Last Friday, Slaughter Development presented “Making Social Media Productive” to Rainmaker University. Highlights and the slides are now available here on The Methodology Blog.

The presentation outlines the main challenges of social media and productivity (direct link):

The interactive talk began with a discussion of some relevant background about social media, including the famous small world experiments, the 90-9-1 Principle and the popular notion that social media is a waste of time. These factors help set the stage for a discussion on social media and productivity because they provide empirical evidence for our connectedness, our tendency to not contribute and the widespread, yet false perception that social media is not productive.

The group then studied definitions of basic terms. First: a reminder that social media is not technology. Although we tend to get caught up in the latest buzzwords and gadgetry, social media is actually the alarming propensity of connection between human beings. This phenomenon is about leveraging the ways we know each other and, in this sense, is not fundamentally new.

Second: a reminder that productivity is beyond action. With any new tool, it’s easy to become distracted with activity without making progress. Productivity is the ability to define objectives and meet objectives. To make social media productive, we must move beyond the allure and mystery of the technology as well as beyond the simplicity of being busy. Instead, we need to set goals and then set out to meet them.

Attendees completed a series of worksheets and small group activities designed to help establish objectives. The group then reviewed a few quick case studies of how social media was used to produce a desired result. Participants left the event with take-home materials and ideas for their respective organizations. Hopefully, everyone assembled will be using social media more productively in the weeks and months to come!

Slaughter Development offers a shortened version of this and many other presentations as part of the Productivity Short Talks program. Short Talks are complementary, only 15 minutes long, and best offered during your regular staff meetings. For more information on this and other course offerings, contact Slaughter Development today.

Special thanks to Rainmaker University and Spinweb for facilitating and hosting this event!

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