How to deliver a social media strategy workshop that builds capacity and finds opportunities

October 15, 2009

We’re launching Open SoSi by sharing the Concept Jam. The Concept Jam is a workshop-based methodology for identifying an organization’s most promising social media opportunities.  It’s the part of our work that we love the most, and that we think gives the greatest value to our clients. It’s also the one part of our current service line-up that we hope to do even more of in the months and years to come. So we figured we’d put our money where our mouth is by giving that away first.

Concept Jam sessions engage teams in learning and brainstorming so that they can find the social media projects that reach their audiences and achieve their goals.  Each Concept Jam has three key deliverables:

  1. A day-long workshop that engages 10-40 people (employees and stakeholders in a client organization) in a learning and brainstorming process that helps participants develop a stronger understanding of social media tools and strategies.
  2. A workshop report summarizing the long list of ideas generated by the workshop (typically 50-100 ideas).
  3. An options document presenting 3-6 options for social media projects. These options typically synthesize the ideas prioritized workshop participants, distilling and enhancing each option into a summary concept that our team thinks has strong potential.

The Concept Jam has evolved over the course of four years of strategic consulting, and builds on over a decade of experience leading classes and workshops in online strategy and communications. We’ve seen it pay off for client after client, both as a way of building internal capacity and support for social media, and as an incubator for innovative and compelling social media projects that reflect an organization’s particular strengths.

Open SoSi Me! Follow @socialsignal for updates
And while the Concept Jam methodology was born from our own particular strengths, we think it’s an approach that many others can adopt, adapt and deliver. We’ve already led workshops that taught other organizations to use this approach to social media training and strategy development, and seen the confidence that communicators get from having a clear methodology for leading social media development in their organizations.

Whether you’re leading social media strategy within a particular company or organization, or offering strategic services as a social media consultant, we hope the Concept Jam can be a useful addition to your toolbox. Over the next little while we’ll be sharing:

  • Workshop structure: a participant agenda and sample workshop script   Now online! >>
  • Presentation tools: the powerpoint decks we use to introduce participants to a range of social media approaches, and session worksheets   Coming soon!
  • Deliverables: an example of a Concept Jam workshop report (thanks to Vancity!) and an options document   Coming soon!
  • Project management: an overview of the service delivery process, our pre-workshop intake form, and a workplan    Coming soon!
  • Business processes: an estimating spreadsheet, example MOU, and example proposal   Coming soon!

You can also take a look at the two brochures we currently use to explain the Concept Jam to potential clients. We have two versions: the super fun cartoony one (PDF) , and the buttoned-down texty one (PDF).

Read on to part 2, workshop agenda and script. >>