Selysette Sarina Sanchez

So you’ve almost sold out your class and now it’s time to create an exceptional experience that keeps people coming back for more. Here’s how to make it special for your students before, during and after your class.

Before
1. Get students engaged with pre-class homework.
Skillshare teacher Chris Carella, whose class on game dynamics for software sold out a week early, said that he used pre-class homework to build excitement and let his students know what the class was all about. This worked well for Chris, since he said that the class enjoyed the information he shared before hand, and he didn’t have to spend the first 30 minutes of his class introducing his concept.

By simply sending an email with pre-class homework, you’ll get your students engaged with the class topic before it even begins.

2. Tailor your class to your students.
Use the class roster to find out more about your students. You can send out a survey or just ask your students about their overall skill level. If you have a class of students that have experience with your skill, you might be able to do a more high-level class. On the other hand, if you have students that are new to your topic, keep it introductory.

Chris said, “I think having the class list ahead of time makes Skillshare especially powerful, since it allows the teacher to customize the class quite a bit.”

During
1. Make the class interactive by thinking of it as a workshop.
Rule of thirds: spend ⅓ of your class time on the lecture and ⅔ on interactive activities. One of the most valuable aspects of a class is the opportunity for your students to meet, learn and share ideas with each other.

Chris says it best, “It was like the best parts of meetup (meeting new talented people) with a more explicit goal (learning, work-shopping and brainstorming together).”

2. Create a casual and comfortable environment.
It’s no secret that we all learn more when we feel comfortable to ask questions and talk openly. Not only will your students find value through getting their questions answered, they will appreciate the relaxed environment.

Starting the class with intros that include a meaningful question for students can help to break the ice and get people warmed up. You can also pair students or create small groups to get them engaged with material. If you have a small group, sit in a circle verses the traditional class room layout.

3. Build a list
Ask students for permission to collect and utilize their email addresses so you can send future information. This way, you can spread the word about your future endeavours while providing value.

After
1. Stay in touch and make yourself available.
Your students will look up to you and find your advice and availability to be a great added value to the class itself. Email students with follow up information and take any unanswered questions.

2. Create a Facebook group to keep discussions going.
This way you can share information and answer question all at once, and your students will find it valuable that they can connect to each other.

3. Keep students in the loop.
When you plan your next class, don’t forget to reach out to your former students and let them know. Keep yourself present in their mind by checking in every once in a while through Twitter, Facebook or email to ask them how things are going.

Earlier this month we had the chance to visit the eBay user experience research labs in San Jose, CA by the kind invitation of Elissa Darnell, Director of Site Wide Design at eBay. Elissa guided us through the labs, where they record how eBay Marketplace customers use the site, than process the information and work with development on improving user experience. Elissa and her team use video and voice recording and also eye tracking, a method that uses colorful data visualization to reveal how user’s eyes explore a website.

To be able to navigate easily on the website and use editor features most effectively, the Prezi team also does eye tracking to test what users notice first, which parts they skip and what they look at for the longest time on the website. We also perform lots of “think aloud usability tests” to evaluate every feature we develop. This means that we invite people to our Budapest and San Francisco offices, drink a nice coffee and play around with new, unreleased features and website updates. Our findings help us to keep the smile on our user’s faces when they work with Prezi.

It’s fun to work with Prezi. When I work with Prezi I always listen to music. I never listen to music when I work with Powerpoint – you can tell: these reports are music to our ears, but we are just as interested to learn about problems and weaknesses of the tool. And just like Elissa and her team at eBay, we channel our findings to the product management, development and design team. A video recording made by Prezi’s User Researcher, Emelie Hammar shows a focus group session in our SF office. (The video is published with the consent of the participants. Thank you Lisa (gotGeneaology.com) and Nikolas for participating! ).

Do you agree with what our users say about Prezi in the video above? We’d love to see your thoughts in the comment area!

We know you’re out there, just itching to unlock the potential of Skillshare in your own communities (thank you for your impassioned emails & eager tweets!), and we couldn’t be more ecstatic and hopeful about the change we know you’ll create.  We believe in the power of community and want to thank you for being Skillshare’s most genuine evangelists.

We’re keeping our collective eye out for go-getters and connectors to help kick off the learning revolution in communities across the country.   We can democratize education if people from NYC to Omaha to Paris (Texas..) to Portland (either one!) share their skills & knowledge with each other.  We need collective effort.  We want you, Skillshare Community Ambassadors. 

You could be a Skillshare Community Ambassador if you…

• have some serious local pride and love uncovering your city’s best offerings
• are addicted to learning, and meetups, classes, and online tutorials are your drugs of choice.  When you’ve got a moment of free time, you’re cuddled up with your gadget of choice listening to Radiolab, checking out the Khan Academy’s newest vids, or practicing a new skill with a group of likeminded folks at a local craft night or hackathon
• host potlucks, set up blind dates, help friends get jobs and find apartments - as Malcolm Gladwell put it, “you’re in the habit of making introductions”
• have already attended more Skillshare classes than you can count and are currently working on your very own lesson plan for a class you’re teaching
  

Here’s what being an ambassador is all about (or, at least, a start…we don’t want to limit you!):

• Build buzz about Skillshare and the learning revolution by blowing up the interwebs - Tweeting (and re-Tweeting!), posting on your blog, sharing Skillshare party pics on Flickr, filming classes and submitting them to our Vimeo page, etc.
• Use your knowledge as a veteran Skillshare teacher and/or student to help answer our community members’ questions
• Attend local Skillshare classes and events - smile a lot and make our new teachers and students feel right at home :)
• Grow your network by working side-by-side with the Skillshare team (when you unlock your city, your go-to will be your city’s Special Op!)
• Skillshare swag & early access to Skillshare product updates 
• Warm & fuzzy feeling from knowing that you’re making a goshdarn difference and bringing the magic of local, offline learning communities to life

APPLY HERE!

We’re accepting applications for the Skillshare Community Ambassador Program on a rolling basis and might even ping you, personally, to apply, if we’ve noticed you’re all up in the Skillshare community already! 

This post was written by Danya Cheskis-Gold, Skillshare’s Community Manager.  To teach a Skillshare class, please visit http://skillshare.com/teach.  UPDATED 6/14/11.

1. Show, Don't Tell

2. Work For Anyone to Build Experience

• Work on your own site. This is how both Spears and Canu got their start. Spears says he used his first sites as "crash dummies" in order to test what worked and what didn't work. Billy learned SEO while running an online DVD rental business. Working on your own site can be a great way to not only perfect your trade, but build a portfolio.
• Volunteer to help a non-profit improve its SEO. You'll be contributing to a cause you care about and building your portfolio at the same time.
• Offer to work on somebody's site for minimal compensation. There aren't a lot of SEO internships, but there are plenty of businesses that need the service. Working for little pay now can pay off later.

3. Experience Trumps Degree

4. Keep Learning

SEO/SEM Job Listings

• Senior SEO Manager, eHow at Demand Media in Santa Monica, CA.
• SEO Developer at WebsiteBiz in Charlotte, NC.
• Search Engine Marketing Manager at The Advertising Checking Bureau, Inc. in Tempe, AZ.
• Sr Analyst, Search Engine Marketing at Digitas in Chicago, IL.
• Director of Search Engine Marketing and Pay Per Click at Jawa in Scottsdale, AZ.

More Job Search Resources from Mashable:

- Top 5 Qualities to Look for in Startup Job Candidates - HOW TO: Use Twitter Hashtags to Boost Your Job Search - 5 Tips for Aspiring Digital Copywriters - 6 Job Search Tips for Aspiring Programmers - HOW TO: Find a Job on Twitter

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As U.S. consumers continue to spend increasing amounts of time on Facebook, and as brands amass larger followings than major women’s magazines, fashion retailers are investing greater resources into the world’s largest social network.

But how can retailers optimize their Facebook presence? Should they focus on entertainment and product, or is it best utilized as a customer service channel? How far should they engage? Is it too early to think of Facebook as a sales tool?

We’ve taken these questions to some of the best and brightest minds in the business and gathered their thoughts for you below.

1. Focus on Engagement, Not Sales

Although some retailers, such as Express and ASOS, are opening up stores on Facebook, the time is not yet ripe for F-commerce, most fashion retailers agree.

While iframes is certainly making ecommerce integration on Facebook easier and more cost-effective, Facebook is still best employed as a customer relationship management (CRM) tool, says Maureen Mullen, chief researcher at luxury think tank L2.

“In the same way that portals MSN and Yahoo and then search became the most powerful shopping engines in the world, social media will be the next big wave,” Mullen believes. “But we’re not there yet. Right now [retailers] need to focus on engagement and content strategy,” she advises.

2. Develop a Product-Centric Content Strategy

Mullen recommends retailers provide information and access to products beyond what fans would find on their ecommerce sites or in their stores. She suggests retailers develop visually attractive, entertaining content that enables fans to learn more about the design and development of a product, the designer who created it and others behind-the-scenes snapshots.

“Fans really want to hear more about product and want to interact with the brand itself,” Mullen says. “Provide users with content they never would have had access to without the advent of social media, share different perspectives and allow fans to share what they think in real-time,” she adds.

Ralph Lauren-owned retailer Club Monaco’s Facebook Page is designed to give fans an inside look at the company’s brand and culture while simultaneously becoming a part of it — what Ann Watson, Club Monaco’s VP of marketing and communications, calls the “inside out” approach.

“Our goal is to use Facebook as a portal to share additional content that’s not available anywhere else,” she says, noting that Facebook is the place where news, content and lookbooks (often modeled by Club Monaco employees) are shared first. Club Monaco also offers exclusive giveaways, such as concert tickets and original art.

Facebook, Watson believes, isn’t just a channel for sales, branding, entertainment or engagement — it’s a place for all of these things. “The messaging is what differentiates it. We drive sales by humanizing the message around it — literally!” she explains. “We promote our product in a way that we hope fans feel is authentic, because we display it via real people on our team and the real way they wear our collections, offering genuine styling tips,” she says.

We also admire the Facebook Page of New York-based luxury retailer Bergdorf Goodman, which creates a range of content around a certain theme or trend based on what’s happening at its store, a spokesperson tells us. Last week’s theme centered around its Jean Sequence event, which is extended across content and imagery on the retailer’s Facebook Page, blog, website, Polyvore tab and more.

“Like the store itself, we want our page to be a destination where people enjoy spending their time and looking around,” the spokesperson says. “It’s about providing interesting and compelling information as a fashion leader… [and] having a conversation with people; sales is just a by-product,” she adds.

Online luxury retailer Net-a-Porter has a similar approach to sales. “The primary focus for us is engaging and entertaining our fans — if in turn this results in sales, this is a bonus,” says Alison Loehnis, VP of sales and marketing at Net-a-Porter.

3. Allow for Two-Way Dialogue

Whilst many of the above brands have done commendable jobs developing content around product, several have just as commendably opened up opportunities for engagement — something, L2′s Mullen says, most fashion brands are too afraid to do.

Fashion and especially luxury brands are “very protective of their brands and images, traditionally maintaining an armed distance from their consumers and creating a sense of scarcity around their product,” says Mullen. Yet many brands aren’t allowing their Facebook Pages to be truly social; “users are being allowed to opt into a relationship with [brands], but [brands] are telling them they don’t really care what they have to say,” says Mullen.

Brands and retailers need to open up opportunities for two-way discussion as much as possible, Mullen insists. She encourages marketers to employ polls, respond to fans’ comments and develop content based on their feedback.

These tools are well-utilized by brands and retailers Tory Burch, Diane von Furstenberg and Bergdorf Goodman, which allow fans to post not only in the comments, but directly on the Page. Whilst this does create some moderation work, it also underlines the value each company places on its customers.

Last year DKNY briefly turned off the ability for fans to post directly on its Page (a certain PETA protest might have had something to do with that decision). But now, with fans able to post freely on the Page, it is certainly one of the most responsive among fashion brands and retailers. The company’s communications team keeps a close tab on fan comments, furnishing timely responses to questions wherever necessary — a practice rarely carried out by companies of its size.

Flash sales site Gilt practices two-way engagement on its Facebook Page via a sophisticated “Support,” tab where fans can ask questions and deposit feedback. The tab is closely monitored by Gilt’s customer service team, so users can expect to see timely and accurate responses to their queries. (We also love that Gilt gives an early preview of its flash sales, which begin every day at noon, via the “Preview” tab — a great way to drive sales and reward fans.)

4. Build Your Fan Base

While a strong content and engagement strategy can help a Page grow organically, retailers are also bolstering fan numbers by advertising on Facebook and developing multi-channel campaigns.

According to marketing firm Efficient Frontier, the cost of Facebook ads jumped 40% in 2010, a number that is likely to continue to increase dramatically over the next several years. In her research, Mullen has found that Facebook advertising is the easiest way to build up a fan base, particularly when paid ads are coupled with campaigns that extends across several online and offline channels.

She cites a Covergirl promotion of a new “natural luxe” line of makeup in January. The makeup company ran TV ads prompting viewers not to head to covergirl.com or their nearest Walgreens, but to log in at facebook.com/covergirl, where fans could sign up to be part of the “Covergirl movement,” get free samples and upload videos of themselves sampling makeup. The commercials, which garnered 8,000 Likes on the first day of airing alone, were accompanied by Facebook ads featuring spokesmodels Taylor Swift and Queen Latifah, catapulting Covergirl into the number-two spot (in terms of Facebook Likes) among beauty brands on Facebook.

Oscar de la Renta also employed a cross-channel strategy to build buzz around its first fragrance launch in 10 years. The company leveraged its existing PR assets as well as Facebook ads to drive consumers to sign up for free samples on its Facebook Page. The brand ran through its initial 5,000 sample allotment within 24 hours, and because it was generating so many Likes, the team decided to give away 25,000 samples, which it ran through in three days, Erika Bearman, Oscar de la Renta’s director of communications, tells us.

Not only was the giveaway successful in terms of press mentions and Facebook Likes — the initiative increased total Page Likes by 40% — it also turned out to be a valuable feedback tool for the company. Approximately 5,000 people took the time to answer questions on the scent in a followup survey, a testament to the two-way nature of Facebook, Bearman notes. “Sampling as a concept is old school, but with a traditional sampling you don’t get to hear what people think,” she says. “I think that the ability to collect feedback on your product is an important advantage to Facebook as a marketing platform,” she adds.

5. Let Your Strategy Evolve

As the case studies above illustrate, a well-developed, engaging content strategy, coupled with on-site advertising and multi-channel campaigns to drive Likes, is the best way to ensure that retailers are prepared for the advent of social media-driven commerce.

It’s also important to keep content fresh, and to evolve one’s Facebook strategy over time. “Be open to evolving your tactics within your strategy to avoid getting too formulaic,” Club Monaco’s Watson reminds retailers.

Jason John, senior direct of marketing at Gilt Groupe, agrees. “Keep experimenting to find the right strategy… [and] alter your communication style on Facebook [whilst] staying true to your brand. You don’t need to be quirky or funny to be successful in social media, just stick with your brand values and create an honest and open conversation with your fans. They will tell you what you need to be successful.”

The Facebook Marketing Series is supported by Buddy Media, Power Tools for Facebook. Fans see when you post content on your brand’s Facebook Page, right? Wrong. Cut through the mystery of Facebook’s Edgerank — download the white paper now.

More Facebook Marketing Resources from Mashable:

- 4 Ways to Set Up a Storefront on Facebook
- HOW TO: Create a Facebook Engagement Policy
- HOW TO: Engage and Mobilize Facebook Fans Beyond the “Like”
- 5 Creative Facebook Places Marketing Campaigns

Image courtesy of iStockphoto, zoomstudio

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