For some, learning Social Media is comparable to learning a foreign language. What’s SEO? Or RSS? Or SOB (oh, wait, that’s something else…)?
Deanna Shoss, President of Intercultural Talk, Inc. caught up with Suzanne Franklin, Director of Community Programs, Planning & Development for Jewish Child & Family Services in Skokie, IL this week following a session on “Social Media for Community Building and Marketing” that she led for JCFS staff.
At the core of intercultural communications and inclusion is the desire to connect and interact with people from different backgrounds and from around the world. It seems turning to the web would be a “no-brainer” as a start, and yet the field has been slower to turn to the new technology. Espcially when ultimately the point of service or connection is face-to-face, some practioners still question “why use social media?”
Just as some might feel when approaching learning to speak a foreign language or being immersed in another culture, participants at the outset expressed anxiety, fear of the unknown, or flat out skepticism of the need.
The outcome was at least a better understanding as to how one might use social media to connect with peers, build thought leadership, and promote programs–particularly for the organization as a whole. And in an insight that combatted assumptions/biases going in (a common problem in Intercultural Communications), an older, more hesitant participant said “so it’s not just for letting someone know I just got a new bag at Nordstrom’s.”
That’s right…unless that’s what you WANT to be known for.
How many languages do you speak? Is social media one of them?
In the end,
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