We're curious...

What do you look for when choosing  social media training programs you will participate in? It can be daunting, given the variety of information, organizations, and strategies out in the socialphere. On top of that, learning methods and preferences are different for everyone, making it even more important that we each find the type of learning environment that works best for us.

We are continuously learning and absorbing new social media insights, news, strategies, techniques, since the landscape changes so frequently. And we gather this information in a variety of ways, from researching on our own to attending formal courses to one-on-one consulting. While we can educate ourselves quite a bit from gathering information on our own, participating in more formal learning settings can push us forward in our social media skill sets much faster. And at the same time, we have to be careful in choosing the right social media training program that meets our individual needs.

So it leads me back to my original question...what do you look for when choosing social media training programs to participate in? We're interested in your insights around social media learning. Here is a link to a quick anonymous social media training program survey as part of an informal research project to better understand followers' social media training preferences.

And below is a quick checklist I use to discern which training programs and formats to participate in:

• Reputable organization and teacher
• Education format that matches my preferred learning style (self-serve, group, or one-on-one settings)
• Focused content around learning, not a sales pitch
• Educational tone rather than just presenting the information as though it was a meeting
• Mixture of content to help me learn the principles and then see it in action
• Variety of tangible and credible examples
• Short durations to keep my interest and not overwhelm me
• Key takeaways and ideas I can use right away

What does your checklist look like when choosing social media training? I'm interested in your experience!

I look forward to your comments through this blog post and more of your insights through this short anonymous social media training program survey? This survey will remain open until Friday, December 7, 2012 by 5 p.m. PT. Thank you for your help and participation!