Upper Hutt social media forum 'huge success'

A forum on social media held last week in Upper Hutt has turned out to be a success, according to news from the Upper Hutt City Council.

As reported by TechDay last week, the Upper Hutt City Council's Library, Activation, and Community Development teams joined forces to offer free social media training for local community groups, sporting organisations, and business owners.

The event was part of the regularly Community Networking Forums that are held at the Upper Hutt Central Library every third Wednesday of the month.

The Council says feedback garnered from a Community Connect event held in early March highlighted demand from community groups and businesses to learn more about utilising social media to market themselves.

"This workshop was designed to support these groups and give them the tools to market themselves more successfully to the local community," the Council says in a statement.

The Community Networking Forum consisted of two Facebook, social media and marketing sessions. Together, the sessions attracted over 40 attendees.

The lunchtime session was presented by Upper Hutt City Library's communications and marketing coordinator, Cassie Merrick. The presentation demonstrated how social media can help raise the profile of an organisation with a focus on using Facebook to build a relationship with an online audience.

The evening session was hosted by Activation's marketing and customer engagement team leader, Angela Hayes. The lunchtime presentation was re-presented and followed by an interactive workshop. The workshop walked participants through setting up their own Facebook business page and showed them how to best utilise their page, whilst answering any questions they had.

Mike Ryan, Council's director of community services says he was very pleased with the way the forum worked out.

"It has been fantastic to see how each of the teams have drawn on each other's strengths to bring about an event that has been a great success," he says.

Initial feedback from both sessions points to a very successful outcome, with most statements reporting an increase in knowledge and awareness, Ryan explains.

David King, Activation's club and schools advisor, adds, "There was strong demand from our club survey in 2014 to offer organisations assistance in promoting themselves with little or no budget, so this workshop was ideal for those keen to develop their club's promotion and marketing capabilities.

The next Community Networking Forum will be held on the 19 August.