Social Media

Five years ago, social media was a plaything for teenagers: today it has become one of the most effective ways of communicating with a mass audience.

Our Social Media training is flexible and always tailored to the client’s exact requirements.  A typical session centres around a full-scale simulation exercise, lasting three hours, following an introductory presentation on the rapid advance and importance of social media, and a practical demonstration of how the simulation tool works.

The exercise gives the group a chance to rehearse the way they would handle a developing crisis in a secure, private environment, testing their social media procedures and skills.

The simulation platform creates wholly realistic interactions via Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, blogs, forums and online news sites. Course participants can post press statements, social media posts and comments, and a team of ‘community managers’ based in London mimics the public response. These role-players can produce 200-300 Tweets in a three-hour exercise: sufficient to challenge the social media expertise of any group.

Throughout the exercise we emphasise the importance of being pro-active with communications and published material, deploying news, blogs Tweets and images to seize the initiative ahead of competing news and information outlets.

The way the crisis unfolds is unpredictable. It depends, in part, on how the group responds to the gathering storm. They have to react with speed and coolness to prevent rumour and speculation obscuring the known facts. Under pressure, they must find a way of making your strategic messages heard above the hubbub.

Within half an hour of the conclusion of the exercise, we provide ‘headline’ reports, assessing how the group’s output affected the outcome of the crisis.