc.? : )

Another approach would be to somehow make it fun. What do they like? Music, parties and alcohol to mention a few - so mix a cocktail they like and liken it to their knowledge of IT. Too much martini makes the drink taste strong, too many olives and you haven't got room for the martini - tie that into the message you're trying to get across. Too many olives = too many hastags, too much martini = too many tweets. Only you need to do this for your approach to IT (which is still unclear so I can't help you in this just yet).

You could compare it to their favourite pop group. Hennie is the band leader and has a character - how would she demonstrate the things you want these kids to understand? How would Carol one of the backing singers demonstrate a different angle of your IT knowledge? They could click on one of them to see how they fit into the entirety of IT. If you don't know their favourite groups, take five groups and make five campaigns - see who comes out on top.

Does this give you anything you can start with? It would bring you useful information about who you're dealing with - something that is clearly lacking right now from your approach to all this.

Start by telling stories about people like themselves whose lives have been dramatically improved by an IT education. Don't simply tell them about IT, show them about what could be...

Thanks guys, that's very helpful. So, any ideas on particular message - like what are the benefits of IT education for unemployed people? In times of high unemployment rates when people are angry and are hitting streets in protests, why would they care about increasing their IT skills. They need jobs and money to feed families. It has to be pretty sensitive message.