LibCafé, our first Knowledge Café, wanted to create an environment for conversation about the use of social media in the
SABC Media Libraries.
The question: What do you need to start using social media?
We used the Knowledge Café as a facilitation tool towards a better understanding and learning environment about the uptake of social media in the SABC Media Libraries.
The SABC Media Libraries have a
website and a
blog which feed into the Facebook fan pages of the different departments, as well as the Twitter accounts. (See below for the different accounts.) We are two people who manage these accounts for the SABC Media Libraries. Representation of all the departments are slow in uptake, not necessarily because of disinterest, but because of heavy workloads and under staffing. The issues of workload and under staffing are global phenomenons, and not only problems unique to us.
The hope is that we could get a better understanding of what is needed to get more people involved, and to see where we can address some of the issues that make it difficult for people to use social media in their daily work activities.
We are very grateful towards
Manti Grobler who facilitated our LibCafé, with her experience in the method of Knowledge Cafés. She believes that it is imperative to get a measurable result out of the process, and that it does not stop with the conversation only.
David Gurteen, The Knowledge Management expert, and worldwide facilitator of Knowledge Cafés, believes that conversation is the most important, and that you don't have to get a result for it to be successful. We used his theory and videos about Knowledge Cafés extensively in our preparation as well as presentation.
The collective discussion in our LibCafé came to the following conclusion of what we need to focus on in taking social media forward in the SABC Media Libraries:
What did we discover?
(See
#LibCafé Prezi snippet above)
We need:
1. Skills It includes know-how about the applications, social media etiquette, language and we need to know the pitfalls.
2. Access Tools such as the Internet, smart phones, etc.
Unlimited time (when; duration)
Permission
3. Audience
4. Interest (blending social media into your daily activities)
5. Finding your own voice Desire, motivation, passion
Where to from here?
 |
| "A social media inFundi has more eyes on the World" |
We have already announced a
social media empowerment plan for the SABC Media Libraries to take the issues of
Skills and
Interest forward.
We identify inFundi's who social buddy the next inFundi's.
The inFundi status is measurable by the following criteria:
- Open a Twitter account;
- 30 Tweets;
- Follow 50 Twitter users;
- Need to get 20 followers;
- Facebook - make 10 Facebook fan page updates on the relevant department's fan page.
The new inFundi's social buddy the next set of inFundi's. The first set of inFundi's will be awarded surprise packets, courtesy of Manti Grobler.
The issue of access need to be taken up by the management and social media committee of the SABC Media Libraries.
The Facebook fan pages:
Twitter accounts:
