By Celisa Steele
The 2014 survey behind the Social Learning Trends in the Association Space white paper (www.tagoras.com/2014/06/26/social-learning-associations) indicates that 54.9 percent of association respondents use social technologies as part of at least one learning product or service it provides. An additional 25.5 percent plan to start using social technologies for learning in the coming 12 months.
With more than four-fifths of respondents using or planning to use social technologies for learning, it seems clear that not only is the old practice of social learning alive and well—which isn’t too surprising, given social learning is a natural fit for associations.
Why Social Learning Matters So Much for Associations
Social learning is essential for associations for five primary reasons.
Social learning is in the DNA.
Associations are, by definition, social organizations. They exist to connect people with common aims and interests. But the value of connection doesn’t come with paying money and getting added to the membership roll. The value is in the knowledge that can be gained through sharing experiences and resources with others in the association’s network.
This is social learning, and excellence in facilitating it is one of the core values associations offer. If your organization is fretting about relevance, your capacity for fostering social learning is arguably the first place you should look to improve.
Social learning is effective.
Most behaviors that support successful learning are social. We model the behavior of mentors and avatars to build new skills. We demonstrate actions, repeat new information, and teach others to solidify our own knowledge. The social context in which we learn is usually what supplies relevance—a critical element for adult learning, or andragogy, and it’s by wrestling with ideas in a social context that we make sense of them, modify them, and make them our own. We can, and sometimes must, learn in relative isolation, but social interaction is usually the glue that makes learning stick.
Social learning catalyzes innovation and impact.
Association education is often quite conservative in its aims. Organizations strive to preserve a body of knowledge, build on it where relevant, and pass it on. While it undeniably supports these goals, social learning is a nice-to-have in this light. But if you seek to solve tough emerging problems, discover new opportunities, and lead your industry or profession to a brighter future through your educational efforts, social learning simply isn’t optional.
There’s a growing body of research demonstrating we’re more effective in solving complex problems and generating breakthrough ideas as a group (see, for example, Peter Miller’s The Smart Swarm). Teaching individual learners effectively is a fine goal, but if you want to move the dial across your entire profession or industry, you’re unlikely to do it without an effective social learning strategy.
Social learning connects to informal learning, which is how most learning happens.
As much as 80 percent of learning happens in an informal manner, and a great deal of informal learning is based on interactions with other people. It’s very often in informal settings that people make decisions about more formal learning opportunities. If you’re not present in the informal context and providing value, then the chances a prospect will view your association as the go-to source for more formal, paid learning experiences are low.
Social learning isn’t just about using social tools in formal learning experiences. It’s about thinking of your entire, extended stakeholder base as a social learning ecosystem. This mindset is fundamental to catalyzing the impact and innovation discussed in the last point, but it’s also fundamental to marketing your products effectively, generating ongoing demand and revenue, and remaining relevant.
Social learning is available to your competition.
Almost anyone can put the mechanics of membership in place by leveraging low-cost or no-cost technologies. Even solo entrepreneurial subject matter experts now have amazing opportunities for organizing events, launching learning communities, and selling online courses. Most organizations are seeing higher levels of competition for their educational products and events than ever before.
Competing successfully these days is less about logistics or the size and quality of your catalog—though these remain important—and more about the quality of the ongoing relationship you establish with your members and prospects. In short, mastering social learning is essential to competing effectively.
Association Success with Social Technologies for Learning
The survey mentioned above looks specifically at a slice of social learning in associations—the latest manifestation, all that’s enabled by the use of social technologies.
These social technologies must be seen as part of bigger social learning landscape. Social learning is much more than a trend or buzzword. It’s been around a long time, and it’ll remain with us for a long time more, which means it’s worth working to get it right.
Survey respondents who reported using social technologies for learning were asked to rate their success with their efforts. Only a handful of organizations (4.4 percent) rate their use of social technologies for learning as very unsuccessful, but the group at the other end of the spectrum isn’t much larger; just 13.3 percent characterize their efforts as very successful. A majority of respondents (51.1 percent) report their efforts are somewhat successful; 31.1 percent label their use of social technologies for learning somewhat unsuccessful.
If we look at how the very and somewhat successful respondents, grouped together, compare to the very and somewhat unsuccessful respondents, grouped together, we see the successful are more likely to hold four characteristics than the unsuccessful.
- The successful are more likely to have a formal, documented strategy for the use of social technologies than the unsuccessful (51.7 versus 37.5 percent), though the strategy in place at successful organizations is not notably more likely to specifically address the use of social technologies for learning.
- The successful are more likely to report that, when they use a social technology as part of a learning product or service, its use is designed to support clearly defined learning objectives (31.0 percent of the successful versus none of the self-identified unsuccessful).
- The successful report more frequently that they measure whether their use of social technologies supports learning (37.9 versus 18.8 percent).
- The successful are more likely to report that most participants make use of their social technologies across the board, in all learning products or services that make use of social technologies (34.5 percent of the successful versus none of the unsuccessful).
The successful are significantly more likely than the unsuccessful to use five general types of technology—web video sites (74.0 versus 56.3 percent); microblogging tools (64.0 versus 33.3 percent); photosharing sites (38.5 versus 6.7 percent); slidesharing sites (14.8 percent versus none); and social bookmarking tools (11.5 percent versus none)—and four specific technologies—Facebook (71.4 versus 42.9 percent); YouTube (57.7 versus 31.3 percent); Google+ (26.0 versus 13.3 percent); and SlideShare (13.6 percent versus none).
The specific type or even brand of social technology isn’t what contributes to the successful use of social technologies for learning; rather, the successful may be more open to experimentation and more willing to try out an approach in the real world.
In terms of the types of learning products and services that involve social technologies, the successful are more likely to offer a virtual conference or trade show (32.0 versus 13.3 percent) and less likely to offer place-based seminars (40.7 versus 66.7 percent) and online communities of practice (51.9 versus 69.2) when compared to the unsuccessful.
The successful are also less likely to offer a formal credential such as a license or certification (44.8 versus 56.3 percent). This may be explained by the sense or even reality that social technologies aren’t appropriate for formal learning, especially in highly regulated fields.
The Case for the Use of Social Technologies for Learning
To repeat: Social learning is effective.
Given that social learning is effective, why not try it, if you’re not already? If you are engaging in social learning, doing more, or making sure you’re aligning with your overarching education strategy, or putting a strategy in place if you don’t have one could be good next steps.
The question at hand is not whether to make use of social learning but how to incorporate it as effectively, as strategically as possible.
Celisa Steele is the Founder of Tagoras, which helps organizations in the business of lifelong learning, continuing education, and professional development improve the reach, revenue, and impact of their offerings. She is Managing Director of Publications and is Co-Host of its annual Leading Learning Symposium. She can be reached at csteele@tagoras.com. The full white paper Social Learning Trends in the Association Space is available at www.tagoras.com/2014/06/26/social-learning-associations.