What Social Business Can Learn from Brand Marketers

It's not easy to systematically maintain a consistent customer experience among hundreds of retail stores staffed by different people from disparate cultures across the globe. But that's exactly what great retail brands do best.  They guarantee the same quality and standards worldwide.

Have you ever wondered how they do it? The answer is a well thought out, developed training program. They make sure everyone knows what is expected of them.

And like everything else, that learning happens more and more online.  Dunhill tapped Epic to build a custom mobile learning app that in-store associates can use to explore their stores in a virtual environment and the Nike eLearning team (pictured above) recently built their own API to leverage the best of Moodle and Drupal in one platform.

They're using technology to guarantee a consistent customer experience.

So why not use eLearning to guarantee a consistent social media experience by advancing digital literacy? That's what I'm doing.

In the industrial age we media trained our official company spokespeople. Today, we need to social media train the whole organization.

I'm headed to Le Web 2012 in Paris next month to explore that question with some of the sharpest minds in social business.

If you are a social media trainer interested in the use of eLearning modalities for online social media training, how do you think this development will play out? Is the future self-paced courseware, virtual instructor-led sessions, or some combination? Is it a flipped classroom, or something else?

I'm also on the look out for keynote speakers for the 2012 Digital Impact Conference, which is June 27 & 28 (new dates) in NYC. If you're interested in presenting, follow me to get the call for speakers when it goes out.

Will I see you Paris?