Social media, and my participation, challenges me in positive ways, as many readers of this blog already know.
They also know that I am committed to a journey of life-long learning which I wrote about here. Accepting challenges which have led to new knowledge and skills has occupied much of my adult life.
No surprise then, that I participated in Amanda Kendle’s Social Media Summer School 2019. The online course ran over three weeks from early January. It attracted around 45 people who logged on every morning to read the latest information and find out what their task was for the day. We also participated in a live Facebook session once a week.
What’s your ‘why’?
On day one, Amanda posed this question, and added that we might have more than one ‘why’. She urged us to share our answers, first in the group and then, if we were brave enough, on other social media platforms.
For me this question was loaded. I certainly had more than one answer to the question, ‘Why’? and chose to answer it in relation to the online course.
A social media summer school. Why participate?
Here are some of my answers to this question.
Opportunity
The opportunity to learn more about blogging and social media felt important because I post blogs every week and want to do the best work possible.
Curiosity.
When my curiosity leads me into places where I need to go the rewards are always rich. Accepting invitations to do new things always ends up well. I was curious about how an online social media course would run, who would be on the journey with me, and what new information and skills would I learn.
The challenge
The challenge to life-long-learning beckons me in many shapes and forms. I joined one of Amanda’s Mastermind Blogging Groups last year and loved the experience of being one of a small group of interesting women engaged in developing new blogging and other skills. The online course seemed like an extension.
New experience
New experiences and new people attract me. And the social media summer school provided rich pickings! Authors and writers. Consultants. Sole entrepreneurs. Health practitioners. Personal coaches. Adventurers. The long list of people from different walks of life shared generously and encouraged each other.
Old friends
Old friends would be present, as well. It was special that four of the five women in our mastermind group were there, challenging and commenting. Not only that, people from Amanda’s other mastermind groups also participated, and our online friendships flourished.
Discipline
The discipline of fronting up to a new task, and completing it, exhilarated me. Accountability increases my application to tasks.
Was the social media summer school worth the effort?
Oh, yes indeed! Here’s why:
- I enjoyed every one of the fifteen challenges. Well, fourteen, to be honest because the last day’s task included finishing the unfinished tasks and consolidation. I still have one task to complete.
- The camaraderie amazed me. So many different people sharing experiences and knowledge.
- My learning about social media and my willingness to be involved exploded in new directions.
- Amanda’s skills as a provider of educational experiences taught me a great deal about presentation and delivery.
Where to from here?
Now I plan to put my new learning into practice. There are other ‘why’ questions that have been stimulated by the online course and I will write about them in other posts. Additionally, my ideas for the new book I’m writing have begun to bubble more energetically and I’ll put a lot more energy into that.
If you are a blogger or have an interest in developing your skills on social media, I urge you to look at the courses and information Amanda Kendle provides. You can check her website here: http://www.amandakendle.com
I’d like to challenge my readers to ask themselves a question and share in the comment section. Chose an activity you engage in regularly, and ask yourself, ‘Why?’ You might be very surprised!
What a very interesting post Maureen. I admire your quest for learning, there was a time when I was almost a professional student I would enrol on course after course and so satisfying. Today I no longer have the urge, which is fine because I finally feel content with where I am.
I gave up on Social Media last year. I joined Facebook in its infancy and I did the same with Twitter and Instagram and was once an avid user.
Today Facebook has completely changed, there are adverts I really don’t want to see, celebrity posts that appear for no particular reason, and then there’s the posts from my friends. The majority of of these posts no longer hold my interest. Ridiculous tests and quizzes, pictures of someone’s evening meal or a night out and a stream of holiday snaps!
Gosh I do sound a miserable so and so!
Thanks for your comment, Sue. I would have said you use social media really well and effectively because of the blogs you post a couple of times a week. Perhaps you don’t think of your blog as social media? I have exactly 17 followers on Twitter. I just don’t get the point of it, except that the Australian Women Writers Challenge likes people to post reviews of books there, and I obey them.
Instagram doesn’t interest me. But I do enjoy much about Facebook, mostly because some of my grandchildren and friends use it to communicate.
As for learning, I guess I haven’t yet reached the stage where I am content, as you are, so I continue to satisfy my curiosity and to engage with learning oppotunities. I know from your interesting blog posts that you are also curious and continue to learn. Perhaps it’s simply that you are less inclined to be involved with formal courses these days.
xx
So true Maureen. I don’t think of blogging as social media, but you’re right it is.
I stopped using Facebook Messenger when friends began using it to send chain letters and silly videos. They spoilt a good personal messaging service.
I have to confess, I do log in to Facebook occasionally when one of the family alerts/instructs me to check out their photographs, but I come away quickly.
I think you’re also correct regarding formal learning, it is that I gave up on.
Thank you for your lovely reply Maureen xxx
I’m pleased you agree that blogging is using social media, Sue! It’s sad that social media can so easily be abused and misused for all sorts of purposes. We would be fighting a losing battle if we even tried to make changes. So, I think we should keep doing what we do best, and that is writing blogs and commenting on those we engage with.
A fabulous post, Maureen. I certainly agree with you, that Amanda’s Summer School was well presented, challenging and rewarding. I’m very glad I took part and enjoyed the online openness in sharing ideas and responses.
It was great to share it with you in the mix, too, as a a fellow mastetminder.
I look forward to hearing more about your ‘why’.
Such a generous comment, Susan. Thank you. And I enjoyed your company online, and laughed a little to myself about how you, Trish and I were so much the old hands, and how we shared and commented like troupers!
I’m quite fascinated by the way Amanda’s ‘Why?’ question has so stimulated my imagination. I do plan to write more in the future.
Hi Maureen
Love your post as it confirms to me you’re too vibrant to be serene – thank goodness. Welcome back to the real world in which you shine! You are to enthusiastic over too many things to sit back and be serene!
Xx
Thank you, Elizabeth. Your comment makes me cry. I really do want to be peaceful and that just means that I want to let the sad and bad things that happen go. Thank you for being there for me.