The New BlogPaws Social Learning Community is Here!
Announcing the New BlogPaws Social Learning Community!
The time has finally come to unveil the new BlogPaws Social Learning Community! We’ve been hard at work for months turning this long-term vision into a reality. Today is the day. The new Social Learning Community is open and ready for you!
I’ll talk about some logistical stuff at the end of this post like how to access the SLC, but first let’s do a little reflecting on how we got here.
I think Chloe DiVita, Chief of Everything, said it best, “BlogPaws has always been about our community. The new Social Learning Community is the first step in bringing more collaboration, education, and opportunity to our members with an end goal of helping influencers find their voice and make an impact. Passions run high with love for our pets, and now we can match those passions with knowledge for us and every pet parent seeking content.”
Community and education have always been at the heart of BlogPaws. The SLC is taking that to a whole new level. The new community gives you, the influencer, 24/7 access to collaborate and learn to help you achieve your blogging goals . . . no matter where you are on your career path. You’ve told us you want more opportunities and we’ve been listening. We’ve incorporated your feedback into the creation of this new platform. We are providing you with the tools, but it’s up to you to invest the time in yourself.
“A good social media strategy includes an investment in yourself. BlogPaws is providing a targeted community with the courses, conference, and collaboration all under one cyber roof. It’s all systems go and I’m ready for liftoff!” – Carol Bryant, Marketing & Social Media Manager
We will accomplish this through social learning.
What is Social Learning Anyway?
The landscape of learning has changed dramatically over the years; yet, at the same time, it hasn’t changed at all. Let me explain: Humans have been learning from each other since the dawn of time. If I needed to learn to build a fire, my caveman neighbor showed me how or I observed him making a fire. We probably sat around and shared our best practices with each other for fire making while grunting and smiling with each other.
Sure, over the years learning has become formalized and most of us equate learning with our high school and college experiences. For most, that involved sitting in a classroom while being spoon fed the instruction from a professor or teacher. Yes, that learning is still valuable and needed. However, that’s not the only way we learn. In fact, I’d argue that it’s one of the least effective ways. I could almost guarantee that the learning from that classroom “clicked” when you talked with other students, met for study group, or actually applied the learning to a hands-on situation.
We learn from one another. We learn from watching. We learn from mentors. We learn from having discussions with other people. We learn from others’ mistakes and their successes. Plus, we all learn differently: some by watching, some by listening, and some by doing. All of this bundled together is social learning. I could geek out about learning theories but that would be boring. Let me just summarize with this quote from Albert Bandura, who developed the social learning theory, “Learning would be exceedingly laborious, not to mention hazardous, if people had to rely solely on the effects of their own actions to inform them what to do. Fortunately, most human behavior is learned observationally through modeling.”
We’ve already been doing this for years as a community. Social learning happens during our weekly #BlogPawsChat, in our community discussion groups, on our Facebook group, and in person at the annual BlogPaws conference. The new SLC gives us an organized platform to have more of these discussions and opportunities for providing courses and much more.
The SLC launch is just the beginning. As we open the doors to the SLC, our first goal is to help you navigate this new platform. We have a couple of courses loaded in addition to some of the discussion groups you’re already familiar with such as Blog Talk and the Pet Influencer Group. As the weeks and months go on, we’ll be adding to our course catalog and re-introducing our monthly influencer challenges.
How Do I Access the New SLC?
The link to the community is still the same and can be accessed at community.blogpaws.com.
Are you an existing member? The first thing you’ll need to do is reset your password before you login.
- Click “Login” from the home page.
- From the login screen, click on “Forgot Password.”
- Then, enter your email address and click “Get New Password.” This is the same email address you used in the old community.
- Check your email for instructions.
SLC Scavenger Hunt
You’ve reset your password. You’ve logged in. Now what? One of the main reasons the new SLC platform was selected was because of how intuitive and user friendly it is. That said, any change is still change, and we know you might need some extra help getting started. That’s why we’ve created a fun scavenger hunt so that you have specific and actionable tasks to complete as you explore the SLC.
The scavenger hunt includes the top 10 tasks that you’ll need to know in order to become an “SLC PRO.” If you complete all of the tasks on the scavenger hunt, you’ll receive a “SLC PRO” badge that will display on your profile.
$50 Amazon gift card winner is BJ Bangs!
How To Get Started
- Download the SLC Scavenger Hunt.
- Once you’ve completed the scavenger hunt, submit your entry here. All entries must be received by 10/3 at 12pm ET.
- Please read the contest rules here.
How to Use the SLC eCourse
We’ve created a course called How to Use the SLC. We highly recommend checking this out in tandem with the scavenger hunt. If you don’t want to go through the entire eCourse, we have quick FAQs that you can reference.
Please stay tuned to our social media and email updates over the next few days. We’ll be sharing tips and best practices as you learn to navigate the SLC. We also welcome your questions and feedback. You can interact with us on social or via email at slc@blogpaws.com.
Join the Conversation!
Now I want to hear from you! What do you think of the new SLC? Leave your questions and feedback in the comments down below.
Office Hours Tonight on Google +
Join us tonight on Google + from 5 to 7 PM (eastern) to catch up and to talk all things SLC. Both Maggie and Aimee will be on hand to provide As to your Qs about social media, blogging, and pets!
Aimee Beltran is the Director of Community Education for BlogPaws. She also writes two blogs, Irresistible Icing and Irresistible Pets with her Chihuahua, Chuy. Aimee is passionate about her mission, “create an irresistible life you can’t resist!” She loves anything with glitter, kayaking, and spending time at the beach.
