Social media has become ubiquitous over the last decade-plus, but the ways in which we use social media, especially in a public affairs context, have changed drastically.

While Twitter used to be the social media darling of the Brussels Bubble, those days are all but gone thanks to, well, everything that’s happened there in the past year or so (looking at you, El*n M*sk).

So where do things stand? Based on our recent trainings and workshops we’ve delivered to several organisations, trade associations and NGOs in Brussels, we’ve distilled our findings on EU public affairs social media training into four main points:

1. Not everyone in a given org really needs – or even wants – a comprehensive training.

We’ve shifted to a starting with a more basic ‘state of play’ overview session and making clear there’s no need to stay for everything. By making it modular and flexible, it’s easier for people to show up for the topics they care about and feel are most relevant to them personally.

After all, there’s nothing worse than being forced to show up to something you really don’t want to do.

2. Big groups of trainees will naturally have different needs and use cases which we can’t fully cover in the typical session duration (which is around half a day).

We’ve shifted to covering only strategy fundamentals in big groups while suggesting more bespoke, tactically focused sessions with smaller groups (or even individuals).

3. Senior buy in and/or active participation in social media is a must for success.

We’ve shifted to insisting in advance that leaders are on board with this and are sending the right message to their team. Organisations run by leaders who still think this is “kid stuff” are not a good fit for our sessions.

And senior staff who are ready to dive in themselves are those you’ll most often find in our programmes.

4. Starting immediately increases the chances of success.

We’ve shifted to putting our video thought leadership methodology into practice on the spot.

Senior execs go from strategy to on-camera content and can start a full wave of LinkedIn video content the very next day.

So, what does all of this look like in practice? Check out our anonymised programme below to get a sense of how we approach social media training at Bump.