1. One Direction
(1D) made me do it!
Hopefully you were able to get past the title
and are still reading this? I’m guessing you are
wondering what this is all about? Am I going to
stand up and confess “My name is Karla and I am
a Directioner”? Good grief, no! Am I going to explain
how 1D got me into designing courses using social
media? Oh yes!
1D are probably the biggest band in the world at the moment with
a following of 24.2m on Twitter. Harry (yes we are on a first name
basis), has 24.3m alone; with tweets such as ‘looking forward to our
show in Dubai. See you soon. H’, pulling in 165k retweets and 269k
favourites. As artists they are very current and relevant and one of
the ways their fans can keep connected to them is by following
them on Twitter.
Harry has
23.4m
followers
What does this tell us and how is it relevant to designing
learning programmes?
1D use social media to keep abreast with
what their fans want, album distributions,
what is happening around the world,
arguing amongst themselves etc. In the
same way we designers are able to use
social media to be inspired and to engage
with what is happening in the real world
to make our work relevant. So several
years ago, it got me thinking - how do
we transfer this huge social media
phenomenon to designing training?
How do we really make the most of this
technological revolution? Whether I
like it or not, I’m getting older and the
audiences I design for are getting
(in the majority of cases) younger.
Training methodologies using any of the
blended approaches need to grab the
learner and make them interested in it.
We have all sat through courses where
we think, ‘how does this relate to me in
my career, how do I use it?’ I personally
never want a delegate to say that for any
of my courses, so where I can and am
able, I like to include social media in one
way or another. If 1D can do it, so can I...
© 2015 GP Strategies Limited. All rights reserved.
GP Strategies and GP Strategies with logo design are trademarks of GP Strategies Corporation.
All other trademarks are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective owners.
“By using actual comments from Facebook posts,
and news commentary, I was able to make the
material come to life in a raw way.”
by Karla Howard, GP Strategies Limited

2. Firstly, in my previous life I
used to design emergency
management courses for the tri-blue light
services. I monitored social media and
news sites for current events/incidents and
based scenarios for the course around the
events. Obviously, changing names and
places but keeping the essence of the
event and bringing out the learning from
unhappy-with-the-service-customers.
By using actual comments from Facebook
posts, and news commentary, I was able
to make the material come to life in a raw
way. It wasn’t real, or made up and nor
was it unrealistic. Twitterfall is excellent for
monitoring events in this way also.
Secondly, if your audience is
frequently using social media,
those platforms need to be utilised
within your design. The lure of social media
is immense. Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn
and others are daily destinations for
millions of global consumers who spend an
average of 37 minutes per day on them.
Include Twitter feeds in your scenarios,
using the ways I’ve described in my
firstpoint. The scenario can progress
through the feeds, also teaching your
target audience (where appropriate) what
they should be looking for and how they
should be dealing with negative as well as
positive social media comments. Make a
mock Facebook page or similar to show a
particular group, club or activity page
and the comments within it. It all helps to
make the scenario current and relevant to
its reader as well as being an interactive
way to engage.
Lastly, if you are struggling for
information about a topic area you
are designing for, start a discussion on a
LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter or Yammer
group. Stick strictly to your company’s
social media policies and ask a question.
I did, in relation to social media and
emergency management and got
global replies which I facilitated online,
with amazing results. So much so I devised
the social media response for before,
during and after a major incident,
incorporating what you should do and
how you should do it.
So, as One Direction explode in every
direction as a four piece, using social
media as an avenue to reach out to
millions everywhere, my question to you
is, how do you keep your work current
and relevant?
“Facebook, Twitter,
LinkedIn and others
are daily destinations for
millions of global consumers
who spend an average
of 37 minutes per
day on them.”
© 2015 GP Strategies Limited. All rights reserved.
GP Strategies and GP Strategies with logo design are trademarks of GP Strategies Corporation.
All other trademarks are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective owners.
About the Author
Karla joined GP Strategies Ltd as an Instructional Designer in October 2014 and is
currently working on a global financial services contract. Prior to this, Karla was a
police officer for 18 years and carried out a variety of roles within the police including
murder squad detective, drug squad detective and surveillance. She finished her time
in the police training department where she became a qualified trainer and assessor.
This role took her to Karachi, Jordan and Sierra Leone teaching international police
forces. In 2009, she resigned from the police and began work at the College of
Policing as a training designer. Here she designed and developed the emergency
management training for all ranks of the tri-blue light services.