So last night (9/22), for the first time, I taught a class on Social Networking. The class was sponsored by the Maryland Heights Park and Recreation Department. I have to say, this was a very cool opportunity. For those who know me, I've been sort of active this year in giving presentations. I've talked about a few things at Greater St. Louis Area DotNetNuke User Group, gave a presentation at the Look-At-Me-Seminar (read my thoughts), and was able to talk at the St. Louis Day of .Net (hey, more thoughts!). This was way harder.
Before, I knew my audience would be interested in a specific topic, or advance a certain discussion. In this situation, people signed up based on a little excerpt they found in the seasonally Parks and Recreation magazine. To make the situation even tougher for me, I found out a few weeks after the excerpt went through that the class was already sold out.
My immediate reaction to all this was "Huh? People actually want to listen to me drone on about Social Networking?" Well, as it turns out, not only did they want to, but they really enjoyed it. I had a really diverse group attending (I refuse to call them students), that ranged from young business professionals to elderly couples wanting to be able to better keep up with the families.
When I present, I try to be as energetic as possible, as well as keep the topic as close aligned to people's expectation as I can. That probably stems from one too many college lectures I slept through. Anyway, I started off giving loose definitions of what Social Networking is, and how it can be useful. I talked a little bit about what companies use it, why they may use it, and why individuals may want to pay attention (take a look at RizzoTees.com and the owner's Twitter stream for an example). I then launched into a bunch of interactive examples of using Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn. We would have looked over more, but everyone was asking great questions. Questions ranged from "Do companies have standards they ask employees to follow when using these things?" (yes, but it's up to the company to determine what they are) to "How safe/private are these networks?" (pretty safe, as long as you publicize information you feel is ok). All in all, it was a really cool experience.
I guess things turned out ok, because I'm teaching another class on October 20th, and was asked to teach more in the spring. Strange, huh? If interested in attending, just contact Angela at the Maryland Heights Community Center at (314) 738-2599.
UPDATE: You can now download a copy of my presentation. Also, if you have any questions, don't hesitate to shoot me an email via my contact form.