Texas A&M institute to hold social media training Nov. 6 in San Angelo

SAN ANGELO – The Texas A&M Institute of Renewable Natural Resources will hold a social media training Nov. 6 at the Texas A&M AgriLife Research and Extension Center, 7887 U.S. Highway 87 North, San Angelo.

The “Social Media 101—Raising Stakeholder Awareness in an Information Age” training will be from 9 a.m-3 p.m. with registration to begin at 8:30 a.m. The program will cover the basics of social media and its effective use in an online communications platform.

“If you are in the role of outreach and information dissemination, you have a challenging mediascape to conquer,” said Amy Hays, a program specialist for the institute specializing in emerging technologies and workshop trainer. “That challenge is finding a way to be heard against a tide of competing voices.”

This training is designed to help those serving as advocates of natural resources and in positions of distributing information, such as coordinators and communications personnel in organizations, governments and other entities. Participants will learn how to incorporate social media as an outreach tool, learn creative ways to reach new audiences and how to use new and old social media tools, Hays said.

“Information is out there on the news, in the paper, and—not surprisingly—abundantly online,” Hays said. She said people need to ask themselves, ‘How will people find our information first, and is that information valuable and reliable?’”

The training registration fee is $50 through Nov. 1 and $60 after that date. The fee also includes lunch. To register online, go to the Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Conference Services website at http://agriliferegister.tamu.edu

The workshop is sponsored by the Sutton County Underground Water Conservation District. For more information about the event, contact Hays at 254-865-2061 or ahays@ag.tamu.edu.

For questions about registration or payment, go to the conference services website or call 979-845-2604. For additional information on the training, contact Jim Polonis, Sutton County Underground Water Conservation District general manager, at 325-387-2369.

Information on other training programs coordinated by the Texas Water Resources Institute and the Texas A&M Institute of Renewable Natural Resources can be found on the institutes’ Natural Resources Training Program page, http://naturalresourcestraining.tamu.edu/.

-30-