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Workshop: Being Heard (QAA 5,7)

Objective:

  • To provide students with a greater understanding of the principles behind effective communication.
  • To provide students with a greater understanding of the importance of a personal brand, and how a personal brand is developed.
  • To provide students with a greater understanding of how communication strategies and brand apply to individuals and businesses in a social media context.
  • To provide students with the ability to utilise social media to generate opportunities for themselves and their enterprises.

Overview:

'Being Heard' is a presentation which can be delivered to a group of any size, and tailored to ensure its relevancy to any audience.

The ability to communicate effectively through social media is becoming of increasing importance, to individuals and to businesses. Those who master it, are able to generate more leads, find more opportunities, and get their message heard more clearly, than those who don't. Though social media itself is anew phenomenon, many of the principles behind its effective usage are not: clear communication skills, and a strong brand identity, lie at the heart of it.

Being Heard is a workshop which to introduce students to these themes, discussing the importance of social media as a communication tool, exploring communication strategies and effective branding, and investigating cases where these have been put to effective use within a social media context.

The activity is designed to fit within a typical one hour lecture session, with ample opportunities for extension, and through practical activity, group discussion or independent research, could easily form the basis of a more comprehensive scheme of work on the subject. The AV presentation for use in the delivery of the workshop can be downloaded via the link to the 'ZONE Enterprise Hub' webpages listed in the resources and references at the end of this document.

Activity:

(See Resources / References for materials to accompany the delivery of this activity).

Activity Part 1: Introduction

  • The themes of the workshop are introduced to the audience.
  • The group share which social media platforms they use, what their aims and objectives are with using each, and fi they have ever reflected on how to use these platforms to greatest effect.

Activity Part 2: Communication

  • The group explore principles behind effective communication (I any arena), namely; presentation structure, the use of tools, and powerful delivery.
  • Here, the group explore how they would structure presentations on various themes, how tools (pictures, videos etc.) could make this delivery more effective, and how the use language and tone impact on information being communicated.
  • This section follows the format of the workshop 'How to Speak in Public', a guide and resources for which, can be found in the 'Resources / References' section of this document.

Activity Part 2: Personal Brand

  • Students are presented with the logos of various companies, and discuss the words and feelings which a brought to mind when they see each.
  • They discuss what the reasons for these are, and the actions companies have taken to bring them about.
  • Next the process is repeated with individuals (as opposed to companies) and the same questions are explored.
  • Students reflect of the words and feeling they would wish to be brought to mind when their name was heard (and their objectives in wanting these associations). They reflect on the actions they could take to bring about these associations. 

Activity Part 3: Social Media

  • Students discuss how each of the points discussed in communication and branding applies within a social media context.
  • Real world case studies are explored, seeing how individual social media posts, series of posts, and users' platforms as a whole, adopt the above to great effect.
  • You may wish to include your own case studies in this section, to ensure the workshop is up-to-date and maximally relevant to the audience.

Activity Part 4: Conclusion

  • The main themes of the workshop are re-capped.
  • Students are invited to share a post regarding their experience of the workshop, via their own social media channels.
  • You may wish to recommend a specific hash tag for students to include in this post. 

Skill Development:

  • Students will have greater awareness of the importance of strong communication skills and a well-developed personal brand, and a better understanding of how to achieve these.
  • They will understand how these themes relate to social media, how social media can be used advantageously, and how this related to their own studies, careers and endeavours.

Resources:

  • Copies of the slides which accompany this presentation can be downloaded here ? Being Heard [PDF]
  • For a How To Guide expanding upon the communication elements explored in Being Heard, see 'Workshop: How to Speak in Public.'

References:

Associated Case Studies

Author / Attribution

This guide was produced by Mike Corcoran (www.macorcoran.com). If you would like to contact the author, please use this email address:- m.a.corcoran@outlook.com.