Social Media Knowledge Transfer

While blogging and podcasting are the hottest trends in Adult Learning right now, we can't forget the usefulness of other social media channels for precise, controlled and effective knowledge delivery.  Facebook Groups, Facebook Pages and collaboration sites like Slack can all be leveraged to provide an additional resource, particularly by employees who want to receive knowledge and information when they are NOT at work (I'll have more on that in a moment).  

I've created a Group ("The Group."), a Page ("The Page."), and a Slack Channel ("The Slack Channel.") to show that I understand the principles of these outlets and to demonstrate my proficiency in creating and curating them.  They are mere shells/mock-ups and do not go far beyond the surface level.

Using Facebook

My experience has demonstrated that creating and deploying a Facebook Group to provide learners the opportunity to create a community and foster social learning is invaluable in reinforcing a "Culture of Learning."  It does take commitment, though, since monitoring and moderating the group is necessary.  The same is true, if not more, for creating a Facebook Page.  

The difference between a Facebook Group and a Facebook Page exists in the intent and the utilization of the medium, itself:  

• The purpose of a Group is to create community.  Groups are mostly self-governing and require less curation and maintenance than Pages.  That's not to say that once you create a group for your class or program, you can just let it be and coast along.  Just like anything an adult professional does, intent, relevance, and purpose ought to be paramount.  This means that regular, consistent and detailed curation is necessary.  The Group Admin will need to regularly check the page/posts to ensure the participants are being respectful and engaged, and occasionally "grease the wheels" by dropping a post, a poll, some imagery, insights, and responding to questions or queries.  

• Pages require a bit more attention, but in a different way, than Groups.  The purpose of a Page is to deliver knowledge without much expectation of participation from the learners.  This means that the Page Admin, to keep learners engaged and attentive, should send regular posts or "blasts," actively seek out followers, maintain information accuracy, and use attractive graphic design principles to draw in readers.

Using Slack

There are TONS of collaboration sites out in cyberspace that are useful for creating community, sharing information, and promoting social learning.  Some of the more popular ones you may be familiar with (or your organization may use):  Microsoft Teams, Google Chat, HubSpot, and Webex are ones commonly found in enterprise intranets.  But there are many that are geared toward individuals or small businesses:  Discord, Pumble, Rocket Chat, Fleep and Hive, to name a few "big dogs."  Slack, however, is probably the most commonly used by individuals and small businesses as it is easily downloaded onto mobile devices, is free, is fairly customizable,  and is extremely user-friendly.

My previous employer used Google Workspace collaborative products as their official platform.  However, because of cybersecurity protocols, there was no way to collaborate outside of our VPN.  While this didn't pose a problem for anyone in leadership (we all had VPN access when off-site), for our non-leadership colleagues (SMEs, Training Assistants and Learning Apprentices), there was no way to engage.  I created a robust and organized (and approved by IT/InfoSec, don't worry) Slack group with several channels for cross-functional and/or multi-functional collaboration.  

The main difference between Facebook collaborative media and a platform like Slack, aside from the cosmetic, is the amount and nature of its governance.  Slack is fairly no-frills and is obviously a "professional" space.  Facebook media, however, is far less formal and its features are geared more towards individuals and events versus projects or programs.

Now, a moment on the nature of Group, Page, and Slack (or other platforms) engagement for US workers:

In the US, if an employee works, they must be paid.  US workers are classified by the Department of Labor (through the Fair Labor Standards Act and related amendments) into Exempt and Non-Exempt roles, which determine when and how compensation is determined and delivered.  To make a long story short, Exempt employees are salaried, typically on an annual or monthly basis, and have little to no eligibility for overtime, for example.  Non-exempt employees are usually hourly workers, and when they work outside of their contractual shifts, are immediately due overtime compensation.  

To this end, accessing work-related (i.e. NOT on the company's intranet and/or not during work hours) Groups and Pages, for non-exempt employees,  during off hours, would render them eligible for overtime.  As such, the trainer's positioning of the use of, and engagement in, Groups and Pages must be to make the non-exempt employee aware that the review and use is purely voluntary and NOT a requirement of the organization or their employment.  Accordingly, any information shared or broadcast to a Group or on a Page must also be shared or broadcast during normal work hours and on company media that the employee would be able to access during their workday.

But it is also important to note that if an employee chooses to do any research or exploration on their own (as in, without any prompting from leadership or other figures of authority within an organization), that is not considered "working" for their employer, as there was no reasonable or otherwise expectation set by leadership.  So, if an employee wants to look things up on Wikipedia or Quora to gain further understanding or clarity, and they were not told or instructed to do so by their trainer/leader, there is no expectation of recompense, legally.