Tag Archives: Social Media Surgery

#SSSSMS

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A week on Monday (16 May) sees the return of the Social Media Surgeries in North Staffordshire. We have decided to team up with Jamie from Stone & Phil from Stafford and run a combined SMS every month in either Stoke-on-Trent, Stone or Stafford.

This new plan will allow us to cover more ground and help more people without the surgeries getting stale because they are in the same place every month.

The other good news about this new plan is that we are being supported by the fantastic Titanic Brewery and will be running the surgeries almost exclusively in their pubs.

The first surgery in the new look SSSSMS will be at the Royal Exchange in Stone, we will be there from about 7pm so if you are a NFP or an individual who wants to know a bit more or needs some advice, come along and we’ll do our best to help you.

You can read more on the SSSSMS using the links below.



Posted from Stone, England, United Kingdom.

What Is A Social Media Surgery

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And will I get anything out of it?

I’m helping to run the Stoke-on-Trent Social Media Surgeries and a couple of people have asked me, what are they and will they get anything out of them, so in answer to those two questions..

What is a Social Media Surgery?

A social media surgery is an informal gathering of people, some of whom (the surgeons) have various skills and experience in social media platforms and are willing to share this knowledge the other part of the gathering are people who have less skills and experience and want to learn more. We put them all in a room together with some tea & cake and WiFi and let them talk to each other.

Everyone is welcome and you can ask any questions without feeling like you are stupid. The surgeons are there to help you in whatever way they can. If you want to know all about Twitter then come and ask, you won’t be laughed at or shunned because you don’t know, you can have it explained to you in a simple non technical way. The same goes for many of the other platforms like WordPress or Ning, Audio Boo, Posterous & Flickr. If you have a question about any of these and more then a Social Media Surgery is the place for you.

What will you get out of it?

Some knowledge, some new skills, some new contacts and a lot more, maybe even some cake!  At a SMS there are broadly three types of people.

The surgeons, people who have volunteered their time and skills on the night.

The knowledge seekers, these are the people who want to ask questions & learn, we don’t like to call them patients because they are not ill, they just want to learn.

The visitors, these are people who just call in because they know someone who is there, or want to see what is going on without actually wanting anything.

Everyone is welcome to come along for as much or as little time as they want, all that we ask is that if the surgery is busy, you play fair and don’t spend too long with any of the surgeons and stop them from working with other people. You can always sit with them again when it is less busy.

We are going to be running regular Social Media Surgeries in Stoke-on-Trent over the coming months, you can check the Stoke-on-Trent Social Media Surgeries site for more details and also check out the Social Media Surgery site for more information about SMS in general and when and where other SMS are happening.

Stoke-on-Trent Social Media Surgery

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On Monday 26th April, between 6 and 9 at the Greyhound in Penkhull we will be holding the first Stoke-on-Trent Social Media Surgery.

I’ll be there along with Carl Plant, Clare White and others to offer help and advice to newcomers and to chat and exchange ideas with more experienced bloggers

This is an opportunity for anybody to come and find out how they can use free web tools to build websites, find out more about what’s happening in your areas of interest and connect with other people. There’s no lectures, just a chance to sit down with a surgeon and look at tools that can help you do what you want to do.

The Social Media Surgeries are particularly aimed at charities and community groups to help them use online tools without needing to rely on grant funding. As it will be immediately before an election, we also welcome any council or parliamentary candidates who are interested in all this talk of the digital election and want to see it in action or find out how they will be able to use the web to talk to people in their ward or constituents.

There’s more information here and I look forward to seeing you on the 26th!

The Greyhound, Manor Court Street, Penkhull, Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire  ST4 5DW
Tel. 01782 414 454