This week we did our first face to face social media training session since March 2020.
It’s been 15 months of Zoom delivery and although I loved actually seeing another human being, it made me think about the future.
Am I really going to go back to March 2020, as if the last 15 months haven’t happened?
Whilst networking just doesn’t work as well online, training via Zoom has been absolutely brilliant. It’s not been a poor relation to face 2 face for us – online has been equal in so many ways and better in others.
If anything, it has supercharged our training, our business and reinvigorated everything we do.
We’ve training businesses in Australia, New Zealand, Lisbon and all across the UK since the pandemic started.
So
How will we deliver our social media training in the future?
Will we ever go back to life before the pandemic?
Will we take advantage of the tech we have at our disposal?
What will the percentage split be between face 2 face delivery and online training?
I honestly believe that 80% of our social media training will be online and 20% face 2 face (as outlined at the end of this blog)
Although things may change in 12 months, 2 years and 3 years from now – this where my head is at in June 2021 and here are the reasons I believe the bulk of our work will be online.
IT’S A BUYERS MARKET
As I said earlier.
During the pandemic we’ve training businesses internationally in Australia, New Zealand and Lisbon. All over the UK from Glasgow to London to Swansea.
It’s a buyer market and businesses want the best service provider regardless of location.
And it now means that a business anywhere in the world can buy in the services of a company like ours which has a decades experience and 530+ testimonials for social media training.
Prior to that they may have just plumped for local who has 2 months experience and no testimonials simply because they were the nearest business.
Being a buyers market it keep us on our toes – we’re no longer competing with businesses in a 10-20 mile radius of our front door. We’re competing with the world and I’m pretty confident that on customer experience and reviews we 100% hold our own.
TIME
The last 12 months many have talked about the death of the office and the commute.
I think back to my last training session before lockdown and I travelled 1.5 hours either side of the training.
3 hours I could have been writing a blog like this, doing client work and generally being productive.
When it comes to face 2 face training either myself or attendees have to travel. For both of us the travelling, in the main, is not good use of our time.
If we’re talking efficiencies then online training works every time.
MONEY
We have to be realistic coming out of the pandemic.
For some companies training and marketing budgets might have been cut.
Great Social Media Marketing is an essential. A non-negotiable.
You can’t cut your marketing and expect the business to survive, but are hotels and travel expenses for delegates an essential for one off training?
Zoom saves a huge amount of the training budget and it could actually mean you’re able to book the initial training and a follow up … or even have double the number of delegates on board for training.
Let’s think about the efficiencies here!
ENVIRONMENTAL
I don’t drive. I’m vegan. And I want a planet for future generations to live on in the future.
The pandemic allowed us all to pause and consider what is important.
And one of those things we all thought about was how it was better for the planet not having every road locally being a carpark.
Remember lockdown 1 when the world discovered the idea of a daily in your local area and you’d see about 1 car on your way.
Now remember lockdown 2 and 3 when everyone was saying there isn’t really a lockdown is there?
Just as for years we all have been saying
– That meeting should have been an email
– That coffee shop meet up could have been a phone call
– That phone call could have been a text
Do we need to ask “Can that face 2 face training be online to save us all driving?”
Let’s truly walk the talk on our CSR!
A MUCH MORE USER FRIENDLY EXPERIENCE
Now when I talk about user friendly experience, I am talking about zoom.
I’d rather travel to the other side of the world than use Microsoft teams TBH.
Zoom Screen Share – 3 words that just make me smile!
No leaning over an attendees shoulder to demonstrate something. No standing at the front of a room wondering why the projector can show Powerpoint effectively, but not switch through to your desktop.
It’s just a better experience, isn’t it?
There are so many different elements of zoom (like that ability for an attendee to either type a question in chat or unmute themselves and ask the question).
When I look back at the last year all our attendees preferred that online experience.
WORK / LIFE BALANCE
This is a biggie for attendees.
Some training sessions I relished in work / life balance. The training session where I would be put up in a hotel, get to see a new city the night before. Wake up feeling fresh after staying nearby where I was training and then absolutely blow a room away with our training and get back at a reasonable hour.
But I also remember the times I would travel down to London on a 7am-ish train to start training at 10am. Do a full days training and then run to Euston for the train back. I wouldn’t get home till around 10pm at night and as soon as I got on a train my head would be dropping. That is not quality of life!
Similarly neither is it quality of life for your staff to start travelling at 6am to get to a central location and then be expected to take in a half days training before travelling back and arriving home after their kids have gone to bed.
Let’s look at how we can get a balance between work / home life and passions that are important to us whether that be the gym / running / being able to go to a concert / theatre after work.
The reality of why people want a hybrid approach between working from home and the office because of quality of life.
WHEN DO I THINK TRAINING FACE 2 FACE IS A BETTER OPTION
As I said 20% of our training will still be face 2 face. Here are the scenarios where I feel it may be better face 2 face
– Where it’s a training week rather than half a day
– Where training is advanced and requires lots of discussion rather than beginner / intermediate courses
– Where it’s part of an team building week away at a plush hotel
– Where you factor in a team meal out for all staff to justify travelling time
– Where it involves schools / colleges / education – online from 9am-3.30pm is not productive
The key consideration with training should ALWAYS be what is the best learning experience for the attendees and trainer to get the most effective results.
WHAT DO YOU THINK?
Face 2 Face or online for learning?
NEED HELP WITH SOCIAL MEDIA TRAINING FOR YOUR BUSINESS
Chat to us about Social Media Marketing for YOUR organisation , so we can better understand YOU and what will grow your organisation
We can chat about whether online or Face 2 Face is better for you
We can only find out what is unique to your business by chatting with you
Look at our Social Media Training and Social Media Management services
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Please call Alex on 07806774279 or email alex@altrinchamhq.co.uk
