The Social Media Puzzle: Piece #3 Can you apply the Socratic method to social media?

The goal of this blog is to stimulate thinking about social media. I believe the Socratic method is an interesting tool for communication. It must therefore have applications in social media.

Here's my thoughts about using the Socratic method in social media:

1. Take a stance of skeptical ignorance. Enquire about others views on a subject.

2. Be conversational, but keep probing assumptions. 

3. Require definition of terms. This is where conversations often go wrong. Ask what people mean by X.

4. Use experience. Refer to your own experiences.

5. Draw implications & consequences. Talk about what will happen if X occurs.

Socrates was a classical Greek philosopher who proposed asking questions to test people's assumptions as a way to debate the truth of an assumption and to stimulate thought. 

Getting someone to see the problems with their assumptions was one of it's goals. It is one of the methods used in education to get engagement from reluctant learners and to test critical thinking skills.


For detailed info on Socratic method, as used in education and philosophy see here.

My guide to social media is available on Amazon. Enjoy!

How to Learn Digital Marketing Online

I have been appointed Head of the College of Digital Marketing. Here's a short animation of our mission.

If you want to attend any of these courses - in person or online - and learn how to market yourself or your organisation with this software click here.

The Social Media Puzzle: Piece #1 What are your goals?

Social media can be viewed as a series of puzzles.

When you first start in social media it seems that everyone knows what you don't. The mysteries of social media are revealed slowly as you browse and experiment and learn. This series of posts will explore some important pieces of the social media puzzle, of relevance whether you're new to social media or an old hand.

The 1st puzzle I'd like to explore is, what are your goals for social media? The reason this comes 1st, for me, is because how you answer this will affect every social media action that you take.

If your goal is simply to increase sales of your paintings or widgets or nuclear reactors then there will be a series of steps you need to take to build relationships with people who might be interested in what you are selling.

This will however be rather a restrictive use of social media. It would be like installing a telephone in your offices and only using it for sales calls.

Every aspect of your business can be impacted positively by social media, if you let it. Human Resources, purchasing, accounts, shareholder relationships, PR, marketing, sales, service and R&D can all use social media tools to connect with people, listen and communicate.

You can use social media as a creative tool too, to allow you to express whatever you want; your love of fly fishing or photography or ball room dancing. And you can use social media to build relationships widely.

So when you are thinking about goals for social media, think about the other sides of this puzzle piece, think about the hidden layers that social media can bring.

This is the 1st in a new series of posts. In the series I will explore various hidden and puzzling aspects of social media.

Your thoughts, comments and reactions will be gratefully received.

To support this site - over 100 free posts so far on social media for you to explore - please buy one of my novels, The Istanbul Puzzle or The Jerusalem Puzzle or my guide to social media. And enjoy!